After a luxurious night in Bakersfield ,free breakfast and a leisurely start around 9am, we set off for San Francisco. The landscape around Bakersfield was field after field of fruit trees and vineyards as far as the eye could see on either side of the dead straight road. Some times the green was broken by fields of flowers, mostly sweet williams in vivid colours. The fields were being tended by the workers in big Mexican hats as the temperature was already 89 degrees. The fields have portable toilets every fifteen to twenty rows, a sign of the times. This was only achieved by heavy irrigation of the land, otherwise it was just desert. After about 100 miles the slogans urging the government to change its policies on water reduction began to appear. “Fruit grows where water ... read more

Another 7am breakfast in the cabins at Tropic, before an early start to do the Queens Garden/Navajo loop trail, which drops from the rim of the Canyon into the Bryce Amphitheater, whilst it was reasonably cool. This trail was listed as the worlds best 3 mile loop trail, which sounded a bit ambitious. But, Wow! Wow! Wow! it has got to be true .It is the most stunning trail we have ever walked. The trail goes down a series of switchbacks into the main Bryce Ampitheater and at every turn and twist of the trail you are blown away at the views and the colours. Vern and Annette set off at a cracking pace (they had done it before) and we did not see them again until the finish. Dinah could hardly take a few steps ... read more

We have somehow lost another hour today, I suspect it was when we crossed into Utah from Arizona. A coolish start today (mid 50'sF) and a skype chat with Marta in Brussels at 6-30am, before getting breakfast in the Hotel at 7am. Annette is now feeling better and joined us for breakfast before we set off to the Zion visitor centre to catch the shuttle bus to the top of Zion Canyon to do the riverside walk. This walk takes you along the Virgin River into a narrow canyon. The paved way stops as the canyon narrows and the only way on is to start wading up the river itself. Vern and Annette decided they did not want to get wet so turned back at this point but Bob and Dinah carried on wading upstream for ... read more

Off before breakfast this morning for a helicopter flight over the Grand Canyon. A bit chilly this morning so had to put a fleece on, probably because we are still at 7,000ft altitude. The sun is out however and by 10am it will be mid 70's in the shade. We were supposed to be at the airport for 7-30am for an 8-00am flight, unfortunately our pilot did not turn up until 8-30am. We did eventually get going and after 10 minutes in the air we went over the rim of the Grand Canyon. A helicopter flight is the best way to view the Canyon (if a little expensive) but it is impossible to describe the scene.The Canyon is 250 miles long 14.5 miles across and a mile deep. It just leaves you awestruck at the scale ... read more

We are stopping in the Mirage Hotel, next to Caesars Palace, it is enormous and must accomadate 1,000's of guests. The temperature is modest for Las Vegas at 81 degrees farenheit 91 degrees tomorrow and 100 by Wednesday. We had a leisurely start today after the excitement of the strip last night. We breakfasted at BB Kings Bar which was the first restaurant left of the elevator (there are hundreds to choose from in the hotel complex!!!) but when you are hungry you go for speed. It was really good. After that Annette and I left Bob and Vern to their own devices until lunch time and wandered around the other hotel coplexes admiring the themed displays and the window displays. The displays for Memorial day were very beautiful but I think the Ventia won the ... read more