Today was going to be another long day of driving as we headed further north up towards Portland and into our 4th State. Our first stop was in Eureka where we had brekkie and a cuppa. We carried up the west coast on highway 101 towards Crescent City and then inland towards the border. We stop off along the river to have a rest and take a few pics and noticed wild blackberries on the side of the road. We picked a few to eat and they where yummy. We carried on to Grants Pass and then on to Roseburg on highway 5. The road was a really nice drive to take as we went over mountains and though valleys and rivers it was a good route to take. We headed towards Springfield and on to ... read more

Today was our last full day in San Francisco and we were determined to make the most of it. We set off to the Golden Gate Park where the California Academy of Sciences is located. We started our way through the African exhibit where we saw different African animals - and some we haven’t heard of. Most of the animals were not live but there were Cheetahs, Klipspringer, African Hunting Dogs (not live) as well as other animals. Then we went on to the Islands of Evolution section where we got to have a look at how animals have evolved over hundreds of years. We were next on to the Swamp where we saw a live Albino Alligator. At first we thought it was fake but eventually it did move. Was very cool to see. Next ... read more

After a good night’s sleep we woke up to go and explore some of the immediate San Francisco area. Breakfast is included here at the Mayflower Hotel which we forgot to mention yesterday is a hotel that was built in 1929. The building is obviously very old but has so much character which is very much what this city is like with all its old pretty and attractive buildings. The breakfast is simple but everything that we need. There are hard-boiled eggs, toast, homemade bikkies, cakes and muffins, cereals, fruit, juice, tea and coffee. We headed out onto the street where the weather was still overcast and the wind was very cold. We made our way to one of the cable car lines but Stu read the map wrong and we ended up going the opposite ... read more

Today was our last day in Las Vegas and we didn’t get up to an awful lot as we are up for a big drive to San Francisco tomorrow. We did a bit of souvenir shopping and the girls had a swim. There was also the dreaded packing to do too. We decided to book in and have dinner at the Top of the World restaurant in our hotel. It was on the 106th floor and was a bit fancy. The floor rotated 360 degrees every 80 mins so we got a fantastic view the whole time. We dined on a seared tuna salad for entree. For main Stu had an alfredo homemade pasta with lobster, prawns and scallops. I had salmon and the girls had potato and ricotta gnocci and potato gratin. The meal was ... read more

We started off the day by just driving around Las Vegas and having a look at a few sights and the strip itself. It was another hot day and we decided to wait till tomorrow to check out the strip. We went looking for a few different shops that we saw on the net that looked good for the girls but the problem was when we typed the address into the tom tom it didn’t come up or it sent us miles in the wrong direction. It was very frustrating so we sucked up a few hours doing that. We did finally find what we were looking for though! We also went looking for collector bottles of Jack Daniels’ for Stu but to no avail. Before we knew it we were looking at the time and ... read more