Goodbye USA

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Hello Folks!

Hope you're all doing well. Our apologies for not keeping this up to date - it's hard work having fun! Anyway, we are both safe and well in San Francisco, CA. It's our last day here as tomorrow we are flying to Mexico City. We've had a fantastic time in the USA but we're really excited about going to another country. Here's what we've been up to since the last blog from Arizona.....

After a fantastic 4 days in Tucson (amazing scenery, great sunsets, nude waterfalls, microwaved foods, caves, wildlife, swimming & lots of alcohol) we drove north to see the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley. Rachel did some 'off roading' in our hire car through the valley (don't think the suspension works as well now!) and we managed to stay in the worst hotel of the trip so far, we were kept awake all night by these giant black crickets that somehow managed to get into our room through a crack in the walls. Guy managed to splat a few with his sandals but the noise continued through the night!

We then drove to Las Vegas and swapped our car (bad suspension!) for a convertible. It's great fun pretending you've got money by cruising down the Strip with the top down! Had good times in Vegas but were slightly overwhelmed by the sky-high prices for everything (our hotel wanted to charge a $30 service fee per person just for us to be able to charge things to our room! No thanks). Managed to get Rachel on the Rollercoaster that's at the top of the Stratosphere which was really good - a bit rickety though. We also dined at one of the numerous all you can eat buffets, Rachel had a salad whilst Guy visited the trough no less than 3 times, his plate piled high with cuts of meat upon each return!

We then drove across the desert to Los Angeles (with the top down, until it got too hot) which seemed to take forever (about 6 hours). We found our hostel in Hollywood with relative ease and had 6 fun filled days in LA which included going to some beaches (the weather was really good - nice and hot - but the sea was bloody freezing) Santa Monica beach and boardwalk were good but Venice beach is much better. Took in some of the Hollywood sights including the stars in the pavement on Hollywood Blvd. We also went to Universal Studios which was fantastic. The Mummy ride was our favourite and we rode it no less than 5 times. Guy is still slighly deaf in one ear after Rachel's screaming, although the bite marks on his arm have got better (yes, it was scary!) We also had a look round other parts of LA, and found ourselves at a hispanic car boot sale (called swap meet over here). Guy tried his hardest to haggle a $3 beach blanket down to $2 but the hard-bitten senorita was having none of it!

After our time in Los Angeles we drove north along the Pacific Coast Highway stoppong a Pismo Beach for one night and then we stayed in a tent-cabin in the Big Sur woods for a couple of nights. This was a fantastic place ( http://www.fernwoodbigsur.com/tent-cabins.html ) but we arrive slightly unprapared for the experience and has to borrow some sleeping bags! The cabin was right by the river and we made a fire each night and cooked our meals on it. We saw a family of 6 raccoons in the trees above our tent one night - amazing creatures. Went to some deserted beaches and did some hiking in the woods as well. After our 'back to nature' experience we embraced civilization for one night in Monterey (really nice, but expensive) and Santa Cruz (like Blackpool, but more expensive!) and from there we drove here to San Francisco. Before we dropped our car off we drove up and down the VERY steep hills and over the Goden Gate Bridge.
As we arrived at our hostel, which is in the North Beach Italian district, the street was blocked off by several police cars, vans and helicopters. It turns out that there had been an armed robbery in a nearby store and there was a siege going on that lasted all day. We hear that the cops shot dead 4 perpatrators. Blimey, that's American justice for you!
We have been over to Alcatraz which was fascinating, and seen all th other sights including the noisy sea lions at Fisherman's Wharf - Rachel's favourite! Went for a curry the other night (the cravings could'nt hold out much longer) and although it was delicious, it lacked any heat (I'd kill for a Madras!) The Kingfisher slipped down though!

Hope that's put you all in the picture. Guy has been trying to put together some amusing and trivial statistics for you such as distance travelled so far, our most used mode of transportation, our average speed etc but alas, time thus far has not permitted. We've got 9 days at the beach in Acapulco soon so we'll try and make time then! There are no photographs with this update either. We have sent some CDs home with about 800 snaps on so if you want to see some, have a word with Sarah & George or Rachel's parents and they will give you some to look at.

We'll do another update soon, and trust that this one finds you all in fine fettle....

Pip pip,

Guy and Rachel xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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