Well here we are in rainy Seattle!! after a 24hour bus ride from San Fran. The Greyhound was an experience at least!! Lots of strange people, but we did witness a drug bust on the coach!!!!

We are on our way to get the ferry to Victoria on Vancouver Island now for a couple of weeks before getting another ferry to the mainland.

Golden Gate Bridge

It is nice to be back in the warm again after being snowed on in the Grand Canyon. We also went though Death Valley and ended up in the Sierra Nevada and Mammoth Lakes. Vicky went skiing and I snowboarded which was sooooo cool! We even remembered how to do it and I didn't fall over (that much!!)

We drove to San Fran this morning and have given the car back so it's back to the buses and trains. Unfortunately the trips to Alcatraz are booked up so we can't go on that, but there's still lots to see! We're going to go to Pier 39 for Vic's birthday dinner later to have some seafood. We're going to spend the day here tomorrow then find our way to Seattle for 2 days or so - then to the next country!

We did a Hollywood tour and the Warner Bros tour and saw the ambulance bay set for ER, Friends set and a couple of other sound stages, and the set they were building for the new Tom Cruise film.

Universal Studios was brilliant! Great rides and interesting behind the scenes info and demos of special FX and stuff.

Vegas was mad and great fun, we walked and walked around all the hotels and went to see Tournament of Kings - a cheesy King Arthur jousting thing with actors and horses and we had a banquet where we ate a whole chicken with our fingers while cheering on the knights!? Walked up and down the strip so many times - it's a lot further then we thought!! We had some gambling lessons but didn't get the chance to put them into practice as the table stakes were too high - not many 50cent tables!!

Vic and I went on the highest thrill ride in the world - at the top of the stratosphere casino tower! You sat in a chair with a restraining bar and it shot up the spire at the top of the tower at 40 mph - then free fell back again - several times!! We got a photo - very funny!!

Yesterday we drove through Death Valley - another cool (well hot actually) national park. Went 282 feet BELOW sea level (weird), and then up to 5000feet above in the space of a couple of hours.

We're on our way to Yosemite now, we're near Mammouth Mountain and there's loads of snow so we should get some skiing done.

We've moved up to Hermosa Beach after having spent a couple of nights in Long Beach (where we watched the Oscars live ... on the telly!) We went to the aquarium there, cool stuff, all marine life from the Pacific.

We then went to San Pedro, stayed in a Hosteling International hostel, which we reckon is an old army barracks, $40 for a small caravan style double with a shared bathroom and 2 big university groups, not impressed! It was also miles away from anywhere, and the bus is not that good, but we did get a lift from a guy in a VW Combi, good man!

Hermosa is pretty cool, only 15 miles from downtown LA but really laid back and a bit of a party atmos at night - Our room in the hostel is right above a bar with very loud music, must be getting old! We have been cycling up and down the coast, right up to Santa Monica and Venice Beach (saw Muscle Beach - not that impressive really!).

We have hired some wet suits and fins (yep the water is that cold!) and tried boogie boarding and surfing with free boards from the hostel but they were really bad, so we ditched them and started body surfing - as much fun but less effort to get out through the waves!! We are killing time really waiting for a friend to come out on Sunday - then we move into a hotel for a few nights - oooh luxury!

We'll probably be somewhere inland next time as we're off to Vegas on Friday and then up to the mountains (please let there be snow!!)

We went to Tijuana for the day - more American then America! bought some stuff, bargined a bloke down from $46 to $17 - cool!

We then walked across the border with not much hassel. We stayed in San Diego (See San Diego here) for a week in a cool hostel in the Gaslamp quarter. We were there for St. Paddy's Day and watched the Parade and had Green beer in the Hard Rock Cafe! We also hired bikes and cycled around the city, to the beaches, to the parks, (to the airport!) so asy to get around by bike. One day we went to the zoo which was cool, spent the whole day. The first night we got there we watched Mutiny on the Bounty on the Star of India - a different cinimatic experience!

We are now just south of LA at Huntington Beach which is Surf City, there are more Dudes here then you can shake a stick at! (or surf board!) We went to Disneyland for the day yesterday (well you have to don't you?!) Good laugh, cool rides - StarWars, Indiana Jones, Splash Mountain, Matterhorn Bobsleigh, etc - Couldn't be bothered to queue for Mickey though.

There was a beer tasting night on Weds. with beers from Ireland - top night, started talking to some Navy blokes and carried on drinking with them till 2! (so much for the few pints then to bed!) Had pretty big hangovers the next day (well afternoon when we got up!)

Tijuana

San Diego

Huntington