Final blog

Our plane has arrived and we board in a few hours. It has been a remarkable holiday.

Last breakfast in SF

Just polished off another yummy breakfast on our final morning here. Sad to be leaving. We were woken late last night when the power came back on, with the lights blasting on. The power cut made it into the pages of the San Francisco Chronicle too as we've just read about it! Bye bye!

last night

Just come back from fantastic meal in china town - even if it was a little speedy. Before that we went back to Tosca and sampled their world famous and lethal cappucino. It was a coffee with a large dose of brandy. We are now sitting in darkness at the hotel as there is a power cut on the block. Lights out on the holiday indeed.

picnic by the bridge

On our last full day we took a walk along the coast to the bridge and scoffed our food as san franciscans jogged by. The sun was shining as we contemplated our return home. It feels like we have been away a month.

Park walk

We have stopped off at a conservatory in the park for a drink. We are to wander on till we hit the Pacific.

Haight

Just walked the length of Haight Street browsing the shops. Didnt manage to break the record of 7 hours set by Chris and Rachel in Amoeba records.

milan tram

They are everywhere Unc!

Philadelphia tram

Another tram for jimmy

Hi from sunny San Fran

We have 2 days to go on our holiday and can you believe we're sitting in a net cafe writing this! We're trying out our new wireless laptop and, yep, it works.
we're off up to Haight shortly and from there a walk through Golden Gate park.

Tonight we are planning on going out in North Beach and drinking some cocktails.
It's been an incredible holiday so far and we can't wait to tell you all about it and show you some pictures - we've taken more than 240 of them!

new toy

Daz with his new toy enjoying a wireless hotspot. Sounds a bit dodgy to me! I'm writing some postcards the old fashioned way!

Brooklyn tram

Just for you Uncle Jim, the first of today's tram pics

Vesuvio

Just stopped for a coffee in one of Dylan Thomas' hangouts on Jack Kerouac Alley.

Beat nik baby

After a quick walk through china town we stopped in the City Lights bookstore to buy some, well, books. We are now in the famous Vesuvio cafe.

cable cars

After riding the cable cars we have stopped off at the cable car museum. It is amazing to think that such a venerable technology continues to work so well.

stinky sealions

Said hello to the honking lions. Fab views of Bay and Golden Gate bridges from here and sun is shining. There are so many people here. Much busier than 2 years ago.

Alcatraz!

Great to see the iconic prison again as we explore some old haunts. We are blogging as we go. Beat nik walk to come.

Tram ride

Just got an old 60's tram down to Fisherman's wharf to see the sealions.

Breakfast of champions

Back in Sears Fine foods. Goody enjoying the 16 mini pancakes.

I left my heart in...

Finally. We have made it to san fran after 10 days and 2,000 miles. We drove in via a tour of the city. It was exhilerating to see the Golden Gate Bridge again. We hit the shops and goody made straight for her favourite shop Anthropologie. We also stocked up on essentials at Old Navy. We now have three relaxing days to soak up the city. Some exploring some wandering and plenty of eating and drinking.

Big sur wash out

Across country to the coast today and guess what... the rain has followed us. Big sur was virtually inaccessible. Heavy rain was causing mud slides on the road. So we retreated to Monterey and went to the cinema instead. We are heading to San Fran a day early.

sunshine in Yosemite

What a difference a day makes! The sun shone all day so we headed back into Yosemite and were able to do the Nevada Falls hike. It was a tough hike up through snow sometimes thigh deep but the views from the top were stupendous. Jelly legs today, but worth it. Daz has finally had the red jersey surgically removed. It was getting quite whiffy!

Yosemite white out

Up to yosemite today. The drive in was spectacular unfortunately low cloud meant most of the valley was obscured. Heavy snow also closed all the trails. It is a big disappointment. We have to wait and see on the weather tomorrow. We did manage to see two waterfalls and we are now quite wet.

Perfect day!

We are still on a high from the rugby and we are about to go out and celebrate. After the game we drove through Sequoia national forest in the snow. The trees were immense. We are now on the edge of Yosemite and go treking tomorrow. Now its time for a beer.

hooray!

So proud of wales. Listened on 5live online in sequoia forest. Lost for words. Loving the grandslam blog too. Congrats to everyone back home.

Come on wales!

Although we are thousands of miles away we will be cheering on wales on saturday. Fingers crossed we will get our first grand slam since 1978. pob lwc!

mojave madness!

No power for the gadgets meant a gap of a few days for the blog. However, canyon was totally awesome. Big day of driving yesterday as no motel rooms anywhere to be found, so drove through dark of mojave desert. Just enjoying pancakes with syrup now. Route 66 was fab 2! Happy birthday Trevor!

Grand canyon

We have spent the day at a cowboy ranch on the western rim of the grand canyon. It's been an incredible day. The canyon was staggering, reached after a 1 hour drive through a joshua tree forest. The ranch was hilarious - singing songs around a camp fire. And we spent the night looking at the stars through the hole in our tipi roof. Finally - in the news today is a survey of the deadliest cars in the us. Its the car we are driving! Great! But the Blazer has served us well. We have been driving along river beds and dirt tracks.

more hoover

Our first stop on the great road trip

hoover dam pics

Wow!

Vegas madness

We are pretty footsore after walking the length of the strip today. The mega hotels are immense with lìve tigers, rollercoasters, gondoliers and marbled hallways all part of Vegas excess. The people are immense too and travel round Vegas on moving walkways. We are hitting the slots tonight and will be eating mexican. We are on the road tomorrow to Hoover dam and the cowboy ranch and listening to our roadtrip cd.

still awake

Just having the first gin and tonic in bar under Eiffel Tower and it's lush! It's a warm evening and we saw the Bellagio fountain show on our walk down the strip. Played some 21 and won before even leaving the Luxor. Need food to stay awake so going back to hotel for buffet! From goody.

we're off!

An early start but we don't care. Obviously we have to be at the airport 4 hours early but that gives us plenty of time to have a massive breakfast! We touch down in VEGAS in 13 hrs time just in time for lunch!

On your marks.....

Four days to go before the off and suddenly it feels like we have no time left to do all the planning and preparation. Three months ago I always felt a little silly checking if roads were open or closed, or the temperature in Las Vegas.

But now there are so many things to do - not least get money sorted, check routes etc, plan the itinerary.

I've also just checked the temperature in Las Vegas..... highs of 27 degrees celsius.

BBC Weather - Las Vegas

And San Francisco is a mild 20 degrees.
BBC Weather - San Fran

But there's plenty of other stuff to apart from be smug about the weather.

I have a rough idea of what routes we're taking but I need to be sure - we don't want to take a wrong turn in Death Valley!

Driving, driving and a bit more driving

Of course with any road trip, there's the small matter of the driving. Road trips don't exist in the UK simply because there's not enough road for it to become a defining feature of any trip.

But in the States roads have been synonymous with the notion of exploration and a genuine linkage between states as different in history and society as any country in Europe is different from its neighbour.

I wonder if that difference still exists - or has the age of local flights and national TV collapsed those differences into a homogenous "all"?

How different will the various stops on our journey be?

And of course, this holiday is not just about the stops it's about the roads in between.

We plan for the stops yet the journey itself is an unknown.

And the unknown breeds uncertainty.

But I have a suspicion that somehow the journeys will end up being the most memorable part of our holiday.

Not long until we find out......