This is the end

Back to work today.
The End.

Tijuana - a Mexican adventure

It took us just 10 minutes to drive to the Mexican border from San Diego, and after parking up, took another 15 on a bus to get to Avenida Revolucion in downtown Tijuana. After a couple of hours dodging the tat sellers, it took 2 hours to return to the USA, and this was even with the bus bypassing the several mile long queue of traffic on the highway. The USA is definitely a difficult place to get into from Mexico.


Tijuana itself was an odd place. It is hard to say whether we saw much of the 'real' Mexico, as it appeared to be a city devoted to trying to sell junk of all sorts to American day-trippers. It was actually quite waring having to step past salesmen every 10 yards or so, selling everything from hand-crafted artifacts to cheapy t-shirts to prescription drugs. To make the whole experience seem more authentically Mexican, we had a couple of burritos for lunch washed down with the obligatory margueritas! Aye Chihuahua!

Driving the Pacific Coast Highway

We made it out of SF alive, and headed south on the famous Highway 1 - the Pacific Coast Highway. We did the spectacular drive over three days, firstly stopping in Monterey, and exploring the Monterey peninsula. The second day was definitely the highlight with the amazing section of the coastal drive at Big Sur, where the road was empty and the scenery beautiful.


The second overnight stop was at San Luis Obispo, which was quite a lively, happening little place. From there the drive was slightly less interesting, and it then became truly stressful as we hit the overcrowded Los Angeles freeways. We abandoned any half plans of stopping in LA and kept going south, all the way to San Diego.

Bear spotting in Yosemite

We stayed in Sonora after crossing the mountains, and the next day headed for Yosemite - the best known of all the National Parks. After being in the deepest wildernesses of America for the previous week, it came as a bit of a shock to find ourselves among so many other people. It seemed to be the most commercialised of the parks - certainly the most visited - so despite its undoubted beauty it had a bit less appeal to us. It was only when we got up high above the valley, up at Glacier Point, that we really appreciated the scenery.

Laura's opinion of the place really perked up when she spotted a wild bear in the forest. I never saw it so I didn't believe her until some other people confirmed they'd seen it too!

Here's Laura on top of the world ...

Crossing the Mountains - Over the Sonora Pass

From Bodie, we crossed the Sierra Nevada mountains towards the more populated part of California. The original plan was to cross the Tioga pass into Yosemite but we were suprised to discover that it was still closed due to snow! We took the next pass north, detouring several hundred miles, and even then the Sonora pass only opened last week. There was still some 10 feet of snow at the top of the pass - although we realised this was not so suprising when the road climbed up over the 9,000 foot mark. We actually felt breathless at the altitude!

Utah - Bryce and Zion

After the Grand Canyon, we made a spur-of-the-moment decision to go to Utah. Yes, Utah! All we previously knew about the state was that it was highly religious, populated by Mormons and booze was hard to come by - but our guide book said that it had some of the most beautiful scenery in the whole country, so we thought we'd check it out. Things didn't start to well when we arrived in St George on the Sunday evening of the Memorial Day holiday weekend, to find everything closed. Thank God for Chinese immigration to these parts! Next to the Chinese, we were suprised to find a bar, named "The One And Only", but we didn't risk hanging out with the loons and desperados there!

The next day we went to Bryce Canyon National Park, which was one of the most amazing places we've ever been. Bizarre rock formations rise up out of the ground in all sorts of shapes and sizes. We hiked down into the canyon to get a closer look, and had the strange experience of a walk with the easy downhill part at the start, and the struggle uphill at the end. On the way back from Bryce, we travelled through Zion National Park, which we wished we had more time to see. Huge cliffs overlooked the winding road - yet more spectacular scenery. In fact, everywhere throughout Utah the scenery was breathtaking. We'd definitely come back - as soon as they change their liquor laws!

Speeding through Flagstaff

We got our kicks on Route 66, driving to Flagstaff from the Hoover Dam. We stayed in a roadside motel in Flagstaff - for an authentic Route 66 road trip experience. Flagstaff had a few nice wild west style saloon bars and restaurants so it made a good stopping point. However, I wouldn't recommend making friends with the local police force. I felt like a serial killer after being stopped for doing 80 in a 65 zone by the Arizona Highway Patrol. I was just relieved not to get shot the way he acted! I now have to appear at Flagstaff Sherrif Court on the 29th June - so I may not be back at work as soon as I thought!


After a stern talking to, we were free to continue on up to the Grand Canyon.

Viva Las Vegas

Yip, everyone was right - we did hate Vegas! At least at first, although it grew on us. The sheer madness of the place kept us entertained for a couple of days after we had got accustomed to just how tacky, bizarre, weird, and hot it was. (We nearly got killed trying to cross the 4 lane highway to get this photo!)

We spent most of our time wandering around the casinos (not that there is anything else) and found ourselves exploring Venice, Paris, New York, Rome and even ancient Egypt. We stayed at the Excalibur hotel, which has a mock medieval castle theme - so I'm counting that as another castle visit for Laura!

Plymouth and Cape Cod

A long drive back south from Bar Harbor led us to Plymouth - one of the most historical parts of America, given its status as the initial colony established by the founding fathers in the early seventeenth century. One of the most revered sights was a bit of a joke. The Plymouth rock is apparently the first part of land that the pilgrims stepped upon (yeah right!). It was guarded by two policemen, presumably to stop terrorists from blowing it up (but really just to make it look important!). What we found much more interesting was the working recreation of the initial colony at "Plimoth Plantation". Here you step back into 1627 as role playing actors bring the colony to life, which worked a lot better than it sounds (it could only work in America though!).

After leaving Plymouth we drove further south round Cape Cod, right to the tip of the cape at Provincetown, where they also claimed to be the landing point of the pilgrim fathers (very confusing!). Provincetown had beautiful coastal views and had quite a bohemian, laid back vibe about it. Unfortunately we didn't have too much time to spend there as we had to race back to Boston to stay in an airport hotel prior to our early morning flight to Vegas...

13 Years On - Salisbury Beach

Thirteen years ago I spent the summer between my third and fourth years at university working in Pirates Fun Park in Salisbury Beach in Massachussets. It was a great, memorable time, and a fantastic experience, and I was curious to revisit the scene of so many memories.

Returning for the first time since I left in September 1993, I was confronted with many familiar sights, but much of what I had remembered was now gone. It was always a bit of a run-down place before, but now it is a ghost town - reminiscent of an abandoned wild west town. Even the desperados have left. Pirates Park, once the focus of the community, is sadly no more - all that remains is the gate and sign!

It was so desolate that we only spent 30 minutes or so gazing at the remains of a place I remembered so well...

Boston in the floods

Much to Laura's surprise we managed to survive the long distance flight to the USA, and arrived safely in Boston last Monday night. However, to continue our luck with the weather, we found ourselves in the middle of the worst floods in New England for several decades. And where was our hotel? Only on the banks of a river! We were relieved when they put us on the second floor!

The weather relented enough for us to get out and about in Boston. We walked the several miles of the Freedom Trail, which took us past many of the sights of the American Revolution, where American patriotism was in full display. In fact it is everywhere, with star spangled banners flying from almost every building.

After Laura's trouble finding a decent cup of tea in Europe, we'd heard that there was a tea party in Boston - but alas, the replica Boston Tea Party ship was no more - apparently struck by lightning and badly damaged a few years ago. Laura was gutted that she couldn't get to throw tea in the harbour! However, it was only a replica - like much of the 'history' on display in Boston.

After 4 days in Boston, we went to collect our economy hire car, only to find it had been upgraded for us to a gas guzzling SUV - it's a monster!