Hi
03/06/2010 Land of the not so bright, La-La land, Los Angeles USA. An over heard conversation "No, Dracula lives in Transylvania not Pennsylvania, Transylvania's near err?" and one we had with a local "So Manchester United don't play in London" No Manchester "So is that near Manchester City, is that near London."
LA our stop for 3 days is a huge run down sprawling mass with a seedy overtone, a dodgy feel by night, a bit of a zoo really. Making Oonagh happy was easy, Plonked in the middle is Hollywood, Beverly hills, and Bel air with a very underwhelming Hollywood mountain side sign,( its strange the pre set impression you can have !.) We did the full star spotting works tour, Who lives in a house like this, Dicaprio, Diaz, the Jackson's Janet and Michaels, Cruz etc. Rodeo Drive is probably the best shopping road in the world, we allegedly saw Lindsay Lohan parking her car there, We toured the Walk of fame, hand prints, the works, A security man kicked us out of the entrance to the wax works as I was caught holding Marilyn Munro's bosom as Oonagh tried to get the Photo ( Obviously no sense of humour, a long day). Followed by a brilliant Universal studio's tour the next day, To see the pleasure on Oonagh's face as she went down Wisteria Lane (desperate housewife's) was a joy, There we survived an earthquake, a raging torrent, Jaws and Bates motel complete with Psycho, a great day of stunts fun, rides and a tour of the studio's.
07/06/2010 We hired a Car for a month starting with the scenic coast hugging trip up Highway 1 stopping at quaint murder she wrote look-alike towns on the way north, One even had giant elephant seals snoozing on the beach as residents. At Monterey we went whale watching, Absolutely awesome, 5 Humpback whales averaging 50 ft long (15m) and one Breeching (jumping out the water) loads of Dolphins and a 70-80ft Blue whale, which when spotted the narrator was so beside herself with excitement we think she must have peed a little,
11/06/2010 We arrived in San Francisco (550 miles), There are so many Bums and down & outs, your never far from "Buddy can you spare a Dime" . Still San Francisco has a good feel with so much happening, cheaper and much more relaxed than LA. We did the tourist things, the open top bus tour (all day) passing a naked cycling protest (were not sure what it was about but they were nude and I have photos), We were blessed with the clearest weather of the year and got some great photos of the Golden gate bridge. Following day Alcatraz, Surprisingly small, very run down and desperately needs some work before it collapses, But a must trip you have to do. We hired some bikes and cycled over Golden gate bridge a recommendation we got from Anne- Marie in New Zealand, bitter wind, foggy and some steep hills.
The TV impression of California is sun and golden beaches (Bay watch), They have the beaches, But the June weather is Sunny, but oh so cold.

Have a nice day, The Chaffers