Venice Beach was everything we expected it to be. Except there was only one not particularly muscularly man at Muscle Beach. The first day was spent exploring the area walking along the boardwalk, looking at al the loons, skaters, surfers, and rollerbladers. There are loads of homeless people here also, but they are not as persistant as San Francisco. This is one of the things that I have noiticed about the USA with no welfare system the poor are truely poor, the...

We arrived late to Monterey, so we decided to get a late dinner in Denny's (the nearest resturante to us). I had a chocolate milk shake (which was more like ice cream- yum) and then struggled to eat my dinner. The next morning we decided to explore Monterey. This town was a really sweet fishing village and had an excellent museum, we were highly enthusiastic as it was free for admission and showed imports that were taxed there. Unfortunately, the resturan...

Ok we arrive at San Francisco, and we have an hour to get the car checked out. The girl who took our details for the car rental also kept our details on where to return the car, in this big city Ben and I are hoping that, by chance we will find the car hire place before the hours up. In despair, and with only half an hour to go, we decide to pull up and ask the nearest hotel if they have come across our car hire company, the reply was "no I haven't heard of the...

118 degrees farenheight was the maximum temperature that the cars thermometer read as we drove through death valley, the signs advise you to turn off your air con to stop the car from overheating, 5 mins on 5 mins off seemed to work. The barren desert and sorching heat is amazing, particularly when you are getting towards the end of the valley and the temp is still well over 100 and you can see snow on the surrounding mountains, following death valley was Yosemit...

Viva las vegas! After a long flight from New York,the first thing that you notice when you get off the plane is the heat, the second is the fruit machines, row after row of them and that is all before baggage claim! We arrived at our hotel and once we got to our room on the 23rd floor (what is it with us and heights?) we saw what a big bed looks like, 3 rows of pillows and fantastic views of the city and mountains beyond. After a late start, we decided to g...