Hello,

Well we have finally made to San Francisco after a 8 days which have absolutely flown.

Arrived into Los Angeles at 8pm local time after an 11 hour flight from Heathrow; to say the least we were absolutely wrecked. Los Angeles really surprised me due to the fact that i liked it; i was expecting to hate it. Went on a tour from the hostel which brought us through all that is good and bad about LA. Seen all the star's homes (including seeing Britney Spears mom leaving her house, my new claim to fame!), the Hollywood hills, Venice Beach, etc. All were really cool but what i found amazing was the journey through the western surburbs where we met a gang of local hoods (guys who you would not like to meet in a dark alley) who were busy collecting money for a friend's funeral who had been killed in shootout earlier in the week and a very quick drive through Skid Row where people were openly smoking crack cocaine, all very strange. Next day went to Universal Studios, a day of mindless childish fun. The Jurassic Park ride was so good we did it twice!

So we then left LA and headed for Las Vegas. This city is crazy but i like it. Stayed in a hotel which is designed as a castle; this is considered modest for Vegas. Didn't do much gambling, entered one game of Texas Hold'em and lasted 3 rounds; my ambitions of making of living from poker forever shattered.

From there we rented a car. We had booked a economy car but i think the lady took pity on us when we told where we were going to so we were upgraded to a 4x4 Jeep. Went to the Grand Canyon staying at Williams and Flagstaff which are both on the old Route 66. The Canyon was awesome, totally exceeded all expectations which we had. Left there after a days trekking feeling rather burned and looking bright pink; the combination of a beaming sun and the lack of sun cream may have something to do with this!

Spent all day yesterday (12 hours nonstop) driving on the freeways from Flagstaff to San Francisco. What we hadn't accounted for the a big dance festival (Love Fest formerly known as Love Parade) here in San Francisco so every hostel is booked out. After trying about 6 hostels we were sitting on the street going through the travel guide trying to decide what to do when this bloke came up to us asking if we were looking for a bed. It turns out he is a manager of a hostel which was just down the street and he had one bed available so here we are.

Well thats our journey so far in a nutshell. I'm now off to dance the night away. I'll email again when we get to Hawaii. Life is tough!

Paul