So we’ve been on our overland tour for four days now and so far it has proved to be a great way to see the main highlights of Western America. Monday and Tuesday were all about marine life which excited me greatly. So far we’ve seen seals, crabs, starfish, elephant seals, dolphins and my personal favourites, the otters (one of which made eye contact with me for at least 8 seconds. Exciting stuff). Seeing these creatures in their natural habitats has been an a...

Hello from San Francisco, land of tall buildings, writers and arty types. We spent our first day exploring the city and visiting the premier bay attraction, the San Fancisco sea lions who have camped out on the West marina. Cute but rather smelly. We also visited the 'Musee Mechanique' (Which must always be said in a French accent for full effect). This charming little place was filled with mechanically operated musical instruments and antique arcade machines (...

'It's so bloody hot' was my Initial impression of Las Vegas. Walking around the strip and inside the casinos feels like I have taken acid and started walking around Blackpool. Everybody that is dealing cards is wearing a bikini. There is a massive artificial re-modelling of absolutely everything, including the Effiel Tower and even the Amazon rain forest. These plastic monstrosities are everywhere and it all feels unnecessarily brash and over-indulgent. Wal...

Thursday: Hi y'all, So today we leave our wonderful hotel on the main strip of Vegas and head 'downtown' to the old school Vegas. I'll miss the bath that you can swim in and the bed that you can roll over on 5 times (which is a fun activity just in itself!) Last night Dean got his little guide book out and decided that we 'must see' a little show called 'clouds in the sky' (or some other such deceiving title which leads you to envisage some light and soun...

So, we made it to Vegas baby! Dean made the journey considerably more entertaining by having a fight with a bottle of Smoothie on the train journey on our way here. I swear I laughed so hard a little bit of wee nearly came out. Basically we were merrily sitting on the train having a little beverage (Dean's being a smoothie and mine the slightly more hard core Gin and Tonic.) Anyway, he must've forgotten that he'd removed the lid from his said drink and decided...