USA

Hi everyone
Welcome to the final instalment of our 2007 vacation to the USA.

Tuesday morning we headed into Novato and watched Trinity at her gymnastics class. We then left them to it and drove to Sausalito, a great little harbourside town just north of the Golden Gate Bridge. We wondered the streets of this pretty town, a bit like Akaroa & Queenstown combined but on steroids. Certainly a tourist town, no doubt about that but very pretty location.

For a bit of contrast we drove around to the other side of the bay to a town called Tiburon. As tourists we stood out, this is a seriously rich town that does not encourage tourism. Very small boutique stores, a private yacht club and all the usual trappings of the rich and famous. A quick look into a real estate agents window confirmed our fears that we couldn't move here any time soon. The cheapest place listed was US$1.3 million, most seemed around US$5 - US$6 million, but there were some up to 20 million.

Back to Novato in time to see James at Karate and we then went to the weekly Novato Farmers Market. They close down a street in town and fill it with stalls, at least 40 stalls, maybe around 60. Lots of fresh fruit and vege's, cherries and nectarines have just come into season. Fresh bread and preserves plus several meal type stalls such as wood fired pizza, BBQ, rotissiore chicken, popcorn and other instant delights.

Again it was a stinking hot day on Tuesday so on returning home we invaded the neighbours who had invited us over to use their pool. Very understanding folk since we totally disturbed their peice for nearly an hour. It was a perfect and refreshing way to end the day.

Today, we went back into the city. We had intended to take the ferry but the car lot was full, due to a ballgame so we drove instead. We left a bright sunny Novato and hit thick fog just before the bridge. We stopped to try and get a shot of the Golden Gate bridge cloacked in fog but it was so thick the veiw was zero.

On hitting the city we split up. I had a ballgame to go to. yep, after a few attempts I was off to see the SF Giants play the NY Mets (Baseball). The sun was shining and being a midweek, midday game the crowds not too bad. For 20 bucks I got a good seat, reasonably high up but good overview. I stayed at the game for just over an hour, 4 innings before leaving. I was enjoying the game but had the others to meet so couldn't hang around all day. I didn't understand a lot of what was going on but had a basic grasp of things so was able to get into the spirit.

My exercise of the day was the 1 mile walk from fishermans wharf where we parked to the ball park and back again, nice walk in the warm sunshine.

Rach, John & Jill in the meantime decided to be good little tourists and went on a 2.5 hour Grayline bus tour taking in the Bridge, Presidio, Palace of Fine Arts, Pacific Heights, Chinatown, North Beach, and other general sights.

So, our time here comes to an end. Tomorrow is just tidying up (buying an extra suitcase etc) and spending a bit of time with the family. Friday we fly out and get home early Sunday morning.

Thanks for reading this blog, we hope you enjoyed it. A bit of a learning curve for me with the technology, paricularlier the Mac computers but all part of the experience. We have all once again had a fantastic time here and this trip has again confirmed that the USA is a great touring destination. Not too sure when we'll be back but for sure it won't be soon enough.

See most of you next week I guess. Bye for now.

Mike

another attemt here.......

John and I at the Grand Canyon

General Grand Canyon shot.

These are really high resolution photo's, over 5mb so might be slow to downlaod. dunno if this will work. A bit too hard for me to work out, sorry.

That's if for me tonight folks.

Ciao

Finally after a week in the area we hit the big smoke.

yet another hot day, again up into the high 80's-90's so around 30-32C. A bit of a slow drive in despite our trying to avoid rush hour.

Traffic on the '101' is manic. Of all the the US highways I've driven on this is the craziest. 3 - 5 lanes of traffic moving along at about 70-80 mph all juggling for position like some sort of hyped up computer game. You really need to concentrate or lose.

First stop on hitting the city was Lombard Street, the worlds 'wriggliest', twistiest street. steep with a dozen sharp switchbacks, a good laugh.

We parked up and wondered the streets ending up at Macy's. For lunch we headed to the rooftop restaurant at macys, the 'Cheesecake Factory'. What a great spot, an outside terrace, blue sky, the sounds of the city below and great food, with of course cheesecake to die for.

After lunch the girls did a bit of shopping including a stop at the local Westfield, that was 7 floors of shops, easy to get lost.

john & jill went for a walk around chinatown while the girls shopped, brave given the hot weather and then to finish off we all piled into 'Tiffany & Co' in our casual sweaty tourist clothes. Rachel had a twinkle in her eye but this place is for lottery winners only so we were definitely just looking!

We got home around 5 enjoyed dinner outside (again) and I had a bit of a run around with the kids. I've not done any biking but these kids keep us busy. tonight they had me gasping, for sure my heart rate was up way high, no need for regular exercise at all.

We are on the slippery slope for the return journey, just 4 more day's here, sad to think our time up is coming along so quickly.

Might have time for one more blog and then we'll be back to bore you all senseless with our tales and pictures, something for many of you to look forward to :-)

Having left Santa Cruz reasonably late we had some concerns as we arrived in Montery on a busy Saturday around 7pm. However not too many hassles and we ended up at a basic 'comfort inn' for US$129.00 which as usual included free wireless internet and breakfast for all 4 of us. Our most expensive night but to be expected.

Since we had enjoyed such a touristy type day we finished off with dinner at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company Restaurant, yep a tacky touristy theme restaurant based on the flim 'Forest Gump. A good fun place right on the waterfront with ok food and super friendly staff. Naturally as good tourists we enjoyed the meal and bought the T-shirt.

Next day was promising to be a real scorcher, 90+ so we got away early. We paid a crazy $9.00 to drive the scenic '17 mile drive' which takes you around the very scenic coast past some of the most incredible homes (mansions, palaces, castles) etc. The drive also takes in Pebble Beach Gof Course, apparently famous? Enjoyed some time exploring Montery, both old and new, and wondered around Cannery Row, the most popular tourist spot. We love Montery, this is our 3rd visit and even though this is a tourist trap it is in such a scenic coastal spot you can't help but enjoy yourself.

From Montery we drove on to an outlet mall, 145 stores, and tried to do some shopping but this place was large, super busy and it was stinking hot so we didn't hang around for long before driving back to Novato. It was a hot night last night, a classic canterbury nor'west evening and it was a good 20C when we woke this morning.

Today, Monday was San Francisco day. More on next blog.......

Footnote. Spelling, grammer and random letters. We are working off Mac laptops that are challenging our typing abilities. As a result you may find some weird things inserted into these blogs for which we apologise. proof reading is attempted but not always sucessful. I hope you've enjoyed a good laugh at our expense in attempting to interpret some of our ramblings.