The wheels just touched down and we're taxi-ing to the terminal now at Heathrow. We've been travelling since 0830am America time so it's effectively 2am for us now.
The flights felt quite long as the first five and a half hour one involved no TVs or film of any kind - what did we all used to do? The second, not too bad, but I didn't manage any sleep. Em managed a couple of hours - we'll be tired by the end of today.
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Just got through passport control. Used my new e-passport and there was no queue for me. It worked and I was straight through. Just waiting for Em now! She's in the snail trail.
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All in all we've had an amazing time, and I hope you've all enjoyed reading about it. We're glad to have shared it with you.
Sunday, 19 August 2012
Saturday, 18 August 2012
Checking Out
It's 8:10am on Saturday 18th August and after a continental breakfast of champions we're checking out and getting the motel minibus to the airport. Let's hope it's all plain sailing ahead.
All-aboard.
Farewell LA.
All-aboard.
Farewell LA.
End of Days
We're driving the last one hundred miles to Hell-A and the weather is cloudy but nearly 90 degrees (about 27 centigrade). The scenery is less good than yesterday, but still interesting countryside. Sunburnt yellow sweeping hills meet and criss cross each other, peppered with brown shrubs and green trees that give a good contrast with the blue and white sky.
After faffing with bags etc at the motel we ended up leaving late at 9am, and are now starting to feel the pangs of hunger (it's 10am now). Must stop for food soon.
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It's about 7pm now. We arrived in LA about 1pm at the travel lodge. Here we dumped the bags, creamed up, and lay by the pool until 6pm. It was so hot and sunny: perfect weather to savour the last relaxing daylight hours of the holiday. The pool itself was pretty nice, and the dense planting around the outside area gave a nice peaceful feel. What gives a less peaceful feel is the planes taking off every fifteen minutes or so - did I mention we're only two miles from LAX? It didn't bother us though.
Oh, and when we did stop for breakfast earlier, it soon became brunch. We both had a sixteen inch breakfast baguette each - so unbelievably filling. Finishing Emily's was a mistake - felt like we were going to burst.
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We're now at the 'Daily Grill', a nice restaurant only minutes away from the motel. We've just had the meals delivered - huge! Mine has a whole broccoli as the veg!
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After the mains and a chocolate brownie pudding drizzled in caramel, pecans & ice cream we waddled back to the hotel. Then we set out to get a photo of the huge doughnut on Randy's Doughnuts and to return the car. It was a sad moment as they drove the Mustang away. We'd done 60 miles short of 3000 miles in it. It desperately needed a wash. The inside was pretty clean though due to general 'good housekeeping'.
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We're now back at the motel and packed ready to go. Let's hope we have a safe plain old journey ahead of us.
Friday, 17 August 2012
The Big Sur, the Mustang Convoy, Serious Wood, and Santa Barb
This was the dream: heading across to get to Highway 1 and driving that all the way down the coast to Santa Barbara.
We had to stop for breakfast quite early on, in a quaint little place named Carmel, near where Highway 1 begins. Here we went to a fantastic little English style coffee shop / bakery located in a rather posh plaza. We had a ham and cheese croissant each with a coffee and tea then briefly wandered the plaza looking at some very nice boutiques and galleries.
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Well, highway 1 was a serious treat. The vistas: amazing; it was a drive of dreams. The windy black tarmac road is forged through the jagged and rocky cliff edges, which descend to meet sandy beaches. The azure blue ocean was crashing and foaming around shoals and rocks by the beach and lapping the shores. The sky was crisp blue and set off against the hills above us.
The highway continually snakes around the cliff edge and there are some serious corners which tested all the horses. In the words of Blue, it was 'system up with the top down'. I don't think the m3 will quite live up to it when we get back to Blighty.
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As it was the final big drive of our honeymoon, hundreds of well wishers had gathered along Highway 1. They cheered us on and took photos as we passed. I don't think it was anything to do with the classic car in front of us, or indeed the hundreds of classic cars that were driving Highway 1 that day (including old Ferraris and so many other classics)...
Yes, what a day to be driving down Highway 1. The air was crisp and cool, the sun was out, and the jet black tarmac warmed while the roar of mighty engines passed. The classic cars only added to the atmosphere and it was a real treat.
For a portion of the drive we were joined by three other Mustangs and drove in a Mustang convoy down the coast. This was only marred when some audacious son of a gun overtook us in some kind of car which I can only describe as Ford's answer to the Megane. The convoy broken, the dream in tatters, we left the road for lunch.
Here, roughly half way between San Fran and Hell-A we visited a little Mexican restaurant and had a good bite to eat. The cherry on the top of the day though was discovering an artisan who made the most spectacular wooden furniture I've ever seen: Brook Lawrence (Design). If only we'd had a spare $3000 we could have bought the most expertly crafted walnut table we've ever seen. Magical stuff. Try looking him up online, although I expect the photos on the website will pale grossly in comparison to the products in his gallery. The woods used included Cedar, Cypress, Walnut and Redwood. It was like nothing I've ever seen in England. Anyway, we chewed the cud for a while with him, mostly with me asking lots of questions about various pieces. Then we hit the road again for the two hours more drive to Santa Barbara.
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We arrived in SB and our motel was pleasant being only one block from the beach. Not wanting to waste the last of a nice day, we dropped our stuff in the room and made a beeline for the pool. Cool refreshing water and the last of the direct sun made it blissful. We used the motel WiFi to research our evening eatery.
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After a shower and change we route marched along the sea front heading into a glowing orange sunset. Palm trees lined up & down the sides of the road offered mighty silhouettes against the stunning backdrop.
After our quick step we arrived at the restaurant 'Emilios', only to find that it was closed for a kitchen refit. We had to settle in the end for a less good local restaurant and bar with reasonable food & cocktails, but the slowest service known to America.
We wandered back to the motel and crashed into bed again, to be ready for another early ish drive from here to Hell-A for the final night's stay.
It was a day of marked atmosphere.
Muir Woods
Once on the road we headed straight to Muir woods. This involved the drive over the Golden Gate bridge - we were in awe. Such an amazing bridge and what an engineering achievement considering when it was built. Each of the steel cables is about 924mm thick and comprises about 27000 individual steel cables! Some feat.
Muir woods houses some of the oldest and tallest trees of their kind in the world. Most of it is Douglas fir and red cedar I think. The sheer canopy height blows you away. No photo I've seen can do it justice - you have to see it for yourself. When your under the canopy you feel a world away from San Fran. It's quiet, but not only that - it feels peaceful, serene and relaxing. While you wander through, the heavy scent of pine is pungent and the shaded scene has rays of light piercing it where the canopy breaks occur.
A fresh lunch later (had at Muir woods), we hit the road again, headed for Salinas - about 3 hours drive from San Fran.
When we arrived at Salinas we discovered it to be a bit of a middle of nowhere town (apologies to any residents who know the true Salinas). There seemed to be nothing there really. However it was the home of John Steinbeck, so there must be something there that's inspirational at least. Our motel was near an industrial plant with a busy road, but we knew this when we booked, and it didn't bother us.
We lounged by the pool for about half an hour and steamed in the melting hot Jacuzzi whilst scouring trip advisor for the filet mignon of restaurants here. Up trumps came a local sushi place, only a mile walk - perfect so we could both let our hair down and have a drink or two...
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The sushi at this restaurant Kokoro - out of this world. There were four pages of special sushi rolls and the selection was incredible. The quality and variety combined was the best we've ever had. Totally amazing. And, the value for money was yet again, amazing. The whole meal came to $50 + tip. I only hope they don't increase their prices massively in the future and become as unreasonable as Yo!
We left there very much sated and walked back to the motel to hit the hay. A good day.
Thursday, 16 August 2012
Welcome to The Rock!
For lunch we ate at Boudin - the sourdough factory. It very much reminded us of Prague as we had the soup in a bowl made of bread. Needless to say, my plate was stripped bare.
After lunch we walked towards the Golden Gate bridge, eventually catching a bus which should have come with a free neck support; the driver had a thirsty right foot.
I haven't mentioned yet, but the weather in San Fran was foggy and pretty depressing. It was cold! The golden gate bridge was shrouded in fog and so the iconic cliche photo was never going to be. However, we walked along the bridge and sucked up the atmosphere - it was great.
We took a long walk in order to get a bus - by now our feet were tired from almost fifteen miles of walking throughout the day. The bus took us moments away from our hotel and then we headed to Westfield to grab a bite. Here we had such cheap sushi - awesome value. The whole meal was about $25 and we were full. This included quite a lot of sushi, Edamami beans and miso soup.
We retired after this to plan the next night's stay in our current 'boutique' hotel room. We finalised on the 'Good Nite Inn' in Salinas, just outside Monterey, CA.
Wednesday, 15 August 2012
On the Road Again - with Beer and Candy
Just before 2pm we arrived at the Budweiser brewery ready for the tour. By this point we were pretty hungry with empty stomachs, but had not had time to get lunch for fear of being late -they only run two tours per day. The tour started with two free drinks of your choice while you watched a video. I chose some kind of raspberry flavoured number they do which is 8.5%. Em chose a bud lime - a bit like Corona with lime. Em was driving so didn't even finish her first. I put away two and then when the videos finished we glided round the parts of the factory that tourists are allowed close to. One of these areas was the huge kegs they brew the beer in - I think each one is 22000 gallons from memory. I think she also said that if you drank a case of 24 beers a day it would still take you 68 years to get through a keg of this size!
We left the brewery and headed literally round the corner to the Jelly Belly factory - by this point we were starving, although in our forty minute tour we managed to tie ourselves over with three jelly beans...
Finally we managed to get a semi unMcsatisfying lunch at about 4pm. We there found out an interesting fact - that McDonalds Milkshakes have more calories than the burgers. My Big Mac was 540 calories, yet the Milkshake...710 (medium size). In our one 'meal' we'd managed 100% of our fat for the day. Free refill anyone?
We left our McLunch and headed the last hour of the journey into San Fran -however we stopped at the North Face outlet store en route. This is so cheap compared to the US normal stock - and the US normal stock is so much cheaper than the UK stuff. You can pretty much exchange dollars for pounds on the standard price tags (before they get marked down for outlet store). Our visit was also a useful way of avoiding rush hour traffic in San Fran.
We finally arrived in San Fran at 7:30pm and preceded to spend one whole hour and about 10 dollars of gas just driving round looking for overnight parking at a reasonable rate - by reasonable I mean under 30 dollars! We drove many times round and only getting 8.5mpg! The sat nav took some wrestling as quite a few roads it wanted us to go down were blocked off.
In the end, we had no better options than to pay for valet parking at our hotel. The nightly price is $33 + 15.5% tax! Consequently we'll have to be on a diet of bread and water, while the car gets a warm blanket and a roof over its hood.
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Now fed and watered we have showered and are feeling more relaxed back at the hotel. This is good practice for alcatraz tomorrow, as our room is not much larger than cell sized and we have shared toilet and bathroom facilities, lol. We ate dinner at 'Little Delhi'. It was one of the best lamb kormas we've ever had!
Now, time for bed. We rise at 7:30am to get breakfast and get across to Alcatraz.
Monday, 13 August 2012
Crazy Golf & Tahoe Tinis
After brunch we played our 19 holes of crazy golf - somewhat of a holiday tradition for Emily and I to play a round. This was great, although sweaty work as it's so hot. We rewarded ourselves afterwards with a decadent ice cream each from the Coldstone Creamery (incidentally, my predictive text just wanted to change that to Colostomy Creamery - sick). We noticed that some of the ice creams in this place top 2000 calories! Not exactly 8% material.
We wandered for a while looking round some cowboy style shops and some more regular ones, before having to shelter suddenly for the torrential rain. Reminded us of Florida.
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We're now at the Stateline Brewery & Restaurant after swimming 50 lengths in the pool back at the motel - got to burn off the American meals and ice cream somehow.
The restaurant is on the California/Nevada stateline (surprise!) and they have English style beers brewed here which is a big thing to them. The one I ordered is called Arrogant Bastard and is over 8%bv. Emily has ordered a Tahoe Tini - a cocktail.
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Things have got rowdy here, not in a bad way though. There is a loud table of fourteen guys two tables away from us - they just decided who pays by pulling cards out of a hat. The last guy had to pay for all fourteen of them! Rather them than us.
We're fed and watered now and heading back to the motel to watch a movie on cable.
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Tomorrow, we leave, bound for San Fran. We stop en route for the Jelly Belly Factory and the Budweiser Brewery. It's about a four hour drive in total.
Sunday, 12 August 2012
Beachtastic
We hired a pedlo for an hour and really enjoyed that. Then we just relaxed by the lake followed by a swim. The water was similar to sea temp in the English summer. Whilst paddling our feet by the shore we had quite a long chat with a guy from Sacramento, which is reasonably close by, between here and San Francisco. This gave us more inspiration for some walks around here, and also he recommended visiting the Jelly Belly factory and Budweiser brewery which are both en route to San Fran. You can taste the jelly bean in each of the ten stages leading up to completion. Sounds intriguing...
When it got to about 5pm we packed up and left, partly as a massive cloud had come overhead and blocked the sun. We then got ready and went to see if we could get a sitting at this restaurant the owners of the motel next door were raving about (we were meant to go and book in the morning when we went to the bank, but forgot). It's a place called Edgewood, which is a posh golf course with attached fine dining restaurant and separate bar.
They had a sitting but not until 9pm, so we went back to the motel, ditched the car and did the walk to the restaurant. When we got there the sun was just starting to set and it was beautiful. We stood there and appreciated it for a while before heading in to get a drink at the bar. There was a posh wedding going on there too and they were just having their first dance while we were having a drink. The windows from the reception room look right onto the lake so the wedding guests and all of us could see the amazing sunset whilst having drinks. We then went through to dinner and could see the last of the sunset from our table - idyllic. I think that's probably the best setting for dinner we've ever had.
In keeping with the surroundings, the food was to die for - Emily says that was the best dinner she's ever had! She had a tuna steak dish with Wasabi cream sauce, coconut rice, pak choi etc. The tuna was perfect. See photo at top of page.
After dinner and the multiple glasses of wine (when you order a glass at the bar here they pour you a third of a bottle - so despite the initial intention of not ordering a bottle, we had more + Em had the classic Margarita) we stumbled back to the motel and collapsed for bed. A relaxing day.
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Tomorrow we play some mini golf, go for a walk and relax by the pool or beach.
Saturday, 11 August 2012
Crack of Dawn & The Gold Rush Town
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This morning was an early one as we rose at 4:45 to catch the sun rise. We didn't manage to find the scenic spot we were looking for though, so this wasn't a repeat of the grand canyon - far from it. The photos may as well been of the toilet block in our camp.
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We arrived safely in Lake Tahoe after many road side snoozes and much driving. We them had a brief look around and went for dinner which was amazing! The restaurant was like going for fine dining in England but not fussy or pretentious in any way.
We're now knackered so watching tv and going to bed. Tomorrow, mini golf and relaxing we think!
Friday, 10 August 2012
The Heat of the Moment
Once we'd arrived I realised this is where I stayed with mum, dad and the girls years ago! It certainly took a while to find our tent in the dark. I say tent, but this here is more what Emily calls 'glamping' as we have a real bed. We're expecting Joey Essex (aka Chris T) to turn up in his orange UGG boots any minute, with his smart car.
Once we did find our 'tent', we had to separate all food and toiletries and put them in the 'bear proof' or seemingly 'Emily proof' locker outside our tent. Even water has to go in there. We trudged down to the toilet block and did our teeth etc too.
We got to bed by 3am and fell into a deep sleep.
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This morning we got breakfast just before 10am which was a large buffet. Good selection including fresh fruit and we ate quite a bit. Then we stopped by the on site grocery store to get supplies for the walk.
The walk - well, our plan was to walk the Valley Floor Loop which is a 13mile round trip. It soon became clear after one hour that due to the heat and the amount of water we'd need (we only had 1.5litres) we might not be able make it all the way. It was over 100 Fahrenheit and that made it tough going. However, the scenery is breathtaking, and we were even walking through a kind of meadow at one point - beautiful.
After four miles we reached the 'El Capitan Bridge', named as such because you can see El Capitan from there. We were knackered and had now consumed enough water (despite drinking quite a bit before leaving) to signal we should be turning round. We rested there in the slightly more bearable shade for about fifteen minutes. There were a lot of people who'd rather sensibly decided not to walk today and were enjoying the river, paddling and sunbathing on the shores (I'd never associated Yosemite with the beach, but whatever floats your boat I guess).
Suddenly there were shrieks and a hum drum of excitement. It turns out that a black bear was swimming down river towards us. Very exciting. People were being quite crazy and shouting with excitement. Plus, rather than following the general advice for black bears, people seemed to be getting in closer and almost surrounding it. Anyway, the bear (which looked more like a cub than a fully grown bear; it was about the size of a big dog) got out the water and buggered off into the woods. No small children were eaten and the excitement died down.
We left after this and headed back for the camp. It took a while to get back in the heat, and when we did we were knackered. We flopped into the cafe and got some icy slush puppy type drinks, topped up on water and drank copious amounts, and ate the lunch we'd brought for the hike. After some time, we then had a look around the Ansel Adams gallery (famous landscape photographer, particularly famous for his work on Yosemite and the other national parks). One of the prints was $30k!
We headed back to our tent and then hit the showers - much needed refreshment.
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We're now sitting waiting for our laundry to finish washing. Then we're going to get some much needed dinner and perhaps a cocktail. I'm sure we'll fall into a deep sleep tonight!
The Mega Drive - to Yosemite
We haven't really done much today and can't really work out where the time has gone. We woke up and then had breakfast at the Jean Phillipe Patisserie within the Bellagio. The variety and intricacy of food there is amazing. Em and I both went for savoury crepes with amazing fillings. They were cooked right in front of us. After this we had to pack and check out the hotel by 11am.
Then we hit the Vegas roads, heading for the 'premium' discount malls, with the intention of getting some more running trainers.
Success, although we had to visit two different malls to find what we were after - first one seemed to be lacking. We now both have fresh sets with zero miles on the soles. Looking forward to using them. We'll need to now and later after the quantity of food and driving this holiday!
After this and lunch we set off on the 489 mile journey to Yosemite. We've just joined highway 99 northbound and have 198miles to go. We've had dinner so apart from a relay baton swap, we'll be doing the rest in one hit. It was great before dinner, as we were driving straight into the sunset with the top down on the Mustang - the American dream...
Hopefully there will be some kind of internet in Yosemite so we can post this!
Wednesday, 8 August 2012
Steak Breakfasts & Poolside Bellinis
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After fluffing around in the business centre using one of their computers to backup photos from the camera memory card onto em's iPod (luckily they let us use this for free) we had a quick look around the Jeff Mitchum shop - he's a famous landscape photographer of sorts. Really impressive photos. When you look at stuff like that you realise it totally puts your work to shame!
Then, we went to the pool. That was it. We just sat there and spent a bit of time in the pool, doing nothing. Nothing. And for once it was great. Em had a kind of mango bellini (tasted so good) and I had a beer. It was so hot, but relaxing.
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Just got back from dinner at an Australian style steak house. Healthiest meal we've ever had in America I think. Em had crab cakes and I had grilled chicken breast - they both had fresh veg with them. It was so crunchy and so good. Broccoli, courgette, mange tout, carrots - amazing!
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We leave Vegas tomorrow morning headed for Yosemite. We're rested and ready for some hiking. However, first we have the five hour drive to contend with. We'll be stopping in death valley for a quick explore there en route. We'll also be stopping on the way out of Vegas at the discount mall to try and get some more running trainers - had no luck so far which means no running here so far!
We'll put up another entry tomorrow if we have WiFi in our tent in Yosemite, lol.
Tuesday, 7 August 2012
The Road to Vegas
After that we drove toward Vegas and stopped at the Hoover Dam en route. Spectacular feat in engineering and great to see in the flesh so to speak. At this point the temperature outside had got to 112 degrees Fahrenheit - see photo. Then when we were leaving it was up at 116!
After that we finished the last bit of the journey heading into Vegas in some serious traffic (although it moves quickly). Luckily the Bellagio entrance is very close to where we entered so it was quick. Finding a parking space wasn't as quick! However, fifteen minutes later we had one. The hotel room is really nice and includes among other things a big flatscreen tv and curtains and blinds that you can draw by pressing a button by the bed! The walk in shower could fit about four people in, and there's a bath too.
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We're now back at the Bellagio having eaten a sumptuous steak dinner at Smith & Wollensky's. Zonked so we're going to bed - I think tomorrow is just going to be a relaxed one by the pool.
The Grand Canyon
Oh yeh, just remembered about how many deer there are near the roads around Glendale (near Bryce Canyon) and here. I had to brake quite sharply at one point last night and come to a complete stop for one standing in the middle of the road! It almost woke Emily up...
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We've visited quite a few hot spots for a good view of the canyon now and it's been amazing to see the sights. As we had limited time we picked out the ones we thought we'd get the most out of and spent a little more time at each one - rather than spending five minutes at each and then moving on. The last one we wanted to visit meant doing it the British way i.e. parking further away and walking to it. It can be accessed by a shuttle bus for those inclined. We got there, did a little recce for a good spot, and then watched a beautiful sunset. It was absolutely spectacular. Well worth waiting for. It would have been nice to do some actual hiking down into the canyon but we're on such a whistle stop tour there isn't time. It's an excuse to come back here too.
We left the canyon and headed to our motel in Williams where we met the owner who is from Belgium - just came over here last year. Somehow we got onto the subject of guns and then him and the guy in the room next door to us did a bit of show and tell with all their guns! Between them there were two 12 gauge shotguns and five pistols of varying caliber - Arizona is one of the states where you can carry concealed weapons if you have a permit.
Anyways then we rushed off to dinner and going to bed now.
The i15, and Bryce's Dead Tree Smorgasbord
The rocky scenery is starting to turn red, and a while back we went through a kind of rocky valley type pass between the hills. Fascinating scenery although a small danger of falling rocks. The road surface left a little to be desired. In Arizona (which we passed through very briefly) and Utah (which we're in now) the roads don't seem to be quite as good as in Nevada.
The temperature when we arrived in Vegas last night was 105 degrees, but now we're down to a cool 90 on the road (fahrenheit). Sensibly today we don't have the convertible hood down, as we would soon end up as burnt toast. Must say, it was great to have an air conditioning unit in the hotel last night that didn't sound like a helicopter flying overhead, that which was our experience from the last motel in San Diego!
Oh, and we just had a few momentary drops of rain here! We do have a large grey cloud overhead which is hugging the mountains, so makes sense. Emily is being persuasive on the accelerator to move us away from it.
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It's 9:15 and we're just catching a spot of dinner before driving for about an hour and a half to our next motel. From there we will drive to the grand canyon tomorrow morning which is about four hours drive from there....oh, dinner has arrived...
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So, today has been long. Shortly after my writing above earlier it hammered it down with rain for a bit near Bryce. When we got there though it had all stopped. It was a lot cooler and not humid - nice! We checked out the visitor centre and got maps etc then had the 14 view point challenge (what I now call the McBryce Happy Meal). Here, you basically drive to the very end of all the points, then stop by them one by one, taking photos japenese tourist style along the way. Wanting to resist this urge, we only took photos where good ones could be had - well, there were a few weak moments, but we mostly did well. It was like a race between all the cars. However, what pleased me (and Emily less so) was the smorgasbord of dead trees available for photos - brilliant!
Oh, and when we were at the visitor centre we had a big problem as we couldn't get into the Mustang!!! Turns out after a few minutes that we were trying to get into someone else's Mustang. They happened to have exactly the same colour etc etc. The only reason I noticed was because they had a juice bottle inside the cabin and then I twigged. Turns out ours was three spaces up, obscured by you'll never guess, oh another monster truck!
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We finished the day with a last doors sunset shoot on the final one of the McBryce Happy Meal. Thankfully by this point the others had all packed up and gone home, so we had peace while the light faded away. A magical day.
Saturday, 4 August 2012
San Diego Zoo to Sin City...and the Waterfall Urinal
The zoo is big and there is a huge array of animals there to see - amazing. We could only spare until about 2:30pm due to the five and a half hour drive to Vegas, so we couldn't see everything. However, we saw all we could have wanted and had an amazing time. I even got a photo of Emily with a bear (as you've seen above). She wasn't keen on the rattle snakes though.
After finishing up at the zoo, we headed for Sin City. Traffic was bad! We ended up arriving later than 9pm despite not sparing the horses when the traffic eased, and using the carpool lanes where available (I stuck to the code - Harry would approve...)
We had taken a 20minute break en route so it's not as bad as it sounds.
Another fill up was necessary before arriving in Las Vegas as you can never really know here how long it will be before the next fill up. We'd averaged 25mpg which is not bad considering driving from LA to San Diego was done in bad traffic. Not great was paying nearly 5 dollars a gallon then seeing the prices in Vegas were about 3 dollars 50 cents per gallon.
I was also lucky enough when we stopped for gas to use one of the world's only waterfall urinals. A truly unique experience...see the photo.
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Our hotel in Vegas is really nice -managed to get a nice four star for one night for 65dollars - booked it last night! The ground floor is a casino and then there are fourteen floors of rooms. Eating dinner here in the casino was also a unique experience!
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Tomorrow we head straight for Zion which is just under three hours away. We pass through there briefly, then head to Bryce Canyon which is another two hours from there. Should be amazing scenery. Then in the late afternoon or evening we will head to our next hotel which is about one hour from Bryce. From there we will get to the Grand Canyon the next day. So, lots of driving tomorrow. God bless cruise control and automatics...although the sport shift mode with tiptronic is good fun when you fancy a manual feel!
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