Fault on the line
San Francisco, our first mainland US stop. Had always fancied going there to see the Golden Gate bridge, just couldn't summon up the energy to fly 1/3rd of the way around the world to do it, until now that is.

Must admit, we're not really city people, so we didn't expect to enjoy the city side of SF, but how wrong we were. Most US cities I've visited before have several things in common;

(1) full of ignorant / rude people
(2) full of tacky chain stores
(3) pain in the neck to move around unless you embrace the car-culture

SF seemed different, cablecars and trams made moving about the city straightforward and enjoyable (must supress the trainspotting instinct), the people were friendly, inquisitive and appeared to understand humour and to add icing to the cake the buildings were architecually interesting. We splashed out on a plush hotel, which probably added to the charm.

Visited Alcatraz (how much fun can you have on a rock selected for its ability to be a prison), Fisherman's Wharf (worth a look, but try not to stay there, its an overpriced tourist magnet), popped into several galleries and ate lots of tasty food.

We made the most of the spring weather and hired some bikes for what Susie expected to be a leisurely ride across the bridge to Marin county, not having cycled all year I got a bit carried away and we ended up covering about 45 miles, you can imagine how popular I was that night with Ms Royston. Found a place we'd like to live, surrounded by redwoods, millionaire mansions built like tree houses.

Everwhere you looked in SF there were people using Apples (non-edible variety, and I don't mean golden delicious). Apparently 'life is random' so you have to buy an iPod shuffle, perhaps the subliminal effect of thousands of posters has melted my mind, for some reason I really need an iPod to make my life complete. If I manage to leave New York without a suitcase full of goodies I deserve a gold medal in self control.

Left SF for Las Vegas, we'd been there before, but this time we planned to visit the canyons, do some hiking and get out of the city. We struggled to organise this from New Zealand so hoped we would have more luck when we arrived. If you want to gamble, eat, drink or watch porn this is the place. Ask about hiking trips and you'll get the sort of face Jules Verne would have seen if he said he was doing some research for a book, popped into his local travel agent and enquired about a journey to the centre of the earth. Never mind, when in Rome and all that... update on LV to follow.
- posted by Adrian @ 9:32:00 PM