Life's about experiences. These are mine.
In what is becoming an annual tradition we have once again, having seen off family and friends, got out and about to make the most of our National Trust membership. Last year we did five National Trust properties over an eight day period and the year before five visits over five counties in seven days.… Read the rest
This has been a while coming but finally I have managed to stitch together all the footage from the dashboard camera we took with us to the US (you can read more about the £20 camera here).
Every day that we were in the car we took a short bit of footage to give an idea of what the local scenery was like that day.… Read the rest
And so we reach the end of the road leaving San Diego this morning to head back to Los Angeles where we started almost three weeks ago.
We had intended to spend today out on a boat in the San Diego bay whale and dolphin watching but we didn’t seem to be able to find a boat to take us out so we elected to go shopping instead 😉
We know from previous visits to the States that there are a number of shopping villages dotted around called Premium Outlets that have a variety of shops and so we headed to one of these half way to LA.… Read the rest
For the most part we have stayed in hotels on this trip but our two nights in Joshua Tree have been a bit different as we have been in a B&B. It’s funny that we paid far more in some hotels than we have at the Desert Lily yet the place has been far nicer than most and there was a fantastic breakfast included.… Read the rest
OK, so I am running out of superlatives now.
I said yesterday that it was sad now that we have done all the “big ticket” items and we have really. Nobody is going to put Joshua Tree National Park above the Grand Canyon or Yosemite but they should and you really really should.… Read the rest
Today was probably the longest drive of the whole holiday travelling from Williams, Arizona to Joshua Tree, California. Helen and I both realised that even though we still have five-ish days of the holiday left with the Grand Canyon out the way all the “big ticket” destinations are now done (with apologies to the Joshua Tree National Park and San Diego!) which is sad.… Read the rest
Another stop at a national park today but for once we weren’t driving but arriving by train.
Last night we stayed in a town called Williams which happens to also be the starting point for the Grand Canyon Railway. Originally built to transport goods to and from the south rim of the canyon it now fulfills the same but for tourists.… Read the rest
There was one thing left that I had on my todo list before we left Las Vegas and that was to go to the Welcome to Las Vegas sign. We drove along the strip until we got to half a mile from the it when everything ground to a halt – everyone wanted to stop and see the sign it seems.… Read the rest
Las Vegas is nuts, there is no getting away from that fact, but it is also tremendous fun. This is my second time here and I feel the same as I did the first time – this is an adults equivalent of Disneyland.… Read the rest
We had a relatively short drive today from Stovepipe Wells in the Death Valley National Park through to Las Vegas but we had plenty of interesting stops on the way.
The first stop, at Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, was only a short distance from our overnight hotel but was so unexpectedly different from all the surrounding landscape.… Read the rest