Saturday 22nd September 2012

We are having the holiday of a lifetime - enjoying perfect weather so far.  America is an amazing place for more reasons than one.  In this last week or so we have moved from Nature on steroids at the Canyons to entertainment on steroids at Las Vegas.

Thursday 13th september 2012 we travelled from San Diego to Scottsdale, Phoenix.  The flight was very short and easy.  Our accommodation at Scottsdale was excellant with a golf course next door.Temperature was 102 degrees F.

Friday 14th september 2012 we played golf next door to our accommodation at McCormack ranch Golf Course. We were fortunate to have a nice breeze which kept the temperature down a bit. We had a lovely day and a swim in the pool afterwards.

Saturday 15th September 2012 we travelled from Scottsdale to the Grand Canyon via Sedona where we had a 4 wheel drive drive to the Sedona Canyon which was excellant.We had one of our best highlights enjoying a helicopter ride over and inside the Grand Canyon which was awesome.

Sunday 16th September 2012 we had a free day at the Grand Canyon to explore the rim walks of the Canyon.

Monday 17th September 2012 Col and I were up early to witness the sunrise at the Canyon before we left for Lake Powell which was a very interesting trip with beautiful scenery.

Tuesday 18th September 2012 we enjoyed a day trip to Monument Valley which was another highlight enjoying the familiar (cowboy movie) sights and the Indian villages, returning to Lake Powell for the evening.

Wednesday 19th September 2012 we travelled from Lake Powell to Zion National Park via Bryce Canyon which was propbably the best views (up close) of the canyons and was very impressive.

Thursday 20th September 2012 we had an up close and personal view of the Zion National Park which was very beautiful before tyravelling on to Las Vegas where we spent the night at the Treasure Isalnd Resort in  the middle of the Las vegas strip.

Friday 21st September 2012 we moved from the Treasure Isalnd resort to the Mandaly Bay Resort at the Airport end of the strip.  We were very impressed with our rooms and it was a lot quieter than the middle of the strip and literally had a beach of its own with a wave pool and 4 other choices of pools.
There is plent of transport of various kinds to get us along the strip so we were happy where we were.

Saturday 22nd September 2012 (today) we had a late breakfast and spent the day along the strip, went to see Menopause the Musical at the Casino next door.  We are enjoying the entertainment and had a dabble at the machines in  the casino coming out square for the night which was a good result.

It has been very hot. Hotter than I expected it to be (near the 100 degrees each day).  Hopefully it will be a little cooler when we get to Boston to start our Canada (Niagara Falls experience).


 

Thursday 13th September 2012

We have had a wonderful break from our first bus tour. We spent a couple of days at Santa Monica on the waterfront and then three days at San Diego taking our own time to look around.

Saturday 8th September 2012 we caught a maxi cab from Los Angeles to Santa Monica.  It was not a long trip and we were checked into our hotel by 2.30.  We had nice rooms and a self service laundry so we were able to do a catch up with our laundry and rest up.We had a walk to the Santa Monica Pier and did some people watching and had a swim in the hotel pool.

Sunday 9th September 2012 we had a relaxing breakfast at Bubba Gum's which was beautiful. On the beach there was a memorial display for the armed forces that have died in the wars.  They have done this display every Sunday since the beginning of the war in Iraq.  We caught the tram to the Old Town  We enjoyed the day and the weather was great.

Monday 10th September 2012 we had a private transfer to San Diego which took a couple of hours.  We had a russian driver who could not speak very good english. We had a quick check in & we took a tram to the old town for a look around.  We had a mexican meal of tacos and margarita's.That night we went to the baseball.  The stadium was right across the road from our hotel.  That was a good experience and we saw a good home run.


Tuesday 11th September 2012 we had breakfast in the hotel & then hired a driver to take us to see Torrey Pines Golf Course and a lovely beach area called La Jolla (pronounced La Hoya) where we saw a lot of birdlife, seals, squirrels etc and had coffe in a nice seaside cafe. We also went down into a man made tunnel that was dug out in 1920 and the wooden steps were rotting. It was a bit hairy getting up and down but we did see a sea lion in the cave. The driver picked us up from La Jolla and drove us to the waterfront so that we could visit the USS Midway that is now decommisioned and is used as a museum.  It was very interesting to look at all the history and the planes.  That night we had a nice dinner at an Italian Restaurant in the Gas Lamp area.After dinner we watched the baseball game from the hotel's rooftop bar which has a bird's eye view of the stadium.

Wednesday 12th September 2012 we had breakfast in the hotel and then caught a taxi to Balboa Park and had a look around at a couple of the exhibitions and museums. From there we caught a taxi to the waterfront so we could catch a taxi to Coronado Island across the harbour from the city of San Diego where we did some shopping.  We caught the ferry back and then looked at some of the ships in the marine museum on the pier. We had lunch on the pier and then walked about 5 kmls back to the hotel through the Gas Lamp area. - A very tiring day.We went to the Gas Lamp area for dinner which is a short walk from the hotel and then had an early night in anticipation of leaving San Diego tomorrow for our canyon experience.

 Thursday 13th September 2012 (today) we had a relaxed breakfast at the hotel and then we got our cab diver that we used on Tuesday to pick us up and take us to the airport. We arrived in plenty of time and had no problems getting through security but we did have to take our shoes off. The flight will  only take one hour 15 minutes.  The weather is supposed to be in the high 90's so it will be hot.

We are looking forward to our canyon experience.