Our hotel is really nice, right on the seafront in Waikiki and we have a baloncy overlooking the beach. Weather is nice and warm though there is some strong winds. Though Hawaii seems much more built up and busy than we imagined it to be.
Went out for a wander along the beach and around the shops. Had some dinner at a mexican restaurant where the servings were huge, before heading back to our hotel for a bit of an early jet lagged night.
We walked to the waterfront and along until we came to the bottom of Coit's tower which is a tower on top of a small hill which overlooks the bay. We climbed up what seemed like hundreds of steps to the top to enjoy the great views of the bay and the golden gate bridge. The inside of the tower had some interesting murals painted inside it.
We then headed back down the hill(down was much easier than up!) to Fisherman's wharf where we had clam chowder for lunch by the waterside. Had a look round the rest of Fisherman's wharf and saw some sea lions which were there. We thought about doing the Alcatraz tour, but in the end decided that we would give it a miss.
We then caught a bus towards the Mission district of the city. Once there we stopped back in at the car hire place where we had dropped off the car as we had realised that we had left Liz's sunglasses behind in the car. They were very friendly, but unfortunately they hadn't found them. We carried on into the mission district and had a look at Mission Delores, one of the few buildings which survived the 1906 earthquake and fire. It is one of the original missions built by the Spanish.
Next stop was Safeway's to take advantage of my newly aquired discount card and buy the evening's dinner. We headed back to our hostel and dropped off our food before heading off to Union Square to have a look round the shops to see if we could find some new sunglasses. Looked round a few shops and didn't seem to be getting on very well; all the sunglasses were very expensive. Luckily we found a shop called Ross which is very similar to the TK Maxx shop which we have in the UK. They have designer labels at cut down prices. Presumably they are last season's I guess. Here we found some sunglasses which Liz liked at a quarter of the rrp!
Then it was back to the hostel for dinner and an early night ready for our early morning departure for Hawawii the next day.
So we started the day, apart from sending emails to try and get our pay, by having a bagel breakfast at the hostel. Then we set off on our adventures, our first stop was at the Wells Fargo History Museum. We made our way there using the cable car, these are really something, you hop on when the cable car stops and then hang on somewhere whilst it goes up and down the hills of San Francisco. It's amazing that these cars have no internal power they just use the cable which runs under the street to either hang onto to move along or let go of to stop.
After the museum we caught another cable car to the ferry building. Here we saw the biggest sea gull I have ever seen, as well as nice views across the bay. We then started to head towards the Wicked theatre to try again at the ticket lottery for the matinee performance. It was a fair walk but gave us chance to see some of San Francisco on foot. It also allowed us to discover the heart of the shopping area, which we explored later! (Really I explored and Adam followed trying not to look too fed up!) So back at Wicked I was sure we would win as there were less people than last night, so we waited with anticipation as the names were drawn, each time I imagined the lady calling out my name, but she never did. Well we tried to be grateful as at least now we had the afternoon to explore the city some more. We had a quick lunch in Del Taco, a mexican fast food chain, before looking round a few shops. We found a huge Macys store.
We then got back on another cable car to head for the Cable Car Museum. This was pretty interesting and you could see the cables being pulled round. Then we went down to Fishermand Wharf and got our first proper sighting of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz.
After a walk around it was that time of day again, the Wicked lottery for the evening performance, surely we would win this time, 3rd time luncky and all! But no, our names weren't called again. However we had decided that this time we would queue after the lottery to purchase extreme limited view tickets. They offer these tickets for sale after the lottery each day so we knew what to expect so Adam positioned him self near the start of the queue, however tonight they changed where the queue should be so loads of people got in front of Ad. We waited in line for what seemed like ages as people bought their tickets. As we got to the front an usher told us that there was only single seats left so we wouldn't be able to sit together. The couple in front of us left, so we were next. We decided as long as we weren't miles away from each other we'd go for it. However to our surprise the cashier sold us tickets next to each other. At last we had tickets to see Wicked!
Had a Burger King dinner and then went to the library and read some magazines while we waited till the doors opened for the show. The seats were brilliant, alright you couldn't see the whole stage but you didn't miss any of the main story line, just sometimes you couldn't see all the dancers. It was brilliant, so now I have Wicked songs going round and round my head. A great end to another day. Not sure what we'll do tomorrow now we don't need to go to the Wicked lottery!
Then contiued the walk to our hostel, the area seemed to change very quickly from the clean streets of the civic centre to a rather more run down neighbourhood. There seemed to be a lot of homeless people about and we wondered a bit about our choice of hostel. Arrived at our hostel and checked in fine, the hostel itself was very nice and the area directly outside it seemed fine. We also picked up an information leaflet which mentioned the large number of homeless people in the neighourhood to the east and recommended routes to walk to avoid them. Not great but the recommended routes are a lot better.
We thought we would go and have a look at the Golden Gate Bridge. So asked at the hostel about how to get there and they told us what buses to catch. What we didn't ask and what the hostel didn't offer up was how long it would take... So we got on the first bus no problem, except that it was very busy and stopped at every single stop along the route. We also discovered about half way on our journey that the map which the hostel had given us had a rather unusual scale. The city centre was at one scale then on the same map the outling suburbs to the west were on a very different scale. Which meant that when it looked like we had travelled about half the distance on the map we were probably only a quarter of the way and it had already taken ages! When we got to the stop where we needed to change buses we decided that a change in plan was needed if we were going to make it back in time for the ticket lottery. So instead of catching the bus North to the Golden Gate Bridge we took it South instead to the Golden Gate park, which would leave us just one more bus journey away from getting back to the theatre, had a brief walk through the botanical gardens, before catching a third bus back towards the city. However this bus was a little different to the previous two. Firstly it wasn't listed on our bus route map and it was called a 'culture route'. Secondly it was nearly empty, didn't stop all the time and was very fast. Which meant the same distance which had taken us an hour on the first bus only took about ten minutes in the other direction! Which was lucky as otherwise we might have missed our lottery. Unfortunately we didn't win, so instead of watching a musical it was back to our hostel to have microwave noodles for dinner. Oh well there's always tomorrow's lottery...
First we walked to the downtown area of Santa Cruz, but we were way too early as most of the shops didn't open till at least 10 or some were even 11, it was 9.15! We found a book shop which was open though so had a look round there, which at least gave us chance to get out of the rain. Then walked back to our motel via the beach. Decided to take to the car for the rest of the day.
First we drove along the coastal road to the lighthouse and the statue of a surfer. Then we drove further up the coast to Davenport were we found a really nice beach which was completely empty, had a quick walk along there. We called in at a jam farm before heading back to Santa Cruz to get some lunch.
We went into Safeway to get some supplies for dinner and Adam joined their loyalty card scheme so we coould get money off! The lady didn't seem to care that we didn't even live in this country! Decided to have a Subway for lunch. We thought it would be a good idea to eat it at a beach, unfortunately we picked a beach which was miles away! I was starving by now and it seemed to take forever to get to the beach.
Had a quich drive around Capitola the next town south of Santa Cruz. Then went to the University of California Santa Cruz to have a look at their Aboretum. It was quite nice to walk around with all the different plants growing, and I guess perhaps at a different time of year it might be nicer with plants flowering. There was a New Zealand section which was the only area which had a fence round it, don't know what's special about New Zealand plants?
Then drove up to the Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. Lots of trees!
Headed back to Santa Cruz and went to play mini golf, not just any mini golf though, pirate themed mini golf! It was really fun and Adam narrowly won the round after a slow start. It wasn't actually such a narrow victory for Adam in the end, I was winning after 8 holes but then my beginners luck disappeared and for one of the holes I ended up using the maxium number of shots before the rules say you should give up on the hole! However for the last hole I got closest to the hole in one ending and won 2 tokens for the gaming aracde! So a small victory for me...
Then headed back to downtown to try and sell a book I had brought with me from home. It was a pretty big book and I was fed up of carrying it around so decided to see what I could get for it. I bought the book for £2.50 from a charity shop in West Bridgford so when they offered my $3.00 cash or $6.50 trade in I was pretty chuffed. (Adam had previously predicted I would get a dollar for it!) So I went for the trade which nows means I've still got a book to carry round, and the book I bought obviously cost more than the $6.50 I had to spend there, so I'm not completely sure if I won. Oh well at least I might enjoy this new book and actually read it!
Retired for the evening at the motel with a dvd from reception and our microwave lasagnes!
Started our drive up highway 1 towards Monterey and Santa Cruz. After a few miles we come to a sign which said elephant seal viewing. So we pulled over and there were loads of california seals, elephant seals and another type which I can't remember the name of! The elephant seals are huge and it's amazing to see them move their giant bodies around.
Highway 1 is a pretty narrow and windy but you get some amazing views which make the slightly hair rising ride worth while. Although I think we were concentrating so much on the road that we completly forgot to stop and take any pictures! So you'll just have to believe us that the views are great, or come here yourselves to see them, or I guess you could google it! It was pretty slow going but eventually we made it to the other end. Had a quick look round Monterey before carrying on to Santa Cruz. We found a really nice motel near the sea front, it even has free chocolate cookies!
Then with Liz driving we headed north on route 89 towards the Grand Canyon. First stop on our way was the Sunset Crater National Monument which is a Volcanic field. The landscape here was like being on another planet: it was all formed from lava flows when the volcano last erupted around 1066. Next stop up the road was the Wupatki National Monument this was the ruins of some native american buildings, which I found quite interesting as I had never realised that native Americans built buildings.
After that we continued north to the Grand Canyon. We entered the national park from the East entrance near Desert View. The Canyon itself is amazing, it is impossible to describe in words so all I will say is it is big and if you want to understand how big then you are going to have to go and see it for yourselves.
We made our way along the view points right up to hermits rest at the far end. Then as the sun was setting we continued our journey onwards.
We had aimed to stay at Kingman but when we arrived at about 10 O'clock there seemed to be a large group of teenagers having a party in the car park of the motel which we had hoped to stay in. While trying to find another motel I rather unfortunately managed to get back onto the highway in the wrong direction! Not the cleverest of things to do. Luckily the next junction wasn't too far away for American standards and on getting there we decided it was a good point to stop, eat some food and regroup. Feeling much refreshed after dinner we decided we would carry on to Needles in California, this had the psychological advantage of recrossing the time zone and regaining the hour we had lost at Hoover Dam. This meant that we got to out motel at 10pm which felt much better than the 11pm that it was in Arizona.
Caught the bus back to the airport where we were picking up our hire car. After answering what seemed like a million questions, we got a Toyota and we were off.
First stop was the welcome to Las Vegas sign for a photo shoot and then leaving Vegas behind us we headed off towards Arizona. First stop on our way was the Hoover Dam. It was very big and quite an impressive site. The water levels seemed to be very low at the moment, I guess there must be a bit of a water shortage...
As we left the Hoover dam we entered Arizona and actually went back a timezone (finally I've found a use for the world time function of my watch!). The landscape along the road as we drove became very dry and dusty. It's not really like anywhere back home, it's all very sandy coloured and mountainous. After about 6 hours on the road we arrived at our next destination Flagstaff. Found ourselves a nice motel, which has the added bonus of being quite cheap. Tomorrow we plan to go see the Grand Canyon and then head back west towards Nevada and Calafornia.
Caught the monorail all the way to the last stop, right at the other end of the strip, MGM Grand. Then went over the road to have a look at New York New York, Excaliber, Luxor and Mandalay Bay. I was quite impressed with the Luxor, there's a giant Sphinx outside and when you walk in you can see up to the top of the pyramid. Then had a bit of walk up to see Paris and then on to the Venetian. Both of these are pretty amazing, with a replica Eiffel Tower and canal where you can have gondala rides. There's also St Marks square and the bridge of sighs.
We then revisited the Forum, Ceasars Palace and the Belaggio. Finally decided to place a bet on roulette at the Belaggio. Firstly placed a bet on black for James from work, of course it came out red. Then proceded to place several different bets on various number combinations and on certain thirds of the board for them all to loose! After each bet we lost the croupier would proceed to tell us how close we had been to winning and if the ball had landed just one slot either side we would have won. Decided this gambling thing wasn't for us and walked away. I was drawn back to the Cirque Du Soleil shop where I bought more of the same magnets I had bought the day before! I just love Cirque Du Soleil!
We then decided to get the Monorail back to our hotel so we could have some food and get changed before going back out to see Mystere. We went to the Sahara buffet restaurant, where we certainly got value for money. After 9 plates of food and 4 drinks later we crawled back to our room.
We had a brief rest to recover from the eating marathon before heading for Treasure Island and Cirque Du Soleil's Mystere. I was almost running to get there I was so excited, so we were seated in our front row seats and waiting, with half hour to go. Luckily a comedian comes out to entertain the crowd before the start. The show was amazing, they make everything look so effortless that you almost forget how hard it must be to do. Being at the front was awesome. I was pretty sad when it finished as I just wanted to see more. I loved the show so much I just had to go and buy a Mystere fridge magnet from the shop, well you can never have enough magnets!
Arrived in Vegas on time and after collecting our bags decided to try out the public transport. Very friendly driver said he would tell us when to get off and it would be opposite our hotel. The bus seemed very slow and definately went the long way round, but he kept his word and dropped us right across the street from the Sahara hotel. After checking in, headed off to see the Las Vegas sights. The strip is deceptively long, and even though you can see where you want to end up it is further than it looks! After a long walk we made it to the sights. Stopped in at Treasure Island to collect Cirque du Soleil tickets for tomorrow night and walked around some of the other famous casinos, Ceasar's Palace, Mirage, Belaggio and MGM. The forum at Ceasar's was probably my favourite so far. We had dinner at the Rainforest cafe inside MGM which was fun. It's decorated so you're eating inside a rainforest, complete with a waterfall, animal sound effects, fish tanks with tropical fish in and a lightning storm every half hour or so to complete the rainforest experience!
Lincoln park zoo is unique comapred to any zoos which I have been too before in that it is free to get into. This gives a bit of a strange feeling to begin with as you get off the bus walk a few hundred yards and just wander in to where the animals are. No queing for tickets; sourvenior shops or the usual. It is quite a nice zoo with a varied selection of animals and exhibits. Unfortunatley the star attraction we had come to see: the polar bear (plus a few others) refused to come out of his home; so we couldn't see him. And I thought polar bears liked the cold weather! But all in all we had a good time looking round at the different animals. We also enjoyed the conservatory that is just next door to the zoo, which is a large greenhouse kept at tropical tempatures with a large collection of plants in it: a most welcome escape from the cold!
We jumped on another bus back to the city and had lunch in a mexican fast food place. We then headed to the Chicago Arts Institute which was running a free February promotion. After that we went for a ride on the 'El' an elevated railway which runs in a loop around downtown. We rode the entire circuit then got off near the Sear's tower and went up to their observation deck. The tower was at one time the tallest building in the world and when it was built housed just one company. The views from the top were amazing. We headed back to the hotel for a quick rest before going out for dinner at Miller's pub. Managed to stay awake a bit later tonight, though early start tomorrow for our flight to Vegas.
After an 8 hour flight we'd arrived in Chicago! Cleared customs and got on the train to the city centre. After what seemed like a fair walk with our big packs we got to our hotel. Checked in without problem, quick shower then we were off to see Chicago.
Weather was fairly cold, grant park opposite our hotel had an snow sculpture exhibit which was pretty impressive and we did see a few showers of snow as we walked round. Walked through grant park up to the tourist information where we got some leaflets on things to do. Had a look round millenium park which had some intersting sculptured and a bendy bridge! Then walked on to Navy pier where we had burritos for dinner. We were pretty cold by the time we got there and so decided we would get the bus on the way back. Got back to our hotel and went for a quick swim, though by then we were feeling pretty tired from the jet lag. By 9 O'clock we were ready to fall asleep and so went to bed.
