Been back in the UK since Tuesday last week. Meh 
I wish we’d had the time and the money to just keep travelling around the US…
It was… awesome 
We arrived at San Francisco on Saturday 21st March, after a night at the Hilton at Heathrow, followed by an early 10 hour flight to SFO (too early to travel to Heathrow on the Saturday morning, hence the hotel).
San Francisco was brilliant. We spent four nights there, saw loads of stuff (including Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge, the California Academy of Sciences, Coit Tower, Golden Gate Park, etc.). Amazing city, and somewhere I’d love to live. The hotel (Chancellor) gave us wine, champagne, and chocolates.
Best meals in SF… expensive steak at Bobo’s, and a curry at Kennedy’s (an Irish pub / Indian restaurant :S ).
We set off on Wednesday 25th March for the drive South down California’s Pacific Coast (mostly via California Highway 1 aka the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) aka Scenic Highway 1, etc.) was utterly gorgeous… the coast, mountains, state parks/beaches/reserves, Los Padres National Forest, Big Sur, etc. Spent the Wednesday night in Monterey, Thursday night in Cambria, then Friday night in Santa Barbara.
Monterey seemed really nice – didn’t see much of it though. Had dinner at the Persian Grill – very good.
Cambria was nice too, but too small & remote for somewhere I’d want to stay very long. Ate at some burger place, can’t remember the name. On the way from Cambria to Santa Barbara we saw Hearst Castle.
Santa Barbara was lovely, and like SF was somewhere I’d happily live (although I preferred SF). Like SF, the hotel gave us a little something (more champagne, plus a “Congratulations!” banner). Ate at a nice steak place.
After Santa Barbara, we then drove to Los Angeles on Saturday 28th March. We stayed in LA for four nights.
LA was strange. Some nice bits, some tacky bits. We did have a good time there though, seeing Hollywood, Universal Studios, Warner Bros. Studios, La Brea Tar Pits, Griffith Park Observatory, the Chinese Theatre, etc., plus hired a couple of push bikes and cycled from Santa Monica beach to Venice beach and back.
Best meals in LA… Sofi (Greek restaurant) and Gate of India (I think it was Gate). Also tried In ‘n’ Out Burger – very good for a burger chain.
On Wednesday 1st April we left LA, and drove through the Mojave Desert to the Death Valley National Park (the hottest, driest, & lowest place in North America, and the location of the highest temperature ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere). Stunning [and very hot!...]. Before hitting Death Valley, we saw the Calico Ghost Town, along with Boron (excellent Mexican place in Boron – Domingo’s. Food cheap and very good, service very good, owner very friendly).
After spending the Wednesday night in Death Valley, at Furnace Creek, we drove around the area a bit more, seeing more of the Death Valley National Park (including Badwater Basin, Zabriskie Point, Devil’s Golf Course, Devil’s Cornfield, etc.), and then set off later on on Thursday 2nd April for Las Vegas in Nevada.
Vegas was very strange. Stayed there for four nights. Even more tacky than LA (much more so), and seemed basically to be an Adult Theme Park.
We saw the hotels/casinos on The Strip (some fancy, some unbelievably tacky and cheesy), and also visited the Atomic Testing Museum (very interesting), and the nearby Hoover Dam (massive!).
The highlight of Vegas was actually an organised day trip to the Grand Canyon National Park (South Rim) in Arizona. Stunning, amazing, breathtaking, etc… Words and photos do not do it justice, you really need to see it… and then just stare in wonder…
Best meal in Vegas… “Off the Strip – Just Real Food” – excellent little place located “off the Strip”. Great food, and great service. Very friendly staff – talked to us and gave us free (and tasty) cheesecake.
We left Vegas on the afternoon of Monday 6th April… a nine and a half hour flight back to Gatwick, 8 hour time difference…Very tired on Tuesday.
Got back home on the afternoon of Tuesday 7th April (which as far as my body was concerned was only the Tuesday morning…). I was back at work for the Wednesday and Thursday, and thankfully then had a nice handy four day Easter break. Ally had the whole week off so only went back to work on Tuesday 14th April!
Final mileage we clocked up on the car was around 1500 I think (not including the Grand Canyon trip as that was a proper tour/trip in a minibus), in a little Yaris that wasn’t always too keen on some of the more steep/twisty/gravelly roads in some places lol.
Glad to be home, but… I want to go back.
The only things I don’t miss are the tipping, the strange thin American toilet roll, and the scarily enormous “cars”.
Some iPhone photos:
Facebook album (public link) [same as above mostly but with descriptions]
[Now the trip is over, I've turned off the daily auto blogging of my Twitter posts, as that was just to keep the blog updated with trip Tweets.]