Hi everyone,

Since leaving the lovely hotel in Vegas we are back to slumming it in hostels and motel... if only we were rich enough to be flashpackers. From Vegas we had a long drive up to Yosemite and were pleased to find that the Tioga crossing hadn't yet been closed by snow and it was actually nice and sunny. After all the buzz and life in Vegas it was a shock to the system to yet again find ourseleves on pretty isolated roads with towns that basically consist of a gas station and a few houses. The little town where we stayed East of yosemite literally had just one restaurant, a school (no idea where all the kids came from), gas station, shop and a tourist info centre. Yosemite itself was amazing and lotsd of diverse landscape, from snow capped mountains to meadows, huge trees and waterfalls. The park itslef is huge and take a few hours to drive through. You could definitely spend a few days there exploring it all and doing some of the trails. We only had time for the main attractions which included giant sequoira trees that are the biggest living thing in terms of volume in the world. Their trunks are so wide that when we stood with arms outstretched they only went around a fraction of the tree!

We also saw some park managed fires which were pretty amazing as we were literally driving below forests full of fire. They periodically burn areas in a controlled fire so that too much fuel doesn't collect on the forest floor. This means only the plants at the bottom of the forest gets burnt off rather than trees being completely killed off if after too long a fire is naturally caued by a lightning stike.

After Yosemite we headed for the Californian coast to San Frnacisco. This turned out to be one of my favorite cities in the US. Almost surrounded by water the views are spectacular and we loved the quirky feeling of the city with its straight streets running up impossibly steep hills - you would definitely gt very fit if you walked around here every day. We did all the main sights such as Fishermans wharf, the Coit Tower with panoranic views of the city and the niosy lions on the pier, plus of course the world's crookedest street as seen in many films and adverts. We also spent a morning at Alcatraz but despite my attempts to lock Alex up in thehigh security D wing he was able to escape! Seriuosly though, spending up to 23 hours a day in one of those tiny cells for years would be enough to send anyone stir crazy.

Our hostel in San Fran was actually the best we had in the US (thanks Jess) so we recommend the Green Tortise to anyone heading out there. Very organised and even got a free dinner and entertainment - nothing better when you are on a budget. I also relearnt (again) the rule that drinking games and wine do not mix very well! Alex was delighted by the fact that I was worse off than he was for once - oops!

After San Fran we drove down the famous Highway 1 to LA and this was probably one of the most spectacular parts of our trip so far. Over 90 miles are along what is called the Big sur which are basically cliffs weaving along the pacific ocean. The sun was out and the views amazing plus we saw a big colony of elephant seals on the beach which live up to their name and are massive. As we were driving along we also spotted dolphins and seals jumping in the waves in the sea.

In LA we spent the first 2 nights in Hollywood before heading to Venice beach for our final night in the US. For most of the trip we have done all our sightseeing independently but decided to be proper tourists and do one of the LA tours in an open bus minibus. This took us around all the famous sights where films have been shot e.g the apartment block and hotel from Pretty Woman, famous peoples houses in Bel Air and Beverly Hills (we are both going to buy lottery tickets asap!), down Rodeo drive and sunset bolevard. We also managed to spot Eddy Van Halen (Dad you might like him???) in his Bentley coming out of one of the houses, he didn't look too happt to be photographed by us though. Our tour guide was really funny and obsesed by celebs, every person we saw walking down the street he was like "are you famous, no, didn't think so".

We also spent a day in Universal studios seeing all the tours on how movies are made and all the rides themed around the movies and TV series. Unfortunately I do have to report that the kiddie Simpsons ride made alex feel all queezy... just when I thought I'd got him trained up as a rollercoaster fanatic!

Our final day was spent lazing on Venice beach and taking in the freak show that is the broadwalk along here... there are lots of very crazy people around here. If you want to hold a snake, get a tattoo or buy something illegal this is the place to be.

Tomorrow we fly off to Fiji and we both can't wait to chill out on the beach after such an action packed last month. So to summarize the US:

Miles driven: 3800

States visited: 10 + one Canadian province

No of times surprised at the amazing and diverse scenery: countless

Drinks drunk: unknown...!

ps - Simon, thanks for your concern about Paddington, hopefully you will have spotted him in some more photos by now. Today he has been very busy lifeguarding on the beach... photographic evidence to follow soon. Also, yes Alex's eyes did become unusually large and round when faced with all the slot machines in Vegas, beer did however tempt him away every now and again!