#Please View the California Discovery Southbound pt 2 Album back to front - start at the Helicopter/last picture and work backwards - uploading mistake!#

What a week I've had!
I've been on a week long trip travelling through California/Arizona/Nevada, seeing and experiencing all kinds of amazing stuff, covering a distance close to 2,000 miles! The longest journey was about 7-9 hours in a day, in the sunshine (luckily having air-con!)

Sunday 15th - Beginning of the trip. We met the Trip leader, Lee, in the lobby of the hostel in San Fran at 8.30 in the morning, went through the paperwork and then set off! Our first stop was very local, a place in San Fran that gave you excellent views of the city, bay, GGB, etc. The weather was sunny, and in the pictures you can see quite a bit of haze over the water in the distance. We stayed there for a few minutes then set off again.
The next stop was at Alamo Square. Alamo Square is one of the most photographed locations in San Francisco. Alamo Square, also known as "postcard row" at Hayes and Steiner Streets is made up of beautiful Victorian houses. The houses are perfectly lined in escalating formation. The area offers a perfect back-drop of San Francisco’s downtown skyscrapers. The most elite and colorful Victorians have been dubbed the “Six Sisters” or the “Painted Ladies”. Countless movies have had these houses shot in them, I think the white corner house (picture) was in the film 'Twins'.
From Alamo Sq, we went to the Golden Gate Bridge, it was still as spectacular second time round, so even though i took loads of pictures the first time i went, i couldnt resist taking some more. Next stop was at Fishermans Wharf, where we had some lunch. Again having seen most of it before I didn't really look round too much. Someone asked before the reason as to why there were sea lions living at pier 39...I found out! The sea lions started arriving in droves, taking over the docks in January 1990 shortly after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. At first they numbered from 10-50, but due to a plentiful herring supply, available dock space and the marina’s protected environment, the population grew to more than 300 within a few months. Each winter, the population can increase up to 900 sea lions, most of which are male. During the summer months, the sea lions migrate south to the Channel Islands for breeding season, but in recent years a small group stays year-round at PIER 39's K-Dock.
From San Fran we travelled to Santa Cruz, where we stayed on the beach for a few hours, enjoying the sound of the sea and the relaxation, then playing some frisbee before watching the sunset - they are so beautiful this side of the world. Look on http://www.ci.santa-cruz.ca.us/index.aspx?page=79 to find out the history to Santa Cruz.
From Santa Cruz, we travelled not that long to our accomodation for the night - cabins! In the middle of no where and nothing but a loud heater and a thin sleeping bag liner to keep me warm...so i think i ended up wearing 3 tshirts, a jumper, boxers, 3/4 length shorts, trousers and 2 pairs of socks to try and stay warm...didn't work! Our heater was also switched off so the cabin got colder and colder! Mustve been close to 0*C!

Monday 16th - Monteray and Carmel.
Woke up quite early (well wasnt really in a deep enough sleep to wake up as i was so cold!) had some breakfast and packed up in the van. First stop was Monteray. The city is noted for its rich history of resident artists beginning in the late 1800s, and its historically famed fishery. Cannery Row is the waterfront street in the New Monterey section of Monterey, California, USA. It is the site of a number of now-defunct sardine canning factories. The street name, formerly a nickname for Ocean View Avenue, became official in January 1958 to honor John Steinbeck and his famous novel Cannery Row. We had a quick look around, managed to get to the wax museum (rubbish ha ha) and took a few pics, before we left to get to Carmel. On the way though, literally around the corner we stopped again to have another look round, went up onto the rocks and got a good view of the bay...there was a fire or something on the horizon, and the smoke cloud pretty much took over the sky - possibly the controlled burning of a farm or forest - looked cool though.
Next we stopped off at a historic Mission near Carmel. Visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_San_Carlos_Borromeo_de_Carmelo for a bit more history. The mission was first established on June 3, 1770, and later relocated to where it is now. It was used first when the Spanish came over to America. The chapel building is now a historic landmark in the U.S and it remains a parish church today. It is regarded as the most beautiful of all missions, and is the only one to have its original bell tower dome. Our mini bus was really cool to be on, Lee (Driver) let us write on the windows, so as we were so bored with the travelling we drew pictures and played hangman, that helped pass the time.
We arrived then in Carmel, had a bite to eat and then went down to the beach for a kick around. The beach was lovely and the weather was nice and sunny. There wasn't really much else to do, there was a strip up the road with loads of shops on it, but being a male I decided kicking a ball round was better :D Wasnt able to take pictures, but should get some off the other people who were on tour and will add at a later date. We stayed in a hotel that night (thank god - a lovely warm bed!)

Tuesday 17th - Death Valley N.P and Las Vegas.

Death Valley is a very unforgiving place, the place is so huge yet so baron. There was nothing but sand, plants and mountains as far as the eye could see...this made eye spy quite easy to play! However it was an interesting place to travel through, the geological history was pretty cool. There is millions of years of history there, earthquakes and volcanoes creating the huge hills there, and then wind and rain eroding away the rock to leave the amazing looking mountains/hills that are left there now. The journey through it took ages and ages! We stopped off at the Death Valley Sign and had a look at the surrounding landscape with a few pictures. We then moved on to a place called Badwater. I remember this place well, it was named badwater because there were some people riding through there and they stopped at the small creek to give the horses a drink, but because the creek was so highly concentrated with salt the horses didn't take a drink, they therefore knew that the water was bad, so they named it Badwater. This place is the lowest area in North america, 282 ft (86 m) below sea level. The rain water that falls in the area drains into the Badwater basin and as it drains it rinses all the salts and minerals into the basin, then the water evaporates during the day/week/month and leaves the high concentrate of salts in the small creek of water. Jack (from OZ) tried a bit of the water with his finger tip and said that it was extremely salty! Adjacent to the creek, where water is not always present at the surface, repeated freeze–thaw and evaporation cycles gradually push the thin salt crust into hexagonal honeycomb shapes. However on my visit it just looked like horses hooves had trodden all over the place. there was a sign on the cliff face next to the road which gave an indication as to how far below sea level we were. It was quite surreal to be that far below sea level.
Read through http://www.nps.gov/deva/upload/Visitor%20Guide%202008.pdf for more information...all in all it's a place where you wouldnt expect to see much but in actual fact there is loads to look at.
We passed places such as Devils Golf Course and The Natural Bridge as well as an area filled with just sand dunes that had been made by winds bringing sand from nearby deserts.
Next stop...Viva Las Vegas!!!
We had our evening meal at Hooters, brilliant place :D Then we set off to explore the nearby strip. We saw places like MGM Grand, New York (with the Statue of Liberty outside) and a few more places. Me and Bianca (from germany) went on the rollercoaster that you see outside of New York, pretty fun, however it wasn't the best thing to do right after eating a huge burger for tea!
After looking at a few more places we arried back at the hotel as we'd all paid for a Party Bus to take us down the strip and back again. that was good fun, loud music and drink, thats what I like best! We stopped off at the Welcome to Vegas sign for photos and set off down the strip, we saw Elvis walking down the road and offered him a lift...however looking at the picture he looked nothing like elvis! Ha Ha.
We stopped off at Fremont Street. The largest part of the Fremont Street Experience is the Viva Vision canopy and light show. The canopy towers 90 feet above the ground and spans the length of five football fields. Featuring more than 12 million LED modules and 555,000-watt sound system, the light show attracts tourists and locals alike. The first light show was broadcast in 1995. Nearly a decade later in 2004, $17 million was invested in upgrading the Viva Vision canopy. Significant improvements were made and now it has 10 times higher resolution, resulting in clearer, sharper pictures. It can also display 16.7 million color combinations. The display is so sharp, live video can be broadcast on what is the world's largest screen. We watched "A Tribute to Queen," where we listened to "We Will Rock You" and "We are the Champions" while admiring the stunning graphics above. The average Viva Vision light show is six minutes long. Viva Vision’s projection surface is currently the largest screen in the world, spanning 1,500 feet in length (That’s the size of five football fields) The screen contains 12.5 million synchronized LED lamps, including 180 strobes and eight robotic mirrors per block. The lamp life of the bulbs is 50,000 hours.
Average daily attendance at the Fremont Street Experience is more than 25,000. I have some videos to upload, but this was extremely spectacular to watch. There were also some guys on moto cross bikes riding inside a metal sphere, they managed to get 3 bikers riding around inside the sphere at once...pretty cool! We then drove up and down the strip admiring the neon lit casinos and buildings. Being then dropped off at Bellagios (http://www.bellagio.com/amenities/fountains-of-bellagio.aspx) where we viewed a beautiful fountain show which played to music. Go on the link and view the video, or look on YouTube. I think I started my travelling lying down game in the huge reception area at Bellagio's (its the new world wide craze! lying down on your front anywhere and having your picture taken!)
We then ventured down the strip to the highest tower in Vegas - the Stratoshpere, mission: to complete Phil's (my manager) challenge of going on the ride at the very top of this building...Insanity! http://www.stratospherehotel.com/thrills/insanity_the_ride.cfm
Extremely scary, being spun around at 40mph over the side of the building at the very top (over 900 feet in the air!), but i did it!
Other cool places along the strip that we didnt have time to see were:
http://www.mgmgrand.com/entertainment/lion-habitat.aspx
http://www.mirage.com/
and loads more. We eventually made it home at 2.30-3am in the morning, without having gambled at all, only to have 3-4 hours sleep and a very long drive ahead!