skip to main |
skip to sidebar
We had pre-booked a tour to Alcatraz and Angel Island so we headed down to the Pier to catch our ferry over. It was foggy and absolutely freezing!
We stopped at Angel Island first which is now a National Park but used to be a processing island for immigrants - similar to Ellis Island on the East. The Island is very quaint and I can imagine the camping there is pretty nice. We took a motorised tram tour around the island and stopped for lunch before hopping back on the ferry to head to Alcatraz.
Alcatraz was impressive. I guess Glen probably found it more interesting than I did but I did enjoy it. We had an audio tour so we got to hear about who was in which cells, we saw evidence of attempted breakouts and I even got to lock Glen is a cell for one glorious minute or so! :)
Mechelle
Yep, we are home - sadly - but I thought I'd still post some info and photos for those of you reading the blog.
On our first day in San Francisco, we walked down to Union Square which was just around the corner from where we were staying. We stayed at the Marine's Memorial Club which is a not for profit hotel to support returned and current Marines and their families. I knew that before we booked and there was certainly no indication that we couldn't stay there. When we checked in, they asked us if we were club members. No. Are we family members of club members. No. Are we Australian military. No. We started to get a bit worried but apparently they just check these things, maybe for a discount or something I don't know. The hotel was amazing. Big spacious room, free hot breakfast and free cocktails every night. We really loved it. But I digress.
Mechelle
I think we mentioned how much we loved our replacement hire car in Michigan - the Chevrolet Malibu.
On the way to San Francisco, we discussed the option of paying additional to upgrade to the next car class to try and get another Malibu for this leg. I liked riding in it and Glen liked driving it.
So, we asked the lady at the counter how much it would be to upgrade to the next class and at only $10 per day we decided it was a bargain. She offered us a Ford SUV or a Chevrolet Malibu so of course we jumped at the Malibu.
She then paused and said, you know what, I can get you an even nicer car for the same price but its a bit smaller.
We took nicer but smaller!
Isn't it funny how these photos were taken off the laptop before it crashed!
Mechelle
When we left South Lake Tahoe, we headed to Napa Valley for the love of wine! It was absolutely beautiful. We didn't really do any wine tasting - its not really Glen's thing but we did stop for a nice lunch and a wander around a few of the shops.
For all my wine drinking friends, I'd have loved to have brought you home some Californian wines but I'm only allowed 2.25 litres of alcohol and well...I need that for my vodka and gin! Maybe next time!
Sadly I can't show you how beautiful Napa was as these photos also went down in the great computer crash of 2011. Maybe when we get home!
Mechelle
We said a very sad goodbye to Vegas and flew to San Francisco where we picked up a hire car (there will be a separate post just for the hire car later) and headed out to South Lake Tahoe. While we were in Vegas we heard that there had been snow out there, so we were slightly worried about needing snow chains but it seems it had all melted before we got there.
Melissa's husband Tony had told us that the drive out there was pretty nice. And he wasn't wrong. The landscape changed from high rise, densely populated areas, to flat open plains, to green leafy streets, to mountainous creek lined roads to sheer cliff faces before we reached a beautiful Lake Tahoe.
It was quite 'choppy' when we got there so the pictures we took didn't really do it justice. Our hotel accommodation afforded us access to a private beach (with about 300 other people) but it did enable us to get closer to take photos. The lake is surrounded by tiny pebbles so its quite abrasive on your feet and of course to us the water was cold but there were heaps of people swimming.
This is where I'd usually post some lovely pics of Lake Tahoe but you see, Glen's laptop died and with it all of our photos. What usually happened was Glen would take the photos off of the camera, play with a few of them and then put those on a memory stick for me to post. But sadly the laptop carked it before he had a chance to do that so I don't have any photos to show you of Tahoe. The 12 year old computer guru at the Apple Store in San Francisco is pretty confident we can get them off though so we should be able to show you some in a week or so when we've had chance to talk the 12 year old computer guru at the Apple Store in Chermside.
Mechelle
We got up nice and early on day twenty four - I honestly have lost track of actual weekdays - to catch a tour bus out to the Grand Canyon with stops at the Hoover Dam and the Welcome to Las Vegas sign (I posted a pic of that in my last post).
The tour was small. A family from Sweden, a Taiwanese girl who had just spent 6 months in the US learning English and was on her way back home and us.
Our first stop was the Welcome to Las Vegas sign. The tour guide showed us a live camera that points at the sign. He told us that a lot of people who come to Vegas to get married often come to the sign for photos so that people who couldn't make it to the wedding can see them.
Next stop was the Hoover Dam. I'm sure he told us a lot of interesting facts but you'll probably need to ask Glen about all of that because I've forgotten already. Its pretty amazing even for someone like me who isn't into Dams as much as some other people I know!
Then we headed to the Grand Canyon National Park. As soon as we got there it started raining so we got back into the Van and he took us to another area where he hoped he had missed the rain. Nup! In fact it stormed with some pretty impressive thunder and lightning, the whole time we were there. I don't think it took away from the Canyon really and just gave us another perspective. Its hard to explain how awesome it is and the photos really don't capture it either but we tried.
We didn't get home till about 8.30 that night so it was a long day, but well worth the trip.
Mechelle
New York has definitely been my favourite so far but of all the places I was dying to visit it was Vegas. Baby! And she/he/it did NOT disappoint.
Jackie my friend, if you are reading this, you would LOVE it. Its as glitzy and trashy and touristy as they come.
I love it for the trash, I love it for the 24/7 action, I love it for the bright lights, I love it for the potential winnings (ha!) but most of all I love it for the free drinks whilst gambling - sorry Mum! Glen and I did have quite a few arguments about tipping whilst in Vegas but in the great words of some random website I found, if you remember that the drinks are free but the service is not, you won't go wrong!
There's not much to tell really. It's gambling. It's cheap/free drinks. It's expensive food (which we were both surprised about). It's overpriced souvenirs. It's watching your money disappear into poker machines never to be seen again. But it's fun and that's Vegas. Baby!
There will be a separate post for our trip to the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam.
Mechelle
