Five days in Vegas………………

OMG what a town, what can you say about Vegas? It has changed since I was last here about 17 years ago (then again what and who hasn't changed since 1994?).  It used to be more about families from the boonies, guzzling down the super cheap buffets and lots of free and fabulous shows. Now it seems to be lots of serious boozing and bogany, beautiful people behaving badly!

Anyway here is my snapshot of Vegas:

• Hundreds and hundreds of people all cruising the strip at once
• Booze to Cruz shops everywhere, selling metre long glasses of lurid coloured cocktails  — so you don't miss one minute of drinking as you cruise the strip.
• Legs, legs and more legs — tottering down the strip on 6 inch heels under the shortest of mini mini dresses.
• Cleavage - old cleavage, young cleavage, fat cleavage, bony cleavage, brown cleavage, white cleavage, red, sunburned cleavage - Richard said he was sick of looking at cleavage — need I say more!
• College boys by the hundreds -  ogling the legs and the cleavage!
• Girls glad only in G-string bikinis and 6 inch heels wandering around shopping centres, completely oblivious as to their state of dress or undress.
• Lots and lots of botox - scary.
• Walgrens on every block (it's a chemist that sells everything including aspirins and condoms).
• Donny and Marie Osmond (just kiss already — we know you want to!).
• Celine Dion.
• Siegfried and Roy (I sure one of them was eaten?).
• Old dead people slumped despondently in front of flashing poky machines.
• Boys down on one knee proposing to girls at the front of Bellagio - oooh how sweet.
• Hoards of drunken hen parties.
• Hoards of drunken wedding parties and brides with tattoos.

do you have this in a size 6?

look at moi - look at moi

But mostly lots and lots of people just having fun and letting their hair down - its all stays in Vegas - right?

Lock'eim from San Diego

Had a fun filled five days in San Diego. We stayed with a friends Mom & Dad in Scrips Ranch - a pretty suburb about 25 minutes up the terrifying and death defying freeway. Our friend, Averil and Richard had a very comfortable house with great views over San Diego. They lent us one of their cars and were fantastic hosts - even though we had to watch the nightly episodes of Jeopardy and Dancing with the Stars - it was worth it.  

Richie did an amazing job of navigating the freeways - which basically involves driving onto the on ramp at about 120 ks and not looking at the merging traffic - who dares wins. In the US speed limits are just a starting suggestion! anyway we survived.

It was love.......

We spent the first day exploring Bilboa Park - in and out of the 10 or so museums and gardens. We caught the ferry from down town to Coranado and walked across the island to the Del Hotel for drinks - very old and very cool hotel - although full of middle aged, middle class people (not at all like Richard and I of course :-)

The best day was the visit to the San Diego Zoo - first we took the Zoo bus tour - the lazy way to see the zoo; then we took the cable car over the zoo and we spent the rest of the day on foot. My favourite was the Polar Bears - it was love at first sight - sadly it wasn't reciprocated - I might have been a tasty, high calorie morsel at best.

The most interesting day in San Diego was when our friends took us to their Synagogue/School to listen to some trainee Rabbis (The Macabeats) singing barbershop style - they were very talented and apparently had sung for President Obama - (this was before he started talking about the 1967 Israeli borders and now everyone hates him). The crowd were even more interesting than the singing Rabbis - many women wearing wigs (head coverings - go figure) and 8 or 9 children each. Everyone was very friendly and the food was great. Soooo interesting…………..

The Macabeats

As I write this we are at San Diego airport….. the flight is delayed - no surprises there. We are trying not to notice the two very fat people directly in front of us and shoveling food down the faces…… (yes we are getting very judgemental). I guess we had better get ready for Vegas - I'm sure it brings out the worst - like Kuta Beach and West Australians. Fortunately I have my Ipod and the new Keith Richards biography to distract me…...

Look behind you ...............................

The Big Sur was suitably amazing - we had lunch in a restaurant that used to be an old log cabin owned by Orson Wells when he was married to Rita Hayworth - well that what's the blurb said but there was no pictures of them anywhere…..

Artichoke Capital of the World !!!!!

We escaped from Salinas (artichoke capital of the world) In one piece and the next stop was Santa Cruz. Our couch surfing hosts were delightful - they are new to couch surfing so are far too generous and not jaded like the rest of us........give it time. Santa Cruz was a groovy beach side university town - with some very cool vintage clothes shops  - Rich now has a new wardrobe and we need to send some gear home. The pier in S.M. was really interesting - we spent quite a bit of time watching seals trying to jump onto the underside of the pier for a rest out of the sun and dodging crack pipe admirers.

We returned our car to the airport and flew to LA - all very painless and arrived on Saturday at our cute little apartment. We have been having a holiday from the holiday and doing a lot of slobbing  and sleeping in…....... lovely. 

Our apartment is a couple of blocks from the beach and Main St - where mosts of the shops and restaurants are located. So far we have wandered up and down the beach to the pier and 3rd Street,  driven into LA to see the hand and footprints at the Chinese Theatre;  visited Griffith Observatory; ate at the Tuesday night gourmet food trucks (queued for an hour in the cold for very average food); caught a comedy show in a local pub; visited the local farmers market and hung out in more than a few pubs.  

We also spent a day at Universal Studios. It was too much fun - the drive there was horrid - people drive like maniacs on the freeways here - no one gives way and if you miss your exit you're stuffed. Anyway we made it there and back in one piece so all good.

I loved Universal - I felt like an overgrown 10 years old! It was great to see so many people having so much fun. The first ride we went on - The Mummy was basically a roller coaster that runs indoors, in the dark - it was revolting - I hate roller coasters - it took me about 15 minutes to unscrew my face when we got off (and I won't mention how long to unclench my buttocks!).

But things improved after that - we went on the Jurassic Park ride next - which was okay - it had a big water slide at the end but it wasn't too steep - with your eyes tightly closed anyway. The Simpsons ride was great - pretty sure it was the old "Back to the Future" ride just revamped a bit. The Studio Tour was also really good - again with some old rides revamped - but Jaws was very funny. The Shrek and Terminator shows were okay - they herd about 700-1000 people into a big space  for a pre show speil - that's not too comfortable - standing with 1000 people in a closed in dark space - or maybe it was just me.

The absolute best was the Water World show - full of stunts, and jet skis and the 1000 strong crowd participation and everyone getting soaked - great laugh. It was a great day - we were knackered from the driving, laughing and screaming by the time we got home. Today we are being much more civilized and going to the Getty Centre.                        

We leave our little pad on Friday - when we catch our first  train to San Diego and have to be nice guests again.

The Big Sur and other things…….

The Big Sur

We drove back from adorable Mendocino to San Francisco in one piece - more or less - we did a runner at the Golden Gate toll booth 'cos we were in the fastrack lane by mistake and it wasn't manned. I'm sure we are on the 'most wanted' toll runners list now. 

We got back to San Fran to find Jay had arranged another dinner party with us as guest of honour - a great night with lots of singing and red wine. Met a couple more of Jay friends - Lainie and Anne - two very different characters. 

On Thursday we wandered down to Fisherman's Wharf and further out onto the groin - it was freezing - so windy!  We spent some time slouching on the bleachers to warm up again.

Keeping warm on the bleechers -  Fishermans Bay

Fishermans Wharf

Happy Hour - note to self - look for Happy hour at all places. Our first happy hour spent in a very cool American Diner - we had mini burgers (sliders) pork ribs and chicken tacos - and half prices wine and beer - gotta love that. 

Finally went to a comedy club in the evening — it was great — except I got picked on a bit — my fault for admitting to not speaking Spanish - in a town where nearly every one can (smart arses)!  On Friday we had another dinner party at Jay's - this time it was Herb, Hesta and an Angelina Jolie look alike. 

Comedy Club San Fran - note to self - don't speak to comedians!

On the Saturday we went to Herbs for dinner - great night - he cooked a great "American" meal of collard greens, sweet potato with marshmallow and corn bread plus BBQ'ed salmon. Funny couch surfer from Singapore was there and a couple have Herbs friends - we had a great night and ended up talking complete crap about movies and the attribute of movie stars  - awesome!

Sunday we hired the car from San Fran airport and drove to Monterey - we stayed a the Bayside Motor lodge - just like the Bates Motel - but with a very sweet manager - an Indian guy called Neil ! I gorged myself on watching TV - first time in nearly a month - fantastic.

Of course he feels lucky - look who he is married to!

Monterey was interesting - Cannery Row was touristy as expected but also very pretty - lovely scenery. Bought Richard a delicious lemon meringue pie - a piece cost $4.50 - the whole pie only cost $7 - we should have bought the whole damn pie!

Drove to Carmel on Monday - the Lonely Planet says it "glows in it's own smugness" which sums it up nicely - but wow what a fantastic beach it has. Lots and lots of people were walking their dogs off the leash - good excuse to talk to people  and very friendly. Had a drink at the Hogs Breath pub and watched the news about Osama.

We stayed with couch surfers last night and again tonight. They are a nice couple who run the local visitor centre in Salinas (famous for being home of John Steinbeck). We spent oh, about four hour standing in their kitchen chatting before dinner - I don't think Richards knees will get back to normal for days! 

Today we drove the BIG SUR - fantastic - breath taking coastal road - with huge sheers drops from the edge of the road to oblivion - yes I was slightly terrified at times. We had lunch at Nepanthe - an old log cabin that used to belong to Orson Wells when he was married to Rita Hayworth - sadly there were no traces of them  - photos etc which I would have loved to see.

Tonight we are taking our CS's to dinner and tomorrow we are driving to Santa Cruz to meet some new CS's - fingers crossed this time!