Miami part 2

Well we're now down to our last few days of our travels left (aww diddums, we here you say!). We're still in Miami and in the last couple of weeks we've done some serious credit-card spanking, making the most of the cheap designer clothes shops out here!! The only thing limiting our spending now is the fact that we've gone past our luggage allowance for the airline home! D'oh! Also, the rain and storms haven't stopped since Sunday which definitely isn't good for our last minute topping up of the tans!

Last week we paid a visit to the Everglades and went through the swamps on an airboat, which was great despite only spotting one alligator in the water!!! We also, rather daringly, tackled a huge alligator in aid of a decent photo...Ok, so it was an organised event and was only a baby one, but it was rather big and heavy for only a baby and given the size of it's chompers, wasn't something to be messed with!!!
Before you ask, no we weren't scared...well, not really!









Our Airboat and the Miami Everglades









Spot the Alligator (and yes, there is one there!)









We also spent a day doing a city tour of Miami which included taking a boat around the rich and famous peoples' houses, in addition to spotting our future houses!

We're now just waiting for the sun to come back out (pretty please, you upstairs!) although it unfortunately doesn't look likely since the weather forecast is rain for the next few days...hmm similar to back home perhaps!!!
"Downtown" Miami









Miami's 'Art Deco' district (left) and Louise and I at South Beach (right)









The Art Deco District by night









Miami Beach (South Beach)

CSI Miami!

Our final destination was that of Miami, Florida, home to the TV show, CSI Miami!! In search of some real life crime, we checked in to a South Beach hotel suite (yes you did read correct!) for our last 19 days of travelling!

We were sceptical before arriving in Miami, given that no-one we knew actually liked it here! However, upon arrival we did feel very much at home amongst the hot humid weather, white sand beach and abundance of Ferrari's and Lambo's! All we had to do was to forget about the pungent smell of urine in many places and cigarette butts on the beach! Ok, so this was no South Pacific tropical island, but after 19days here, i'm sure we'll look like and islander! That is, of course, provided the line up of hurricanes throughout the Atlantic don't take us by surprise! Afterall, we don't want anything ruining our days on the beach...

Photos and stuff coming soon (weather dependent...good weather = no photos as we're down the beach, bad weather = photos if you're lucky!)

Las Vegas - take 2!

Nothing more to write on this except that after leaving Vegas the first time round we felt decidedly withdrawn and the lack of alcohol and gambling left us shaky and nervous! A visit to Gamblers Anonymous advised us to return for more of the same!

We therefore gave in to temptation and returned for another two weeks of heavy gambling and partying! Viva Las Vegas!

We don't remember the exact details but after a total of 16days in Vegas, our initial gambling fund of just $42 had grown to a whopping $100! Thats a whole fifty pounds! Woohoo!

Viva Las Vegas!!

San Francisco movie

Our very own Hollywood movie!!

San Diego

After another long, boring, overnight bus ride, we arrived in San Diego where we spent the next 6 nights.

After a couple of days of working out that there isn't actually an awful lot to do/see in San Diego, we decided to hop on a train down to the Worlds’ busiest border crossing – the America/Mexico border – where we spent the day in Tijuana. To enter Mexico was basically a case of walking along a path and one footstep you're in the USA and then the next footstep you've entered Mexico! No passports needed!

After walking around for a couple of hours, you realise that Tijuana is more or less pharmacy after pharmacy and gift shop after gift shop with everyone trying to get you into their shop to look around. The pharmacies themselves are a self-medicators delight where anything at all, medication-wise, can be purchased – with no prescriptions needed and not a doctor in sight!

It was kind of strange how, earlier that day, you were in America and then you've taken a couple of steps over the border and how different everything looks and even how much cheaper everything is. We managed to have a Mexican lunch for 3 pounds 50 pence which also included two bottles of beer!!
Tijuana, Mexico


















After a morning of looking around, we decided that we had seen enough and decided to cross back into America. Like everything here though, of course the process to enter back into the States was somewhat more hassle than entering Mexico. To enter Mexico nothing is checked, ie passports, bags etc etc. However, to go back to USA involved queuing and having everything checked!!

Our last few days in San Diego involved a couple of visits to the beach, hopping on and off buses to see what few sights there are and frequenting the local drinking haunts!!
A couple of shots of San Diego's Gaslamp district

Las Vegas/Grand Canyon

After a freezing our pants off in San Francisco, the next part of our journey took us 15 hours on a Greyhound bus to Las Vegas where temperatures of 40 plus degrees hit us!!!

Having planned it carefully, we arrived on Ian's birthday and checked into an almost 5-star hotel, the Monte Carlo (the first bit of luxury we'd experienced in a long time)! After admiring the fact we had not only a massive room but also a TV (yep, we haven’t had one of those in a long, long time!) we decided to take a walk up the Las Vegas Strip. Many hours later, we arrived at the end of the strip, having of course stopped in most of the casinos along the way to play the slot machines and making the most of the free cocktails!! As luck would have it, I managed to win $100.75 after putting in just 25 cents in one of the slot machines at the Bellagio, which gave us some gambling money for the next few hours!!


Over the next few days we visited many casinos playing slot machines and the occasional game of Roulette. We even made time to relax by the swimming pool before very late, hectic nights of drinking far too many free cocktails and winning money!!

On our last day, we visited the Stratosphere hotel - probably the only hotel in the world to decide to build 3 crazy thrill rides at the top (actually the worlds highest thrill rides)!! Of course we just had to experience them, which was a great idea until we were actually on them and hanging off the edge of the hotel tower, some 109 floors up (1100feet!), praying to God that the rides wouldn't break!!!
Stratosphere Tower (left), Insanity ride (middle) and X-Scream ride (right)





















After 4 days in Vegas we hired a car and headed for the Grand Canyon via the Hoover Dam. After 6 hours of driving, we arrived at the canyon where we spent a couple of hours driving round to different parts of the canyon whilst also managing to watch the sun set over the canyon.

The next day we headed back to Vegas to catch the Greyhound bus to our next destination in the states, San Diego.

The Monte Carlo hotel, outside and in









Las Vegas strip by day and by night









One of the many shows outside the hotels (left) and the famous Freemont street (right)









Louise posing for a photo (left) and evidence of our hottest day of 111F whilst back from the Grand Canyon (right)









Grand Canyon National Park (left) and the Hoover Dam (right)









The Grand Canyon!


















Grand Canyon at sunset

San Francisco

Upon arriving in San Francisco one thing we didn’t expect was to be so damn cold! Seriously, I was shocked there wasn’t snow it was so cold! This was by far the coldest weather we had experienced since winter of 2006! Having experienced temperatures in the high 30's for almost the last year, we were now faced with temperatures of around 16 degrees...a real shock to the system and wardrobe!!

Whilst in San Francisco we of course had to pay a visit to the well known Alcatraz Prison where you got to walk around the insides of the prison listening to commentary of previous inmates who explained how bad the place really was!!
Alcatraz Prison









Shots taken after the police realised they initially caught the wrong person!












Another major tourist trap in San Francisco is the trams which take you up and down the stupidly steep streets. We also took a tour around San Francisco, visiting amongst other places the world’s most bendy road and the Golden Gate Bridge.

Other than the tourist places we spent much of our time shopping and visiting outlet shopping centres designed solely to give our credit cards a damn good bashing!!!
The trams of San Francisco









A couple of photos of San Francisco's shopping district









The bendiest street in the world and the Golden Gate Bridge (by fog!)