9/7/2001    Lots more fun was had in San Francisco before we hopped on the plane home - including some more great shopping!  The piece de resistence being a beautiful, red leather jacket with the hair still on!  Most funky!

Very pleased to be home now though.  After six weeks living out of suitcases and sleeping on strange beds, it is good to be back to our wardrobe and futon!  Also London is looking very lovely and welcoming in the sun (at least it was until the weekend).  The other good news is that Roberta's British citizenship came through on Tuesday - so it's a red passport for her and no more long queues for Glen.  What a relief!

26/6/2001    Roberta hated Las Vegas!  She was really pleased to leave after spending two days there.  Even 2 hours at the spa in the hotel didn't improve her opinion!  We have just spent a day in Yosemite National Park.  More grandiose scenery and mountain vistas.  Once again, the place was pretty packed with people and you would probably need to hike quite a way away to get some peace and quiet!  Apparently Autumn is a better time to visit - tons emptier.

We arrived in San Francisco today, after a short drive from Yosemite.  It is a great city, within 2 hours of arriving Roberta had bought two handbags and we were eating delicious dim sum in Chinatown!

21/6/2001    The Grand Canyon is one big hole in the ground!  It is so massive it is really difficult to get a handle on it.  We went first to the South Rim and stayed to watch the sunset.  There were some great vantage points but the place was absolutely mobbed by people.  The next day we drove up to the North Rim through the Navajo Nation reservation.  Very spectacular desert landscapes.  We preferred the North Rim, it is much quieter and very different in character.  It is much more alpine with beautiful meadows among pine forests on the drive up.  The South Rim is definitely worth seeing, especially for a first glimpse of the canyon, but for staying any length of time we would recommend the North Rim instead.

17/6/2001    Northern New Mexico is an area of huge contrasts, from the relative lushness of the Santa Fe/Taos district to the arid Four Corners.  We have spent 3 days in Santa Fe, which is quite high up, about 6000 feet above sea level.  The city sits between two mountain ranges, the Jemez and the Sangre de Cristos.  There is some very beautiful scenery including a vast caldera that was formed when a number of volcanoes just collapsed in a huge cataclysm.  There are also a lot of very interesting ancient Native American sites in the area and we were able to visit two of them.  

Tomorrow we leave for the Grand Canyon in Arizona.  We plan to leave very early in the morning (groan!) so that we have time to drive through the painted desert on the way!

14/6/2001    We had a wonderful time in New Orleans in spite of the weather.  Tropical storm Allison arrived the same day we did and spent the next week wrecking havoc in Southern Texas and Louisiana.  1 billion dollars worth of damage and 21 dead later, she moved on to plague Georgia.  We did get some sun in New Orleans though and tons of great food and great jazz.  We also spent a lot of time trawling the local galleries.

The next stop was Texas, the Lone Star state.  Our drive through western Louisiana and Houston took us through the remnants of Allison - torrential rain and then road confusion in Houston.  A lot of the roads were closed due to flooding including the interstate.  We eventually made it to Austin quite late in the day and very tired.

Two days in Austin gave us time to recover from the difficult drive and general overindulgence of New Orleans.  We then left Texas for Carlsbad, New Mexico and then on to Santa Fe today.

5/6/2001    Yesterday we drove 834 miles from Key West to Pensacola.  The entire length and breadth of Florida state!  Got out of the car at the hotel molded to the shape of the car seats!

We arrived in New Orleans this morning after a mercifully short drive, only about 3 hours but crossing 4 states - Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.  Our hotel is right by Bourbon Street and is really comfortable.  All mod cons including a spa bath.  We'll be getting some use out of that later!

Already had some yummy Cajun food on Bourbon St including crumbed alligator and tremendous bread pudding with whisky sauce.  Now unable to move due to the huge amount of food we've just eaten!

4/6/2001    Two beautiful days in Key West.  Very laid back place!  We spent a lot of time sitting in the sun, but also managed to squeeze in a sea-plane trip to the Dry Tortugas into our busy schedule.  Now on the way to New Orleans with a stop in Pensacola on the way.

31/5/2001    Back in contact now, after some connectivity problems - a lost plug adapter!

We had a great time in New York - many thanks to Trish for putting us up in her new apartment and for hanging out with us!  The weather wasn't too great but we had some excellent shopping time!

Savannah was the next stop and we arrived there in brilliant sunshine - beautiful.  The historic district of the town is very picturesque, with lovely old homes.  We spent the time wandering about the town and driving around Georgia.

For the last few days we have been in Miami.  Weather has been hot, hot, hot!  We spent the first day around South Beach, the next in the Everglades and then today in Coconut Grove and at the zoo.  Tomorrow we leave for Key West.

By the way, we picked up the car in Savannah - an SUV, big jeep-like thing.  Great fun to drive!