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San Francisco The last stop on our North American odyssey. In some ways we were sad that the trip was finishing but also pleased to be heading back to London and our friends. San Francisco reminded us a lot of Wellington - lots of hills and, although the sun was shining, cooler weather. It was easily one of our favourite cities in the US, but obviously has it's problems. Like any big city there were quite a lot of homeless people and the far end of Market Street seemed to be drug addict central. Still great restaurants, fun shopping and wonderful galleries, with a more laid back atmosphere that made our stay very memorable.
Yosemite National Park After Las Vegas, Yosemite was initially a bit of a relief. However, the spell was soon broken as it was packed with people! Bridalveil Falls was more like Piccadilly than the wilderness we expected. We were only there for one day so didn't have time to hike at all, but I would imagine you would need to hike a long way to escape the madding crowd!
Las Vegas - Sin City (?) The strip really comes alive at night, with an impressive array of neon. Quite different from during the day. We stayed at the Luxor hotel, a huge pyramid with a big Egyptian theme going. Glen was quite successful at blackjack and on the pokeys.
Arizona - the Painted Desert and the Grand Canyon Arizona's desert scenery was some of the most spectacular we have seen. It is also very rich in wildlife. We saw elk, deer and hummingbirds! Not a lot of animal photos though - they seemed to enjoy appearing just when the camera was most inaccessible!
New Mexico - Mountains, Caves and We stayed in two towns in New Mexico, Carlsbad in the south and Santa Fe in the North. Both have very different characters but have the grandeur of their surroundings in common.
Texas - The Lone Star State It's true what they say, Texas is huge!! We stayed in Austin, which is the state capital and comparatively small in comparison with the urban sprawls of Dallas and Houston. We had thought of staying in San Antonio instead, which would have been really interesting as it is the original centre of the Spanish colony in Texas. Unfortunately, San Antonio was still being buffeted by Allison, so Austin seemed to be a better choice. It did allow us to do some exploring of the Texas hill country, which was rather beautiful and definitely worth seeing.
Storms, Executions and Other Oddities Our journey through Texas was enlivened by tropical storm Allison and the commentary on the Timothy McVeigh execution across the border in Oklahoma. A different look at the US. Click here for our opinions of the Timothy McVeigh coverage.
New Orleans The Big Easy was everything we hoped for. In spite, and in some ways because of, the extreme weather, New Orleans more than lived up to it's other nickname - 'the city that care forgot'.
Key West & Dry Tortugas National Park Key West is a wonderful place! We had beautiful, hot weather and the island is perfect for just lazing around (we seem to be doing a lot of that!). There is also a lot to do if you want to be more active, including the wonderful Dry Tortugas - the most inaccessible national park in the US.
Miami Zoo We spent a morning at the zoo while we were in Miami, mainly to see the white tiger. The zoo itself is excellent with very well constructed enclosures for the animals. There are no cages just compounds separated from people by moats.
The Everglades We drove down here from Miami for the day. We took so many photos that it warrants it's own page!
Kennedy Space Centre, Florida We stopped in here on our way down to Miami. We only expected to spend a couple of hours there, but in fact spent 3 and a half. There was a lot to see and some very big rockets!
Savannah We flew from New York to Savannah and picked up the hire car at the airport. We spent a really relaxing 3 days there wandering around the town and visiting some of the places featured in the book 'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil' by John Berendt. A true story and a very good read!
New York We didn't get many good photos of New York this trip, so here is one from a previous excursion.
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Almost 8,000 miles later .......
