Los Angeles

We were not expecting too much in Los Angeles as was given mixed reviews of the city; however we loved it! Stayed very close to Venice beach and just a short walk to Santa Monica. Spent a lot of the time soaking in the sun at the beaches.

Rach and Lana did the Hollywood tour and spent some time browsing the very expensive shops in Sunset Blvd. Dave and Hamish managed to get on set for the filming of American Ninja Warrior which airs in December.

If you look really closely you can see the Hollywood sign on the hills in the background..

Phoenix - San Diego

Phoenix is very hot and for the first time in America we saw cacti in the dessert.

Had an interesting night staying in the Pheonix Wal-mart. It was very very hot and there were some random people blowing trash at 3am with noisy leaf blowers, followed by a guy in a ute with his arm out the window sucking up the trash. So much for sleeping...

The following day we carried on to San Diego, the drive was sooo hot in the dessert and we are sure the temperatures were around 45 - 50 degrees.

Went to the San Diego Zoo for the day and then drove through Orange County on the way to LA and a hotel!!

The Grand Canyon!

We were getting a little worried that the temperatures in the Grand Canyon were going to be hotter than Las Vegas; with no air conditioning in our camper we were preparing for an uncomfortable night. However, the temperature slowly cooled the closer we got and it was very bearable!!

On the way to the Canyon we stopped via the Hoover Dam. The dam was OK, but we were more impressed by the bridge being built right next to it. The guys think this is due to the dam suffering a lot of damage during the filming of transformers where Starscream swung around one of the intake towers.

We also stopped at this abandoned gas station which had alien paintings all over the side wall.

This is when we realised we were passing through Area 51 which is the test site for aliens, it was a creepy place.

We parked up in a town called Williams, in Arizona and the next day drove the last 40 minutes to the Canyon. Did a bit of tramping and then went to Desert View where we took some sunset shots of the Canyon.

Shortly after the sun had set a storm started over the Canyon. We stayed and watch a thunder and lightning show.

Las Vegas

Spent one night just under the Mamouth Ski Field in the camper before missioning it through the dessert to Las Vegas. It was soooo hot!!

We arrived late afternoon and quickly got changed to go to the famous Cirque Du Soleil 'O' concert. It was a really awesome show!

The following day we decided to check into a hotel as the heat was unbearable! Got a 'last minute' deal at a fancy hotel and spent the next day swimming in the pool to keep cool before heading out to do more exploring.

Didn't get sucked into the gambling scene, although it definatly was everywhere!

Yosemite National Park

Road trip!!!

Yosemite National Park was the first stop on our 10 day tour in an RV, just a couple of hours from San Francisco.

The weather was awesome!! Saw lots of wildlife, including a black bear walking through the forest. Apparently if you come across one, you should huddle and make loud noises. However, we followed it to try and get a few snaps.

Lana and Dave tramped up to the top of Half Dome. It's 8800 feet above sea level! Rach and Hamish tramped to Emerald Lake and Nevada falls where they went for swims and took photos. The following 2 days we went to numerous lookouts and places to swim to keep cool.

Yosemite is such an awesome place and we all recommend it! 3 days is just enough, a week would be perfect.

Above : Lana and Dave at the top of Half Dome

Above : Got to watch out for those rolling boulders...

USA - San Francisco

Mark Twain once asserted, "The coldest Winter I ever spent was a Summer in San Francisco."

Rach & Lana packed for a super-hot American Summer, only to begin our holiday digging through to the "Japan" section of their packs for jackets and scarves! San Francisco is a lot like Wellington in almost every aspect, except that they have a large red bridge. Dave went for his first (and probably last) morning run- mainly to get a head start and see all the sights before everybody else!

We went to an authentic American diner, Hamish talked to an authentic American old guy called Rennie, and we had authentic American burgers, fries, and enormous shakes.