So only a week to go! And so many things we haven’t done!! And we have been here nearly 5 weeks!!!

We are now ticking things off our list and trying to cram in all the things to do that our wonderful host Katie sent to us before we left Auckland. We might not get it all done … so maybe we will have to come back 🙂

Clark County Museum was only $2 each … a bargain if you ever found one and close to where we are staying in Henderson, so we decided to head over last Sunday afternoon. It is a bit like MOTAT (in Auckland), and it had some really interesting history. It was a little bit sad, and needs some TLC but we did spend 2 hours here, although I never took a photo! (Burgled these two from google!) The walks were all closed because of the heat! That has become a thing while we have been here in LV! We did enjoy having a look through Heritage Street and the Candlelight Wedding Chapel, complete with albums from all the weddings that they did when it was located on the strip.

The Pinball museum had been on our list as well, so we finally made it there. OMG what a sensory overload! And so much fun. It is free to go in, you just play the machines to your hearts content. Most machines took 2 quarters (0.25c each) and some took 3 but PAC-MAN only took one :-). I loved PAC-MAN last century, and it is still so much fun this century 😜

We ran out of quarters to use this! I would have been voluptuous and alluring and Colin would have been amorous and wild!

The Hoover Dam tunnel trail walk, was on the list as well but we had to get up early to complete it, due to the warnings on heat exhaustion! It is only 7km, to the end of the 5th tunnel and although we got up early and were on the walk by 7am, it was 34 degrees by the time we got back to the car shortly after 9am. Two hours for a short walk … well by the time I did yoga in every tunnel, and we stopped to take in the spectacular view out to Lake Mead and chatted to people along the way … time went on by!

Lake Mead camp ground would have been a ‘lake front’ property 20 years ago, but with it’s continually dropping levels … it is now a bit of a walk! They call that the ‘bathtub ring’ – it is 140 feet above the lake! We are conserving water and drinking beer 🍻 every little helps!

We didn’t do the extra bit to the dam, as it was just so hot and we had already been there. I am so glad we took the time to do this, and garner a bit more history of the Hoover Dam along the way. Also in tunnel three, there were bats … you could smell them, hear them and a few flew around us and then we discovered that there were baby bats all dead around our feet!! Not sure what that was about!!

On the way back we called into Boulder City for a wander around and I loved, loved, loved all the art … here a few pictures – there are heaps more 👀

Our highlight this week has to be our flight over the Grand Canyon … there wasn’t enough words to describe it when you are on it, but when you fly over it, it’s absolutely magical, huge, vast, deep and the colours are amazing. It was very heat hazy so our photos are all a bit over-exposed!

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This picture is after the water has passed through the power plant at Hoover Dam and the silt / sediment is left in Lake Mead.

The thing is though when you fly in a little plane, it is so bumpy and so hard to get a good crystal clear photo. Flying from Boulder City, over the Hoover Dam, Lake Mead and out past the west rim was pretty impressive.

And too boot there was another weather warning as another monsoon moved in. We even got warnings on our phones for flash floods, which didn’t really bother us in the air BUT the thunder and lightening may have. Eeeeek, I was happy to return to base as the small plane, the turbulence from the wind over the GC and the heat in the little plane was enough for me. I am so glad I did it, BUT I WAS SO glad to land again!

I was hot in the little plane… and hotter on the ground 😱

Well Mr & Mrs Smith have another assignment in Seattle from next week, but I will let you know more about that when we check out of Las Vegas.

This incredible ‘gash in the earth’ [Colin’s description] is one of the seven wonders of the world.

We left early on Tuesday morning, so as to get a head start on the day. We headed to Kingman which is a town on Route 66, and found breakfast. It is fascinating the amount of people of road trips, cruising Route 66.

We completed just a small portion of it from Kingman to Williams. It is a tourist Meca!Williams is the last small town to be bypassed by the new freeway and Seligan is where is all started.

The old buildings, the funny wee shops, and the curios from the past [not to mention the people watching!] was great. I’ll let our photos do the talking!

From there we carried on through Williams and up into the Grand Canyon via Tusayan where we purchased our park pass, and headed up to Mather Point [which is the main viewing area]. OMG, so many people! I am not sure how to describe the Grand Canyon – HUGE, stunning, beautiful, powerful, overwhelming, beautiful and breath-taking!

The photos do not do it any justice … but I tried!

I was completely freaked out by the height, the crumbly edges and peoples need to stand on them for photos! Colin didn’t climb the barriers to get close to the ‘famous parts’ [because everyone climbs the barrier to do their yoga pose, or feet hanging off – even a Monk (you can see in him one of these photos) while we were there!] but he did get close to the edge, way to close for my liking – I can’t even describe the terror I felt when when close even with a barrier between me and the abyss!!!

We took the opportunity of the free transfer bus along the rim [and away from the masses] along to ‘Hermit’s Rest’. A perfect move! The buses are hop on / hop off and are so well organised – they are an absolute credit to the National Park. We hopped off at Powell point for a bit more freaking out, and then hopped on and heading to Hermit’s Rest. What a sanctuary at the end of this end of the south rim. Not that many people, views were just as amazing and we saw an amazing elk, just wandering through.

We eventually found our car and drove to the other end to ‘Desert View’ which again had the most gorgeous breathtaking view, both of the Grand Canyon and across to the Arizona desert. It was getting busy here, as people were all heading to watch the sunset. We decided that it wasn’t going to be worth it as it was so overcast and we still had a lot of driving to get down to Sedona. (A couple of hours earlier we experienced a monsoon across the South Rim, and man did it rain! Fortunately there is a wonderful visitor centre and theater, so we just headed in there and watched the movie.)

Just as we were leaving the Park we came across all these cars / people scattered across the road and we could see an Elk. Firstly we though there had been an accident, but then as we got closer it was a ‘photo stop’! I should have taken a picture of the chaos with everyone just stopped, or slowing moving or even out of their cars to take pictures!! The elk was not a bit interested! Of course when in Rome …. !!

Fun Fact: the walls of the Grand Canyon get deeper by the second as the Colorado river rages through the Canyon!

Driving from east of the ‘south rim’ we headed to Sedona via Cameron (blink and you miss it), through Flagstaff (stopped here for dinner) and through another Monsoon. I tell you it made for a long, scary trip in the dark with the thunder and lightening all around us. We were quite a few hours late getting to our AirBnB in Sedona! Sedona is a dark city – there are not many street lights – so it made it hard to find our accommodation!!

On Wednesday morning we got up early and hiked [from where we were staying] up Sugar Loaf Mountain. I am so glad we did this – it was stunning. From here we could see: Coffee Pot Rock, Chimney Rock, Bell Rock, Catherdral Rock … you get the picture. We still haven’t seen any snakes but did see squirrels, lizards and beetles.

After a cold shower we headed into Town and had a wander around. We went into the Art Gallery and saw gorgeous, gorgeous sculptures and talked to a woman who worked there who used to live in Auckland and work in a restaurant on Symonds Street … that small world again. There was fabulous art everywhere in Sedona. It is also very spiritual and people pilgrim here for Vortex’s, yoga retreats and a variety of health retreats.

For lunch we headed out to Up the Creek Cafe (a lady at the top of Sugar Loaf Mountain told us to go there!). It was such a gorgeous place and once we were seated we noticed that the trees were full of humming birds, and that they had feeders hanging on the eave of the building so they were just that much closer. It was memorising watching them. The food was great, and we were pleased to see NZ wine (The Ned) on the menu. We actually had the local craft beer which was great. I was talking the to waitress and she was fascinated by our travels and said that she had never had a passport! Can you image that! She had however heard of NZ and how beautiful it is, so that was something.

After lunch we headed to Chapel of the Holy Cross. It is a very small chapel perched high in the rocks – you can’t help but experience the peace and serenity. With fabulous views out to Cathedral Rock and ‘the Courthouse’ rock, we added to our ‘horizon tour’ of Sedona. When you walk in the huge front doors and see the fabulous stained glass windows … you just want to sit a bit, and reflect.

So two nights in Sedona [which wasn’t enough] and we are on our way back. One more hike to do – Devil’s bridge. The hike in was reasonably easy, the last little bit that is vertical – was challenging for me (not liking heights has become a thing!). Once up there Colin was keen as to get out there on the bridge. Not for me – I hid! There were a few other people there (not tooooo busy as we came early) but at least someone could take his picture – I couldn’t even do that! I also couldn’t watch as people sat on the edge, hung their legs over and just generally tempted fate!!

We met a lovely couple up there from West Virginia. We chatted with them all the way back to the car park and really enjoyed their company – hopefully if we are in their part of town, will catch up with them again.

Heading ‘home’ to Las Vegas we stopped at the famous ‘Road Runner’ cafe on Route 66 (Seligman) and took another round of Route 66 photos.

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It was a long drive back through more monsoons, and along some very straight highways (where you can drive at 130km – but not when it’s raining hard!).

The Arizona landscape is pretty wild, unfriendly (in the way of farming) and generally a bit boring (well at least from the I93!)! It might look a whole lot better with snow on the mountians?!?

So we are safely back ‘home’ and will re-charge by the pool for the next few days 🙂

We have spent quite a lot of time by the pool, had a lot of lie-ins and generally are kicking back :). We did get some bad news though! The pool is being closed for two days!!!!

We went to the ‘star spangled spectacular on the 4th July, which is very similar to our music in the parks but on a much larger scale! Katie (who we have introduced before) forwarded emails for this event and as she has so very kindly lent us her car, we thought lets do it! So I hopped on-line and got our tickets and we headed out to Summerlin, which is 30 minutes to our North-West.

It was a very well organised event (couldn’t help but make notes!). We parked at a huge Casino (JW Marriott) and then were transported by bus to the venue, which happened to be a golf course. We picked ourselves a spot in the shade, and settled in for the evening.

We met this lovely lady in her 80’s who had been to NZ and was part of a group for international friendship. They are hosting the NZ people here is Las Vegas in September. She was such an amazing lady to talk to, she has travelled extensively, cruised extensively and had lots of things for us to do in LV. We loved meeting her and would love to catch up with her again. Unfortunately, her daughter was dying in Los Angeles and she was flying out there the next day. I want to have as much spunk as this woman (Lois) does, when I am 80! She told us that her and her husband (who died 5yrs ago) would gate crash weddings in LV Chapels, offer to be witnesses and that they had only been chucked out once! So, if we can, we will try and catch up with her before our time in LV comes to and end.

The concert was with the Philharmonic Orchestra, and was pretty good. There was of course the National Anthem, along with music from Westside Story, Raiders of the lost ark, Les Mis, Rocky and a variety of other stuff. It finished with a wonderful fireworks display before we caught the bus back to our car and headed home.

On Friday we headed out to Green Valley Ranch (our local) for a music evening. We had a couple of drinks, soaked up the atmosphere but retired early as it was just so hot! We need to explore here next week, as we haven’t had the chance yet.

Saturday found us heading out to the summer theatre at Spring Mountain Ranch for ‘She Loves Me’ – a musical based on ‘you’ve got mail’. We had to go past Red Rock Canyon to get there, so we left early to explore this Canyon. It is a 13 mile one-way drive through the park. You can stop at several places and go hiking, take in a photo opportunity or look for the turtles!

We unfortunately had our first rain! Rain, thunder and lightening meant that we only we able to complete one short walk! The drive was pretty cool and we did get a few photos! Without the sun in the Canyon the colours were a bit muted, but still fabulous. I did wonder how our outdoor concert would go?!?

I am pleased to tell you it was fine. We did have some issues trying to get tickets! We tried to buy them before we left but, on-line ticket sales cease the day before – no where on the www did it tell you this!! So we thought we would just get them at the gate …. uuuummmmm no! Our pre-paid debit card wasn’t accepted!! The gate team in the end just let us in, since we had come such a long way to visit. The deal was that we just had to put our cash in the collection when it came round (we didn’t have enough cash to buy tickets!!). We now need to make an on-line donation, as we needed our cash to buy dinner! Anyway, it was torture for Colin but I loved it. The show, the location, the atmosphere was fabulous – think I am going to miss my ‘out with the girls date nights” !!

Today we have been to the National Atomic Testing Museum. It was a lot of science, a lot of history of how it was developed and why. Without the bombing of Japan in WWII and the Cold War would this even have a place in history? They no longer do the testing above ground, but the scared earth from the underground testing leaves you wondering about the pro and cons of this. Overall, it was a bit scary! Let’s just be kind to each other 🙂

We are having a lightning storm tonight and rain predicted. Hoping that it passes through quick as we are heading to the Grand Canyon tomorrow, so will have a full report on that later in the week.

And hasn’t it gone fast …

Las Vegas is still being kind to us with the weather! Most days it is over 40 degrees, and most days we swim in the pool.

One lonely care in the distance …

We decided to go the Cars & Coffee event at Speed Vegas, as it is local to where we are. It was scheduled from 7am-10pm. So we get up have a leisurely breakfast and get there for 8.30am, only to discover there is one publicly parked car (see it parked behind me in the photo with the red drift car!) and a host of Speed Vegas cars which you can purchase a ‘ride’ in for lots of money!! Staring at $50US per lap in a Nissan (why would you!) to $80US per lap for a Lamborghini … trouble is you can’t just do one lap! I think it was a 5 lap minimum!! + insurance + race suit, shoes etc, so unless you have won lotsa money in the casinos [or own one] it is not something your average tourist does.

Entrance tunnel to the inn-field…

From there we had on our to do list to go Las Vegas Speedway and do their tour. Speed Vegas and LV Speedway are on the same road, so all good. Only thing is that 7000 LV Blvd and 14200 LV Blvd are much further apart than you anticipate! When we got over to the Speedway – they weren’t doing tours that day, so told us to drive thru to the in-field and have a look around – and come back Tuesday for the tour. I don’t think so!!!

We have been to Old Fort Las Vegas which was built by the Church of Latter-Day Saints and houses the first building in Las Vegas. The missionaries built this fort alongside a spring-fed creek and it was an interesting place to learn about Las Vegas and the history of the early pioneer settlers. I couldn’t help but think how ironic that Las Vegas [‘Sin City’] is now the polar opposite of those Mormon beliefs! Those old carriages that those first pioneers travelled in weren’t known for their ‘comfort’ and I am not sure today, that we really understand the hardship of those pioneers (not to mention the lack of air-con – I am only coping because of the air-con, the pool and the odd beer or two).

Earlier in the week we decided to go and stay on ‘the strip’. Shane, a colleague of many an event, was in town with his partner Nicole. So we booked into Excalibur as they had a seemingly great deal – $23US (and Shane and Nicole were there). So you pay your $$$$ per night and then when you check-in you have to pay a resort fee! That is $79US per night. And then you pay tax … nothing is ever at the face value anymore, not just here, but in everything we do – here, home, on-line – any bargain should be researched to the inth degree.

View from the cheap rooms …. and no coffee or tea in the rooms! Starbucks have a captured market!

Nicole, Shane, Colin and me having lunch at Hard Rock Cafe.

We had a great time exploring up and down the strip [things we missed on our first day], exploring all those magical Resorts, with the most amazing architecture and theming. We went back through Bellagio and had a quick look again at the botanical garden again, wandered through New York, New York, Luxor, Caesars Palace, Flamingo and Mandalay Bay (this is where that madman shot at everyone last year!). You can sorta get lost roaming inside them, especially as they all are connected. We had a look at some of the galleries, saw the gondolas, visited the flamingos and walked thru ThePark.

Inside Luxor Pyramid

All in all Las Vegas is an amazing, fun, extravagant and expensive.

While we were in ‘town’ we went to see Cirque Du Soleil ‘Zumanity’. It is an R18 show and from that you can imagine it is not for everyone! It was really funny, really interactive with gorgeous costumes [and a lot of skin!!] and amazing performers. It was a little bit cheeky, a lot sexy and not something you would take your grandmother too! Definitely glad we sat in the balcony and there was no chance of getting up on stage!!

I burgled this picture from the www … it sorta looks like a painting, but it was very real when watching it!The Finale was the only time we were allowed to take photos…and the only time we saw this many costumes!

We also decided to go to Tournament of Kings (which was at our resort) and is a dinner and show experience. It is the story of the King Arthur Knights and the round table. 900s seats in an arena where the knights on horses [which were amazing] have their tournament [sword fights, jousting, and spear throwing] and feast, while you watch and interact while having your feast. Dinner is a ‘use your hands’ experience – rip apart your ‘whole chicken’ [probably a size 4 :)], gnaw on your broccoli, slurp ya soup [dragon’s blood] and wipe your plate with a ‘biscuit’ [scone like thing]. Your dinner is all but thrown at you and they don’t clean up. While eating and drinking you are expected to cheer for your country [we were France] and bang the tables in support of your knight. All in all it was a bit of fun, and although we probably wouldn’t go again, we did enjoy it.

I also burgled this pic!

Katie [whose house/cats we look after] forwarded me an email with details of the LV 51’s baseball game which was on at Cashman Field (seats 9,300). So we quickly got tickets and headed on out to see it. It is a minor league game, and the games are usually 2-3 hours. Last night it was 4hrs, so you could say we got value for money and an amazing fireworks show.

Today being the 4th of July, we have tickets to the Star Spangled Spectacular. I will catch you up with the details next time.

Lots of love from Vegas …

Unless you just got out of the pool – I really don’t understand how it can be 44 degrees, and a warm wind blows and you still get that chilled – goosebump feeling! I get in and out of the pool, just so I get that chilled feeling!

We went to the Ethel M chocolate place [part of the Mars Group, which produces the high end range of chocolate] – oh man it is gorgeous. The showroom lady told us that they make snickers bars there as well, and that the snickers bar was named after Mr Mars favourite horse ‘snickers’. We had a look around the operation, saw the chocolate fountain, tasted some, and of course bought some. It was kinda cool, they gave it to you in a bag, with an ice-pack, so that it didn’t melt on the way home.

On-site at the [Ethel M] location is the Cactus Garden, which is a fabulous collection of prickly plants and succulents, together with a variety of of trees from other hot places [like Australia]. It was so hot walking around here – 45 degrees! No wonder our purchase got an ice pack!

We also went to the Silverstone Casino and saw their huge aquarium – very impressive!

We made it in time for the stingray and shark feeding – a diver got into the aquarium and hand fed them. The rays were huge, and there was a reasonably large shark, in with gorgeous fish and fake coral !! Still it looked good.

We had a wander around the Casino, saw the Orange County Chopper bikes [which were sea themed ie: fish / mermaids] and had lunch at Johnny Rockets – burgers of course!

At Silverstone we went into the same Hunting and Fishing chain (Bass Pro) as we did in Orlando [had a photo with a bear there!] and this time it was moose!

An awesome shop, and the best range of cotton shirts that I have seen yet. But alas, no hiking shoes for me from here! It seems my feet are too big!! For those of you that have had the pleasure of shoe shopping with me, you will understand my frustration!!!!!!

Where we are staying in Henderson, by Green Valley Ranch, it is close to the hills, so this morning we got up early, when it was cooler and went for a hike.

We only went for an hour, but as we got further, and further up ‘the hill’, the track got more and more ‘rugged’.

Colin was convinced he was going to find gold in them thar hills, as he kept finding rocks with quartz in them … he reckoned it could be the beginning of his fortune! Personally, I think he would have as much chance as winning on the slot machines!!

Oh my I was hot :-}

Our three cats, are pretty used to us now – the house boss [Zeke] decided he needed some attention this afternoon, while I am trying to type this !!

Zeke and Liliah are all good for a rub, won’t sit on your knee though and the wee foster cat ‘Wednesday’ is getting close but is beyond timid!

So we have got to Friday, having had a quietish week and I have ended it having a pedicure while Colin was at the supermarket…no point us both going!

Now it is beer-a-clock Friday. Catch you soon x

Cheers 🙂

We are still getting used to the warm temperatures here …. OK I am! Colin seems to be fairing better than me! Anyways, apart from taking long hikes, we are really not too affected by the very hot days. I am not sweating myself skinny – which would have been a bonus … maybe the next four weeks will be in my favour.

We visited the Carroll Shelby Showroom / Workshop and enjoyed their commentary. While I appreciate the nice cars, I really enjoyed the history and knowledge of our guide.

There were so many funny little quirks, but I will only share a couple with you [he – Carroll Shelby]:

1. he made overalls cool !!
2. he was a WWII flight instructor
3. he was a chicken farmer
4. he invented the Cobra in his dream
5. he named GT350 because it was 350 feet from the office to the workshop
6. And the GT40 was 40 inches tall

We signed the famous graffiti wall, Colin bought a shirt and I bought a postcard or too! (Note: Wendy – couldn’t help myself! ). Colin took a picture outside the museum with his Petrolhead Magazine, and we sent it to them to consider for their next publication.

We signed this wall…

We have been on another bike ride exploring the neighbourhood – We only did 5km but at 32 degrees at 8am in the morning, that was enough for me!

We did a Sunday drive up into the hills and explored the dead posh houses from afar. While we are staying in a lovely community, this was pretty impressive with its gated entrances with waterfalls – hmmmmm, was there a drought here?!

Not sure about living in the hills though!

The Hoover Dam was on our to-do list so we headed over there on Monday – it was 43 degrees. What a fantastic tour it was. Loved walking down/out to the ventilation grills! Wow! [circled]

Such a cool piece of engineering history, which is still to this day ‘curing’ and providing untold information to engineers.

Fun facts:

1. it sits on the Nevada / Arizona border – we parked in Arizona and walked to Nevada
2. They (5,000 workers) worked 24hrs a day, 363 days a year on shifts and finished the project two years early!
3. A father and son died on on the project. The father was the first fatality and the son was the last!
4. The concrete of the dam was has no reinforcing in it!! (Dave Murray – this fun fact is for you)
5. Despite having a cooling system to speed up the curing of the concrete – it is still curing (they take test bores from time to time)
6. The level of Lake Mead has only dropped in the last twenty years, as there is not enough snow in Colorado – see the ‘tide line’ in my pics – 150 feet lower!
7. There is no-one buried in the dam, or the lake – 96 men died.
8. The highest paid workers were the digger operators (Daniel – this fun fact in for you)
9. And finally – it should last about 10,000 years – it will be among the longest standing human structures.

We have been to ‘The Mob’ museum – we figured that because we are here for 5 weeks, that made us locals! After a bit of sweet-talking and showing our 10 year US Visa, we got in for the locals price yahaaaaaay – $10 bucks cheaper! The building was refurbished from the Federal Court House and Post Office and was the tallest building in Las Vegas when it was built.

Like my prison shirt 🙂

It was a great museum to preserve the history of the prohibition, the Mob, and how the FBI was developed. It was a pretty brutal time … nothing has changed much with the underworld! Still good against bad!! We spent 3hrs here and finished with a taste of moonshine.

We decided that we would try and find our way back to Henderson, without the GPS! We did a pretty good job, but clearly aren’t local enough yet 🙂

I can confirm it is hot in the desert! Today the temperature reached 46 degrees! I am hoping I will sweat myself skinny 😉 It sure does take some getting used to. We have a lovely pool to swim in and heaps of cold beer, so we’ll be right!

We went to the Nevada State Museum and they closed their outside walks as it was too hot! Nevada is rich in fossil history especially Mammoths – archeologists love this place. With the gold rush and the Hoover Dam, and now casinos…LV is a happening place. We saw scorpions and I learnt that the smaller they are the more poisonous their sting is. We also saw snakes and a chameleon, which we were part of a travelling exhibition.

So we have been here since Sunday afternoon, and were picked up at the airport by Katie [who house and three cats we are looking after]. We stayed with her parents for a couple of days, while she got ready for her trip to Europe. Now we are ensconced in her bungalow and making friends with the cats. Zeke the big guy is in charge. They are still getting used to us.

We have had a couple of relaxing days by the pool, done a bit of shopping at our very own supermarket [which sells NZ wine]

and generally just recharged our batteries from the madness of San Fran. We did do a small bike ride, but need to get up early to do any more of those!

On Monday, we walked along the strip and saw all the crazy mad hotels and casinos. It was so busy inside and out.

We visited the M & M Store [just to enjoy the air-con!) and I was amazed at just how big the brand is. Four levels of merchandise to suit each ‘personality’ – there was nothing you couldn’t buy. From t’shirts to socks, coloured candy to personalised candy, socks to soft toys and they even have babies clothes! Although I like the peanut ones and couldn’t find any, so got them at the gas station where we picked up our Uber!

We went inside all the big hotels, but the most outstanding was the Bellagio – it was just fabulous.

From the glass art hanging in the lobby to the unbelieveable conservatory and of course the fountains (which we are yet to see – they only run from 3pm) it was incredible. It’s current summer display is a ‘tour of Italy’ and is designed to give visitors a taste of the Amalfi coast, Tivoli and the Island of Capri. It is truly breath-takingly gorgeous. I tried to take a few pics, but it really doesn’t do it justice. One display is ‘lemons’ and the lemons are topiaries made with 1,400 stems of yellow and white carnations WHICH THEY CHANGE DAILY!! The water falls, gardens and other displays, including the Troubadour topiary [made with 1,000 stems of red and peach carnations and other flowers] were a wonder. They even had huge swans floating on the canal with real feathers [animal activists where were you?!)

Richard MacDonald is a sculpter, and his display of Cirque performers was truly fabulous. He does all the sculpting with live models and then casts in bronze – they were for sale BUT, as we had no winnings, alas no purchases were made.

There are so many Cirque shows on here, we are sure to see one before we leave. In fact there are so many shows in general, so all going well we should be entertained … from music to magicians.!

I am hoping that in five weeks … that we may have acclimatised a bit! And made friends with the cats!

Today was out last day in Oakland and we just wanted a casual day. We caught an Uber to Mountain Hill Cemetery in Piedmont. It is absolutely beautiful. There is the cemetery, a crematorium and many Mausoleums.

There are family crypts in Mausoleums, and family plots with their own Mausolems and there are gorgeous chapels, fountains and many, many angels.

The park was designed by the same architect who designed Central Park in New York (Frederick Olmstead) and has burials from 1863 onwards.

A lot of the plots have local history and the families are famous! Here a few famous names:

• Captain William Shorey – only black whaling Captain!
• Dr Cloe Buckel – first women M.D. – she became a Dr after her nursing degree
• John Hays – first Sheriff of San Francisco & also a surveyor
• Anthony Cabot – hydraulic mining founder, and built the Cabot Observatory
• D. Ghirardelli – chocolate magnate who moved his family graves to Mountain View

The whole cemetery is just gorgeous and we spent 3hrs wandering around checking it out.

We also watched a private internment of ashes for a war hero. The US Sailors had the most fascinating OCD folding the flag – loved that, although did feel a bit like a voyeur! (You will be pleased to know that we did not gate crash the after party).

There are fabulous views back to San Fran from Millionaire Row which is called that because of its spectacular views.

We walked back down the main Piedmomt Road and had lunch at Barney’s Burgers. I had the bacon, mushroom and feta rocket salad and Colin had a hot dog. Can’t have burgers for lunch every day!

From there we caught an Uber (loving this) to Jack London Square. There were markets on that had all this gorgeous stuff, but with us leaving to Las Vegas tomorrow there was no time to get anything shipped, so no shopping for me.

Had a beer in a great bar called Plank, that had a wonderful outdoor area, kids playground to the side and a pétanque court. Obviously a great place for everyone to meet and soak up the atmosphere. We enjoyed people watching from our Cape Cod chairs and the beer (green devil lager) was pretty good too. It was hot in the sun, but blowing a gale – check out those flags!

Since being in Oakland we have been living somewhat like a local. We have found the homeless even more saddening out here in the suburbs. Most days we are out and about in an Uber (which is cheaper than the BART transport). At a lot of the motorway under-bridges, and even in the parks, there are hundreds of homeless people living in tent cities. Not all of these people are displaced bums or drug users. Some of them actually have jobs, but just can’t afford to rent a place.

As a tourist, the areas you visit are quite sanitised, and they are a lot cleaner. The Freeways and roadsides outside of this, are littered with rubbish and I am struggling to understand how a huge metropolitan city like San Fran is somewhat ‘third-world’ outside of its golden spots.

We have spoken to a lot of our Uber drivers and locals and they are all saddened their city has over the last 2-3 years become the ‘home’ of homelessness. Everyone, says that the rent / living here is beyond the reach of so many people and when I think to NZ, and people recently living in cars because they can’t afford housing – I feel like we are on the first rung of the ladder to have a city in the future that is similar to this.

On a more positive note, we are exploring and taking in a few more sights than most might while here in San Fran. We have been on a short walk in Sequioa Park with our AirBnB host and walked amongst the giant redwoods, had lunch in groovy local cafes, and hiked up the mountain behind our accommodation.

On Wednesday, we caught the Ferry to Sausalito and spent the afternoon wondering around this seaside tourist town. It was a bit like Devonport, but also a bit like Akaroa. We walked all the way along the waterfront, had a toasted two-cheese sandwich and explored a bit beyond the usual tourist route. The housing is gorgeous, and clings precariously to the hill (a bit like Wellington!) and the whole place has a village like atmosphere. It had delightful houseboats and abounds with history. There was a lot of wonderful galleries, but alas I am already over my baggage limit! This is the first place we have been that there are no homeless or beggars!

Yesterday we climbed the mountain behind our house and explored the housing at the top. The houses were huge, and all gated. It took us a long time to climb up there.. You could see San Fran City, Golden Gate Bridge in the distance [but only just because of the smog / fog] and the Bay City Bridge. The development we are staying in, is in the Old Leona Rock Quarry and is executive type condominiums, but the houses at the top were Mansions. The land in between this development and the houses at the top is protected habitat. I can tell you I felt like a mountain goat going up and down. The grass is all so dry, so although there is a track of sorts, it is so slippery. With my recent accident prone history, I was so careful. I was very pleased at the top that there was a seat just for me 🙂

Today we took an Uber and went to Lake Merrit. It is actually a tidal lagoon, sort of a heart shape with the oldest wildlife refuge in USA. We walked the whole way around, stopping at the rose garden, community gardens and the bonsai garden. I loved the bonsai garden. We spoke to several of the volunteers who were all to happy to share their passion. Jason, you would have loved this. Some of the trees in the collection were more than a hundred years old. I learnt a new word today – docent! A person who acts as a guide, typically on a voluntary basis. So, our new experiences also lead us to new words! Typically most people we meet, think Colin is from England. His accent is obviously blended, but they have more trouble understanding me. There is a tent city springing up in the park, and it is a bit intimidating in parts. Even the band rotunda has been taken over.

Well that’s it for now, we are flying to Las Vegas on Sunday afternoon, so just have one more day here in San Fran. Will see what the weather is like tomorrow and plan our day from there.

Before I forget I wanted to share with you our trip to Alcatraz … okay I know I said we had been, but it was the tour that I forgot to mention. Once in a previous lifetime when working at Big Day out, I wandered past the silent disco and was fascinated / amused by everyone dancing manically while wearing headphones. Alcatraz reminded me of that – everyone wearing these little head phones and walking around like zombies. It was a great tour, but unless you pushed pause, you just kept following the instructions and there was hardly anyone talking inside the main cell house, which actually meant you could just absorb your surroundings and hear the narrator. “look ahead and you will see a green door … go thru it” and everyone just did as they were told!!

We found a little hidden place that not many tourists take the time to go to. The Hidden Stairs in ‘Sunset’. We used our MUNI passes and took the train, asked a few locals and found them. What a treat, there are these incredible murals when you look up, but just a few tiles on each stair, which are each sponsored by the local community. We had a womble around the neighbourhood, and were delighted to see Pohutakawa (Tahitian) and Manuka Trees!! Who would have though we would see these in suburban San Fran!

The next day we used our MUNI passes again and headed out to Lands End and the Legion of Honour Museum. An incredible building, but because we had spent so long on our walk to to Lands End, we didn’t have enough time to visit the museum.

We also found a Holocaust Memorial that was so bleak, I couldn’t take a photo. We have been to two of these now in America. Our first one was in Houston and even then I couldn’t take a photo. We also stopped in at the National Cemetery where all the crosses are laid out with precision. In both places, you have this sense that war is senseless and we should all be a bit more generous with our love.

Anyway we had a very hot walk down to the coast and Lands End – it gave us great views of the Golden Gate Bridge. The bridge reminds me of Rangitoto Is. – you can look at it from many different points, but it is the same.

We are now staying out in Oakland in an Executive House on the Hill, Monte Vista Villas called Sky View, with a lovely young couple who have a gorgeous dog.

We have had a really quiet time since moving here yesterday, although we did go on a walk and our hosts said we shouldn’t really be walking there!!! I actually did feel that we were like two fleas on a dog’s bum!! Even though we had walked to Lands End in the morning, I walked up those hills back to our AirBnB at a bit more than a dawdle on the way back!! When Colin went to heat up his chicken soup, he found that I had got broth!! Whooops! I was so distracted by the locals being distracted by us, that I had no attention to detail !! We had cereal for dinner. You will be pleased to know that we found the proper supermarket today, and will only have cereal for breakfast from here.

We have had to get an American Phone as they were unable to unlock either of ours and roaming for this trip may have broke the bank!! Anyways, you can’t do anything without data, so a new phone we have.

We have 5 more days here and have plenty more to explore. Let’s hope the gorgeous weather continues.

Ps: it ain’t so windy in Oakland!