Friday 16th August - 95% back to health and raring to go! The train trip from LA to San Diego was very scenic and we arrived at Santa Fe station at lunchtime. We were picked up by our hotel's shuttle bus and taken to Shelter Island and our accommodation at Best Western Island Palms for the next few nights. The best part of our accommodation is the location - right across the water from the San Diego Naval Base. John was rapt watching all the various aircraft taking off and landing from the comfort of his chair on the verandah.
This afternoon we enjoyed a long leisurely walk along the waterfront, ending up at the Red Sails Inn Restaurant for a delicious seafood meal by the harbour.
Saturday 17th August - The Hop on Hop off trolley bus picked us up this morning right outside of our hotel and we started with a full 2 hour loop of this absolutely gorgeous city. Two days just isn't enough here and I would love to come back for a longer time one day. Around lunchtime we 'hopped off' at the USS Midway - the primary reason for our visit to San Diego. John was dead set keen to explore this huge aircraft carrier and I guarantee there wasn't one square inch of it that we missed. It was very interesting though I must admit, especially walking around on the landing deck and seeing all the planes various. It was late afternoon by the time we left the ship so we caught the Hop on Hop Off trolley back to the hotel. Tonight we enjoyed dinner in the restaurant at the hotel - seafood chowder to die for!
Tuesday 20th August - After a leisurely breakfast in our apartment, we headed out to explore New York City. Before leaving Australia we bought a three day Hop on Hop off bus pass. We did the "Downtown" tour today which took us to all those places that we had always wanted to see...Times Square, Madison Square Garden, the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center etc etc. It was so very hot and humid, but we didn't care - we had an incredible day.
Monday 26th August - Today we caught the subway from Lexington Avenue to the Meatpacking District so that we could walk the High Line. First of all though we had a wander through Chelsea Markets where we stopped for a coffee to fuel up for the walk ahead. The walk along the High Line was just wonderful. It was another really hot day so we just took our time and soaked up the atmosphere. New York should be proud of the way that they have rejuvenated an old derelict area of the City into what is now a major tourist attraction and green space. Other cities in the world could really learn from them. When we exited the High Line we continued walking until we got to the Empire State Building. By that time we were not only exhausted, but parched and famished. There was a terrific restaurant underneath the building where we took refuge for a couple of hours to enjoy lunch/dinner and a few cold drinks.
Thursday 29th August - Our last day in New York. We didn't stray too far from the vicinity of our apartment today. First of all we had a wander down 5th Avenue, passing all of the high-end fashion stores such as Cartier, Hermes, Christian Dior etc before ending up at what has to be the most incredible toy store in the whole world...FAO Schwarz...home of the famous Big Piano as seen on the Tom Hanks' movie "Big"...
Friday 30th August - it was an early morning start for us as we farewelled our little apartment and walked up to Madison Avenue to catch a taxi to Penn Station for the train trip to Washington. It turned out to be a lovely relaxed and scenic journey which took around 3 1/2 hours. After checking into our hotel, the Omni Shoreham, which was to be our 'home' for the next few days
Saturday 31st August - It seemed like the whole population of Washington was out and about today. It was the first day of a long weekend and it was incredibly hot and humid. We did a hop on hop off bus tour to see the city by day and we once again patted ourselves on the back for our decision to do the twilight tour last night. For several hours we took refuge in the lovely cool air-conditioned Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. It was really excellent, especially the section on the Apollo space missions...and a great way to stay cool.
Sunday 1st September - we were back on the hop on hop off bus again today, with the intention of getting off at Georgetown to go on a boat cruise. Sadly the waiting time was three hours so we 'hopped' back on the bus and went to Arlington Cemetary. There's one thing about the Americans - they sure know how to honour their war heroes and deceased distinguished people. This place was amazing and we were ever so grateful for the shuttle bus that took us all around the vast grounds, as it was another blisteringly hot and humid day. On the way back to the City we passed by the Pentagon, but that's all we were able to do. We weren't even supposed to take photos but my camera just slipped!
Monday 2nd September - Chicago bound today. We probably would never have gone to Chicago except for the fact that our Vacations by Rail tour was to depart from here, but we were so thankful that we did. Apart from New York, which is in a class of its own, Chicago was our favourite city of our whole trip. It's absolutely beautiful mainly due to its location beside Lake Michigan. Of course we were there in lovely cool sunny weather but I think it would be a totally different story come winter-time. Our hotel at the Sofitel Water Tower was just around the corner from Oprah Winfrey's penthouse, but she mustn't have been in town because I never heard from her inviting me to afternoon tea. In lieu of that we decided to have a wander around the vicinity of our hotel, which as it turned out was only a few blocks from Oak Street Beach. How lovely was it to go for a nice long walk along the beach front.
Tuesday 3rd September - A whole day of sightseeing today. We went by Hop on Hop Off Trolley buses all through the City, stopping for a walk along Navy Pier,
a wander through Millenium Park
It didn't take too long after leaving the city of Chicago to be out in the open countryside. Before dark we travelled through Illinois where we saw lush farmlands of corn and potatoes, crossed the mighty Mississippi River, 
Thursday 5th September - Well, what an 'interesting' night we spent in our bunks. John insisted on taking the top bunk (although I knew it would be a mistake given the number of times a night he gets up!). He was strapped in with a netting contraption, just like a spider. At one stage I woke up to a 'bang!' as the ladder was accidentally kicked onto the floor and all I could see in the half-light was a leg waving backwards and forwards in front of my face! Let's just say that we didn't get a whole lot of sleep that night.
The daylight hours were just wonderful as the train travelled through New Mexico, with a stop at Alburquerque for a photo of John pointing left (only Bugs Bunny fans would know the significance of that..."I shoulda toined left at Alburquerque").
We finally reached Flagstaff around 9pm, where the escorted part of our journey would begin.
Friday 6th September - We are the only two Australians in a busload of Americans, and something of a novelty. Our fellow travellers are from all over America and they seemed like a great bunch of people, so we were looking forward to getting to know them over the next couple of weeks. But today we had much more important things to do - see the Grand Canyon.
I will never forget my first reaction when I laid eyes on this masterpiece of Nature. I just gasped and started to cry. I have never before seen anything quite so spectacular, and we have seen our share of amazing sites (Santorini, Niagara Falls, Iceland etc) but this was HUGE!
We had the whole day here to just do what we wanted to do. We did a fair bit of walking and a whole lot of gazing, but even by the end of day we still hadn't had enough. But to add to our whole experience, in the late afternoon a storm rolled in. The noise of the thunder as it echoed through the canyon was intense, and we even got to see lightning, and lots of rain.
If our holiday had to come to an end this evening, I would be OK with it as I don't believe that I could ever top the sites and emotions of this memorable day.
Saturday 7th September - But the holiday didn't come to an end yesterday and today our destination was Las Vegas...VIVA! The drive from Flagstaff was very interesting - Route 66, a stop for lunch at The Cracker Barrel in Kingman, Arizona with its "Wholesome Fixin's"
the Mojave Desert,
the Hoover Dam,
Lake Mead
and, finally, Las Vegas!
Our accommodation was at the Tropicana, right on the Strip. It's been in Las Vegas for a very long time, but it has all been refurbished and is pretty schmick. Once we settled into our lodgings, we decided to go for a wander around before it was time to get ready for tonight's entertainment. Before leaving Australia we checked to see what shows were on in Vegas for the time we were there, and we couldn't believe our luck that, just for this weekend...Jerry Seinfeld at Caesar's Palace. Everything that I had heard about Caesar's Palace couldn't prepare me for the magnitude and opulence of this place. It's incredible! Jerry Seinfeld's show was just brilliant - 2 1/2 hours of nothing...just like his show. We laughed until we were crying.
After the show we were in no hurry to get back to our hotel, so we decided to walk the length of The Strip, which is very long. The lights, the atmosphere...there's nothing like it in the world.
Another highlight for us was the Bellagio fountains. They come on every 15 minutes and are perfectly synchronised to music. We stayed for four 'performances'...absolutely fascinating.
We finally arrived back at our hotel around 1am ready for a big day tomorrow.
Sunday 8th September - After a bit of a sleep in we enjoyed a quiet stroll along the strip - very different from last night and not too many people about. One really cool place that we visited was the Coca Cola Shop where I had my photo taken with the very large and cuddly Coca Cola bear...
After lunch we were picked up by stretch limo from our hotel and taken to The Elvis Chapel (well one of the many I guess) so that we could renew our wedding vows. Yes it's hammy but we had a fabulous time - a much better time than at our actual wedding! 'Elvis' was a real sweetie and we had the whole thing video-taped so that we could upload it to You Tube. Even though we had a lot of laughs (especially when John tried to dance along with me and Elvis...absolutely tragic!) it was a very moving and special occasion for us both. Another highlight moment of our lives.
Tonight our tour group we bussed to Freemont Street, the second most popular street in the Las Vegas Valley after The Strip, and home of the famous Golden Nugget Casino. Our main purpose for visiting Freemont Street tonight though was for the 'Freemont Street Experience' - a five block entertainment district, the centrepiece of which is 'Viva Vision' the world's largest video screen. This huge screen is suspended above the pedestrian mall and has the most amazing light and sound shows every 15 minutes...
What a day!
Monday 9th September - Farewell Las Vegas - you were awesome! Our destination today was Merced, gateway to Yosemite National Park. We travelled through the Mojave Desert, (scattered with Joshua trees, the only place in the world where they can be found), stopping for lunch at Barstow along Route 66 in San Bernardino County (very interesting lunch stop this...definitely 'Hillbilly Central')
and then on to Bakersfield where we hopped on a train bound for Merced and our hotel for the night.
Tuesday 10th September - Well, we thought that we had National Parks in Australia but they are just plantations compared to the National Parks of the USA. Yosemite is huge and spectacular. We were a little concerned that we wouldn't be able to actually be allowed into the Park due to some pretty serious forest fires in the past few weeks which had destroyed quite a large area of the Park. But this place is so big that it didn't really even make a dent. Why, when they have rock slides they are so big that it's easier to build a road around them than try to clear them away...
We had the whole day to explore what we could of this incredible place and we certainly gave it our best shot
We reluctantly left the Park quite late in the afternoon to board the bus bound for Sacramento.
Wednesday 11th September - Sacramento! "Big Valley" territory. In the 1970's "Big Valley" was one of my favourite TV shows and I was pretty dang excited about going to Old Sacramento Town in case I chanced upon one of the Barkley family. Fortunately our hotel was just over the road so we got to spend most of our day here.
First up we joined in a tour of the California State Railroad Museum which was just wonderful. I especially loved the way the old train carriages had been all done up to recreate the past
We ended up spending a few hours here before venturing out to walk through the Old Town - it was like stepping back in time
Tonight our tour group had dinner on an old river boat - the Delta King. Lots of fun and good food.
Thursday 12th September - Farewell Sacramento - we are San Francisco bound. It was yet one of those 'pinch me' moments in life when I got my first glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge.
We walked the whole of Fisherman's Wharf before heading back to our tour group for our afternoon guided tour of San Francisco
After a few hours wandering through some of the walking tracks in Muir Woods our next stop was Sausalito, a very upmarket city in the San Francisco Bay area. It was a little bit too touristy for our liking but we did enjoy sitting by the harbourside with the view of San Francisco in front of us
This afternoon, back in San Francisco, we were determined that we would go for a ride on the famous cable car. We lined up for a LONG time but nothing was going to deter us. The reason why there was such a long wait was because of the huge number of people in the city - the America's Cup Yacht Race was on. It was actually quite cool seeing some of the yachts racing, but it did mean that all of the tours to Alcatraz were booked out (maybe next time).
Finally though it was our turn to hop on a cable car, and what a hoot it turned out to be. We weren't quite game enough to ride on the side step but it was so much fun to hurtle down the steep streets. If the wait hadn't been so long, we would have definitely lined up for another go...again, maybe next time.
Saturday 14th September - Although I didn't leave my whole heart in San Francisco, I did leave a little bit of it...I just loved the place. But we still had so much to see on our "Best of the West Tour". After a 1/2 hour bus ride to Emeryville, we boarded the "California Zephyr" train which took us over the Sierra Nevada Mountains to Elko, Nevada. This incredibly scenic journey took us pretty much the rest of the day and we were quite happy to just sit back and let it happen.
Sunday 15th September - Happy Birthday to me!! As with quite a few birthdays over the past several years I was somewhere overseas and enjoying every minute. Today we headed towards Salt Lake City, Utah over the Great Salt Lake and Bonneville Salt Flats, where the movie "The World's Fastest Indian" was filmed.
We reached Salt Lake City around lunchtime and I had my eyes peeled for an 'Osmond Siting'. In my teenage years, The Osmond Brothers were a huge (Mormon) singing sensation. I just loved them and would have been quite happy to have become a Mormon just so that I could marry Jay Osmond. Still, I think I did quite well with my John, so no regrets. The most notable thing about Salt Lake City, apart from the ginormous Tabernacle, is that it's pristine clean. We went for a tour of the City before heading off to our final destination of the day - Price, Utah. This is real Cowboy Territory - I could just imagine a battle between cowboys and Indians taking place here
Monday 16th September - Well today was a bit unexpected. We were due to take the train back to Chicago, but because of floods around Boulder, Colorado, the train only got as far as Grand Junction. So, while a whole mess of people were stranded at Grand Junction, we got to travel in our tour bus to Denver where we would hook up with the "California Zephyr" later that afternoon. The bonus for us was that, because the bus route was going to be a lot faster than the train would have been, we had a few hours to kill so we were taken to the ski resort of Vail. And to reach Vail and subsequently Denver, we got to travel over the magnificent Rocky Mountains. It turned out to be a brilliant day.
We finally boarded the "California Zephyr" in Denver in the late afternoon for our return to Chicago.
Tuesday 17th September - After spending the night in our comfy little sleeper on the train, we arrived back in Chicago mid afternoon and said goodbye to Jan our Tour Director and all the lovely people we met on our tour. We caught a taxi to our accommodation for the next couple of nights - the Chicago Hilton - located right on The Magnificent Mile.
We had seen the guy on "Man versus Food" rave about Billy Goat's Tavern and, as it was only a short walk from the hotel we decided to try it for ourselves. Well, what a disappointment...the most pathetic burger I have ever tasted in my life. The meat was really thin and the only accompaniments were cheese and pickles. Turns out we were the billy goats for going there!
Wednesday 18th September - A whole day in the lovely city of Chicago! Our first stop was the Tribune Building which was just over the road. We walked around the outside of it checking all of the rocks and bricks from significantly important sites throughout the world that are embedded in the base of the building
After that we took a short stroll down to the waterfront where we went for an Architectural Cruise. Sounds boring, but it was absolutely brilliant, made especially so by the wonderful, very enthusiastic and hilarious tour guide we had. We learned so much more about this fabulous city on a lovely bright and sunny day. The bright sunny day however was about to change as late afternoon brought dark foreboding clouds. We grabbed a quick dinner and retreated to our lovely hotel room just before the heavens opened ahead of a massive storm. The lightening was unbelievable, the thunder sounded so loud and it absolutely teamed with rain...all night long.
Thursday 19th September - Despite the fact that we awoke to another sunny day, the storm last night had brought havoc and delayed all flights in and out of Chicago. Consequently we didn't end up reaching Los Angeles until quite late in the afternoon. Because we had booked a B&B in Hollywood for the remainder of our holiday, we had a long bus ride before we got there. I wasn't too keen about going back to LA as it's definitely not my favourite city in the world but we had Disneyland and Universal Studios still to look forward to.
The B&B was really quirky and we ended up really enjoying it. The outside was painted in really bright colours of purple, green and pink, with lots and lots of beading all up the sides of the garden path and the posts outside...
The situation was great as well - a little too far to walk into the centre of Hollywood but there was a good bus stop over the road and Sunset Boulevard was only two blocks down the road with lots of restaurants. Our favourite quickly turned out to be a great vegetarian restaurant - and to prove that you can't hide anywhere in the world, our lovely waitress turned out to be from Hawthorne in Brisbane and went to Lourdes Hill College, my old high school (although she may have been about twenty years or so after me).
Friday 20th September - Without a doubt this was the BEST DAY of my whole holiday. In fact I would go so far to say that it was one of the best days of my whole life. We went to Disneyland - the most magical place on Earth. We took the bus down from Hollywood bright and early in the morning and finally staggered back to the B&B at nearly midnight.
When I first saw the Disneyland sign I just about burst into tears. We went on every possible ride that we could fit into the day. No time to stop to eat - takeaways only. The only time we really did stop was when the Disney Parade was on and I let John have a seat for the duration of that.
I just wished that we had more than one day here (although I don't think that John did).
Saturday 21st September - After our epic day yesterday we really needed a sleep-in and a quieter day. So we decided to have a roam around Hollywood. Well how very unimpressed we were. It's so grotty. Just for something a bit different we decided to see a 3D remake of "The Wizard of Oz" in Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Although the movie was pretty 'meh' the fact that we were in Grauman's made it pretty special. For dinner we returned to our favourite vegetarian restaurant on Sunset Boulevard and then early to bed in advance of another huge day tomorrow.
Sunday 22nd September - Universal Studios! To get there we caught the Subway which was probably the best way to get there given the horrendous traffic in LA. Once out of the Subway it was just a matter of hopping on a shuttle bus which took us to the main gate. By a stroke of genius on our part, we decided to purchase Front of Line passes which meant that we were able to enter each ride through a special 'express' line and get boarded first. Which in theory is just perfect, unless you sit in the very front of the first car on the Jurassic Park ride....where you get VERY wet
By the end of the day there wasn't a single ride we hadn't been on, and we also managed to fit in the Studio Tour. Another epic day!
Monday 23rd September - At our friend Prue's recommendation, our mission for today was to visit The California Science Centre at Exposition Park. And it really became a mission but one which had a successful outcome. After much getting on and getting off public transport various, we arrived at this fascinating place where we spend many hours. The main highlight for us both was the Space Shuttle Endeavour...it was HUGE! And just to think that this monolith actually went into space. Another HH (Holiday Highlight).
We finally got back to Hollywood in time for dinner and then to crash into bed.
Tuesday 24th September - Our last day before heading home and we had hit a brick wall. We were totally and utterly exhausted and didn't seem to have the energy for anything. The weather was quite hot and humid and, at John's suggestion, we decided to go to the movies - well we were in Hollywood after all. What a wonderful idea that turned out to be. The theatre was cool and quiet and the movie "Hostages" with Hugh Jackman ran for nearly three hours. The movie was 'meh' but it was just lovely to chill out. We were definitely ready to go home.
Wednesday 25th & Thursday 26th September - We said farewell to the good old USA today. It was great. We met some fabulous people, saw some jawdropping things, went to Disneyland and had an amazing time. Thank you America - we love you!!!
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