California Dreaming.

Hi, guys - from sunny California!

My flight from Heathrow to San Francisco was possibly the worst journey EVER taken by plane. I was squished right at the back of the plane, quite literally surrounded by screaming children. Nightmare! All of that aside, once I arrived in San Francisco and caught a shuttle out to the hotel, I was feeling a lot better. It was a little windy, but a gorgeous day - however the sight of twisty, bendy stairs first thing in the morning is NOT fun when dragging a suitcase along behind you. Blech!

Our hotel was supposedly a 'short walk from Fisherman's Wharf' and surrounds, so my friend Mel and I set off to explore that day. Er, right. Our 'short walk' was actually an hour and ten minutes. JUST to get to the wharf area! Not impressed. We wandered up to Pier 33, as we wanted to book our Alcatraz tour - only to find out that there wasn't a single tour available to purchase, until next week. I was completely bummed about this, as that's one of the main reasons we decided to start this trip in San Francisco. We did some window shopping, then took our leisurely stroll back to the hotel to get some sleep.

The next day, we were trying to figure out what to do in place of Alcatraz, so ended up doing a city tour instead. It was quite good, 3.5 hours of good ol' fashioned tourist sightseeing (complete with oldies coach!) and it took us everywhere, even over the Bay Bridge to Treasure Island, back around the northern heights and to an awesome Golden Gate viewing point.

Mel and I walked back to Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39, where we were going to meet the lovely Lara - however she sadly wasn't able to make it, so we just walked on back. I'm telling you, the thighs? They are killing me!

This morning saw us bid farewell to foggy San Fran (seriously, all my Golden Gate bridge pictures look grey and gloomy) and fly on down to Los Angeles. Mel drove (bravely) while I sat in the passenger side being an awfully unhelpful backseat driver, but thanks to our lovely Carmen-the-Garmen GPS system, we made it to our next stop for the next 4 nights. We are, quite literally, situated on Venice Beach, home of crazies everywhere! Our window has a sea view - and despite a strange picture of a naked lady on the wall, it has a great bathroom and seems pretty good.

Tonight Mel is being brave and driving us down to Anaheim, where we are going to watch the Angels vs the Yankees game. Should be a good'un! Other than that, we're being LA tourists for the next few days - and catching up with Kirby soon after. It's going so fast already!

Keeping this one short, as I am typing on quite possibly the loudest keyboard in the world. (No, seriously. Loud.) Hoorah! More from me, later.