So we’re in our last days now, hanging out in San Francisco. We’re both still pretty tired from our time in Las Vegas, we had quite a few late nights there. I’m not quite sure how much money I pushed into slot machines, but I’m definitely not going near one again for a long time.

I played in a poker tournament while I was there (about $90 NZD buy in) and got knocked out pretty early on by thinking I had better cards then I really did, a pretty amateur mistake, and I was doing pretty well up until then, oh well…

We’re trying to get a little Christmas shopping done here before we fly back to NZ tomorrow evening, we leave at 7pm on the 25th and arrive in NZ at 5am on the 27th (long flight, got to love crossing the international date line) so I might see some of ya’ll later next week.

Phil

We’re having too good a time to post on here, sorry!

Have decided to extend our stay from 3 nights to 4 so that we have a chance to see everything. Also, staying an extra night to avoid travelling on Thanksgiving appears to be a good idea.

Today’s our last day in Hollywood before we head off to Las Vegas! Yeah baby!! I’m very much looking forward to Vegas, and I’ve only heard good things from the locals here.

Yesterday was a total write-off for both me and Toni, due to the incredibly strong (and expensive, $10?!) drinks at the Black Light Burns concert, which totally rocked my socks. They played all the songs I love (not too hard given they only have one album) and the opening bands weren’t too bad either, all though one of them was definitely too emo for my liking.

Hopefully the place we’re staying at in Vegas has internet access, and I’ll tell you about all my winings I’m going to make at the Hold’em tables.

Phil

I’ve been biten by a spider. Today we spent 5 hours in the emergency room next to many people that were in a much worse state than me. I’m going to be fine but I think someone actually died while we were there. The Mexican woman behind us most likely had a miscarriage and a middle aged man who appeared to have broken a rib is probably still waiting. I can’t wait to watch ‘Sicko’ when we get home to find out more about how terrible the United States health care system really is.

My foot is fine, I had to get a shot and I’m on a 10 day course of antibiotics. Unfortunately this isn’t my first visit to the doctor since we’ve been here. I had to rush to one in San Francisco for an issue I’d rather not blog about. I think I’m cursed.

Anyway, the trip is going really well apart from these little hiccups. Will keep you posted on what we get up to next.

Toni

P.S. We’ve finally managed to upload some photos to flickr!

Last night we met with some people from our hostel in San Diego for what was supposed to be a pub crawl. We ended up going to a supermarket, buying alcohol and then hanging out in the this really dodgy garage at the back of another hostel. It actually ended up being a heap of fun and it was great to meet some new people.

Today (after getting over our hangovers) we went across to Tijuana. Phil and I both had similar images of a very tourist focused place (much like what we experienced in Thailand) but were hugely surprised that there were very few tourists. No-one really spoke English so trying to get some cash and place an order at McDonald’s wasn’t easy!

We got asked to go and see a ‘donkey’ show but politely declined. Maybe next time, or not. We also ran into a lot of Mexicans trying to sell us photos of their zebras - none of them acknowledging that their ‘zebra’ was actually a donkey with stripes painted on it.

Tomorrow we head back to Los Angeles for the Black Light Burns concert, to visit Universal Studios and to possibly see a movie at the famous Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

So we’ve made it to the southern most city of California, San Diego!!! But I am getting a little bit ahead of myself here…

We spent the last two days in Anaheim, home of the amazing Disney Land. I wasn’t sure how much I was going to enjoy Disney Land, I thought it might be a little bit childish, but I was totally wrong! Disney Land is totally awesome! The rides are all fantastic (especially the Indiana Jones ride) and it was kinda fun seeing all the costumed cartoon characters (I’ve got a couple of photos of me with Micky). We’ll upload the photos when we get a chance.

At the end of our time at Disney Land there was a massive show put on, with fireworks, people fighting on a pirate ship and Micky Mouse taking on the bad guys, it’s was very much like Fantasia and an incredible the amount of effort that must have gone into organising it.

So today we’re planing on exploring San Diego and heading to Tijuana tomorrow, we’ll post an update once we’re back (and hopefully we’ll find a computer with a USB port so we can upload some of these photos!!)

Phil

We’ve just arrived in Hollywood! It’s late so we haven’t been out exploring yet but we’ll be out taking lots of photos first thing tomorrow.

Our last day in San Francisco (for now) was awesome. We visited Haight Ashbury and got some super t-shirts and explored Golden Gate park where Phil made friends with some squirrels.

P.S. Quick pop quiz:
Which one of the following people isn’t going to the Black Light Burns concert:
a) Phil
b) Toni
c) Steve

haha

We like San Francisco. It’s large, but easy to get around by foot which is good as we’ve spent a great deal of time in fast food restaurants (today we had banana nutella & cream crepes for breakfast mmm) – it’s nice to feel like you’re burning off some American made flab while getting to your next destination.

We’ve done most of the San Francisco ‘must dos’: Walked along Fishermans Wharf, tasted some clam chowder, visited Alcatraz, admired the Golden Gate bridge and a heap of window shopping. Tomorrow we’ll head to Haight Asbury & Golden Gate park before heading down to Los Angeles on Saturday.

We still have a heap to do here (I really want to bike across the bridge and Phil wants to visit Silicon Valley) but that will have to wait until we return on Thanksgiving. Unfortunately internet access is hard to come by here (although free wireless hotspots are everywhere) so I can’t upload photos just yet. We have plenty to share though so hopefully I’ll be able to upload some once we reach LA.

Just a quick post to let everyone know we’ve arrived safely. We’ve done little more than sleep so far so will update you when we have something interesting to post.

Phil and Toni