Watch this space…

So day 7 was spent almost exclusively at Universal Studios – Hollywood.

Even though it was drizzling all day we still had a great time. Some of the experiences there are really cool especially Waterworld and the Terminator 3D show. The simpsons rise is awesome and should be checked out as well!

After the park closed we ate at the hard rock cafe at the universal lot. That was quite cool too!

We were both quite tired after that and knowing I had a 4 or 5 hour drive the next day we got an early night.

Day 8 started with an early breakfast and a trip to the bank to change some travellers cheques.

Then we hit the road and started our epic journey to Vegas!

The drive was very easy actually. We stopped a couple of times for food and nature breaks!

We arrived at Vegas just before 3pm. Driving down the strip was amazing. It was jam packed full of people. We checked in and unpacked our stuff then went for a walk down the strip. My sister and her boyfriend have paid for us to go to Medieval Times while we’re out here, but didn’t realise that there wasn’t one here in Vegas, there is however the Tournament of Kings at the Excalibur hotel which is the same thing more or less. In fact I imagine it’d be bigger and better!

Annoyingly the show wasn’t on last night so we booked our tickets for today’s showing and headed back out to the strip. We went in some shops and looked around the M&M’s store! That thing has 4 floors!! Crazy!

Later we went to an Irish bar called MacMillans just off the strip. A guy I know works there. We had a fun time there as there was a pub quiz that we came last in!!

Today we’ve got the Tournament of Kings and a flight around the grand canyon to look forward to!!

Day 6 was a lot of driving! We left the tiny place we were at last night, San Simeon, and made our way to Los Angeles. 230 miles!

The trip was pretty much uneventful for the most part, aside from the odd stop here and there we just drove. We arrived just after midday, checked in, then went for a drive.

Toured through Hollywood then Beverly Hills, then down to the beach!

Tomorrow we’re doing universal studios!

We set off from Monterey and headed to our next destination: San Simeon.

The drive was beautiful if only ruined by the fog! Damn fog obscured most of the route. We stumbled across a vista point where a load of elephant seals were chilling out (see pics) before heading back north.

About a mile from the hotel we stopped at a place called Hearst Castle. Intrigued about what the Americans called a castle we decided to take the tour! The visitor centre is about 5 miles away from the actual place and we had to get on a coach to get there. The castle was built/owned by William Hearst back in the 1920′s till the 40′s. I won’t go into the history lesson but he had lots of famous people come to visit like Charlie Chaplin and Gretta Garbo. The grounds were amazing. Our tour guide, Tim, said that it was nicknamed the castle but was never called that back when it was in use. All sorts of building styles were utilised in the construction.

After the tour was over we headed to our hotel in San Simeon. What a dive!! No hot water from the taps, towel were tiny, no wifi in the rooms, and to cap it all off there was literally nothing to do or see! We ended up driving 10 miles down the road to the next town to get something to eat.

After a very lazy 2 hour drive (apart from a couple of times where I had to over take some slow moving vehicles that were ruining our view) we arrived in Monterey. We had planned on going to the aquarium here but decided not to go as we only had a few hours before it was closed so instead we ate at a local fish place which was really nice and located on sort of a jetty thing so it over hung the water. Was really surprised to see some seals in the water!

After that we walked about the shops and found a ‘interesting’ wax works. It tried very hard to explain some of the history about the local area. The sound was terrible, but at least we got to learn a bit of the history.

We decided to go for a drive to Carmel by the sea which was 10/20 mins down the road.

What a beautiful place. I wished the weather was a bit better as the fog made everything a bit colder.

We stumbled upon a housing estate where all the houses were completely different! Crazy architecture like I’ve never seen!

After breakfast we jumped in the ‘Stang and headed to Oakland. I wanted to show Anna a Walmart and that was the closest one! Anna was amazed at how cheap everything is here! I was amazed to see them selling tires!!

After we’d bought some supplies and t-shirts we jumped back in the car and decided to not go back via the bridge. Avoiding toll roads we ended up coming into San Francisco via the 1 road up through Pacifica avoiding all the interstates and sticking to local roads. We followed the coast line for the most part and had a nice lunch at a small place called Crystal Springs Village.

Once we got back to the hotel we walked into the city to Union Square to looking in some expensive shops and headed into a rather disappointing Chinatown.

We were woken at 4am ish and decided to head down to IHOP for breakfast at 5am! It was a bit surreal but the food was most excellent!

We returned to the hotel to meet up with the holiday rep and get our pack with all our details in and accommodation info for the honeymoon. We’ve bought tickets to universal studios and a flight from
Vegas around the grand canyon!

After the meeting we went down to pier 39 and booked ourselves onto a tour of Alcatraz. With a few hours to spare before that started we explored pier 39 some more! There are some really cool shops!

Once we were done there we got on the boat to Alcatraz! The island is a very interesting place. We followed the audio tour which provided a lot of insight into the place and really opened our eyes to what life may have been like for inmates. Very much worth a vista of you’re ever in San Francisco!

After we got back we walked down the the pier again and had a late lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. The food was amazing!

After lunch we went for a drive over the golden gate bridge! We were highly disappointed though as we couldn’t see the damn thing!! Fog returned to the bay today and obscured the whole thing! Typical! I found what looked like an interesting spot on the map and drove out there. More fog!

But I got the opportunity to take some nice photos of the mustang in the fog!!

We returned the hotel as we were pretty tired after a very busy day and I passed out at about 7 or 8pm apparently!

More tomorrow!

Day 1: Flights and First impressions of San Fransisco.

4am UK time – I’m woken up by Anna and we decide to get up an hour early and get ready for the epic 11.5 hour flight to SF.

We arrived at Heathrow Airport 90 minutes early so we sat around waiting patiently till we were allowed into the main lounge area. Once in we had some breakfast and at 11:00 we were able to board the plane.

The flight was very long! I managed to watch 4 movies I think! Loving the new movies on demand digital players everyone now has access to, even in the economy seats. I took a few pictures from my window seat of the landscape over America (see below)

Once we arrived in SF we made our way through passport control, collected our bags and made our way to the car rentals place.

The guy at hertz made sure that we got the mustang I was hoping for!! She’s beautiful in White!!

The drive to the hotel was somewhat interesting.. People are very impatient! And some of the driving rules at junctions are baffling! Such as being able to turn left at a red light provided you’ve stopped first!! Had some dude behind me beeping his horn making me edge forward a bit and push my way into the traffic. I moved out into a big enough space and then had some irate Dude in a civic giving me grief.

Anna was a bit traumatised by the whole experience! It wasn’t that bad to me so here’s hoping driving later today is better!!

Once we got to the hotel we checked in and decided to pop out for a bite to eat. What we saw of the main road was beautiful. I got a couple of cool pictures. We ate at a burger place called Carls. It was good! The milkshake was amazing.

On the way back to the hotel it was just getting dark and we’d seen a fair number of homeless people and the usual weirdos and crazy people in the street but one of them ran up to Anna with his hands all scary like going booooooo!!!! Anna hadn’t seen him till he was all up in her face! He didn’t touch her or anything but it was so funny!

So that was day one! We were really tired when we got back to the hotel, I passed out but we were both woken up at 3am and I decides to post this!

More later today!

As many of you now know we’re only a few short weeks away from the next expansion and with that in mind I’ve been on a mini wow break.

Not done any raiding for about 2 months now – dont wanna get too burnt out for the expansion and all the crazyness thats going to bring!

Also I’m getting married in 7 days!  Yep thats right! Married!
I cant wait for the honeymoon! My beautiful Anna-Louise and I will be jetting off to the Golden Coast  - 2 weeks in California doing a fly-drive tour of the state.

Starting in San Francsisco, following the coast south through Monterey/Carmel then down to San Luis Obispo. From there we head to L.A for a few days then a medium to long drive to Las Vegas!! Hoping to see lots of cool stuff there! After a couple of days in Las Vegas we then head down to San Diego then back to LA to fly back home to the UK.

I’m going to see if I cant at least get to Blizzards HQ to at least take a photo – I’m hoping they do tours of the place, but cant find anything to suggest otherwise! Anyone know if thats possible?

Also does anyone have any suggestions for places to visit?

I’m even more excited as I’ll be driving one of these bad boys!

Oh I really cant wait!!

Anyway – short but sweet today – will post some more about my cataclysm findings soon!