landing in l.a. [wednesday, may 14]

la jolla [thursday, may 15]

We woke up at an ungodly hour (no surprise there), but that's not necessarily a bad thing when you're a tourist. You get up before the rest of the tourists and you can get out and start sightseeing much earlier in the day. Of course you're a zombie by midafternoon, but at least you get an early start. Just down the road from the hotel is a bagel bakery, so we opt for a cream cheese-slathered bagel to go with our Holiday Inn Express buffet. We sit outside and eat, while I lean back in a chair and bask in the glory of sunshine and decent bagels. Paul's parents are also here visiting his Grandma and our trips have overlapped by a couple of days. We met up with them and took a stroll in the La Jolla sunshine along the beach. There are sunbathing seals on the sands below, and palm trees, boutiques, restaurants, joggers, people walking their dogs, and houses line the street above. It's a wonderfully relaxed place, and a bit posh (I saw it referred to as the "Californian Riviera" in one travel guide I read). Paul's Grandma lives in a fabulously swanky retirement residence, which is a series of large apartments overlooking the ocean. Day one, and I've got a sunburn. Hurrah.

The Matrix: Reloaded has opened in North America today, and we simply must go and see it as it doesn't open in the UK until a week later (and so I can taunt my friends back home with text messages). We drove into San Diego to the Horton Plaza, an outdoor mall in the middle of the city. The film was great but left all of us thinking we need to see it a few more times to understand the plot (I blame the jet lag). We met up with Paul's Grandma and her husband for dinner at one of my old favourites, the Red Lobster. How declassé, I know. It's actually the last place you should go to eat seafood in a place like California. The fish is so good everywhere in this state, except at the Red Lobster where it must be trucked in frozen from their head office thousands of miles away. I still enjoy it as it's a comfort from home, but again it's a struggle to stay awake and alert until the end of dinner. Back to the hotel, collapsing into bed, certain once again that we'll wake up at an ungodly hour.

today, we will be mostly eating and shopping [friday, may 16]

We woke up at an ungodly hour (well we did) feeling slightly more human but still very jet lagged. We went for another sourdough bagel this morning, but the sunshine has disappeared - we got lucky yesterday but today it's back to the typical La Jolla mist and "May grey". Paul's parents are heading back to the UK this afternoon, so we met up for a fantastically starchy breakfast at the IHOP (International House of Pancakes). Oh, the absolute bliss of eating large fluffy pancakes instead of the thin crepe-like pancakes we get in England. They had not one, but THREE different kinds of syrup. Lurrrrrverly. I love how Americans do breakfast because they do it with the vigour of someone who's never going to see another breakfast food item ever again. You don't get a measly toast and coffee breakfast around these parts; you get a meal involving at least 4 different items with a gallon of coffee and a bucket of orange juice. The "light breakfast" option was sausage, bacon, eggs, toast, and hash browns. I'm not entirely sure what was "light" about it, although it was made up of 1 egg and not 3, and you only got 2 pieces of meat instead of 4. And people wonder why they're not losing weight even when they're eating "light". I fancied pancakes with my breakfast, but the minimum I could get was 3 the size of my head. Paul's Dad took one from me, and I managed to eat the remaining 2 plus my scrambled eggs, toast, and hash browns. How happy am I that ketchup is always on the table in American restaurants and you never have to ask for it? Very.

We said our goodbyes and headed out to do some serious outlet mall shopping for the afternoon. And shop we did. We didn't get nearly as many things as I thought we would, but we did manage to fill the car up with quite a few purchases. I love clothes shopping in the States - it's so much cheaper and I'm 2 sizes smaller. Tonight's dinner is at the Mandarin House, a Chinese restaurant (conveniently right next to our hotel) that's been a favourite with Paul's family for years. After a few powerful Mai Tais, we rolled back to our room and flopped into bed. We will probably wake up early tomorrow, but not at an ungodly hour.

around the bay in san diego [saturday, may 17]

It's a very misty day in La Jolla, and doesn't improve that much as we drive into San Diego. We've planned a harbour cruise today, and luckily the sun makes it through the mist by the time we get there. The cruise lasts an hour and takes you around the bay; however we're unfortunate enough to get a tour guide who doesn't stop talking the entire time (and maybe 50% of what he's saying has to do with the actual tour). There's something slightly terrifying about being trapped on a boat with a man who doesn't know when to stop talking, and who also happens to have a megaphone. The tour is still quite good fun and it's lovely to be out on the water. After the cruise, we walked around Seaport Village, a touristy shop area by the water. We stopped for Ben and Jerry's ice cream (I had a scoop of Reese's Peanut Butter Cup ice cream, which is probably making half of you go "Mmmmm!" and the other half of you go "Ewww!"), and eventually stopped for a drink at the Hyatt. The Hyatt has a gorgeous terrace facing the water where you can order drinks and meals, and is one of the nicer spots to stop and refuel. We headed back to La Jolla to have a final meal with Paul's Grandma and her husband at Shelby's, which is closing soon. This isn't terrible news, really - it's not a great restaurant. The food is fairly bland and overcooked, and the clam chowder most certainly came out of a tin. At least we get 10% off as guests of the Holiday Inn, so it's not a total letdown. I'm sorry that this is our last night in La Jolla. I've really grown fond of it, its relaxed atmosphere, and beautiful coastline. I'm already thinking about our next visit back.

a drive through the desert [sunday, may 18]

It's our last breakfast at the Holiday Inn (a ritual I'm going to miss) as we're heading off for a 5 hour drive to Vegas. I've wanted to go to Vegas for years - there's something alluring about its cheesy and tacky personality. I imagine it to be like a giant theme park; surreal and hilarious. It's a long, hot drive to Vegas from La Jolla, and I'm seeing a desert in person for the first time in my life. I'm disappointed in the lack of the kind of cacti you see in cartoons and movies (the ones shaped like the letter Y), but amazed to see things growing in this blistering heat. There's one radio station available during this drive; a speciality station giving information about the highway to and from Vegas that also plays top 40 songs. At least it's not country and western. We have a quick stop at Denny's for lunch, pop into a huge mall to find a backpack for me (well spotted by Paul), and arrive in Vegas in the afternoon. It is exactly how I imagined it to be, but bigger.

Our hotel is amazing - we're dwarfed by faux stone carvings of pharaohs inside the lobby and our room is in an enormous pyramid. We wandered up and down the strip, looked through different casinos (with the incessant bing bing bing bing noises of the slot machines), and stopped for dinner at the Paris casino. It's incredibly funny to be greeted by restaurant staff in berets going "Bonjour madame!" with heavy American accents. The food is okay, but not brilliant, and pricey. I always had the impression that food and drink in Vegas were cheap because casinos wanted you to spend your money gambling. Apparently harder times means food is definitely not cheap and you're looking to pay around $20 each for a basic dinner with a glass of wine. Luckily, one of the free things you can do is see the spectacular fountain show outside the Belaggio casino. Every half hour or so, huge water fountains are set to various bits of music, and it's absolutely fantastic. If you have ever seen the remake of Ocean's 11, you will recognise the fountain show from the end of the film. Click here for a short movie of the fountain.

Tired from the long drive and hot sun, we headed back to the hotel. We put a few dollars in various slot machines when we returned, but we didn't walk away millionaires. Damn.

viva las vegas [monday, may 19]

So much to do, so much incredibly hot sunshine, and so many incredibly overtanned people who really should step out of the sun for a year or two. We lounged around by the pool all morning, spending a leisurely time soaking up the sun and going for quick dips in the pool. We had a few specific things planned for today, the first of which was a gondola ride in the Venetian hotel. They have a series of "canals" looping around the hotel and one canal outside. For $25, 2 of you can share a gondola with 2 other people or for $50, you can have the whole thing to yourselves. We opted for the latter and had a gondolier with (what we suspected was) a fake Italian accent, but who was great fun. He sang songs to us, told us amusing things about the canals in Venice, tried to figure out my accent, and took us for a spin that lasted about 15-20 minutes. The Venetian is fantastic inside - it makes you feel like you're standing outdoors in an large open space, but you're actually inside a hotel with high ceilings painted like the sky. Opera singers stroll through the square, musicians play throughout the day and evening, along with some jugglers and other performers. It feels clean and airy, classy, and doesn't have that same brashness and tack found in most other casinos. We had a lovely glass of wine in the square then headed out to see more casinos.

We stopped in the Mirage and saw Sigfried and Roy's white tiger (but sadly, they weren't doing any shows the week we were there). We watched the incredibly cheesy fountain show at Caesar's Palace (the fountains "come to life" and ramble on about some sort of mythological story that's hard to understand because the sound system is a bit rubbish), and took a quick peek around the shops. I wanted to find an Internet cafe so I could send my Dad a birthday greeting for the following day, and managed to find one in what is quite possibly the only kosher deli in Vegas. It was directly across from the Treasure Island casino, where we were headed to see the pirate show and have some dinner. Dinner was a nondescript buffet (one of the cheaper ones on the strip) and passed the time until the next pirate show. The Treasure Island casino has a large area of water outside the front where they do a show with lots of explosions and sinking ships. Paul cringes at the bad English accents used in the "play" (why couldn't they have hired English people to do the voiceovers?) but it's a fun show to watch in the evening when it's dark. Similarly, the Mirage do a volcano show outside the hotel every few minutes. It's an impressive water, fire, and explosives display which almost, but not quite makes up for the distinct lack of Sigfried and Roy.

leaving las vegas [tuesday, may 20]

I scribble a few postcards, buy some tacky pens for my workmates, and a Twinkie for Paul (he's never seen one before) before we head out of Vegas. We plan to drive to Mammoth Lake which lies on the east side of Yosemite National Park. We really wanted to visit the park itself, but the roads aren't open due to several feet of snow blocking the roads. It's hard to imagine that there's snow anywhere when we've been lugging ourselves through 95 degree heat all week. We stop in Mammoth Lake to get some lunch and Paul decides that he will be able to drive us closer to our destination (Napa) and we abandon our original plan to find a room here for the night. The town is slightly disappointing; there's not much to it and it lacks charm. The drive is so diverse; we travel from the desert in Nevada to the lush green forests and mountains of the Sierra Nevada in a matter of hours. It's a dramatic (and slightly nervewracking) drive by the mountains, alongside steep cliffs, through narrow twisty roads. There must have been a fire here at some point because several trees are black and charred. Oddly, there are patches of snow on the ground in places - odd because we've still got the air conditioning on in the car and we're in shorts. We made several attempts to cross over to the east, but many roads were blocked by snow. The roads opened up close to Lake Tahoe, so we could finally head east towards Napa. By this time, Paul really needed a rest so we made it to West Sacramento to the Holiday Inn Express. I had a craving for pizza (I'm sorry but the English don't know how to make pizza, and Paul agrees) and in our semiconscious state, ordered one from Domino's. Bliss.

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