US All In

It’s bloody hilly. Let’s get that out of the way first. We arrived last night to the Donnatello having driven up Highway 1 from LA. Two things high on our list when talking about San Francisco were a Segway Tour and a trip to see Alcatraz. We got to do both today and man were they sweet. First up was the Segwaying. Myself and Paddy has done a Segway tour in Budapest last year and really enjoyed it. These were newer models though so you lean sideways to turn, even better. The tour itself took in the Fisherman’s Wharf area, little Italy, past Lombard Street (twistiest street in SF), the church where Marilyn Monroe and Joe di Maggio married, Coit Tower and a WWII submarine and warship. We also saw Bush Man, a homeless guy who hides behind a bush and scares people for money (pic of him here). I would have tipped the guy had we not been tooling past at a rate of knots.

From there it was a quick pint in Tiernan’s and off to Pier 33 to catch the ferry out to Alcatraz. The place is jam packed full of history. It was used for a long time by the military as a base of operations before becoming home to some of the US’s most dangerous criminals. The audio tour was all it promised to be and featured former inmates and guards telling their stories of “The Rock”. After almost completing the tour (we missed a room), we were ushered back to the last ferry of the evening. We didn’t get to ride the tram, that’s a regret for me but a small one in the context of what we did.

UPDATE: Well that was different. We woke up to a strobe light and a screaming alarm. The hotel’s fire alarm was wailing so we got dressed quickly and made our way downstairs. The fire department arrived a couple of minutes later and a false alarm declared. Back to bed so.

Taken whilst on our tour of Alcatraz today. We’ve also thrown up a load of photos from the past few days to Flickr so don’t forget to check there. We’ll post choice ones here.

Yesterday I took on the my first driving leg of the trip. That may be suprising to some of you as we thought I wouldn’t be able to drive due to insurance but we got it sorted when we picked up the car. We got lunch in Wendys after driving out of LA and then headed north west to the coast road, Highway 1. It’s called the Pacific Coast Highway and is known as one of the most scenic roads in the world. It’s certainly that with the road weaving around the mountains. In places there’s very little to seperate you from the cliff if you get it wrong. Three hours later we arrived in Monterey Bay where Paddy switched in to take us into SF. This morning we’re chilling out before heading for a Segway Tour of SF along with a trip out to Alcatraz.

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Well it had to happen at some point. The other day as we were cruising down the highway, on our way out of L.A. we see the blinking blue & red lights behind us, of the CHIPS (California Highway Patrol) yep they were blinking at us, & yep he wanted us to pull over. After a bit of indecision as to which side to pull over on (there are hard shoulders in the middle of the road here in parts) we pulled over to the side of the road & waited for him to sidle up to the window. Ive read before the best way to behave is hands flat on your lap (or wheel if you’re the driver), don’t move until he tells you to, & even then tell him what your about to do before you do it. So that’s how we played it.

He told us we were doing 79 in a 65 zone, which we knew. No apologies, we knew we were caught. When we pulled out the Irish drivers licences he softened a bit, & a bit of banter later he sent us on our way, ticket free. Yay for Irishness!

Sunday night we went to see the medievil show in the excalibur casino, tournament of kings. Anyone whos seen cable guy will know the kind of show it is. You get to sit around a small arena eating guinea fowl with your bare hands & swigging mead while a knights of the round kingdom themed combat/musical/acrobatical show goes on in the middle. Each section of the crowd represents a country so everyone has a knight to cheer. All in all the show is good fun, plenty of cheesy acting & the acrobats at the end are really talented. Nice quiet night out in vegas.

Afterwards we walked down the strip to see some of the casinos we hadn’t had a chance to see, the bellagio & the Venetian. These 2 are known to be pretty impressive & the only reason we had left them to this point was they were on the opposite end of the strip to the one we were staying on. Walking down the strip the heat just hits you in the face, theres nearly no breeze & when you do get some its hotter than none. When you wak down the strip a lot of the casinos are linked by walkways or trams, you find yourself going out of your way to go through casinos even if it’s a longer way, for the air-con. Im not comfortable in this climate at all.

So on to the casinos. First the fountains of the Bellagio. What can I say, wow! Probably the best single attraction in Vegas imo. Even in a city like vegas where literally everything is super impressive these blew us all away. The show maybe a minute long & plays every 15 minutes. We stayed for showings, the first set to Shania Twain or something similar, & the second set to some classical music which just made it more beautiful. Im not even going to try and describe the show, we recorded it & its below so see it for yourself.

Finally we popped over to the Venetian. As you might expect its done in the style of Venice. Outside its just as ornate as you’d expect, but the real centrepiece is inside where theres an artificial canal on the second floor, complete with gondola’s & the ceiling is painted & lit perfectly as if it were the sky. When you walk into the first room with this effect the change in lighting along with the perfect paint job really gives the effect of being outside. Very pretty & a lovely way to close out the Vegas weekend.

Literally just uploaded this to Youtube. This was taken on Paddy’s phone on Sunday night before we left Vegas:

As I write this we’re about half way between Las Vegas and LA. We picked up the rental car from the airport this morning after checking out of the Luxor. We thought we were going to have an issue with having myself on the insurance but apparently it’s grand. It’s much better having the option of a third driver anyway. We’re covering a hell of a lot of miles on this trip.

I suppose I should give my thoughts on Vegas overall. The undoubted highlight was the helicopter trip out to the Grand Canyon. That was phenomenal. You really don’t get a sense of scale by seeing it on the TV or in the cinema. Coming in to land in the basin by the Colorado River took my breath away. Proving that you can’t go anywhere Highly recommended.

Last night for dinner we booked tickets for the Tournament of Kings in Excalibur. At first I wasn’t too sure what to think of it to be honest. The seating around the arena is split into different countries and each country has a knight. We happened to be seated in Ireland. It was quite funny when our knight was “eliminated” from the tournament and we proceeded to berate his slayer, the evil knight from France, for the rest of the evening.

After dinner We took a walk up the Strip hoping to catch the Bellagio fountains and the Venetian. I’ll upload a video when Youtube fixes itself. Afterwards we headed up to the Venetian. It was about midnight by the time we reached there so the gondolas had finished up. The canals are actually on the second level above the casino suprisingly. It really is one of the most impressive hotels you can see in Vegas. We’re approaching LA now so I’m gonna finish this off. More updates soon.

Back dating this particular post so it fits chronologically. This was taken in the Grand Canyon when our helicopter trip stopped off for a picnic by the Colorado River.