We are back at home now and my long service leave is just about over - I think I need a holiday to get over our holiday - Sharon has already started to plan our next big holiday - even though that's likely to be quite a few years away... in the meantime, I have created a map of our flights on Great Circle Mapper that you might be interested in...
When we returned the Recreational Vehicle (RV) it turns out that we travelled about 1100 miles (1760 Kms) in just five days (with two nights at Lake Tahoe and two nights at Las Vegas - so two non-travelling days). I'll admit, I was a bit worried concerned about driving a vehicle as large as the RV (31' or 9.3 metres long) on the wrong side of the road - but it turned out to be ok. The vehicle ride left a LOT to be desired and on California's rough concrete highways, it was a shocking ride - especially on the drive from San Francisco where we picked up the RV and Sacramento (the capital of California) en route to Lake Tahoe. It was easily the roughest bit of paved road I have ever driven/riden on - and that includes some pretty shocking roads in India. The state of the roads was a bit of a shock to me - my previous driving experiences in the USA had set an expectation of roads similar to those that we enjoy at home.
Say hello to Texas Pete!
Since the RV rental place was quite a way out of San Francisco, I didn't do any driving there, but I think that if I needed to, it would have been fine - apart from a lack of indication, most of the road users followed the rules and the traffic wasn't that heavy that it would have presented a huge problem. Once we got onto the freeway to Sacramento, that was a different story - this was a stressful drive. Very heavy traffic travelling fast and on all sides of you - the only more stressful driving we did was along LA's freeway systems. In a car, it's not so bad, but in a big slow truck with huge blindspots - not pleasant. The biggest drive day (Lake Tahoe to Las Vegas, about 10 hours) was a much more enjoyable drive.
Our first stop in the RV was Lake Tahoe. The original plan had us staying in Yosemite National Park for two nights, but due to a breakdown in communications between Sharon and me, we didn't make a booking and by the time we did check on availability, there was none left, so we had to come up with an alternative. Sharon had the great idea of going to Lake Tahoe - it was an inspired choice. The scenery on the drive there and then the lake itself was incredible.
Lake Tahoe
We stayed at a RV park in Zephyr Cove, on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe - a beautiful park surrounded by tall pine trees with a gentle slope down to the lake - at a guess, we would have been about 300m from the lake, When we checked in, one of the other residents *I think he was a permanent) told Sharon and the kids to be wary of Bears - he had a bear break into his freezer just the night before. Of course, like almost all wild animals, they're more scared of us than we are of them - we had to reassure the kids that as long as we didn't leave any food outside, the bears would not come anywhere near us and that all the bears are interested in is getting food. Much to Sharon's disappointment, we didn't see any bears.
We were surprise by the weather at Lake Tahoe, given it's altitude (I think it's at about 6000') and being surrounded by (still) snowcapped peaks, it was surprisingly warm - mid twenties Celsius at a guess. Still it was enough for the locals to get their togs out and do some sun baking on the beaches of Lake Tahoe - even Max and Jemima has a go. According to them, it was cold, but if you stayed in, it got warmed after a while...
Woodcarver that specialises in Bears at Lake Tahoe - California side...
Beach volleyball with Snow in the background!
Check the houses in the background - what a great holiday house! Lake Tahoe seems to me to be an ideal mix of Winter sports and Water Sports in summer (or Spring if our visit is any indication)
Max - post swim
When in America, do as the Americans do... well, Sharon was keen to try S'Mores, so we lit a fire, toasted some marshmallows and tried to assemble the things... very sticky fingers was one result, and some tasty S'Mores but we're not really sure we got them right! The Hershey chocolate was probably too thick to melt - it is supposed to melt isn't it?
I think we need to get some S'Mores lessons from an American!
In the meantime, I cooked up some chocolate Bananas on the fire which worked a treat!
Las Vegas
By the time we arrived at Las Vegas, it was about 8pm, fortunately the pool at the RV park stays open until 11pm, so we headed over for a refreshing swim - helped by the temperature in Las Vegas 33C at that time of day. The following day, we hit the outlet shopping mall that was only a few minutes from the RV park - I think everyone came away with some bargains - be it sunglasses or new Nike shoes. We had to buy a new duffle bag just to carry our shopping home (on the plane that is). From there, we went back to the RV park and the pool - we needed some relaxing wind down time after the hectic schedule that we kept up after Brussels. Sitting around the pool, we debated just staying there around the pool and relaxing - then just driving straight back to LA on Wednesday and skipping San Diego altogether.
En route to Las Vegas, the Solar Eclipse was supposed to make the day like night - we stopped near Area 51, but decided to keep moving as we didn't know exactly what time it was due to occur. In the end, we never noticed any lessening of the brightness of the sunlight so we missed it altogether!
The RVs at the Oasis RV Resort in Las Vegas were unbelievable! There we no small ones there - all huge!
That evening, we all went to Las Vegas Boulevard to see the free shows on the street - the first we watched as at Treasure Island which was different to the last time I saw it - yes, the ship still sank, but the themes were a lot more 'grown up' than I recall. We had a great position for the ship sinking, but not so good for the Siren's ship where most of the action occurred - as a result the kids missed most of the more suggestive content, so maybe that's a good thing anyway.
As we were walking down to the Bellaggio to watch their fountains, we caught the tail end of the show at Mirage and their Volcano.
The Belagio fountains didn't disappoint - below are some stills and movies of the show.
As we walked down to New York, New York we passed Paris and a number of other casinos.
Seeing New York, New York brought back memories for everyone.
San Diego
We only had a short stay in San Diego, one night and a really limited amount of time to do things - so we elected to go to Seaworld... and that's pretty much it! I have to say - Seaworld San Diego (the first Seaworld in the world.) had a lot of stuff that puts our Seaworld (on the Gold Coast ) to shame.
Dolphins
Turtles
Killer Whales
Other assorted displays
An unusual view of a Lion Fish
The business end of a Piranha
X-Ray Fish
Sea Lions
Manta Ray
Puffins
The Polar Bear was a bit tired...
Walrus
Beluga Whales
Underwater view of Killer Whale (sorry for the reflection)
With Jemima loving Pancakes so much (when I cook them at home anyway) she was really looking forward to having pancakes from the International House of Pancakes (IHOP), so for our last breakfast in the USA, we indulged Jemima.
