the final part of the holiday

....and so onto an old favourite, San Diego. On an fellow guests advice we took the scenic route from Palm Springs, across the mountains and what good advice it was too. A very quiet, mountain road trip with no other cars or people....until we hit San Diego! We stayed further up the hill this time in the Radisson Hotel. A very comfortable, friendly hotel with a fab pool on the roof and a wonderful roof top bar that did wonderful bar food. It also had a great shop in the foyer in which I bought a dress, two tops and some Navajo jewellery!

Palm Springs - day three

Yet another day spent by the pool, drinking bucks fizz, reading and chilling out. This place is so peaceful (no screaming kids and not at all crowded) that relaxing comes easily - even to me! Not sure it's as warm as yesterday but still in the high 30's.

The first full day in Palm Springs

We were told to expect old people, a city of people waiting at heavens door at the foot of a mountain in the middle of a desert - WRONG! This hotel is classy, full of young, beautiful people, including a high percentage of good looking gay boys! The atmosphere is very relaxed, the staff are friendly and very attentive, the attention to detail in the rooms and the beautiful garden/pool area makes you feel as if you have time travelled back to the times of the British Colonies and I feel as if I'm part of White Mischief as I did in Kenya. If you need to chill as I certainly did, this is the place to go - I totally love it!

.....and so onto Palm Springs

Never been here before and only came on a whim when all other places were booked. We are in this amazing little boutique hotel called the Colony Springs Hotel that was built by the notorious Purple Gang of the old mobster era of the USA. It really reminds me of a colonial hotel, a true oasis in the middle of the arrid desert - a wonderful find!

Laguna Beach

I love this seaside town, small, classy, full of wonderful little shops and eateries. We had planned to go back to JB's Pizza place but were lured by a wonderful little restaurant called i think 21 Market Street. The food and service was wonderful and I had my very first roast beef dip! It was to die for!!! Again the weather was incredibly hot for this time of year even by the coast but walking along the beach at least helped with the cooling down!

Chill Out day....

Chilled out by the pool, making the most of the heat then a bit of retail therapy!

Disneyland Day

Disneyland.....no queues, it was wonderful, straight onto the rides and in the case of the Star Wars and Matterhorn more than just the one ride!! Sadly two of our favourites were closed (the Haunted Mansion and Indiana Jones) but the park was so quiet it was easy to have other rides - the only downside was the heat - it was very, very hot for this time of year! In the evening we went to Tony Romas for a civilised meal. Three mignon steaks with blue cheese and onion topping - Alan had the ribs! Totally yummy!

First day in Anaheim

It seems SoCal is having some kind of heatwave, it's far hotter than I recall at this time of year - in fact it feels hotter than when we came in June a couple of years ago! First day so need to acclimatise and find our time zone so went shopping as usual and had lunch in the Alcatraz Brewing company - an old favourite of ours! Then only some real retail therapy with the purchase of my iPad - yippee!!!! Then a couple of glasses of red wine in the Marriot before turning in......tomorrow is going to be a long day.....in Disneyland!

California here we come....again!

I dont know whether it was the fact we were travelling on 9/11 or just not a particularly popular time to travel but there were no queues whatsoever in Heathrow, we upgraded to more leg room, had a very peaceful and uneventful flight, picked the car up and checked into the Red Lion, Anaheim just in time to go to bed!