At last! That well earned day beside the pool in the hot sun! I have to say that the Flamingo has been a really pleasant surprise to me/us. The pool is lovely, warm and relaxing. The cafe just inside the doors has wonderful breakfast and lunch snacks as well as decent coffee (a rare thing in the US - they call brown water coffee!!) BUT, there is one thing I certainly wont miss about this hotel - the bloody awful, 80's, mostly British music that is piped round the pool and hotel 24/7. If I hear Sade, UB40, Kim Wilde, Level 42, Elton John or Rod Stewart track again I will throw a wobbler! Thank God for iPod!

For the evening's entertainment we went to Maggacio's in the Fashion Show Mall. I've wanted to eat here since first seeing it last year. It has that rare commodity of outside eating (although I have to say this is becoming more popular as Vegas changes). Anyway, the inside is garbed out like a forties lounge bar with piano player and crooner and for the most part full of beautiful people. On the balcony (where we ate) it's opposite the Wynn and depite the noise from the strip is very nice and feels pretty relaxed. I had the sausage spaghetti which was gorgeous and Alan had the strangest looking lasagne that was hardly any bechamel but mostly cheese - and enough for an English family of four!! We couldnt even leave a dent in these meals (despite me only ordering half size meal) and consequnetly felt over-full, uncomfortable and tired all evening - what a shame, the food is very good but the portion sizes and the richness is just too much.

We then gambled a bit on the slots while feeling VERY bloated!

Viva Las Vegas!

Well, here we are again. Just five hours from San Diego and here we are once again in the middle of the desert in the maddest place on the planet! We are staying at the Flamingo this year for a change of scene - I am not disappointed. The room is nice, the pool, restaurants are very accessible (not always the case with some of the larger, newer casino's) and you literally walk out onto the strip - right slap bang in the middle.

We were however a pair of lightweights - after a couple hours of pathetic gambling we had a few final drinks and didnt even make it to 11pm - yawn!!

Alan's back is a little better so we decided to go to Bilbao Park. We've been here once before but not had the time to really look around, but as usual for this marvelous city just as we were parking we realised there was an Native American 'pow wow' going on opposite the car park- how could we resist? I bought a couple of really nice navajo pieces of jewellery and watched some 'authentic' Native American dancing - although I'd seriously question the lineage of some of these 'Indians'!!

Anyway, Bilbao Park was as beautiful as ever. There was also an organ recital being played on the Spreckels Organ (the largest outside organ in the world) and spookily enough the player was a very English lady!! We then wandered around for a few hours, had a Guiness outside the Globe Theatre as well as visiting the international village - which always brings a smile to my face - Alan had a cup of tea in the English house! It was Spanish Day so there was flamenco dancing and a large paella made which you could buy some of - it was really good, very authentic!

For our final evening in SD we at last had dinner at the renowned Anthony's Grotto just across from the hotel. It's reputation for fresh fish is well known and we wernt disappointed. I had Swordfish (which is local) and Alan had his favourite, crab cakes. The service was good, the food was wonderful and for such a well known eatery the bill was also very reasonable.

When we woke up on, looking from our room across from the harbour, there were two cruiser ships in as well as another navy vessel (it's fleet week this month - yeah, go figure we didnt understand either but this means there have been quite a lot of sailors in San Diego all week). So the day starts off well enough, we decide to walk to Starbies as the deli below our hotel was full of people off the cruise liners - all so far so good - but on the way to Starbies Alan cough's and pulls a muscle in his back!! So he hobbled up to Horton Plaza, to the drug store then we had to decide what to do. The plan had been to go to Mission Valley to get some new glasses for Alan but were not that sure he'd make it. We did, and he stumbled round the place looking like a cripple. Had lunch in CPK and then back to the hotel. Against his better judgement and drugged up, we then had a look round the famous Gaslamp district of SD - its a bit seedy but feels very old and has more than a snippin of San Francisco to the feel of the place.
We then went to see the USS Midway, an aircraft carrier which now retired has been donated to the museums in San Diego and has a great collection of planes and helicopters as well as all areas of the ship being accessible - I've never been on an aircraft carrier before, it was an amazing experience as well as a great vantage point for pictures of the bay.

Fat Bottomed Girl, you make the rockin world go round

I have reminded Alan on many occassions that if I ever come up with any more bright ideas he is to slap me and put me in a cupboard until the idea seems like a lost memory. Sadly he didnt take my advice this time and we decided to hire bikes for the day. We have been cycling a lot at home in the hope it would prepare us for this trip...hmmmmm.....

We cycled to Mission Beach (have these people any idea how lucky they are to live here!!) then onto Mission Bay (a lot quieter and probably a lot more expensive)this doesnt sound a whole lot but Alan has just worked this out on Google Earth and it is a staggering 28.5 miles - my buttocks are numb!!!I will defo be walking like John Wayne tommorow!! It's also worth mentioning we are both a little pink - local lobsters? Pah, we are the imported, British Lobsters!

I almost dropped the bike back in the shop, warned Alan not to take my up on any more of my bright ideas then walked to Seaport Village for something to eat and a well earned beer.

So a short blog for today but my God was that an effort - and I never in a million years thought I'd ever cycle on the right hand side of the road in America - a true experience - hard work at times but well worth it. Off to the E&C now for a well earned glass of merlot - what a shame those Delegates have gone home :)

I can hear music......

OK, so you've probably noticed by now that my titles to each post have a music theme. This leads me nicely onto today - the day I've waited for - OK, so I'm sad, it comes of living with a geek for so long!! Anyway, the reason for my cheer and jubilation is that I bought my iPod Nano today :). I also bought the sport kit and running shoes that allow you to jog and the iPod tells you the distance, calories or time by interupting your music and since discovering running in the gym last year this is a godsend - the trainers are even pretty cool!

This was supposed to be a chill out day but we spent far more time in Fashion Valley Mall than expected (buying iPods, Gordon Setter socks(yes, I found some) and trainers). We then decided as it was getting late to have lunch in one of our favourite diner chains the Californian Pizza Kitchen - they make the BEST pasta!

We then came back to the hotel, I downloaded some music onto said iPod and sat on the balcony in the beautiful sunshine which belies the fact it's October (I've been here far earlier and its been cool and damp). I finished my book, the Shadow of the Wind (an unforgetable masterpiece of a book) then took a quick trip to Wal-Mart to buy a new suitcase after the sad demise of one of out old ones thanks to baggage handlers last year.

We then ended the evening with a few beers in the E&C watching a conference delegate who thought he was Mr Smooth making a complete ass of himself in front of this woman delegate - great people watching!

I'll have a pint of Courage Best!

So we now leave Anaheim and I really wont miss that bed! My back is killing me. The hotel is fine, clean and well located but the pool is freezing and the bed is uncomfortable and small! What I will really miss though is Suzette, the bartender in the Pickford Pub who is everything you would look for in an American bar.

So onto San Diego and into a much more confortable hotel - the Holiday Inn on the Bay. We have a bay view room and you can watch people sailing in the harbour as well as having a good view of all the maritime museums that are lined up along the bay. This is our third visit here but I sometimes feel I know the place like home. It's a lot easier to navigate than most American cities and although I believe its the second largest city in the US it certainly doesnt feel like it. The other difference you notice immediately here is the lack of fatties! In fact all you ever see are people from young to old jogging, power walking and cycling around the bay.

After the journey down here we headed off to Horton Mall for a quick look round and a burger (well, it has to be done) and then watched the sun go down on San Diego. We then headed off to the Elephant and Castle pub (which strives to be a British pub but that we frequent simply because it's attached to our hotel) for a well earned beer and curry!

Surfin USA

Since coming to America for ten years I always seem to discover something or somewhere that makes me realise why I make this long trip over to the US every year. This year it was Laguna with it's surrounding beaches. This place is truly beautiful. Surrounded by the affluent Laguna Hills this place was a gem of a find. It's about 30 miles south from Anaheim on the Pacific Coast Highway and our plan for the day was to explore some more of the West Coasts famous beaches. We started at Huntingdon (which we've visited before) which claims to be Surf City (although I hear that they are currently in dispute with another beach in Califonia who also aspire to this name) and had a coffee and danish there. From here we set off on the Pacific Coast Highway on a voyage of discovery :)! After passing many wonderful beaches we decided to take a look at the Crystal Cove State Park which we'd seen advertised on the info. channel in the hotel. After the noise and crowds of the previous day in Disneyland this was a very well anticipated place of contrast. We walked about four miles along this quiet, clean, uncrowded beach to the actual cove. There are many birds here (including the Anna Hummingbird which is beautiful) and many rockpools containing mussels, anenomes, barnacles and other crustaceans.

We walked all the way to the Crystal Cove itself which has the most amazing kind of ghost town of old fishing shacks. This was the most relaxing couple of hours.

Then onto Laguna itself - what a town!! There has to be a lot of money here. The cars, the houses, the shops!! We saw a Shelby and Roush Mustang within about twenty minutes and Porsche's here are two a penny (it's considered a status symbol here to have a European import especially German cars).

We managed to find a BJ''s Restaurant on the main road overlooking the ocean. The food was incredible for a Pizza and Grill chain. I have honestly never tasted such amazing meat sauce with pasta. Alan was made up because they had decent beer but as with all beers in the US its far too cold but the Porter was very good. We waddled away an hour later trying to do more walking but gave up and staggerd back to the car - we did about ten miles again today. Then in the car off to Dana Point and the Marina which is also beautiful but by then we were completely beached out - headed back to Anaheim for a well earned beer!!!

One final thing I must mention about Laguna is this sweet shop we found called the Candy Shack on Broadway. To take a child in there would be akin to child abuse. The air smelt of sugar, there are barrel upon barrel full of different flavours of salt water taffy and the rest of the shop is a tribute to true english sweets and chocolate bars - everything from Fishermans Friends to Double Decker bars - YUM!! Only a picture can truly portray how amazing this shop is.

When you wish Upon a Star............

Well, you cant go to Anaheim without visiting the original Disney theme park Disneyland. Most people think that the Disneyworld in Florida is the original but it's not, Disneland in Anaheim, California transformed what was a vast area of fruit farming into the first Walt Disnet theme park - 51 years ago.

It was incredibly warm and for October, incredibly crowded - I've been here in September when there have been half the visitors. While talking to people in the bar this evening we realise that the reason for the high entrance is that it's Yom Kippur so a lot of Jewish people are celebrating.

We walked about ten miles, ate pizza and drank coke, went on our favourite rides and generally had a good time - I just prefer it when it's not so crowded.

'Take me Down to the Ball Game'

We went to see the final baseball game of the season between our team the Anaheim Angels (please dont correct me by telling me they are the Anaheim Angels of Los Angeles or whatever the ridiculous new name is - they ARE the Anaheim Angels!) and the Oakland A's.

It was Angels veteran, Tim Salmons last game and he needed only one more home run to make his total up to 300! Sadly it wasnt to be but we all gave him a very loud send off!


A very exctiting game though, there was only one point in it right up until the 10th innings!! Unfortunately it wasnt the Angels that won so for the second time of coming all this way to see our team, the Oakland Athletics won!!!

Brilliant day though, great atmosphere and great game!





I have been a fan of the Angels since 1996 and this is my collection so far of caps!