Back in MK...and up to Manchester

And so came the end of our adventure. It was so tough having to leave, but what a wonderful way to finish it by spending time wth the Macatols and kicking back.

Have to say a big thank you to Anthony & Estrell for helping us source many bits and pieces for our big day and to Myra for giving me some deco from Her and Tony Boy’s recent wedding.

So after a couple of days getting our bodyclocks back on track we're finally on our way up to Manchester and moving back into the flat tomorrow.

No doubt you'll all hear from us very soon with our Save the Dates. Thanks to all, and for reading...!

Return to Conneticut

We decided to attempt a trip back up to Conneticut with a 24 hour car hire, so we took a long, blurry 10-11 hour drive that was rewarded with some Chili's Baby Back Ribs at Anthony & Estrell's. The next day we took a trip to Atlantic City and met up again with Mary Ann, Sanjay and the Kids for a day at the beach. It was like fusion of a traditional seaside town and a mini Vegas. Uncle Tony and Tita Bebs came down from upstate New York for a couple of days and we celebrated Tita Bebs birthday with everyone.

Then after a day of outlet store indulgence we took a trip to Hammonasset beach nearby with Greg, where we christened Anthony & Estrell’s kayak, took a bike ride and finished up at Hooters.

Marietta, Ohio

After a few days of hedonism in Las Vegas we retreated to Matt & Kathy's beautiful home in Marietta, Ohio. Its a turn of the century estate thats been a labor of love and hate having to renovate over the last few years. We had an excellent time hanging out with Bryce, Jackson and Elyse again and meeting lovely little Isobel. I may have aquired an Oirgami protege in Bryce...! Uncle Mac, who lives nearby, took us out for dinner one night, we had another cool, eventful night out with Matt & Kathy's friends and also had the opportunity to catch up with Katherine (my cuz).

Las Vegas Encore....and meeting Mel Gibson!

Matt & Cathy (Matt's my cuz) met us back in Vegas and were ready to party! The first night we ended up playing roulette with Mel Gibson...well Matt did while we all watched...! It was kinda weird how no one really recognized him - he was on his own when we first saw him and Matt shook his hand - so we kinda turned into his stalkers...! He had some kind of guard that made a point of not letting Cathy and I take pics no matter how discreet we tried, but here (in one of my snap attempts) you can see his ear and bald patch next to Matt leaning across the table. Ha! Matt and Chris regularly reminisce about the many Braveheart annecdotes they should have cracked out.

The next day we took a trip up the Stratosphere which is the highest tower in Vegas. It gives you an amazing view of Vegas and the desert, and at the very top is the highest thrill ride in the world which shoots you up another hundred odd feet into the air which we all just had to conquer. (it seems we've seen/done a lot of 'most in the world' things this trip - but I guess it makes the trip all the more epic...!). They caught the funniest picture of us 4 on the ride that we all laughed about for days. Chris was trying to overcome a hangover when we got on it and so his 'on the brink of death' face will get you everytime.

Then that night Matt & Cathy had got us a VIP table at the nightclub Tao at The Venetian. It was one of the craziest nights we've ever had. It was the bizarrest, the wildest and the most fun time, including a personal security guard, waiter and lingerie clad server, state of the art toilets, girls in bathtubs, escorted toilet queue jumps, two of the largest bottles of Vodka we've seen and, of course, Donna's boobs...! She was our server I mentioned, but her chest was truly a thing unto itself. We excuse ourselves to our parents for the news and pics on this night but it was so mad that we had to give detail about this landmark night out. And if its any consolation, Donna was actually the nicest, sweetest girl who was amazing at her job. This pic cracks us all up on so many levels...!

Chris and I had a night either side of Matt & Cathy's visit and so we mixed it up a bit and stayed in a couple of different casinos along the strip. We stayed at Sahara, Imperial Palace and Circus Circus, but The Wynn that Matt & Kathy stayed at, by far outstripped them all in elegance.

Yosemite National Park & Death Valley

Once again, we're a little behind on the blog. There's a lot to fill in on - firstly here's some pics of Yosemite where we headed to from San Francisco. You can't compare it to Yellowstone in terms of beauty as they are very different and both very beautiful, but we really loved Yosemite and would love to come back sometime. The national park 'system' and rules are the same, but its far more laid back, it was less busy, less expensive and Yosemite Valley, which has the biggest rock cliffs in the world, was stunning.

We saw a bear!! It was so lucky as they're so rarely seen near the roads and villages, but this one got himself stranded on a crossroad near a village!
After a couple of nights camping in Yosemite, we headed to Las Vegas via Independence (where we caught some locations of where Electroma was filmed) & Death Valley - the hottest place on earth. Its a very dramatic desert landscape. Very beautiful. We hit it at 6pm and it was still 43 degrees when we left at 9pm. We kept getting out of the car just to experience it. Again, there was a strong breeze but it was really hot too! At midday in the summer its average temperature is 47 degrees!

San Francisco

We've been spending the last few days here in San Francisco catching the sights. Just outside San Fran, we drove down through the Napa Valley and did a wine tasting. Its like an imitation of southern france with the most authentic looking decadent houses plonked in the middle of the rolling hills of grapevines.

The weather here is like the UK - its so fresh and cool, which is a nice comforting change from the heat of the last couple of weeks. There's this weird fog here that you can see sweep over the hills into the sea and that whole interaction (which is something to do with condensation) means that you'll have over cast 5 minute patches that cover a few streets, followed by hot sunny patches, followed by windy patches.

Its very european in atmosphere and appearance. All the houses are like pretty painted townhouses and there's pockets of tiny independent stores and cafes around. I'd describe San Fran as a big gay, friendly, bohemian seaside town. Here's a sea lion colony that live on some rafts by the pier. Its like a soap watching the 'families' and the guys fighting over territory etc.

We're staying here tonight with Speedy and Katrina. Speedy is Chris' old friend from back in his travelling days in South Africa. They have a beautiful house on the hills with lots of forest and wildlife about. Here's Chris and Speedy (aka Michael Cain - what an ace name) in front of 'The Crookedest Street'

Everyone thought they were brothers when they were travelling cos they looked alike - apparently they both had short curly hair then. I can see the resemblance! but Speedy has a very broad northern irish accent so you'd guess they weren't related pretty quick!

Reno and the Bonneville Flats

A couple of days back we set off on our 2 day drive to San Francisco stopping by the Bonneville Flats and Reno. Here's a couple of pics of us at the flats. They're huge vast salt plains, which once were lakes but have dried out over probably thousands of years and the salt has crystalized. So its like a desert of hard crumbly salt. All the land speed records have been broken here. I think Top Gear have staged various stuff here too. It was so bright - you couldn't take your sunnies off. You're allowed to go for a spin on them so we tried to get a bit of speed but even 40mph felt so fast on them so we bottled it. Chris did some skids then we headed over to Reno.

Reno is like a mini Vegas and its where I bought my wedding dress!!!