ROAD TRIP... LET ME INTRODUCE YOU...

Allow me to introduce you to Nikki.



Nikki is the one in the middle.

Nikki and I have known each other since high school and have have shared some very crazy adventures and many, many, many hair styles.

Nikki lives in San Francisco with her fiance Steve.



Hi Steve! Next to Steve is their puppydog Joe.

During our travels to SF, they were kind of enough to show us the town every night and introduce us to some fantastic restuarants! Nikki even let us stop in to use her toilet one afternoon when we happened to be in her neighbourhood after walking up a giant and very steep hill.

One night, after eating a huge dinner we all thought it would be fun to bounce around on trampoulines, so Nikki and Steve took us to Sky High Jump. Sky High Jump is a warehouse which has trampoulines lining the floor and walls. In the middle of all of the trampoulines is a giant pit filled with foam cubes, that you can jump into.







It is very difficult to get out of the pit.

On this day The Son ate ramen like they do in Naruto, The Man bought a chocolate penis on a stick and I saw a cat on the sidewalk which was laying in a cat bed and had a cup for passerby's change.

ROAD TRIP... ALCATRAZ

CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE

The days in San Francisco have been chock full of activites. There has not been one moment that we have not stopped experiencing new adventures.

San Francisco is home the most notorious high security prison in history. Located on an island in the middle of the cold, rough waters of the San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz was home to the most vicious criminals of the 20th century.



To get to Alcatraz, you must take a ferry from Pier 33 in Fisherman's Wharf (I will tell you more about Fisherman's Wharf next time), and stand in a very long line for a very long time. If you are going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair... wait... If you are going to San Francisco, and will be visiting Alcatraz, buy your tickets online and fast track the waiting!

There are some excellent views of the skyline and the famous Golden Gate Bridge and it's lesser known cousin Bay Bridge. There is definitely some favourtism going on as the Golden Gate Bridge is painted a stunning red. What colour is the Bay Bridge? Grey.

What is that all about? If they were siblings the Bay Bridge would be plotting the Golden Gate Bridge's death a la The Bodyguard.

Anyway, so we get off the ferry, walk up a large and very steep hill and enter the abandoned prison for the audio tour.



The audio tour is narrarated by former inmates and the daughter of one of the Wardens. The inmates tell the story about what it was like to be interned on Alcatraz, whilst the warden's daughter spoke of what it was like to live on Alcatraz Island but not be imprisoned.

In the meantime the host of the audio tour guides you firsthand on the actual locations of the several attempted escapes. The final attempted escape was recounted in the 1979 film Escape from Alcatraz. Watch the film, it will save me telling the story all over again.



The audio tour was fantastic, perfectly timed to your pace, not too long and had some interesting stories. The problem was the crowds. The ferries bring over 5,000 people a day! I think about 4,000 of them began the tour at the same time as us.

This afternoon The Son ate a giant pretzel, The Man had his first taste of a California zinfandel and I remembered all about free refills of iced tea.

TUESDAY WITH TONY

You may be aware that I dislike 95% of Andrew Lloyd Webber's productions, but I love 99% of Sarah Brightman.

From 1988, I present you Sarah Brightman and Michael Crawford in Phantom of the Opera.

PS - Angela Lansbury gives the introduction!

MEDICATION, MEDICATION AND MORE MEDICATION

We are into the second or third week of our trip. I have lost track of days and time, so maybe Pumpkin Delight can tell me which week it is. LOL

I have started posting about the trip from the beginning, starting in San Francisco and will continue every few days until I run out of trip stories. So far everything has been amazing!

Except when we arrived in Cleveland, the drop in temperature made us all very sick and our bodies seemed to fall apart. Here is a list of all the medication we bought in the first two days:

Benadryl

Nyquil

Exlax

Tylenol Tension Headache

Theraflu

Excedrin Extra Strength

Oraginic Green Tea

Echinachea

Both of my sisters who are nurses made us get the natural remedies. I thought that was funny.

It has been very relaxing and slow out here at my mom's place in the country, with the exception of Thrifty renting us a very dirty and mechanically faulty car.

When we went to return the car, a very rude woman name Laura who works at the Cleveland Airport car rental centre was immediately degrading and obnoxious, refused to call the manager and told us, and I quote, "With attitudes like that no wonder you were given a faulty car."

So if you are ever at the Cleveland airport rental centre and get serviced by a woman named Laura (You can miss her. She has teased hair, blue eyeshadow and frosted pink lipstick) tell her I said "Hi."

Oh! Today is Monday! I need to tell you all about 9 to 5: the Musical!!!

THE TRIP BEGINNINGS...

CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO ENLARGE.

I promised that I would start to do some postings about how the trip has been going so far. We first arrived in San Francisco after a 20-something hour flight from the land down under.

You may remember about two weeks back when I told you that we checked into a hotel with mustard drapes and green comforters? We almost immediately switched hotels from the Hobo Inn to a beautiful boutique hotel on Powell Street just down from Union Square.

In case you are not in the know, Powell Street is the one most of the cable cars travel upon.

Despite the constant clang-clang-clang of the trolleys or the ding-ding-ding of the bells, The Man could not get over the large amount of ambulance and police sirens on the street below.

All day and night whenever a siren was heard The Man would race to the window or follow it down the street. Only once did we get to the cause of the ruckus when a homeless man was hit by car. I think the man was OK... I am not entirely sure becuase I saw a great pair of shoes in the window of a shop and didn't really pay attention.

The weather here in San Francisco has been brilliant! Sunny skies and an average of 20 degrees celcius (I think that is around the low 70s in fahrenheit). One of the first things that we did was walk up the steepest and highest hill you can ever imagine.

You see San Francisco is built on very hilly land next to a bay. The wonderful part about this is after a long and thigh burning walk up the very steep and very high hills, you are rewarded with the most amazing views of the San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz or one of the two suspension bridges.

On this day, The Son drank his first Dr Pepper. The Man was in awe at the price of bananas (45 cents a pound) and I bought a fantastic pair of shoes!

BLOGGER... HMM WHAT RHYMES WITH BLOGGER?

OK, It is already news, as I am sure you have read about this lunch on The Jason Show, Pumpkin Delight and Grandma J I better write about it before it is too late!

So one day last week (The days have blurred and I can't remember the day) The Jason Show, Pumpkin Delight and Grandma J all met up for brunch at a fabulous restuarant at The Grove in Los Angeles.

Outside of this restuarant was a fountain that "danced" to Donna Summer tunes! This fountain is where I managed to get my only photo of the lunch.

Grandma J had the vivid facial expression, and I took an instant liking to her because she reminded me of my favourite aunt. She told us this hilarious story with is featured on her blog about a trip to the doctor and a mayonaisse jar full of urine.

Jason and Pumpkin Delight told me that teachers actually hate when their classrooms have to dress up!

This came as a surprise to me because when I was growing up, the teachers always looked like they enjoyed it but now I know what they really thought!!

Before I go on, Jason's husband and son are the most adorable and gracious people one could ever hope to meet!

Out of all of LA, even seeing 9 to 5: the musical and seeing Nia Vardolos (sp?)(From My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Connie & Carla fame)at 9 to 5: the musical, this lunch was one of the most special moments of the trip thusfar.

Also I just looked at the photo of the lunch and realised that I think I have worn that top every third day.

CLEVELAND ROCKS... A BIG FAT SINUS INFECTION!!

Hello! I missed you guys so much!

We finally made it out of LA, visited Las Vegas for a gambling-free, alcohol-free two days (I know, right?) and I currently sit in my mother's house way outside of Cleveland.

You see, whilst I grew up in the city, my mother grew up on a huge 200 acres which (in current road travel times) is about an hour outside of Cleveland. It was her life goal to build a house on this land, and about 10 years ago, she finally achieved that goal and built a quaint little 2 storey home here.

There are wild turkeys running around and amish buggies trolloping down the dirt road. The leaves are just changing colours now.

But most importantly, she has the internet!!

I have spent a good chunk of the morning catching up on your blogs and thinking about how I am even going to begin to start to share this journey with you. Also, the changes in temperature from super hot desert to early Autumn great lakes has given all of us horrible sinus/weather change issues.

I think first up, before I even start to post about the very beginning of the trip, I start by writing up a post about the Fabulous Lunch I had with The Jason Show, Pumpkin Delight and Grandma J.

PS I know that I should have linked the above blogs, but I am too ill to do so now, but you can link to them from my blog roll and when I tell you about the lunch I will do an excessive amount of links to these fabulous people!