On the Dock of the Bay

Otis Redding wrote this song about Sausalito not San Francisco. We visited there today on a hugely entertaining bus tour.
First stop Muir Woods was full of giant Redwoods and was named in honour of the Scotsman who founded Yosemite Park and saved these remaining Redwoods for the American nation. He is called ‘the first American [...]

Escape to Alcatraz

And so we left Vegas behind.
I want to go back sometime in the future. It is a captivating place, full of energy, life and the remnants of my bank account. I imagine that my lasting memories of Vegas will not be of hotels, casinos or shows but of the magnificent setting. Some nights we just [...]

Lucky Man

I am really starting to believe in Luck. Not in a hugely superstitious way but I do believe if you avoid tightly planning everything down to the final detail, you leave yourself open to opportunities that you may have otherwise missed. Here is a list of recent lucky happenings:

One of the very few [...]

Fit Like

We are thinking of starting our own magazine filled with celebrity photos and of course ourselves. It will be called ‘Fit Like?’
So far this trip we have met Penn & Teller, Fergie (from Black Eyed peas), Bob Eubanks (game show host) and been on the set of Numb3rs but today was the piece-of-resistance as we [...]

Hooters update

Regular readers will be aware of the Hooters Challenge that we are doing while we are here. Just as a quick update, we currently have eight stamps from restaurants all over the US. Only 17 left to go. For those who need pictorial evidence, here is me winning a Hooters shot glass:
(I am on [...]

She loves a big chopper

Yesterday we splurged on a once-in-a-lifetime experience – a helicopter trip through the Grand Canyon at Sunset.
We flew with a company called Maverick who had the biggest, safest looking copters in Vegas. It seats six tourists, four in the back and two up front next to the pilot. Helicopters can be tricky beasts to fly [...]

Bogies

So we went to see the Monty Python musical ‘Spamalot’ at the Wynn Hotel. Since I was flushed with financial success we treated ourselves to the VIP tickets which include a backstage tour after the show.
The musical is a collection of classic python ‘bits’ tenuously based around the Holy Grail film. It was a hoot [...]

Dream come true

Today was one of those days that starts quietly and then ends in a happy cacophony.
The plan was that the WoH and I would go our separate ways for the day and so when I was up early as usual I decided to do something I haven’t done before – play poker at 9.30 am. [...]

Vegas Baby, yeah!

So we arrived at the wonderful Paris hotel last night and even though it was late we decided to familiarise ourselves with the hotel. We played some incomprehensible slots and the WoH managed to lose $20 on a 1cent slot machine. I was not in the right frame of mind to play cards so was [...]

My numb3rs came up

One of my favourite TV shows back in the UK is ‘Numb3rs’. It is about a maths geek who helps his FBI brother solve crimes by using algorithms and logic. Even though I was never good at maths at school, I have since developed a fascination for the process and history of it. I have [...]