SUNDAY MORNING Up bright & early, (ignore the bright part,I feel totally zonked!)to get ready for  our departure from NY to Dubai at 11.20 am.  We hustled ourselves to Kennedy airport & checked in, only to find the flight delayed until 12.50!  So, here we sit op die stasie! A bacon, cheese & egg bagel (this is new York) plus a cup of coffee helped slightly,but not looking forward to a long long flight to Dubai.  However.... The last two days have been pretty hectic as we've hiked ourselves around NY doing some shopping, some sightseeing, some eating, a little sleeping, oh & a movie - Total Recall, which was good.  We really wanted to see a Broadway show, but when we went to the half price ticket office, the cheapest available seats (at HALF price) were $90 EACH - do the math....about R750, so we went to the movies instead, wouldn't u?  We managed to drag ourselves to & around Central Park on Saturday & what a great enormous leisure area that is (some photos on FB)..a very popular area for brides to have photos taken - we saw about 3 bridal parties in the time we were there.  Well, Frank & Wayne have both passed out on the airport chairs, & we still have some time to wait, but cheers from JFK!

It's now Thursday evening & we're getting ready to go to the Frisco airport to fly back to New York - a 6 hour flight at 11pm but when we land it will be 7am....if you do the math you'll see that we will be fast forwarding by 3 hours, so will have to get immediate shut eye when we take off. Friday is going to be a lo------ng day! We spent the day today doing some shopping round Frisco, hopping on & off buses & trains. We are extremely grateful for our tour guides, Kay & Way, alias the desert rats, who have been renamed the Energiser Bunnies by the Texas Ranger - all we have to do is keep them in view & walk fast to follow where they lead, it's great! Every now & then, out comes their iPad which they consult for directions & for the nearest Starbucks, then into gear& we're off again. Last night we had a great fish dinner at BubbaGumps in the Frisco Fisherman's Wharf. The whole restaurant has been themed on the movie Forrest Gump, with all his sayings - the Americans are superb at themes, they go totally OTT & it's a lot of fun.....take note Kingsgate Events Team.....it takes our motto 'GO BIG OR GO HOME' to a whole new crazy level, be prepared! (photos on my FB)

WEDNESDAY finds us on the road again,heading for San Francisco. We left Vegas early on Monday & drove for about 5 hours thru mainly desertlands to reach Los Angeles in time for a leisurely stroll!!! Strike that...it was a toe breaking route march from our hotel to Hollywood Street to see where the stars made their hand &foot imprints in cement outside the Chinese Theatre.  Hmmm, what a let down LA was, what a dump. There may well be glamorous homes somewhere in the outlying hills, but on the whole I would say it was a waste of time. We drove past the big studio lots like Universal etc, which look enormous, but had neither the time nor the bucks (about R600) to go on a tour of them.  We went to the Hard Rock Cafe for supper then hit the sack, to be up early the next morning & on the road again.  Before leaving we had a bit of a ride around just to check if LA had any redeeming features, but....NAH!  Tuesday we drove for about 5 hours, turning towards the coast, which was a welcome change of scenery...beautiful coastal drive towards Carmel, a beautiful holiday town where we'd love to have stayed for a day or two, then on to Monterey, where we had Clam chowder at Crabby Jim's Fish Restaurant, then booked into our hotel.  Will post a few photos on Facebook.... Oh, nearly forgot to mention that along the way we came across a little town where there was a curious phenomenon......well not IN the town but on the beach a few miles out of town....a community of elephant seals, like ELEPHANT seals. Check my photos on FB!