Darren Watt – Travel 2006

… And where people say “cwa-fee” instead of “coffee”. It’s all true.

We arrived in our lovely hotel in NYC the other day, which compared to some places we’ve been in, is fairly palatial. Jodie is over the moon, as it’s got a bathtub in it! Imagine that, ay, bathtubs.

From New York City

So far in New York, we have wandered around a lot, checked out all the shop windows which are all very impressive with the Christmas stuff, and attempted to go shopping a number of times. This usually results in me getting stressed out (no idea why we decided it would be a good idea to come to the shopping capital of the world at this time of year, there were more people in Macy’s yesterday than the population of China), and Jodie returning with far more shoes than she originally went out with. All of this is related to something known only as ‘Nine West”. I have no idea what that means.

From New York City

We’ve seen quite a few of the sights here already, with a few more to do over the next few days. The weather is behaving itself, with today a balmy 15C and sunny sunshine, which is apparently far warmer than it should be, and a lot warmer than home.

From New York City

Christmas Day is now fully planned out – starting off with Champers for breakfast, a stroll around Central Park, then 4 course Christmas Meal back at the cosy hotel. Sounds great, but won’t be as good as mum’s cooking of course

From New York City

Our only concern at the moment is… the end… of the trip! It’s all very scary stuff, so we’ll avoid thinking about it until we absolutely have to. Which will be when we’re heading to the airport on the 26th no doubt. Yikes!

We’ve been in San Diego for a few days now. Mainly, it’s been shopping but yesterday we hired out bikes and went exploring. Everything was fine with this, same as back home really, apart from trying to work out whereabouts in the road we were supposed to be cycling.We first went to Balboa Park. After a quick mooch about there, we then headed off see USS Midway, which as JB says, is a “Big Boat”, others would call it an Aircraft Carrier.

From San Diego

I was very pleased. There was a lot of military stuff on there which was not only interesting but also quite dangerous looking. On the flight deck we were able to look at many planes normally seen only in films, such as Top Gun, and Iron Eagle, and Iron Eagle II (Ok, I struggled with remembering the name of other great aircraft films). It was brilliant! Although I think Jodie would have been happier left in one of the shops back in downtown San Diego.

From San Diego

Today we went out for a tour of the San Diego area, by a friend we made during a previous tour in New Zealand, called Amanda, who has lived here for ages. After a great day of driving around and seeing stuff in what is still pretty good, warm, sunny weather we then headed to….

From San Diego

… the Kansas City Barbecue! Which is where they filmed the ‘Sleazy Bar Scene’ in TOP GUN! Back in 1985! Wow, if I didn’t feel old then, I do now. We headed in for an obligatory pint and photo, and said goodbye to Amanda after a great day of her touring expertise, but were unable to leave for a bit as the barman kept refilling our drinks. 5 drinks and a T-Shirt later we made it out. LA tomorrow for a quick tour before heading east to New Yoik!

More photos of our recent exploits can be viewed here.

We’re now in San Diego which is very chilled out. Seems to be pretty well set up for drinking and eating (enormous food only) and we’re in Gaslamp area which is in the middle of everything. Lots of Jazz Bars and Ice Cream places.

The other thing here that there is a lot of is ’shops’ and they’re all pretty cheap, so JB’s very happy. I’ve done a lot in the Oakley shop round the corner, and JB’s covered about all the other ones.

That’s pretty much everything for now. We’re meeting up with one of our Stray buddies, then leave to go back to LA on Tuesday…. then it’s off to New York! Brilliant.

It’s true to say Las Vegas is totally crackers! We are staying in Egypt well the Luxor, with it’s enormous Sphinx and light beam leading us back home after a night of giant margaritas and getting very lost in one of the many giant hotels.

From Las Vegas

We have seen piano duelling in New York, New York, Lions in MGM Grand, ate Krispey Kreme doughnuts in Excaliber, ate steak mignon in Paris, drank magaritas in Venice, watched the fountain display at the Bellagio, overlooked the Strip from the Stratosphere tower and have just about walked our little socks off!

From Las Vegas

Managed to double our money in the casino but then loose it again, but then $10 is not bad going compared to some of the stories we’ve heard happens out here.

From Las Vegas

San Diego is our destination tomorrow for a few days catching up with a friend who will be our personal tour guide (we hope) and then it’s off to New York for our last week before we finally head home! Getting very Christmassy now I love it.

From Las Vegas

We’re now in Vegas, staying at the Luxor (there’s a Hooters hotel down the road but I didn’t know about it, praps next time). First impressions of Vegas are that its a strange silly place. Will do another update soon with more interesting stuff in it and photos, but for now I only have two things to report.

1. Matty Taylor’s Goal on Saturday was brilliant. Check it out here. Nav used to do that to me in Pro-Evo all the time and there’s not a lot your goaly can do about it, even in real life it turns out.
2. I’ve finally finished doing the Ian Rush Milk Advert, which was filmed using a real scouser back at our last night in Sydney, while we were both very drunk. It’s quality, and it’s here…

We made it out of Fiji, OK, thanks for the concern everyone. For those that don’t know, Fiji has been taken over by the military, which should mean lots of tanks and helicopters zooming around the place, but we didn’t see any. In fact, no difference at all. As you can see from this picture below taken by one of our crack photographers, the Fijians are adjusting to the changes in small steps.

From Fiji

We are in San Francisco. Thursday DID finally end, and with a 19hr time difference from Fiji we’re having a bit of trouble coping, so we’re tired a lot and Jodie is sleeping a lot, apart from when she’s meant to be sleeping, then she’s awake.

From San Francisco

We’ve done all the main stuff…. Visited Fishermans Wharf, went to Alcatraz and seen the Golden Gate Bridge, but mainly and more importantly we’ve done a lot of wandering about and thank the Gods, we’ve got our laundry done! So far we can confirm that everything is a lot bigger out here. Food, big. Cars, big. Sea Lions, yes, big. I guess, I mean we don’t see many other sea lions to be honest. Check out the Hummer below though. Not entirely easy-to-park.

From San Francisco

We fly out tomorrow set for Vegas, which again is all very exciting. Lots of photo’s have been uploaded, so you can see what we looked like in Fiji and San Francisco (much the same as everywhere else, but with different backdrops, and probably a bit more tired than usual).

This last photo is important for some of the people who know us, because if you look carefully in the background, there is a Jonathan looky-likey! How spooky! Can you see him!? Seriously. I saw you Jon, we know you’re out here…

From San Francisco