Day 30 - Stratosfear!

Well, we said these blogs would be up by the end of the weekend we were back, and it turns out it's taken until the end of the month! Maybe it was the jetlag, maybe we needed time to recover from the Circus Circus buffet, or maybe we were just reluctant to finish our beloved blog off because we enjoy writing it so much. In any case, bearing the phrase 'better late than never' firmly in mind, here it is: the full account of our last day in the USA. It's a monster-size blog too...how long have you got??

We awoke quite early in our queen-size beds, wanting to make the best use of our day in Vegas. We have to admit though - we were tired, and fairly worn-out by now from the trip as a whole. Still, we were immensely excited to explore Vegas, having heard/seen so much about the iconic city over the years. This, then, (along with the thought of breakfast, obviously), was enough to propel us from our beds and encourage us to have a short primping session. Before we knew it, we found ourselves bleary-eyed down at one of the hotel Cafes. Needing to engergise ourselves for the day, two hot-chocolates were purchased, as were two 'breakfast croissants'. The latter, you may be interested to know, refers not to a plain croissant available for breakfast (oh no...), but instead to an entire breakfast packed into a (giant) croissant. Having temporaily forgotten about the aforementioned buffet from last night, these seemed like a good idea at the time of ordering. Half-way through, however, it was a slighty different story - as we started to feel rather full. Soldiering on, we munched through our regret and then went over to the nearby business 'suite' to try and blog the events of the previous day. As readers will know, however, the internet prices were not-so-suite, they were ridiculously high, so we moved on, hence the blogging delay.

Prices, incidently, were not the only thing around that could be described as 'ridiculously high'. No, our first destination upon leaving the hotel for the day also fits this description. We were on course for the 'Stratosphere' hotel/casino, which, as the name suggests, is a very tall building. We did first stop at the Sahara hotel to try and go on an intruiging rollercoaster that appeared to go completely vertically upwards, but it wasn't running midweek, and hence there were no more excuses for delaying our Stratosphere experience. The 'sphere building stretches roughly 1000ft straight up into the Vegas sky. It has no middle levels, just an expansive casino and shopping area at the bottom, and then a number of...well, 'interesting' attractions at the top of the thin concrete tower. There's the standard Vegas hotel fare - the wedding chapel (785 feet), the private function rooms (808 feet), the romantic restaurant (844 feet), but then, at the very top, 3 more innovative features... namely the world's highest thrill rides. The photo below (with ourselves standing next to the diagram) serves as a fairly good guide to the thrills on offer, as does the video. Basically, the first ride is 'Big Shot', a purely vertical speed ride that takes you up to the Stratosphere's maximum height of 1,149 feet (and hence is the highest thrill ride of any sort in the world). Then there's the small matter of 'Insanity', a claw-like contraption which, whilst spinning, dips anyone foolish enough to ride it over the edge of the tower. The final ride, 'X-Scream', is a sort of rocket/slide that not so much dips as fires its riders over the edge, only to hoist them back up then repeat this process vigourously. These rides are fully visible from the bottom of the tower, and so we approached with caution - knowing we had to face the challenge of the Stratosphere, but at the same time not quite knowing why we were putting ourselves through it. Laughing nervously, we tried to look cool, stay calm, and hold the quiver from our voices as we ventured inside the hotel, and bought unlimited all-day passes for the rides. Armed with the yellow wristbands that come with such a purchase, we made the lift journey up to the observation deck (from which the rides looked even worse), and went outside...






We boarded the rides in the order that we've described them...and it's probably fair to say that this is also increasing 'scare order'; 'Big Shot' was of course terrifying, especially first thing in the morning, but going upwards didn't quite have the same fundamental fear-factor that going over the edge did. We were also too busy gasping at the Nevada view to be worried. The 'Insanity' claw was next, and as the gates at the side of the tower dropped and the claw moved over the side we once again contemplated why exactly we were doing this; particularly as we were actually the only two people on the ride that time, and so had to sit on opposite sides to balance things out. Midway through the ride though, we'd adjusted into it, and it was pure fun. Proud of our achievements, we finally braved 'X-Scream', and then lined up again just to get the front two seats (having been someway back in the queue last time). This was probably the worst for scares, but it was also the most thrilling, especially as the ride dips directly over the strip, giving more amazing views.




Having congratulated ourselves repeatedly on going on the big three, and having seen the obligatory official Stratosphere photographs that are shown to you when leaving any ride, we descended back onto the Vegas strip. Our appetite for thrills may have been satisfied, but it was nearing lunchtime, so, as was only reasonable, we went to a Subway for 'light' bite to eat. In Vegas, pretty much everything is located inside a Casino complex, and this Subway was no different, and so it was quite a surreal experience eating our sandwiches amidst the slots. We then moved out back onto the strip and waited for the 'Deuce' bus (the system that runs up and down the strip...essential and popular due to the sweltering heat). Once it had arrived, we crammed on with the rest of the tourists - one mentioning to us amid the crush that we could have afforded a limo, because we looked a lot like, shall we say...a certain teen pop sensation. We had the necessary 'we get that a lot...it's the hair...we're not actually related' discussion with the kindly woman, and then continued to ride the duece to our next stop - New York, New York.

No, we weren't travelling back cross-country to Roger's house, but instead going to the famous hotel. The New York, New York hotel (and Casino... you might have caught on by now) is a striking tribute to the city's most famous structures. Hotel tower blocks are copies of the Empire State and Chrysler buildings (to name just two), and there is a mini Manhatten bridge, along with a replica of the Statue of Liberty that can't be far off the size of the original. Awed (particularly having been in the real big apple only weeks before), we stepped inside, and after snapping up a few photos, we sought out the biggest and best track rollercoaster in Vegas...named the 'Manhatten Express'. The Express has an innocent exterior, as the front of it is shaped like a friendly NY taxi, and there's a quaint yellow and black colour theme running through the carriages. Don't be fooled, though. This is a very long, fast rollercoaster, which, to quote the NY NY website "will lift you up 203 feet, drop you down 144 feet and leave your pulse trying to catch up to 67 mph". Let's just say that you couldn't 'do a video blog' on this particular coaster. We thought it was fantastic though, a really enjoyable contrast to the more stationary thrills of the stratosphere, and so we did it again. Yes...to get the front two seats. So, after "getting our negative g's on" (the website again), we explored the casino and shopping area, before returning to the sun-drenched strip.


Having decided that we'd done enough roller-coasting (for now), we embarked on a tour of the other main hotels on the strip. From NY, we walked across the highway bridge to the MGM Grand. For Ocean's 11 fans, yes, this is one of 'Terry Benedict's' three casinos - though it's also famous in its own right, and, of course, for its historic Metro-Golden-Mayer links to the movie business. Today, the hotel clearly has some strong links with the TV industry, and no sooner had we stepped in the door than we were invited to a free screening of a new television show (taking place shortly within the hotel). The aim of this was to basically survey people's opinions of new shows, giving the results to networks as part of the decision-making process for whether or not they should go/stay on air. Being the media moguls that we are, we couldn't decline such an offer, and so we happily accepted, wondering what the mystery show would be. It turned out to be a new CBS comedy called 'The Ex-List', essentially a fairly standard romantic dramedy about a woman tracking down all her ex's to look again for the right man. We accepted that we probably weren't the target audience, and whilst the show wasn't ex-ceptional viewing, it was passable, and made all the better by a scene about....ultimate frisbee! We had to monitor our reactions on a moment-by-moment basis (turning a dial to reflect our interest level...which obviously peaked to the maximum 100 at the inclusion of disc sports), and then also fill out a more comprehensive survey at the end. The process was probably as exciting as the show, but it was a very interesting experience, and one we were glad that we'd stumbled across.



We then left the MGM and continued our trek round the main hotels. We walked right down to the Southern tip of the strip to see the Luxor, an eygptian themed marvel that was shaped as a pyramid and with a huge sphinx in front (large enough to be visible from the air when we flew into Vegas the previous day). We posed with a few Pharohs, then reversed and went back along the strip and into Excalibur, a stunning castle-themed complex. From here, we moved through the interesting attractions of M+M's world (yeah, we went to the New York one, so the Vegas one was essential too) and Coca Cola world. Both are amazingly not hotels and don't have any slots, so the plethora of flavours of M+M's, and the range of retro Coca Cola merchandise made for a nice relief from flashing lights and noisy machines. We rejoined the gambling world at 'Paris', a hotel themed, shockingly, on the French capital, and boasting a large Eiffel Tower replica.




As it was starting to go dark, this was an ample oppurtunity to head across to the hotel opposite Paris - the Bellagio (Ocean's 11 fans...check), to watch the iconic fountain show. There is a large pool (really, it's a mini lake) just infront of the elegant hotel, which every half hour, we had heard, is home to the jet-fountain display seen at the end of the said 'Ocean's' film. We waited until half 7, and weren't disappointed. The scale of the fountain jets, in terms of height and width, was astonishing in itself, but the fountains were also co-ordinated precisely with music (Sinatra's 'Luck Be a Lady'), and lit up beautifully. We've filmed some of the spectacular 'routine' (see below), although some kind soul has also put a video of the entire thing up on youtube HERE.

We then went inside the Bellagio itself, and had a walk around to see the many interesting shops, rooms, and art displays on offer - as well as just taking in the casino surroundings of Vegas' most prestigious hotel. One of the art pieces was a ceiling full of Dale Chihuly's glass seaforms and flowers, and so naturally, being experts (thanks again, Alicia), we took the oppurtunity to noisily discuss his status as a prodigiously prolific artist whose work so effectively balances content with an investigation of glass' properties of translucency and transparency. Nice one, Dale. Sadly, no-one seemed overly-impressed by our critique, so we decided to move on, into the adjoining Ceasars Palace complex.


After a ten-minute walk through this particular hotel (Roman-palace themed, naturally), we arrived at the place we had decided to dine for our last USA evening meal. We were completing the pan-USA circle, and dining at Planet Hollywood Las Vegas, twenty seven days after our idyllic evening with Kerry (see day 3) at PH New York. Interestingly, PH Vegas is actually the closest restaurant of the franchise to Hollywood itself..as there isn't actually one in the whole of LA. We stepped inside and were taken to our table in the movie-themed eatery, and sat ready - awaiting the waitress service almost as eagerly as the food. The latter was fantastic - we ordered the same meals as in New York, and they lived up to expectations, as did the sumptous 'hand-dipped' milkshakes that we got to accompany them. Sadly, the waitress wasn't quite so spectacular as Kerry in any regard - the acid test was asking her what exactly a 'hand-dipped' milkshake actually was. Whereas Kerry (in answer to the same question) had given us a detailed explanation of the Planet Hollywood milkshake dipping process that gives the creamy texture to the drinks, our Las Vegas waitress replied that it was "just a milkshake". Nevermind - she was friendly enough, and was always being compared to impossible standards anyway.




We left Hollywood and Caesars, and started to head back down the strip to our hotel. Our path was obstructed, however, by a large, packed crowd standing outside 'Treasure Island' hotel and waiting for (as we discovered by asking around) a 'pirate show'. There was, admittedly, a large ship set up in water outside the hotel, and so this seemed a reasonable claim. We joined them, and stood waiting for the show. After a fair wait, and some delay due to 'weather' apparently (there was a couple of mph wind, which is a supposedly a storm by Vegas standards), the show began. It was interesting enough, with some good special effects, and a second ship 'sailing' into the fray (that lot from Pittsburgh probably had something to do with it). However, it was also quite bizzare, as it mostly just consisted of girls dancing cheesily in bikins on board a pirate ship. Now, let's be clear - there's nothing inherently wrong with this idea, but with our theatrical minds critically engaged, we left underwhelmed.


We walked the rest of the length of the strip back to our hotel, and collapsed on our beds, after a long day in the sun, with lots of walking. It was approaching midnight, and we were just contemplating turning in for the night, when an idea hit us. We were still wearing our yellow wristbands from the morning's Stratosphere session...and so still had our all day passes. Hence, yeah, you guessed it...we forgot all thought of going to bed and got up, walked back to the Stratosphere (only a few minutes from the hotel), and did all the 1000ft rides again (they're open until 2am), in the pitch black. It was worth it...a view of Vegas in the day is spectacular, but in the night, with the strip lit up in all its neon glory, it's something else. We gawped at the Panoramas, enjoyed the thrills once more, and reminisced about the past 30 days, feeling truly on top of the world (to steal a Stratosphere tagline).



We descended, made our way back to our room, did most of our packing, then slept.

There's one more blog entry to come...

Johnosphere and Joeosphere

Day 29 - Battle Of The Bags

First of all a huge apology is required for the extremely late entry of this blog post. The delay has been due to the fact that we have both come home to incredibly busy times; John moving into his University accommodation the day after returning from the trip being an example.

Our final day in California began with one final glorious breakfast served at Café Alicia; this time the obligatory bagels and cereal were joined by succulent strawberries (mmmmm….). Once all had been consumed, we made the necessary pre-event preparations for the 1st ever ‘Tri-State Tour Tri-Bag Packing’ contest, taking place at Alicia’s house in Orinda on that very morning. Representing Great Britain were expert pack artists John ‘Compress Head’ Coxhead and Joe ‘Squash Slave’ McCrave. Unfortunately, no other countries were represented as none of their athletes achieved the qualifying score set by the CBPA (Competitive Bag Packing Association) at the recent AGM held in the Himalayas.

The contest got off to a slow start with both ‘Compress Head’ and ‘Squash Slave’ making very careful decisions before placing an item. As the pace picked up, Compress Head started to open up a bit of a gap following a nice display of one-push packing. However, you can never rule out the Squash Slave, and with seconds remaining he threw in some speedy side-arm squashes to draw back level. The contest finished a tie, with both athletes agreeing to share the gold medal.

With the bags bulging, we said farewell to Chloe (Alicia’s dog) before getting into the car for the drive to the airport. On the journey, we took two slight detours. The first was up to a high viewing spot on a hill in Berkeley, which provided magnificent views of the bay despite the fog. The second was down at the waters edge on the bay for a spot of lunch in the form of a picnic with Alicia.




Upon arrival at the airport, we said goodbye to Alicia and thanked her for being such a fabulous host to us during the spells of time we have spent with her. Whilst in the airport, it occurred to us that the US Open final between Andy Murray and Roger Federer was to start very soon. We located a café/bar with 2 large screens, neither of which were showing the game! Outraged, we made an enquiry at the bar and it turned out that the staff members were not even aware that the game was taking place (?!!). However, they passed over the remote and allowed us to change the channel. Something they should have thanked us for greatly, as within just a few minutes of us doing so, at least 10 more people had given the bar their custom purely to watch the match. Sadly, it wasn’t Murray’s day… he was clearly fatigued from two hard days of tennis against Nadal, whereas Federer had had the chance to rest. Federer took the title but it’s still been an incredible tournament for Murray who has now truly become one of the top few players in the world at only 21 years old.

The flight to Las Vegas with Virgin America was an experience in itself. It’s definitely the ‘fun’ airline, with coloured lighting all over the aircraft, jolly cabin crew members who have nicknames such as ‘Special K’ and ‘The Silver Fox’ and an interactive screen for each passenger with all sorts of entertainment options. One of these options that deserves a mention is the in-flight chat function. The J’s decided to begin a conference chat which included several random passengers from around the plane: two of whom who discovered that they were travelling to the same impromptu wedding that they had been invited to that very morning… one being the groom’s sister and the other being the bride’s best friend (Congratulations to the happy couple Jeremy & Rachel if you’re reading!).

We landed in Nevada (the secret fourth state of the Tri-State tour) full of excitement for the next few days in Vegas. We were staying on the world famous Vegas Strip in the Riviera Hotel & Casino (every hotel on the strip is also a Casino), and were taken there from the airport in a shuttle bus. The driver of which was a complete legend… he didn’t stop talking over the loudspeaker once… giving us all sorts of information from prices and times of every public transport facility available, to details of future development plans along the strip. Our initial impression of Vegas can be summed up by one word… wow! The hotel was huge and provided us with a very nice room… just like in Ventura, we were each supplied with a Queen sized bed. The only complaint is that the swipe card system to get into the room was nothing but an apology for an entry system. The first cards we were given didn’t even work at all, and the replacement set wasn’t much better. On average the door usually opened between swipes 15 and 20, when it was clearly supposed to open the first time round. That aside, the hotel was very swish, just walking through the casino was an experience… never before had one seen so many slot machines, bright lights and gambling tables in one room.



For our evening meal, an important event on any Tri-State tour day, we headed over to Circus Circus (the Hotel/Casino/Theme Park directly opposite the Riviera) in order to try out one of the infamous Vegas buffets. The idea is that you basically pay a set fee of about $15 and then have as much as you can possibly eat/drink from all areas of the buffet. We had been warned that you always come out of these things uncomfortably full and we soon discovered why. Let’s just say we each had a full plate from the starters area, before we’d even thought about the monstrous main course area or deserts bar. As gold medal winners in the earlier Tri-Bag Packing contest, we applied a few bag packing concepts into cramming as much food as possible into our stomachs (although you’ll be pleased to hear that no speedy side-arm squashes were used this time!). The first tactic was to pace ourselves (we ate over a period of 2.5 hours in total) and think carefully about what to choose… it’s all about self-control. For the first time this trip we’re not going to list everything that was consumed as it would probably be quicker to list what we didn’t eat, but we can safely say that we didn’t need any supper that night.





After a quick night time stroll at the northern end of the strip (which looks fantastic in the dark with all the bright lights and flashing signs), we made our way back to the hotel for some well-earned sleep.

Over & Out,

Special J and the Silver J

Day 29 + 30 - Coming Soon...honest!!

Edit: Sorry for the extended delay everyone - we've been really busy/tired since we got back, but we are working on the new blogs (not one, not two...but three!) - we promise!

Hey Guys,

We've now safely arrived in Vegas - it really is fantastic here!

Unfortunately, Internet prices are sky high so its going to be too expensive for us to enter full blogs for days 29 and 30. Instead, we will post the full blog from each day when we return to the UK on Thursday (we'll get them online by the latest at the end of the weekend).

Hope you're all well,
Thanks for reading,

J&J

Day 28 - The Winner Takes It All

We awoke today for our last morning in Marin County, with Bob and Mary. We had a fair bit of packing to do, but bearing wind-down regulations in mind, we decided to go for a moderated start - just after 9am for one J, and substantially after 9am for the other. Mary made us a great breakfast as always, and we once again enjoyed sitting down in the lounge, enjoying the fantastic bay-area view (the appearance of fog this morning was the major weather development), and having a good ol' chinwag. We showered, had a bit of primping time (Joe took this to a new level today by trimming his nails), and then packed up our suitcases. The latter job was not the extreme task that it will be tomorrow, as quite a lot of our souvenirs and clothes were still at Alicia's place. So, we got our suitcases ready by the door, and said goodbye to our outstanding hosts.



Alicia then kindly picked us up, and drove us over to her place in Orinda, where it's always nice to return to. From earlier negotiations, and to our delight, she also managed to time picking us up in with the conclusion of the Murray - Nadal semi, which started at 1pm in our current time zone. We settled down in front of the cinema-style facilities, and were ready. Annoyingly, a stream of (American) Football highlights were shown first, but this was soon over, and we welcomed the sight (ahem, watched in full HD quality) of Murray and Nadal strolling out onto the court at Flushing Meadows - Nadal playing it cool, but visibly concerned. As many of you will know, Murray played a stunning game to come out on top, and though Nadal fought well (taking the 3rd set), and had the support of the considerable crowd, he was simply blown off the court by the 'great Scot'. Ok, so perhaps Nadal was physically spent after a long season for him, but there really is nothing that can be taken away from Murray's performance; it was incredible - don't rule him out against Federer in the final.

Having spent a few blissful hours enthralled by a great sporting display, we felt inspired to get out and do something active ourselves. Being slightly more involved in the disc world than that of racquet sports, and knowing of a disc golf course local to Orinda, the choice was obvious, and so we trekked out for an intense 9-hole round. The course was within a local park, and, once we found it (which seems to be half the challenge of disc golf anyway), we got going on the cruel, desert/wasteland/wilderness terrain that was the setting. The desert was harsh, but despite the sweltering heat we managed to pull a few respectable shots out the bag...but also struggled to pull a few respectable discs out of various trees and bushes (the other half of the challenge of disc golf). We improved our collective golfing quality by hole 9, and were satisfied that we had neither got lost, struck down by desert raiders, or, worse, thrown wildly over par. We're freestylers anyway - a fact that we reminded ourselves of by having a quick jam session, when finished with the golf.





However, we couldn't really concentrate to well on any of that, as we were simply bristling with excitement about our evening's entertainment. Along with Alicia, we established a plan. We would travel back to her place, take brief showers, eat (a dish of exemplary spaghetti), and then head out to a nearby 'movie theatre' to see...take a deep breath everyone...'Mamma Mia'. And not the regular version, oh no. If we were going to do this, we were going to do it properly, and so we followed the plan, arrived at the movie theatre, and purchased three tickets for the Sing-a-Long extravaganza. For those who have not been following the Mamma Mia craze of late (which will surely be the minority of the population), it's an Abba-themed Musicale, which, for some reason, all our families back home have been raving about. Despite our reluctancy to actually watch the film, we've been somewhat 'encouraged', and so went along with fairly open minds (though perhaps not with regard to Pierce Brosnan's singing voice), and with our sense of humour fully engaged. This was required, but through the silliness the film won us over, and from a criticial standpoint we appreciated that, in the same vein of High School Musical and others, it had acheived what it had set out to do; be a thoroughly entertaining feel-good treat for the eyes and the ears. The latter was provided by a good dose of (mostly) well sang Abba classics, and the former, for us, by the commendable performance of Amanda Seyfield, playing the young lead.



We'd taken a chance, spent some money money money, and it paid off. So, gimme gimme gimme A-man-da after midnight.

Blogging from California State for the last time,

AJJA

Day 27 - An Ace Dinner is Served

We both awoke this morning feeling rather disorientated as we were, as explained yesterday, spending the night at Alicia's. John even spent several seconds staring at the wall wondering where his bedroom door had gone (it's at the exact opposite end of the room to where it had been at Mary & Bob's). However, moments later, once all logic and common sense had been regained, we leaped out of bed with breakfast on the mind. As per usual, Alicia failed to disappoint on the provision of a splendid selection of fresh fruit, cereal, bagels and even scones.

After hearing of Andy Murray's success in the US Open quarter final, we decided to try and find out what time today's semi final game against Rafa Nadal was being broadcasted. However, the task didn't prove too difficult as we simply turned on the TV set and lo behold the game had just begun. Not only that, we were watching it in HD on Alicia's state of the art widescreen TV, so we sat back and boy did we enjoy. We needn't tell the Brits this as we sure you'll all know, but our good Scot was 2 sets up against Nadal (yes folks, you read that correctly and no we weren't imagining it) when play was stopped for the day due to torrential downpours. Simply typical... we come to the USA... experience drought-like conditions everywhere we go... then as soon as Murray is hammering the best player in the world, it gets rained off (?!) in true Wimbledon style. Anyway, you can guarantee the J's will be glued to the TV set for the conclusion of that one tomorrow.

Mid-way through the afternoon, ourselves and Alicia departed for Bob & Mary's where there was to be held a large family gathering. The distinguished guests also included Lance & Shannon (Alicia's big kids and, of course, grandchildren of Bob & Mary), Lee & Kyle (also grandchildren of Bob & Mary), Amy (Lee's wife) and Big Lee (father of Lee & Kyle). Once we had been introduced to those we had not met before, we all sat down outside as the sunlight trickled down over the pool. With chilled beverage in hand, and snacks not far away, we enjoyed a pleasant few hours chatting in the shade before we were called in for the meal. Once all 11 of us had been seated we enjoyed a taste-bud-tingling feast worthy of a Royal gathering, or even a Jonas Brothers lunch break. As we can sense your tongues wagging, we will of course inform of you of the precise components of this mouth-watering culinary odyssey... bbq chicken, potato salad, green salad, some other form of salad, sweetcorn and sourdough bread. Followed up, naturally, with a wide selection of desserts. After another enjoyable couple of hours at the dinner table, we made good use of the finals moments of sunlight by heading outside for quick impromptu frisbee demo and coaching session. We expect to see Lance, our principal student, pulling off an 'upside down indigenous pull to a quad-spinning electrolyte with a backflip' next time we see him. Shortly later it was time to say goodbye, so we said our farewells and waved everyone off from Bob & Mary's doorstep.

From that last sentence, you may have gathered that we are staying back at Bob & Mary's tonight, so hopefully John won't be scared that his door has disappeared tomorrow morning. It had been a wonderful afternoon/evening and we'd both really enjoyed meeting Joe's extended family. To finish off the day with a night-time dip in the swimming pool which, when lit up, was just too tempting to resist. This time the diving contest branched off into spontaneous physical comedy during which many a humerous water entrance was patented ('the cell phone', 'the momentary distraction' and 'the lifeguard pose' being just a few). We also discovered a rather cool camera mode which produced some spectacular shots, some of which we have decided to exclusively treat you to below...

Once we'd dried off and warmed up, we spent some time chatting to Mary & Bob and now we are nearing bed time.

We hope everyone is well,

J 并且 J

PS. We apologise for the distinct lack in range of photos from today, imparticular from the family gathering/meal. We were having such a good time that we completely forget to get any snaps which was a rookie mistake of the highest order.

PPS. A big shout out goes to Edd, who successfully publised his first comment yesterday (about time!)

Day 26 - One Giant Leap

The main headline in the bay area (and, indeed, throughout the world) this morning was that the J's were involved in an early rise shocker. In a scandalous move, they threw the regulations of wind-down week out the window, and were up and fully concious before 8.15am, perhaps surprising themselves as much as the global community. The decision was deliberate however - we wanted to spend this afternoon in the city, and so we got up early to make time for a few essentials this morning.

A great breakfast once again kicked things off, and after catching up on the day's actual news, and just 'goofing off' on the sofa, this was followed by a couple of phonecalls home. For the first time since results day (day 4), both of us spoke to our immediate families, which was good fun, it was nice to have a bit of a catch up. We were filled in on crucial information from the UK, including Manchester City's (an english football club) sudden takeover by a group from Abu Dhabi and the feedback from the family visits to watch hit movie 'Mammia Mia'; which was generally very high (we're not quite convinced, but have reluctantly consented to seeing it ourselves). We also fortunately had the chance to reassure Joe's mum that no kidnappings had taken place during the San Jose / San Francisco leg of the trip with Arthur 'wait...you're here?' Coddington (see comments on day 20 for the background to this).

Due to our making-time manouevre of getting up pre-noon, we also had time to fit in another swim, which was again immensely enjoyable. The heat was reaching 100 degrees farenheit (for Brits, obviously just use the simple Temp cel = (5/9)*(Temp far-32) formula to convert to Celcius), which, of course, is hot. Hence, the pool was great to dive into, particularly as the water had cooled down nicely overnight, as Bob had left the cover off in a wise tactical move. After more aquatic antics, we hit the showers, and a short spot of primping/packing/lunching ensued...we were then ready to make our way into the City for the afternoon.

Bob dropped us off at the ferry terminal in Marin, and we quickly bought our tickets before, in a dash James Bond would've been proud of, running onto the ferry just in the nick (jonas) of time. We sailed away smoothly to 'Frisco, checking out a map of the city en route just to make sure we had our bearings. Once we arrived at the SF ferry terminal, we spent quite some time shopping around here, as the building is attractively designed with a good range of fairly unique stores. Obviously, we can't reveal our exact purchases in specific detail, as they're mostly gifts/souvenirs...but as a tantalizing clue, it may suffice to say that John picked up a thrilling magazine, the cover of which was graced by a certain curly-haired trio. We moved on from the tween-literature section to check out a variety of downtown stores, and dabbled in confectionary, clothing, and some rare novelty items.

When our consumer instinct was satisfied, we walked back towards the piers, as we had arranged to meet Alicia, Shannon and Lance, at the latter's (extremely swish) apartment. Tonight, they were taking us to a baseball game at the (relatively) new stadium in San Francisco, where the home team of the San Francisco Giants (yaaay!) were playing out-of-towners the Pittsburgh Pirates (Boooo...!). We started the evening with a walkaround tour of the Stadium with resident baseball consultant Lance, and the views of the bay from the stadium (it's close enough to the water that home runs hit out of the stand are likely to end up in it) were particuarly spectacular. We got some classic baseball food - a 'Giants dog' hot dog for both of us - and sat down to watch the game. Unfortunately for the home side, the Pirates were in swashbuckling form, and got off to a much stronger start, from which the Giants never really recovered. However, this didn't stop us having a great night, and learning the complete rules of baseball, down to loaded bases, batting averages, and the curious 7th inning 'stretch' (we'd suggest Wikipedia again, for those not familar). We departed shortly after said stretch, and it had been an extremely cool experience, that we'll have to repeat one day.

We then made our way back on the BART system to Orinda, and we're now here at Alicia's place for the night, where she's already provided us with some (welcome) warm bagels to round off the evening.

Night night (or good morning...),

The San Francisco J and Jiants.