Cruising to San Francisco

We headed south towards Santa Cruz. The wind farm just on the edge of the Interstate Highway was amazing. We decided to do a splash more shopping before we got to Santa Cruz - not that we hadn't already seen enough shops!

The next morning we had a quick look at Google Maps as we'd be travelling the previous day without a detailed map of California which makes navigation a bit tricky when you have multiple main highways running in parallel - "winging it" was not an option today.

Our first stop along the way was the Apple HQ at Cupertino. We drove onto the campus and proceeded to drive around "Infinite Loop" - a cool name for a street and saw lots of press hanging around the side entrance to the press conference for the new MacBooks.

Next stop was Mountain View to have a look at the GooglePlex. Just a few minutes down the road and we were there. Again we drove around the buildings and had a good look. The atmosphere at both Apple and Google was really cool - these guys sure know how to build a really nice work environment - plenty of open and green areas for their staff to chill out. We then got back onto the 101 and headed for San Francisco.

2000 miles

We drove back to Las Vegas and spent a night at the Excalibur. The next leg of our trip took us through Death Valley and then staying the night at a place called Beatty. From there we drove through Yosemite National Park in the snow and ended up in Oakdale.

It's amazing the contrast in going from a dry place like Death Valley to snow all around in just a few hours. Sheryl has written heaps more detail on her blog and we've uploaded quite a few photos.

We've clocked up just short of 2000 miles in the PT Cruiser - so we'll easy tick over 2K as we head to San Francisco.

Route 66 and Grand Canyon

We picked up a PT Cruiser (much to Sheryl's disgust) and headed for Flagstaff. I'm lucky I have such a great driver - Shez took to the roads like a duck to water. The copilot had general navigation under control - the road signs are shocking over here so it was often it a bit of follow your nose. Only a few wrong turns after about 1000 miles so not too bad. We reckon Chrysler did a deal with all the rental car firms cause we've never seen so many PT Cruisers. Their would be one for about every 20 cars on the road and at least 2 either side of us at any shopping mall. Sheryl now has 7 pairs of new footwear - I just can't keep up!

The Grand Canyon was awesome and it was good to see lots of the countryside.

Vegas Baby!

We arrived in Vegas a long time after we left Rockford! We boarded our plane at Chicago O'Hare airport after the usual full body inspection (SSSS Security check) expecting to be in Vegas 3hrs later. Shortly after getting on the plane, the pilot advised us that our plane was broken and they were looking for a replacement for us. Eventually (like an hour later) they found a plane so we all had to get off and board a new plane.

Mc Carran Airport was pretty cool - slot machines as soon we got out of our arrival gate - a cool train to the baggage area and then a quick taxi ride into town.

Sheryl has blogged about this already so I won't go on - heaps more photos to show you that we haven't uploaded to Flickr.

The place was huge, it is setup to cater for thousands and thousands of people every day. The casinos and hotels are massive with thousands of rooms at each place. The streets were clean, heaps of people everywhere but everyone was chilled out and having a good time. I really liked it.

Chicago was cool

We had a great time staying with Nicky and Gavin (Sheryl's cousin) at their place in Rockford (about an hour west of Chicago). It's interesting to live in suburbia for a week and see all the subtle differences in the lifestyle over here compared with back home in New Zealand.

Heaps of the housing here is condo style - from the outside the houses look the same - but the owner can add their individualism on the inside. The gardens in these neighbours were immaculate and no fences anywhere. Interesting to see houses here having basements, so the they are actually way bigger than you realise cause a good chunk of it is underground. Central heating is pretty much standard as is a 42" Cable TV, a huge fridge and oven.

Food is an interesting one to look at - I've been gob smacked at the size of meals, soft drink bottles and food packet sizes in the US. Everything is pretty much 50% bigger - no kidding! Softdrinks are dirt cheap. You can get 2 x 24 pack of Pepsi for $9 - which is about $NZD 16 - so about 30cents NZ a can - easily less than half the price we pay. Bottled water is cheap too - you buy that in bulk as well.

Dining out - you have heaps of choice - pretty much every place has a drive through option as well - pricing is about the same as NZ. I found the drive through drugstores (chemists) and bank's slightly amusing.

On to clothing and footwear .....where do I start! The range available is massive and pricing varies from ridiculously cheap to really expensive. On the whole, things that are way cheaper include jeans and alot of labelled sports clothing. Shoes are generally alot cheaper as well. A good pair of Levi's can be found for $30US so thats about $NZ 53 - easily half the price we'd pay back home. You do have to shop around though as you could pay double in a non "outlet" store.
Running shoes are heaps cheaper here - a good pair will set you back between $35 and $85 .

If you want electronics and computing gear - you aren't really going to save anything - Apple's are the same price as back home - you get a bigger range of accessories over here - but pretty much the same deals.

Sheryl has already posted a great summary of our time in Chicago. We have loads of photos up on Flickr too.

Thanks again Nicky and Gavin for your great hospitality - next stop is Vegas.

Fantastic Florida

Shez has already written a great summary of our 3 days down in Florida.

Cocoa Beach was really cool - I wish we could have spent some more time there. The local Ron John's surf store was bloody huge and it is open 24 hrs a day! We had a place right on the beach, which despite the stormy weather was pretty awesome.

I really enjoyed the trip across to Tampa - a splash of shopping at Orlando on the way there. I think my girlfriend is a shopaholic but thats ok because apparently I've become one too!

Clearwater Beach was so much fun - simply the best beach I've ever been too.

We caught up for lunch with the guys from Wufoo at the Cheesecake Factory in Tampa. It was cool to share some stories with young tech entrepreneurs from the other side of the planet and hear their take on it as well.

The interstate highway's are just amazing - pretty much 3-4 hrs in a straight line back down and across to Miami for another night at the Hilton before an early 430am start for our flight to Chicago.