Back again from another epic voyage! Another fly-drive, but this time to the good old US of A. We took in a LOT of stuff, so let's get started....

San Francisco
The trip began with a BA flight from Heathrow to San Francisco. This took about 10 and a half hours, although we were held up a bit because some valve had to be replaced on the air conditioning system, so it was boiling hot in the plane until they got that sorted! Our luggage came out almost last, as usual, but once we'd got it we were on our way. We took a shuttle from the airport directly to our hotel - The Sheraton Fisherman's Wharf. Quite a nice hotel, with an outdoor pool, just one block from the sea. After dumping our cases off we went for a walkabout to get our bearings. The first thing you notice about San Francisco is the geography. I mean, what on EARTH posessed somebody to build a city on a hill like that!? It's crazy! Thankfully the public transport system is not bad, and the cable car can take you over the hill and back down the other side to Union Square and just beyond, although they are not very frequent, so you might have a long wait.

The next morning I was awake bright and VERY early thanks to the jetlag, so I decided to have a wander around while all the other tourists were in bed. There was one restaurant open (it opened at 5am!) and some people were tucking into some stodgy mess they call breakfast around here!

Alcatraz
We were booked on the 10am Alcatraz tour which is probably on most visitors' itineraries. This is definitely worth a visit, especially if you've seen Escape From Alcatraz a few times - you'll know your way around already! When you get off the boat at Alcatraz, a Ranger calls you over and starts giving you a load of blurb about stuff. We couldn't be bothered to wait for this, and just started walking up the hill to the jail block - this is the best way to beat the crowds, as most people seem to wait. You can do an audio tour of the jail block, but we didn't bother with this - I just hate waiting around listening to stuff. I prefer to just get on with it so we walked around a bit and then jumped on the boat back to San Francisco. As it happens, we were the only people on the boat, as everybody else was still listening to their audio tours!

The next day consisted of a bit of shopping - wandering around the shops in Union Square, but we also decided to 'bike the bridge'. We rented bikes (easily done on the harbour front), and cycled all along the seafront to the Golden Gate Bridge. This is definitely the best way to see the bridge, as you can stop and take in the view which you can't do in a car! Sadly, the fog was rolling in constantly while we were there, so we didn't get great views of it, but that's just the way it is.
That evening we went to find a decent place to get some food. Now, in Fisherman's Wharf, these are not terribly common. It's a very tacky touristy area of the city, and most restaurants are more fast-food type establishments and I really wanted some decent seafood. We came across A. Sabellas Restaurant thanks to a recommendation. It was a great choice, and the food really was superb.

Yosemite National Park
The next day we were off on our tour. We got a cab over to Union Square to the Alamo office. Man, what a nightmare. It was the same in Canada - the queue was horrendous. We had to wait over an hour and a half to get our car. Worth getting up early if you can! Or use a different company (not National, as they are basically the same company and use the same office and the same queue!). And we were on our way. We took the Bay Bridge and headed for Yosemite National Park a couple of hours away. Now, if you're going to do more than 2 parks, buy the Annual Pass for $50. This will save you a fair bit, and will get you into any National Park Service park for no extra cost for a whole year. On arriving at Yosemite, we decided to just head straight for the centre of the park to get our bearings. It was already mid-afternoon, and getting very busy. All the car parks were full up, so there was not much chance of stopping anywhere. However, the scenery is great, so just driving around gives you a good feel for the place. Yosemite has a strange one-way system on it's roads which is confusing at first, but it does mean that you get 2 lanes moving around most of the park, so it helps keep the traffic flowing nicely. I have to admit, we didn't do much walking around. It was pretty hot, so we stayed in the car most of the time!
After a little look around, we decided to head for our hotel - The Yosemite View Lodge which is just outside the park on the West side, close to the town of El Portal. This hotel had one of the better rooms during our stay. The bathtub was also a huge double jacuzzi, so we certainly used that a few times. Also, we had a river view room, which is definitely worth having. The river is literally right at the end of the balcony, so you get a great view. Sadly, the food choice wasn't so good here - just a stodgy steakhouse and a takeaway pizza place. We made do with the pizza place for the first night as we didn't have much time to look for something better. But we would endeavour to find something better the next day.

The next day, we got up in decent time to beat the rush. This was definitely worth doing as we had most of the place to ourselves, plus it was nice and cool. We went to Bridalveil Falls which is pretty spectacular and is just a short walk from the car park. Then we went on a drive along to Glacier Point which I can definitely recommend. There are numerous places to stop along the way, and finally at the end of the road at Glacier Point, you get a superb view of the whole of the valley from above.
In the afternoon we went down to Mariposa Grove to see the giant sequoias (redwood trees). Again, parking was limited, so you might find the road closed and you have to park in the town of Wawona a few miles away and get the shuttle bus to Mariposa. These are free and very regular and convenient, so it's worth trying to do your bit for the environment! The trees themselves are just HUGE. There's a long trail you can walk to see loads of them, but due to the heat we only went a little way and saw the first few groups of trees. Even so, you get a good view of these spectacular trees.
In the evening we'd decided to go to the Yosemite Lodge right in the centre of the park for dinner and it was very nice, with a decent choice of stuff. One word of warning - the cheesecake is HUGE, so if you go for this, it's definitely big enough for 2 to share!

Death Valley
The next morning we were up early again as we were driving to Death Valley and it's a 6 hour drive so we wanted to beat the heat. The drive itself is nothing much to write home about, but there is the occasional sight to see, like Mono Lake just as you turn onto the main freeway. Death Valley is surrounded by a mountain range on all sides, so you need to climb a bit to get in - there are signs telling you to turn off your air conditioning to stop your vehicle overheating and I would certainly heed them! Even following this advice, the temperature guage was getting pretty high, but thankfully we started coming back down the other side before it got too worrying! It's worth stopping at the sand dunes on the way in. It's a decent distance from the main 'town', so it'd doubtful you'd come back this way given the heat.
The first stop was the visitor's centre which is a good place to cool off as it's heavily air-conditioned. There is a small exhibition on Death Valley there, and a gift shop. You can also pay your $10 entrance fee for Death Valley here, but if you have the Park Pass, you won't need to. There is a small auditorium in here where they play a regular video about Death Valley and some of the sights worth seeing. I'd recommend staying for this as it gives you a good idea of what there is to do. Surprisingly enough, there is a fair amount to do, but given the heat (it got up to 55 degrees C while we were there, which is pretty unbearable!) you won't be doing much after 8am as it's just too hot!.

We stayed at the Furnace Creek Ranch which is the only place open at this time of year (the Furnace Creek Inn is only open from something like October to May). It's a decent enough place, considering the inhospitable surroundings. The rooms are, not surprisingly, air conditioned! But it struggles during the day, and you might find the condensor cutting out now and again because it just can't cope! However, a quick call to reception and somebody comes round within a few minutes - around here, you just can't survive without air con, so they know it's pretty crucial. We ate in the hotel's diner that night, which was fairly standard burger / steak stuff. Nothing special, but we let them off, given the location. Then, just before the sun set, we headed off down the road to Badwater to try and take the Artists Drive, which is a one way dirt track taking you through some stunning hills which come alive in the dusk light. Sadly, the road was closed. Having seen it, I don't think I would've fancied it in anything other than a 4-wheel drive anyway. Nonetheless, we parked up and watched the sunset from there and it was pretty amazing. The thing which really made it was the COMPLETE silence. I don't think I've experienced silence like this anywhere else on earth. Your ears just don't know what to make of it. There was no wind - no nothing. Absolute, total, complete silence. Amazing. Eventually, the sun was down and it started going dark. I expected it to start cooling off as deserts are usually quite cool at night. But here it just doesn't happen! It's something to do with the way it's surrounded by mountains, and the hot air gets trapped inside the valley and can't escape. It stayed easily above 40 degrees C at night, which is pretty incredible. The other thing you'll notice is the stars. The nearest city is over 2 hours drive away, so there's no light pollution at all. You could see SOOO many stars, it was amazing (hmm, running out of superlatives here! Somebody help me please!). The Milky Way was as clear as day.

The next morning, we were up early again to beat the heat. We drove down to Badwater which is the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere at 282 feet below sea level (the Dead Sea in the Middle East is something like 1300 feet below sea level). The whole area is covered in dried up lake beds, with just a few puddles of the briniest, saltiest water you can imagine. Salt covers the dried up lake beds as far as the eye can see, which makes it look like a mini-Salt Lake City. On the way back to Furnace Creek, we decided to stop at the Devil's Golf Course, which is a place in the middle of the lake which has some huge crusty salt crystals and good views of the salt flats. Worth a stop if you have the time, but again, the road is just a dirt track and it's pretty broken up, so you need to take it easy!.

Las Vegas
Next stop, Las Vegas, Nevada...

Everybody knows about Vegas, but it's worth mentioning a few bits and bobs. We stayed at The Luxor which is Egyptian-themed, and the main building is shaped like a Pyramid. The rooms are decent enough, but check-in is a nightmare. The place is just so huge, even with 15 check-in desks we were about 5 people deep in each queue which is hardly the personal touch! Anyway, we dropped off our bags and headed off for a wander. The first thing you notice is the different attitude to smoking in Nevada. We're just a stone's thrown from California (where you cannot smoke anywhere without being shot!), but people are smoking everywhere! Pretty disgusting. The next thing you notice is just how tacky the whole thing is. All the casinos are pretty identical inside, with row after row of cheapy slot machines making cheapy computery noises. They're also designed deliberately to make it very difficult to find your way out. You wont see an "Exit" sign anywhere! They want you to stay inside and spend, spend, spend, which is what most people seem to do, in the sadly misguided hope that they might make some money. (Hint: try getting a job). The only thing we had planned in Vegas was to go and see Elton John in concert. He was playing at the Colosseum at Caeser's Palace. He's not really my cup of tea, but the show was good, and he kept taking the mickey out of Celine Dion, which was funny. And he's very short.

As it's a fair trek up and down The Strip, we decided to try the monorail - the longest stretch runs from Bally's to the MGM Grand. What a mistake that was. It took about half an hour's walk from the entrance to Bally's to get to the monorail station. We could've walked to the MGM by then. When we finally got on a train, it dropped us of in the bowels of the MGM Grand somewhere and it took another half hour or so to get to The Strip again. Don't bother with the monorail at all. It's a waste of time. We also paid $3 for the privilege! The best way to get about is on foot as the traffic is too bad to use the bus, but the distances are deceptive. You can easily see Caeser's Palace from The Luxor, and it doesn't look too far, but it can take up to an hour to walk it depending on the time you go as there are just so many people around.

The next day we decided to check out the Pharaoh's Buffet in The Luxor for breakfast. All you can eat for about 12 dollars. It was good! I suspect some of these people wonder how they can possibly be so hideously obese, but looking at their eating habits, it's not hard to see why. People were piling their plates high with all the fried gunk you can possibly imagine. Pretty disgusting really, but a good way of filling up for little cost, and there was always a good choice of fruit available if you wanted to be healthy. We then waddled across to Mandalay Bay (the next hotel down The Strip from The Luxor) to visit the Shark Reef which is pretty good. Although, again, it's buried in the bowels of the hotel, so wear your walking shoes! They have sharks of various kinds, and jellyfish and all sorts. It's fairly expensive (about $12-14 for an adult, I think), but it kills a couple of hours.

Next stop was the Titanic exhibition at The Tropicana. Quite interesting, with the largest chunk of hull ever recovered from the Titanic. In true Vegas style, it's completely outrageous, in that it has a huge iceberg in the exhibition. And it's not a cardboard mockup like they would do in the UK, it's a real chunk of ice, mysteriously being chilled from behind, even though it's just sitting there in a normal air-conditioned room. Worth a visit if the Titanic interests you. This wasn't too expensive - about $10 per person, I think. And that was about it for Vegas. One thing worth mentioning, is the fountain show at the Bellagio hotel. After about 3pm, every 15 minutes there is a HUGE choreographed fountain show set to various styles of music and it's pretty spectacular. It's probably the best freebie on The Strip. Well worth waiting around for.

Zion National Park
And so, the next morning, it was time to move on. And, to be honest, I wasn't sad to see the back of Vegas. The next stop was in Utah (the 3rd state of our tour) and Zion National Park.
I must admit, I'd never heard of the place, and the guide book we had didn't really say a lot about it so I wasn't holding out much hope for it, to be honest - I was just glad to be away from Vegas! However, what a surprise we had. It's an absolutely amazing place. Especially after coming from the deserts of California and Nevada, it's a real oasis. Greenery everywhere, rivers, waterfalls. This was going to be a real highlight. The only downside was that we only had one night here, so we had to get out and see everything sharpish!

First stop was the entrance gate. We were staying at the Zion Lodge, and we weren't entirely sure where it was because our map was rubbish, but we mentioned it to the ranger at the gate, and they said it was inside the park itself, and you needed a red pass (which they give you) to put in your window because it's down a private road which normally only the shuttle buses are allowed to go down.
The entrance fee is currently $20, or free with your Park Pass. We parked up at the Zion Lodge, and were eager to get checked in and then get out and about. A real bonus in Zion (which Americans probably hate!) is that you are not allowed to drive around in your car - you HAVE to get the shuttle bus to get around so there are no traffic jams and no huge car parks littered around the park. The other bonus is that it's quite compact, so if you don't intend to do a lot of hiking round the trails, you can get around the main sights in an afternoon (which we did). The best thing to do is get the shuttle bus to the end of the road and then get off at all the stops as you come back. The highlight had to be the Weeping Rock. This is a 'kind of' waterfall, but not really. Water doesn't really flow over rocks, it just sort of pours OUT of rocks. Hard to explain, but it's really spectacular and you can get some great photos from behind the 'trickle' with the water droplets in the foreground. Then just stroll along the river, taking in the sights, and the wildlife. We saw a few deer and a stag there, as well as numerous squirrels. I can't really do it justice here, but believe me, it is a real highlight and I'd recommend staying a couple of nights here. The Zion Lodge itself is a great place to stay - right in the middle of the park, with little log cabin-styled buildings. Very quaint. And the restaurant is pretty good, too, but just make sure you reserve a table, because it gets busy. And remember, because you're now in Utah, you can't buy alcohol without food - and I was about ready to go and get completely hammered, too, but I just couldn't stomach eating a plate of nachos with every pint! Talking of food, if you're trying to eat reasonably healthily (very difficult in the US, I know) then make sure you ask for skim (sic) milk with your coffee (the default is cream), and if you're getting toast, make sure you ask for it WITHOUT butter. We learnt the milk thing from Canada, but the HEAVILY buttered toast was a brand new experience!

Anyway... It was hot again that afternoon, so we didn't do a lot of hiking. However, the next morning, before we set off for our next destination, the weather was cooler so we decided to take the short hike up to the Lower Emerald Pool. The hike starts right from the Zion Lodge, so it was certainly convenient enough. I can definitely recommend this, as a very short hike. It takes about 15 minutes at the most, and takes you to these lovely green pools (which you're not allowed to go in, by the way!), and a place where you can go behind a waterfall. OK, it's more of a trickle than a gushing waterfall, but it's very nice nonetheless.

Bryce Canyon
Next up was Bryce Canyon. Thankfully, the weather had started to turn a bit, and things were getting cooler. Just aswell, really, because the only hotel in the park (The Bryce Canyon Lodge) has no air conditioning. It's a nice enough place, with a combination of individual log cabins, and larger buildings with hotel rooms in spread around the grounds. Chipmunks abound here, for some reason, and they're very cute and playful! But that's not why we came - we came to see Bryce Canyon. And, again, it's pretty spectacular. It's very different to anything else we'd seen so far. It's red sandstone (like a lot of things around here), but it's been eroded in a strange way to leave loads of red spires sticking up out of the canyon. You can drive around here with your own vehicle, and we didn't have any trouble parking up at any of the viewpoints. The main one worth stopping at is the Natural Bridge, which is a huge archway carved out of the rock by (apparently) ice erosion, or something like that. Very impressive, but difficult to get a picture of with somebody in the foreground because it's down a steep drop - you need to climb onto the fence on the right-hand side!

The hotel restaurant was nothing special - the usual steaks and burgers, but again, given the location of some of these places, you can't really hold it against them. It's amazing, really, the variety they are able to produce, given the remoteness. Some poor truck driver has to lug all this food around (probably frozen) so that we can get a decent's night nosh.

Not much more to say about Bryce Canyon, really, except that it's definitely worth a visit, but one night is enough. Recharge your batteries, and move on. And we did so, to Lake Powell...

Lake Powell
I was quite looking forward to Lake Powell as I was hoping to go for a bit of a swim and cool off a bit. Unfortunately, I wasn't that impressed. The first thing we decided to do was to stop at the Glen Canyon Dam visitor's centre. What a nightmare! They're absolutely paranoid about security here, and they wont let you bring in a bag, or any sort of vaguely sharp objects, like spoons etc., so, after numerous trips back to the car to drop off various things, I walked through the metal detector, and still it went off! So I went to be frisked, and it was determined that my shoes were setting the detector off, despite me not being able to find an ounce of metal on them anywhere. Ho hum. Eventually made it in. It's the best place to get a good view of the dam from. Sadly, it's from behind glass, so a decent picture is out of the question.

The lake itself is quite picturesque, even though it's basically a man-made flooded canyon. But the rocks are real, at least, so it's quite impressive. We were staying at the Lake Powell Resort (formally known as the Wahweap Lodge, I believe) which is situated at the Wahweap Marina. You have to pay to get into the Lake Powell Recreational Area ($10 or free with your park pass). The Lake Powell Resort seems to be the only hotel around here - the only one on the lake, at least. Everything else is in the town of Page which is a mile or two away from the actual lake. The hotel is nothing special, again. The rooms are fairly standard motel-style rooms, but at least they have a coffee machine so you can make yourself a half-decent brew in the comfort of your own room.

The restaurant was probably the highlight of our stay here. It has a huge circular window, giving superb views of the lake, and the food is very good indeed. I would recommend making a reservation, or getting there early (i.e. before 6pm) because it fills up fast. People were queueing up as we left, which is not great if you're really hungry! One thing you'll notice about the more out-of-the-way lodges / hotels is that all the staff seem to be foreign. Our waiter (sorry, 'server' as they say round these parts) tonight was Zoltan from Romania and he was superb. He was totally snowed under with tables to wait on, but he still managed to give good, friendly service.

The next best thing about our stay here (after the food) was the town of Page. Not that it's a particularly picturesque town or anything, but it has a decent size Safeway AND a WalMart so you can restock on those essentials! The Safeway is just a little way up the main drag of the town, but the WalMart is to the west of the main town. The most confusing thing around here is the time. Lake Powell spans across the Utah - Arizona border, and Utah does not observe Daylight Savings Time which means it's one hour behind Arizona at the moment. This means there are two clocks everywhere, so it can be a bit confusing. Thankfully, most things used Arizona time, but if you're booking a boat trip or soemthing, make sure you check which time they're using! You wouldn't want to miss it!

As I say, we weren't that enamoured with the place, to be honest, and we would've probably preferred an extra night somewhere like Zion. It's mainly a place for Americans to show off their huge boats, and they litter the shoreline and marinas.

The next morning we were off again - it was starting to get a bit wearing, all these one night stops and all the driving, but the next location I was very eager to see, so I didn't mind. We were off to Monument Valley, and the excitement was palpable. It's one of those places you see in films and tv programmes over and over again (like the pyramids, for example), so it's great to finally see them in the flesh as it were.

Monument Valley
The drive was nothing too exciting. Mainly uneventful roads, but eventually you enter Navajo Reservation and it starts to change a bit. Weird sandstone monoliths start to rise from the desert, and then you know you've arrived. It's very easy to miss the visitor's centre here, mainly because it's not signposted in this direction. But you get to a crossroads when the Goulding's Lodge is signed to the left, and the visitor's centre is off to the right. For once, the visitor's centre is actually worth some time. Mainly because this is actually the only place you'll get a decent view of 'The Mittens' from. It's a $5 per person charge to get in, and the park pass is not accepted here. Plus, your ticket is only valid for one day, so if you want to see a sunset, and then a sunrise the next day, you'll have to pay twice. Bit of a con, really, but I guess the Navajo need the money.

As it happens, we were staying at the Gouldings Lodge, so it was a short hop back there to get checked in. All the rooms have a superb view of the 'monuments' from the balcony, and are very well equipped with huge beds and a seating area with a sofa. This is, once again, the only hotel around here - the others are some distance away to the west, so it's worth getting a room here if you can. While we were there, we had a nice afternoon thunderstorm which have us some great pictures with a dark sky in the background. But, as usual, it didn't last long and the sun was out again before too long which also gave some splendid pictures with rainbows on them.
One thing worth bearing in mind is, if you don't already know, you are not allowed any alcohol on Navajo land, so you won't be getting hammered around here. This started to sink in as I went to the store (just a stone's throw from the lodge) and fancied a beer and there was none to be seen anywhere. Then I managed to find a leaflet which mentioned the fact that they don't appreciate alcohol on their land, so that cleared that up.

Grand Canyon
The next morning, after a swift breakfast from the store (we'd had enough of cooked breakfasts and buffets by this time!), we were off again. We were reaching the end of our trip now, and we were heading for something I'd always wanted to see - The Grand Canyon. A couple of hours from Monument Valley, and we were there. I was expecting it to be busy, and I was right. If you come in from the east entrance, you get to drive along Desert Drive which has numerous viewpoints along the way of which you only really need to stop at a couple. At the end of the day, it's a BIG canyon, and it's pretty much the same view wherever you look at it from. The sheer scale of the place is just amazing. You just can't grasp the size of it - the other side of the canyon just doesn't look real. It looks like a photographer's backdrop or something, so a photograph is rarely going to do it justice.
However, the 'busyness' of the place was really oppressive. there were people everywhere, and as you got to the Grand Canyon 'village' (one shop, as far as I can make out), there was just nowhere to park. We were staying at the Maswik Lodge. This was probably the least good accommodation we had all trip. There was no air-con (and you were needing it here as it had started to warm up again since Bryce Canyon), although there was a ceiling fan which made things just about bearable. The restaurant was non-existant - there was just a sort of fast-food food-court place where you just grab some crappy burger and sit among other people's discarded leftovers to eat it. Needless to say, we didn't eat here. Most of the hotels around the South Rim just had burgers as their main offerings, but one hotel stood out from the crowd - the El Tovar. It's the oldest hotel around here (celebrating it's 100 year anniversary in 2005, as it happens), and easily has the best menu going. We had 2 nights here, and we were sure going to eat here for both of them! The choice was superb, and the quality of the food was even better. And, as ever in North America, the service was second-to-none. If you want to eat here, though, you must reserve a table. And reserve early (as soon as possible after 1pm), or you'll be left with eating after 9:15pm!

The next day we had booked a flight with Air Grand Canyon in a small plane to see the canyon from the air. It's worth booking in advance to make sure you get the time and trip you want, but some people were just turning up and they managed to fit them in within an hour or so. We took their middle excursion, which did a decent lap of the canyon and lasted about an hour. This cost about $100 per person, but it was certainly worth every penny. There's only room for 6 in this plane, plus the pilot, and everybody gets a window seat, so there's no squabbling! This was my first outing in a light aircraft, and I have to admit I was a bit nervous about it, having heard all sorts of nasty stories about them! In the end, it was fine. As you fly over the ground away from the canyon's edge, it's quite bumpy because you're quite low so the thermals really affect you. However, once you get over the canyon itself, it smooths out totally and you can just sit back and enjoy the view. And what a view it is! It's definitely the best way to experience the Canyon. You can see people white-water rafting down in the rapids of the Colorado River, and you can see the point where the main Colorado River and the Little Colorado River meet - the main river is a bluey-green colour, whereas the Little River is browny-red, so it's easy to spot where they meet. I can't recommend this highly enough. If you have only very little time here, this is the one thing you should definitely do.

Phoenix / Scottsdale
After 2 nights at the Grand Canyon, I was definitely ready to leave. Don't get me wrong, it's really spectacular, but the fact that it's just so busy, and the resort is so over-developed does spoil it a bit. The final stop on our tour was Scottsdale, which is basically a suburb of eastern Phoenix. The drive down here was great - HUGE cactii just litter the Arizona scenery, and we couldn't resist getting out and taking a few photos next to a particularly large one (must've been about 15 feet tall, at least - didn't have a tape measure handy). But they are all large, and they really are everywhere. We were booked in at the Scottsdale Renaissance Resort. This place was absolutely superb. It's a sprawling hotel, with every room at ground level in individual huts dotted around the desert landscape. We were meant to have a standard room, but we asked for a king sized bed rather than the usual 2 double beds (I've never understood why North American hotels all have 2 double beds in as standard. Maybe it's because everybody is so fat, husband and wife usually need a double bed each.. I dunno...), and maybe only the suites have these, so we actually ended up in a suite. It had a comlpletely seperate sitting room area, with sofa, comfy chair, desk and a kitchenette, and then a good sized bedroom. The star of the show was the enclosed courtyard out the back, with a private jacuzzi. We were straight in there, despite the 45 degree heat! (plenty of factor 60 suncream, of course!).
Our time was then mainly spent just chilling out and walking round the superb shops at Fashion Square just down the road from the hotel. One thing we did want to do was visit the Phoenix Zoo. Unfortunately, it was closed after 1pm, which is pretty sensible, I guess, given the heat. However, the desert botanical gardens were open, so we stopped by there for a look. They have every kind of cactus you can imagine in there, as well as some lovely wildlife like ground squirrels running about. It's definitely worth a visit, but maybe not in the afternoon, like we did - it's just too hot. We zipped round quickly, and were ready to get back to some air-conditioned loveliness!.

That evening we had dinner at a Thai restaurant just across the road from the hotel lobby. I didn't realise they had Thai restaurants in the US, but it was a nice surprise, anyway. We had some great food, and then it was off to bed for the last time on this holiday.
The next day, our flight wasn't until 7:15pm, so we still had plenty of time to kill, although the hire car had to be back for 4pm. Most of our time was spent round the shops again, but we did get up fairly early to get to the zoo before it got too hot. Even by 8am it was really starting to heat up, but thankfully somebody has discovered these fine mist water jets which you see in quite a few places (including Las Vegas) which, when you stand near them, is almost like outdoor air-conditioning. It's very refreshing, and a clever idea! We saw various animals, many of them fairly standard, like lions (they looked very bored indeed, sadly), giraffes and elephants, but also some 'native' animals like prairie dogs (they are RATHER cute!). It's worth a visit if you can drag yourself out of bed early enough to beat the heat. It's open from 7am, but it quite expensive at about $12 for an adult.

And so, that was about it. We drove up to Phoenix Sky Harbor (sic) airport, and dropped off the hire car. Thankfully, no queues for this. You just drop it off, leave the keys in the car, and somebody just prints out a receipt to say they've received it. Then a bus takes you to your terminal. We were expecting huge, lavish shopping malls at the airport, in a true American style, but sadly this was absent, at terminal 4, at least. There are just a few small gift shops and some pretty mediocre fast food places to get some grub, so don't bank on sitting around here for too long!

Eventually, we were off and putting our watches forward 8 hours and groaning at how we were going to feel when we got off the flight having had no sleep whatsoever. The flight was uneventful, except for the fact that the entertainment system wasn't working properly, so I only managed to watch one film before it died entirely. So I was resigned to trying to get some sleep, which I always find impossible in economy class because my legs just don't fit anywhere.

Less than 10 hours later and we were at Heathrow at around 13:00 local time. Bizarrely, Heathrow was pretty quiet. Every time I've used the place before, you have to circle in a stack for ages before you can land, and then luggage takes ages to come out because of all the other flights they have to accommodate. But on this occasion, we were about the only flight picking up our luggage and things were running very smoothly. (Why does my luggage ALWAYS come out towards the end? Surely, given the law of averages, and the number of flights I've done in the last few years, it should come out first just once. Grr!).

And so, that's it. The highlight for me still has to be Zion National Park, followed by the total silence in Death Valley. Yes, the Grand Canyon is HUGE and spectacular, but as I said before, the resort does kinda let it down a bit.

The End.