American Adventure

Well that's the month almost over, it's been a memorable one! 

Meet distant cousins from the USA in Larbert at start of month, was the worst possible day and we all got soaking exploring old cemeteries for joint relatives. Kath and Uncle Norman came along, Kath without a jacket and got totally drookit. 

A couple of days later we were on plane to Heathrow for overnight stay before flight with BA to Seattle on 5 September. Almost a 10 hour flight, but wasn't too bad, watched a couple of films but didn't sleep, arrived there about lunchtime. Found our way to Motif Hotel and off exploring. Was nice there, much too much to describe here, so will keep things brief, did all the usual tourist stuff and would certainly go back. Seattle is famous for rain, but it was clear blue skies during the whole USA trip. 

After Seattle got train to Portland for 2 nights in Deluxe Hotel, was nice also. Visited the mother of the cousins I had met in Larbert on first day too. Portland has the biggest bookshop in the world so spent time there as well as in a couple of breweries.

Got the Amtrac train down to Emeryville (for San Francisco) from Portland, takes 18 hours, but had a wee roomette where the seats can be converted to beds, was OK, think I caught a cold in train though. 

San Francisco was excellent, again all the tourist stuff was done, Alcatraz visited, Golden Gate, Lombard Street, Coit Tower, cable cars etc. Stayed at Handlery Hotel at Union Square, was Ok. Got a driverless taxi to the Castro district to hang out with all the boys..Was visited while in SF by Lindsay, the cousin I had previously met in a soggy graveyard in Scotland.

After SF it was onward to Santa Barbara for a night, really needed more than a night here, was good, but could only scratch the surface. Didn't meet Harry or Meghan while there, but not disappointed about that.

Next day it was LA, managed to get to the hotel in Marina del Rey with a combination of tram (full of weirdos) and taxi, didn't do much on first day as was about 6 or 7 pm by time we were at hotel. Next day, we crammed a lot in, headed to Hollywood and did a minibus tour through famous areas. After that the tram to Santa Monica, went to pier then walked back along Venice Beach to hotel, must have got almost 30k steps that day. 

Flew back from LAX on Monday 16th, on that morning we visited a graveyard in nearby Culver City as Bea wanted to see Leonard Nimoy's grave. The flight back was OK, was overnight and I didn't sleep much if at all. Got our connection at Heathrow and arrived back in Edinburgh in one piece. 

Not been up to much since arriving back, took a while for sleeping to get normal, was waking up during night for a few days. Managed a couple of wee runs this week, but been pretty much a lardarse otherwise. Got 200K steps by 15 September, but have only added 75K since. Oh well, the weather has been shite. 

Out for a meal tonight with Norman and Gillian tonight (it's her 80th tomorrow), Kath and John will be there too. 

Have probably forgotten to write quite a lot, but hey ho..here are a few randomly chosen photos, took quite a lot! One is a terrified me on the Space Needle in Seattle, another the sun going down on Venice Beech, actually made video of sun disappearing. Also to be seen is Alcatraz, me collecting my Oscar in Hollywood and meeting Lindsay in SF.