Beard's on Tour: 2012

Hello There,

Sorry it has been such a while since we have posted, we have been very busy and not had much internet.. so anyway our tour has finished and it is the end of our little adventure.. can't beleive the last year or so of travelling has gone so quickly, we have had a fantastic time and met lots of nice people. Many of whom we will keep in contact with and in some ways it will be nice to get back to some sort of normality, for a couple of weeks lol!!!! So this is our last week.. and we can safely say don't look out for the next Beard's on Tour blog soon.. well at least not for the next 20 years or so.. We are now waiting at San Fran for our flight home to Heathrow...

Our last week...

Tuesday March 27

We left Flagstaff at 9am to heard towards Vegas baby.. We made a couple of stops on the way but it was pretty much a straight road through.. We approached from the Southern end of the strip (the more scenic route) and got to our hotel (Harrah's) at about 4pm.. We dumped our bags and headed out to New York New York hotel to pick up tickets for a show we were seeing that night!! We stopped in a bar inside the New York New York Hotel for a drink and the bar and Me and Lee both got ask to see ID and lucy didnt bring any out so we had to have Soda !!!! bloddy soda not good !!!

Then we went back and got changed and headed out at 8pm for our stretch limo.. omg talk about luxury we had a black stretch that seated 6 people and we had champagne.. it was an absolute blast and we cruised up and down the strip and we also stopped at the "Welcome to Vegas" sign for a picture..

After an hour the driver dropped us off for our show.. We saw a Cirque De Soleil show called Zumanity... Let's just say the show was risque.. It was good but not brilliant.. Afterwards we walked back to our hotel, had a couple of drinks in the bar and called it a night about 1am..

Wednesday March 28

Jane's 50th yey!!! Unbeknown to her we had bought her a birthday present of a Gondola ride, lunch at the Venetian hotel and Madam Tussauds so she was pretty happy.. First stop a gondola ride which was fun and then a champagne lunch which was fab.. We chilled out for a bit in the afternoon at the hotel as in the evening we were going to see Rod Stewart at Caesars Palace.. He was fantastic and put on a great show..

Afterwards we got lost getting out of Caesars (swear they design them that way on purpose so you see everything and spend more money) and went back to our hotel where Jane gambled some blackjack and me and Lucy played the 1 cent slots.. here's the great thing, they give you free drinks even when you play these slots (you tip them 1 buck a drink).. So we sat there for 4 hours and Jane called an early end to the night (very rare!!!) at 3am... We knew she was gone when she started talking to the slot machine!!!

Thursday March 29

Our last day in Vegas.. We got up leisurely and went for a footlong hotdog (you're in Vegas, it has to be done!!!) and had a walk around the Fashion Mall... Lee had a bit of a sore head so he went for a lie down at the hotel in the afternoon.. In the evening at our hotel we were seeing a show called Legends (singer impersonators)..

Before the show we had a few drinks at the slots, went and had a buffet dinner which was fantastic (basically all the food you could want) and then saw the show.. They had Dean Martin, Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, Celione Dion and Elvis... Thought we'd grab an earlyish night as away the next day quite early.. Didn't bank on there being a domestic in the room opposite ours.. Gotta laugh I suppose...

Friday March 30

Left Vegas at 9am and we had a long driving day today... We had a couple of stops along the way and eventually stopped in Fresno where we were staying overnight.. Not the best hotel (in fact defo the worst!!!).... we went to the hotel bar and grill and had a lovely meal.. Left about 9pm and left Jane at the bar.. Had a bit of an eventful night and we will leave it at that.. Funny now writing that a few days later..

Saturday March 31

We were heading for Yosemite National Park which was about an hours drive or so away.. It was stunning and we had 3 hours or so there to have a look around.... Was kinda cool as it was the last of the major National Parks in the USA for us to visit... About 2.30pm we were picked up just as the weather was turning (it started snowing)... and drove to our hotel in Sonora.. We were pretty tired from the night before so we were just lazy and ordered pizza to our toom which was nice...

Sunday April 1

We were heading back to San Francisco where our USA trip all started... The bus microphone broke down first thing so the bus had to be changed over which slowed us down an hour or so and eventually we got to Old Town Sacramento.. It was a lovely little town and we had a good 90 mins there to have a look around and get some lunch...

Then we drove into San Fran, made a photo stop at the bridge and then had a quick city tour.. We got to our hotel about 5.30pm... very quick turnaround as were going for a meal in Chinatown.. It was a 4 course feast which was lovely, we made a toast to our Tour Guide Linda and our Driver John.. Afterwards we had a walk around Chinatown and did some shopping..

Then we went on a cable car ride (tram to me and you) up Calofornia Street.. We got back to the hotel about 10pm and crashed.

Monday April 2

Our last full day.. we were up and out early by 8am as we were going to "The Rock"...Alcatraz.. We got boat over to the island which took about 20 mins and gave us some great view of the city.. When we got there we watched an introduction video and then did a guided tour... It was very very interesting and we spent about 2 hours on the island..

We got the boat back and had the afternoon down at Fishermans Wharf where we did some shopping... We got back to the hotel for the wine pour at 5.30pm (30 mins every night where they give you free wine as much as you can drink!!!).. Lee managed to get a whole bottle from the man that does the pouring the first glass was good Lee went back for another round and the guy gave him a full bottle to bring back to our table.. Then we went for tea at Mel's Diner which was nice...

Tomorrow we get picked up at 1.30pm to go to the airport and we fly home at 5pm...

Lots of Love

Lee and Lucy xxxx

San Francisco Pics