A bottle of wine after the Hillgroove niteclub about a month before the departure date, saw the first of the planning of this trip.

We flew from Dublin to LAX with Aer Lingus and got a cheap fair for €316 return including taxes. We drove from LA to the US/Mexico border and then travelled to Rosarito Mexico. We didn't waste much time in Rosarito and quickly realised that Tijuana was the place to be. Tijuana is meant to be a dangerous place but if you don't look for trouble you won't get it.

When we travelled back into the US we travelled to San Diego which is pretty much on the Mexican border. We spent a night in San Diego. We stayed in a hotel in the Hotel Circle which is about ten minutes outside of downtown in a taxi. We took a boat cruise of the bay and passed by the Naval Base in San Diego. Apparently two thirds of the US Pacific fleet have their homebase there. It is certainly well worth a boat trip cruise.

We were in San Diego on a Wednesday night, actually the evening before Thanksgiving so there was a lot of action downtown. The Gas Lamp area was the place to be. We had a good night there.

From there we drove to Las Vegas, the Bright Light City. We stopped about one third of the way up for a coffee in a small restaurant just off the freeway. It was a really cool place, located beside the railway tracks where trains as long as one mile pass on average every ten minutes. The locals were celebrating Thanksgiving and certainly made us feel welcome.

In Las Vegas we stayed in the Hotel Excalibur which is the only castle on "The Strip". It was a huge hotel which I reckon has more than four and a half thousand bedrooms. The casino downstairs played host to thousands of slot machines, roulette tables, blackjack tables and many many more.

After realising that it would take more than twelve hours to drive from Las Vegas to San Francisco non stop we decided to purchase a flight. We flew from Las Vegas to San Jose with Southwest airlines for about $120. It only took about one and a half hours. There was a spectacular view of the snow capped Taho mountains during the flight, and there were many sighs of relief that we hadn't decided to drive.

A bus from San Jose with an extrordinary driver took us to San Francisco. We stayed in a hotel just off Union Square, bordering on Chinatown. The shops full of gruddles in Chinatown were really cheap and interesting. It is very hard to enter a shop and leave without buying something. The people are really nice.

We visited Alcatraz, SS Jeremiah O'Brien, USS Hornet and a WWII Submarine while in San Francisco. Alctraz was a sight to behold.

We drove back to LA from San Francisco and spent our last night on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood yet again.

San Francisco the city where girls are girls and quite a few of the guys are too!

An Airbus A330 transported two of our weary bodies accross the United States and the Atlantic Ocean in a mere nine and a half hours back to our capital city of Dublin to depression after such a great holiday! However it will be remembered for a long time and California will definitely be visited again!

ronan@ronanos.com