Utah Pics....and no mormon wore a suit - it was way too hot

The day starts with Stacey posing at the border after a short drive from Kayenta..the town in the middle of the Navajo reservation. Stace thought the sign said Don Juan not san Juan..hence the smile.

Jeff gets reacquainted with his 3 sisters...or maybe he's just missing echo point? Finally Australia has something bigger than the American equivalent!! Which one is which? Careful now...one's short but skinny...one looks like a beer bottle and the other one I cannot describe. Talking about the ones in the photo of course.

This is how we wanted to tour the valley....but we decided that 5 horsepower of the sewing machine was better than one horse. However, as far as our rental company is concerned we never went off road!

Can you see the scorpion? Look harder...you will find it! When you do let us know where it is...the first correct answer will be rewarded with a Hershey's Bar delivered to you personally on our return!

After a 2 hourphotography course at the Grand Canyon, jeff started to think he was a good photographer. Well, he may need just a few more (intensive) courses yet, but this photo isn't too bad.

Look...it's a pair of buttes!!

Stacey got artsy fartsy on the road...here is a canyon at canyonlands National Park, taken at 80mph in sepia...not bad....it's like a window to the blue sky...without the blue!

Different arch - this one is available in colour.

And as for this photo...it's just to prove to Mr Taxman that I did a bit of research to see what Gerringong may look like (perhaps).....

A short note...LA to DC

We are now in DC and have just finished attending to laundromat tasks. DC feels like Vietnam in the middle of the wet season...hot and sticky...and we decide to spend half a day in a laundromat (whoch of course adds to the humidity)...we came out 5 kilos lighter!

We arrived here at Midnight last night after starting the day at 7am..a whole day of travelling. We arrived at check in at LAX to be told we didn't have seats together and the flight was full! Great times travelling in a packed cabin coming our way and not even sitting together. The check in agent worked something out and we finally got seats together and we then headed off to the close to strip search security line...you have to take off shoes, belts and all that jazz...and of course empty them pockets.

We quicklhy ran up to Qantas Club to have breakfast and check emails...a short stop but one that came in handy for the food at least and the retreat from the terminal which is a construction zone. Upon lining up for boarding and as we handed over our boarding passes they were scanned and then the computer made a buzz like there was an error...we thought there must've been something wrong...maybe we were bumped off the flight?

The lady who took our tickets worked hard at the computer trying to work out what the story was...and then her supervisor looked over and eenquired...Ïs that Whitë?"He then announced we had been bumped.........to Premium Economy and handed over our new boarding passes! So we not only got to sit together and only with each other (2 seat groups), we had larger seats, greater recline, touchscreen tvs, no seats in front...we also got a champagne before takeoff and ate lunch with real cutlery and glasses. Not to mention the nice cup of plunger leaf tea, which is a change to the cardboard they push as tea elsewhere in the states. We only wish we could have those seats for the longhaul as we'd be able to sleep no problem at all. In any case we certainly enjoyed the 5 hour flight and the benefits of the upgrade, our thanks be to Qantas...

Upon arrival at JFK we waited almost an hour for our bags and then changed terminals...we had a flight with American to catch to DC...that airline is so disorganised and seems to want to charge you for everything. If they're Qantas equivelant for the US I wouldn't like to fly the low cost carriers, We had to go through about 5 different bag drop agents who were generally rude to us before we got checked in and bags loaded on.

We headed up to the lounge for a drink and got our boarding passes just before scheduled departure. Headed to the gate and then waited...and waited...and threw in a bit more of waiting just for the fun of it...the plane was delayed for over 2 hours. Even after boarding we were stuck in a queue getting out to the runway that took an hour...all in a pokey little plane...2 seats one side, single seats the other and Jeff could not stand up in them with low roof.

We got to DC at Midnight after some "fun"flying and then caught a cab to the hostel. Of course, the hostel was closed despite knowing we'd be late. We were lucky to have a taxi driver that waited with us, offered to find other hotels and was generally helpful. We were also lucky to meet 2 swedish guys coming back from a few drinks out who let us into the hostel.

We were just about to fall asleep on the loungeroom when 2 drubk guys and a girl came back, turned the tv on loud and ate takeout,,,we found out 30 mins later they were the staff!! He then tries it on and was quite rude to us and if it wasn't 2.30am we wouldve found somewhere else. After some arguments he settles down, takes our cash and helps us with our bags up to the room...where we are now laying on the bed typing this...We hear there's more to DC than a Hostel dorm and we haven't eaten in close to 24 hours so we better get out there.

See you soon

Stace and Jeff

PS. Keep those comments coming in.....so we know someone's reading it at least!! :)

Californication

Hi everyone!
Apologies again for the delay between blogs, time has got away from us and we have had a bit of trouble accessing the net for decent periods of time.
Well last entry took us up to our interesting encounters in a dodgy San fran laundromat (you will be pleaed to know that I behaved myself today in a DC laundromat with no serious grief befalling us, but more of DC later). We survived dodgy dirty cold San Francisco, and walked away with a sharpening of our street smarts, educated on the workings of street dealers, hookers and the ways in which the copious homeless people survive life on the streets. One homeless guy had a pretty cool sense of humour, wandering around town with a cardboard sign saying "happy friday". It was certainly an eye opener, somewhat disturbing to see the daily block long lines of the homeless seeking food and clothing from a local church mission, however that was juxtaposed against some of the more beautiful sights of the city. Not to mention lovers fornicating in a park next to Universal studios filming scenes for a new TV series called Trauma, while a homeless dude gatecrashed the filming to serenade the cast and crew with a rendition of "my girl"! We saw him later singing the same song in a lolly shop seeking change from customers, After being told to move on by the owner of the store, he called her a racist and then told her she need to change cause the president is a blackass now!

We enjoyed a trip across to the island of Alcatraz and took a self guided tour through the prison, and despite Jeff's threats and posturing, he did not dare to lock Stacey up and leave her in a cell! We actually met an ex-inmate named Darwin Coon of all things....lucky he didn't grow up in Australia! Upon our return to the mainland we carried out the obligatory tourist tasks of walking through North Beach and Chinatown to union square, where there was a pretty cool art display...good enough to make sure stacey didn't runoff into the adjacent Macys or Tiffanys. This was followed by a crowded cable car ride to Fishermans Wharf...where we retreated to Starbucks to warm up with a Hot Chocolate or 2. The line was so long for the return cable car we decided to walk up the steep hills back into town...they are on an incline of close to 40 degrees and went on for 500m or so...luckily our legs were steel springs and they helped us run like leopards!

We also walked about 15km around the city in a day spent exploring the Golden gate Park in search of Bison which we eventually managed to find, enjoyed a picnic lunch in the park and then set off to walk the golden gate bridge. The sun actually made a brief appearance which was great to see the harbour and the bridge, not unlike another harbour city we can think of, except we have never suffered frostbite crossing the Syd harbour bridge and the top of it doesn't get lost in fog or rolling cloud!

After leaving San Fran we left with high hopes of rediscovering that californian summer we had heard so much about. we spent 2 days heading down highway1 along the coast to LA, past santa cruz, santa barbara, monterey and the Big Sur. It was pretty foggy and cool so we didnt get to appreciate the beauty of the coastline in full, but it was still very pretty, and we would be keen to revisit for a few days camping if we could...probably on the same beach with the elphant seals, as they looked pretty comfy there laying on the sand (if they weren't fighting with each other that is).

Our road trip ended in typical style with a stop at a Pancake House (not part of a chain which is hard to find on the road), where we scoffed down a few pancakes and iced tea and coke...and stacey was too scared to try the root beer! This was followed with a traffic jam that lasted about 5 miles and took 2 hours to get through and we then sailed through on a couple of interstates back to the Airport and retired to the Crowne Plaza for the night...topped off with a feast of buffalo wings, calamari, salads and sandwiches ala room service style...all in readiness for the haul across the continent the next day..