Week 6

Week commencing Sunday 11th June 2000

Sunday 11th June

Today is Hippy day, Dave 8-)
We waited this long to visit Haight-Ashbury, as they have their annual street fair today.

Don't try this at home folks 8-)

The trolleybus dropped us off on Haight, where we saw this 'street art' !

Free music, man.
Some of these revellers looked like they'd been here all night !

This is the view, looking down Haight towards the park.
There were a LOT of people there that day !

The first we saw of this was clouds of smoke rolling down the street !
These two guys had a full time job turning the kebabs and pasting barbecue sauce on them.
Very tempting smell.

This is Haight/Ashbury - that is, the junction of Haight and Ashbury...
...and of course, it had to be a Ben & Jerry ice cream parlour 8-)
Funny thing is, that none of the lamp posts had both Haight and Ashbury.
You would think they would do it, if only for the tourists.

They hold the fair here every year at this time.
These are the winning entries for the advertising posters.
The one for this year (2000) is top centre.

We dropped into this bar to get out of the heat (and to get a drink of course 8-)
Anyway, we asked for fries and one of the other customers suggested we grab some garlic fries from a street trader.
It wasn't hard to locate him !

The wine seems to have had an effect on this dude 8-)

These guys with the feathers sprouting out of their heads were dancing up a storm...

...until the Po-lease asked them to move to the side street and let the people pass.
The crowd of course, showed their disapproval by cat-calling and boos 8-)

Mr. Music here blew up a real storm on his 'horn' !

These guys got a bird's eye view from their aparment.

This band was really excellent.
They were located at the Golden Gate Park end of Haight.

This is the end of Haight.
Across the road from Irene is the entrance to the park.

At the east end of the park is this children's playground.
Peter almost pulled a muscle showing off on the chin up bars 8-)

All these people were enjoying the hot weather (low 90s).
(Except for Irene and Peter, who were hiding from it where possible !)

Back to Haight again to catch the trolleybus to Nob Hill.
Irene got stuck in an upstairs window, but was eventually rescued 8-)

Monday 12th June

We're off to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon today !

This black guy is amazing - he tap dances in the blistering heat for the tourists waiting for the cablecar.
Sweat was pouring off him today (temperature in the 90s again). He made us feel tired just watching him.
(He'd just leapt onto the 'trash can' when we took the picture !)

These pictues were taken from the plane during our approach to Las Vegas.
It's mainly desert here, but occasionally we saw some greenery like the picture above.

Welcome to Las Vegas (gimme all your money 8-)

Tuesday 13th June

The Grand Canyon is about forty minutes flight from Las Vegas in a small plane...

This is Mr. Co-Pilot giving us a pre-flight briefing.
There are about ten rows with one seat at each side, so everyone gets a good view
(except for the people sat next to the wings - like us 8-)

Here's Irene, furiously pretending that she's not terrified 8-)
We got a good view really, because Mr. Pilot kept dipping the wings - woaw !

The approach to the Grand Canyon is mainly scrub, until we get to the Hoover Dam.
You can't see it very well, but if you look at the dark area below the river that looks like a leg, the dam is at the top of the thigh 8-)

This is where the river thins out and continues on it's way to Colorado.
That's probably why they call it the Colorado River 8-)

We thought we were seeing double when these two Harley boys pulled up !
This is the queue at the toll gates for entry to the Grand Canyon, which is a National Park.

Here we are at last.
We are at the north side of the Canyon, and this picture is looking towards the south east.

The viewing points here have safety fences...
...but it still gives you the willies when you look down !

If you look at the bottom of the picture between the handrail and the rock, you should be able to see a small cylindrical pillar about half an inch high.
Well to give you some idea of scale, that pillar is actually 350ft tall !!
The Grand Canyon is just under a mile deep, but you can't really get an idea of how awesome it is from a picture.

In the distance, you can see part of the trail that the mule trains use to get down to the Canyon floor. Parts of this trail are REALLY scary looking, and the guide said that they are six feet wide in some parts.
Can you imagine sitting on a mule about two feet from a cliff face and the same distance from a HUGE drop ?
Glad we decided against going down by mule 8-)
Apparently they also get hikers who walk the trail down to the Canyon floor, and only last week some Belgian guy tried it and died from dehydration. He didn't realise that the Canyon floor is about twenty degrees hotter that the top - that's about 119F !

We were amazed that these trees could survive on a cliff face !

If you look at the small bushes sprouting from the cliff on the left, the one at the bottom has a pair of tree rats (squirrels) running and jumping around !
If you look very carefully, you can just about make them out - in the grey area within the bush.

This is the last stop on our trip around the Canyon.

OK, it's time to play 'Spot the non-Japanese person' 8-)
This trip is VERY popular with Japanese tourists.

Here's a view of our plane from the outside.
It's not very big, so it tends to bounce around a bit.
However it gets very bumpy later in the summer as the temperature increases.
Sometimes the planes can't take off because of lightning.
They had some pictures of lightning bolts flashing down the Canyon - really impressive !

Back to Vegas on our favourite mode of transport 8-)
Here's a shot of the cockpit - it was a bit close for comfort 8-(

Mr. Pilot took a shine to Irene, and agreed to a free photo !

I thought you said Dukey was tall, Conch ?

We decided to go out for a meal at around 6:30pm thinking that it should have cooled down by then.
What a mistake - the sign said 'TEMP IS 104F', but we thought that since the restaurant was only two or three blocks away, we would give it a try.
We walked half a block, gave up and hailed a taxi. The heat was like the blast from a furnace !

Wednesday 14th June

Just in case you didn't believe us, here's the outside temperature at 10:30am !

Since it was only 100F, and we had our hats on this time we decided to walk to The Strip.
We managed two blocks before we wimped out and dived into this air conditioned mall !
The malls here are amazing - they have shops around the sides and slot machines in the middle.
Everywhere has slot machines - even the coffee bars !

Elvis is alive and well ! He works at this gift shop in the mall.
However his act has become rather wooden 8-)

Still in the mall.
They spend a lot of money on decor - this is one of dozens of chandeliers.

We finally plucked up courage to brave the heat again, taking care to keep to the shade where possible !

Irene was sorely tempted to dive into the water here 8-)

This is a replica of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
It doesn't look very big from this distance, but close up it's massive !
This place is incredible - they have all sorts of replicas, including one of New York !

The centre of the picture is Caesar's Palace with the entry pergola complete with statue of Caesar on a horse. Only slightly over the top 8-)

The Barbary Coast is another big casino.

We walked past this casino and did a double take - the jackpot stands at a cool $2,579,000 !
(We managed to resist the urge to feed dollars into the slot machines, though 8-)

The greenery here has to be constantly watered - after all this IS a desert !

This is a close up of the 'entrance pergola' to Caesar's Palace.

This is the view from a moving walkway that takes you from the pergola to the casino main entrance (No expense spared).

Here's the main entrance to the Casino.
The statues in the distance are full size !

This was the most impressive sight that we saw.
It's actually a night club inside the casino called Cleopatra's Barge that consists of a full sized boat with tables and chairs for people to sit and eat !

Back to our hotel/casino for lunch.
Peter tried to order scrambled eggs on toast, but the nearest he could get to it was 'Eggs, Scrambled, Side of Toast'.
However, the 'Side of Toast' comes with two pats of jam !
(They love to mix and match their food here !)

We got a good view of the replicas from the Fast Transit Vehicle that whisked us from the check in area to the boarding gates. You can just make out 'New York' on the left.

So far we were $14 up on the trip - not bad !
As luck would have it, our plane was delayed for an hour and a half, so Peter decided to risk a couple of bucks on the slots.
(Yes, they even have slot machines at the airport).
In went dollar number one - nothing.
Followed by dollar number two, and on the last pull the machine throws out $30 in quarters - yee hoo !
Quarters were changed for dollars and off we went to wait for the plane, $42 up on the trip !

Bye-bye Vegas 8-(

Leaving Las Vegas.
We will definitely be back. This place has more going on than anywhere we've ever visited.
A lot of big name artists perform here on a regular basis...
...and there's always the chance to win the price of an apartment in London (after tax 8-)
(We will probably choose a time when it's a lot cooler, though 8-)

Flying back to SF.

Thursday 15th June

On our return, we were shocked to learn that the temperature here yesterday (Wednesday) reached 104F !
Apparently the tar on the roads was melting and some people actually died 8-(
Today is cooler, but still in the nineties !

Union Square.
Is it a bird ? Is it a plane ?
No, it's another nutter 8-)

Check out this optical illusion.
Cars go up, cars go through !
(The road at the top goes up the hill and down the other side eventually joining the road that goes through the tunnel).

Friday 16th June

We took the ferry across the bay to Sausalito, a quaint fishing village.