Wild flowers along the Big Sur coast

Big Sur coast, California

Along the Big Sur

Saw hundreds and hundreds of elephant seals on one of the beaches. An amazing sight. They were females shedding their "winter skin", and males fighting in the waves!

Hundreds of seals on the beach!

Arrived in LA at about 9pm, and after battling with their road signs once again we found the hotel.

Us and our new friend

Paul meets someone else who has time keeping issues like him!

Even in Minnie Mouse´s house Paul can´t resist raiding the fridge!

Helen in Mickey Mouse´s car

Got to try and jam everything into our suitcases now ready for Mexico tomorrow!

written by  helenandpaul on May 12, 2008 from Los Angeles, United States
from the travel blog: The good ol' US of A, and a bit of Mexico thrown in for good measure!
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Picked up the hire car and drove about 20 Miles from Cancun to our hotel. We´re staying in a really cool beach hut type thing!!

Our beach hut!

This is the life!

Without starting to sound like nautical geeks, we have had another "ocean first" when we both swam in the Caribbean sea for the first time today. No getting used to the cold - just run straight in!

Paul in the Caribbean

Had a very lazy day so there´s not much else to write!!
Have added pictures to LA, San Francisco, etc.

PS, HAPPY BIRTHDAY VICCI!!!

written by  helenandpaul on May 14, 2008 from Puerto Morelos, Mexico
from the travel blog: The good ol' US of A, and a bit of Mexico thrown in for good measure!
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We decided we'd visit some Mayan ruins, the closest of which were about a one and a half hour drive from the hotel. Thankfully our car had air conditioning otherwise the trip would have been ruled out immediately! Although we'd had some hot weather in the USA, the heat in Mexico is different altogether. It's relentless and intense and there seems very little shade! At night it settles at about a sticky 28c.

Tulum Mayan Ruins

Lifesaving sea breeze!!

Sunstroke had already started to set in however, so we found it difficult to properly concentrate on what we were looking at or read the information signs. We'd drank so much water, worn hats, found shade, and put on so much suntan lotion, but we still got caught, and Paul spent the evening rubbing aftersun into his burnt feet and arms and Helen spent the evening in bed with heat exhaustion, topped off by a migraine and being sick!

The ruins were nice to see, although if we'd been feeling 100% we would have probably have got more out of it! As with everywhere else in Mexico, there were iguanas everywhere, sunbathing on the ruins and on the paths!

Iguanas!

Our hotel was reached via a dirt track, a road that was still under construction and still made of rubble. It had a 40 kph speed limit, and any faster than that and the doors would probably have shaken off the car anyway!
About a minute after leaving the hotel, and about 2 seconds after crawling over a speed bump, we saw a Police Car at the side of the road. As soon as we got to them three Officers jumped out, waving what looked like a hairdrier at us telling us we were travelling at 60 kph! We weren't even doing 40 kph, let alone their alleged 60!

We pulled over, and were told we'd get a ticket and would have to go to the Station and pay a $100 fine. As you can imagine, Paul was having none of it! He got all the paper work out for the car and the flights, standing his ground that we were not travelling at 60 kph! 48kph or 52kph or something similar then maybe we'd have thought twice before dismissing their corrupt money making accusation, but 60 kph was too rounded off and just too fast! The road was a dead end, there was no need for them to be there, no one went down there expect people going to the couple of small hotels there, so they were obviously just there to con the tourists!

After ten minutes of "heated debate" one of the Policemen asked Paul his occupation. Paul said "engineer" and suddenly everything changed! Until then we were told we had no choice but to pay the fine, but after a mention of a profession that they respected we were sent on our way.

Not a great end to our time in Mexico! Paul had read in the guidebook about the corrupt Police and we can now say that it's true!

Arrived in New York about an hour late at 9pm. To top off the Wedding theme one passenger got the Pilot to propose to his girlfriend for him over the speakers. Luckily for him she said yes!
We then had to join a complete free-for-all to get through Customs. There is a lot to be said for a good old English queue! Hundreds of people, plus luggage, trying to funnel into the one Customs desk that was open. Luckily the moaning and shouting of a few Americans paid off and they opened another desk. We thought there was going to be a riot when one passenger decided he was going to ram through the barrier and got pushed back by the security officer.

Excitement over we arrived at the airport hotel about 11pm, tired and hungry. The front desk got a Chinese delivered to our room so we had a midnite feast!

Got the Subway into New York City this morning to look for Ugg boots for Helen. She has now looked for them in the whole of America and has had no luck. There is an official Ugg shortage! So to make up for it Paul had to go to Hugo Boss and buy something! Typical!
Was really nice to go into the city though - even if we were only there a couple of hours!

written by  helenandpaul on May 18, 2008 from New York, United States
from the travel blog: The good ol' US of A, and a bit of Mexico thrown in for good measure!
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Traffic, JFK style!

Plane half empty again so we stretched out a bit and Paul tried to get some sleep before we landed and he went to work! Unfortunately, he was too tempted to stay awake and watch the films!

Landed nearly an hour early at Gatwick, at 5.30am.

Dawn over London

We've had a really good month, have seen some wonderful things and been to some great places. We've only scratched the surface of the huge USA and although some of it seemed a bit "whistle stop" we've seen lots of places and places we'd go back to explore!

So over 3000 driven Miles, 8 flights, nine US states, and two countries later, we're home!

We hope you've enjoyed our blog! Time to plan the next trip now then.....!

written by  helenandpaul on May 19, 2008 from Eastleigh, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: The good ol' US of A, and a bit of Mexico thrown in for good measure!
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