My first trip to the USA was way back in 1996 when I got to take in the usual triangle between San Francisco in the north, San Diego in the south (including a pop across the boarder into Tijuana, Mexico) and Las Vegas in the east.
This of course had the obligatory few days stopover in Hawaii.
California
But importantly, we (Dim and I) had a car and got to drive all of this and saw a lot on the way. This included the drive out to Las Vegas along the famous route 66 and through the Mojave Desert.
Of course, we went to Los Angeles, in fact, we spent 3 weeks here. Mostly just bumming around and doing the odd tourist thing every second or third day. This included all of the usual tourist haunts, Universal Studios, Disneyland, the Hollywood sign, Hollywood Blvd and Rodeo Drive, Venice Beach, Santa Monica, Mann’s Chinese Theatre, the Walk of Fame etc.. etc..etc.
As we were leaving we did the scenic drive along Highway 1 (aka the Pacific Coast Highway), which hugs the California coastline all the way. At almost 500 miles, we took our time and took a few days to do it, but if more time was available we would have taken even longer and stopped at a lot more places.
A few days in San Francisco (doing the usual tourist things). Lombard St, the zoo, Alcatraz, Fisherman’s wharf and Pier 39 to see the seals, the Golden Gate Bridge and of course a ride on a tram.
Nevada
A few days in Vegas just checking out the sights. And almost 3 weeks in LA, just living like locals and intermittently playing tourist.
On another trip in 2009, Jill and I managed another trip to Las Vegas where we went silly and spent 10 days there. Most people spend 1-3 days there and get drunk and party the whole time. We did not. We played tourist and actually took our time and saw the place (through non-bloodshot eyes).
We saw it during the daytime, we saw it at night, we went to shows. We saw Cher live from the 3rd row, watched the Penn and Teller magic show and even got to see AC/DC perform live at the MGM Grand.
We went to the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam by helicopter, even landing on the floor of the canyon for afternoon tea, before flying back over the strip at sunset.
Miami
In 2019 there was a trip to Miami that was part of my (and Jeremy’s) 50th birthday celebrations. This saw us hitting South Beach in the middle of Spring Break and following on with a Caribbean Cruise. This destroyed our budgets, but hey, you only turn 50 once.
But most of these were largely undocumented and the above is just a summary supplemented by tourist pics. The rest however, is in the website age and will be decently documented with original photos.