Category: North America

Driving The Pacific Coast Highway from Los Angeles to San Francisco – an Awesome Road Trip!

Epic! This was one of our best ever drives. Beautiful scenery, be that forest, mountain or the Pacific Ocean, everywhere you look!

Whilst in California it would be rude not to visit San Francisco; the issue was however that we were based in LA which is a good 6-7 drive away and our plans for moving on from Los Angeles go in a different direction. We decided to take a couple of days away from LA and drive the Pacific Coast road, also known as California 1, which has been highly recommended by a lot of people we have spoken to. Hotel booked for 2 nights thanks to the kindness of Nigel’s colleagues due to a parting gift voucher, we started our rather long but completely awesome journey.

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Sport in Los Angeles – our experiences

In 2028 the LA Memorial Coliseum will become the first stadium to have hosted the Olympic Games 3 times, having previously been the venue for the greatest sports show on the planet in 1932 and 1984.

Perhaps it deserves this accolade because Los Angeles is a sports mad city, a heaven on earth with teams at the highest level representing the city in each of the Big 5 sports in the country: American Football, or ‘catch’ as it should be called, Soccer, or football as it should be called, basketball, baseball and hockey, or ice hockey as it should be called 😊

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Visiting Hollywood & Beverly Hills

What’s the first place anyone thinks of to visit when they go to Los Angeles? Probably the first place we headed to – ‘THE’ sign. I had Googled the best spot to view the Hollywood sign from, and the answer it gave was Griffith Park. We went to that park, but could not see the sign from where we had parked, illegally as it turned out. In the UK, a no-parking spot is indicated by double yellow lines next to the kerb; in the USA, they simply paint the kerb red. Carol had discovered this in a quick chat with a local in the park. “Don’t worry”, he said, “It’s only a $100 fine.”

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Arriving in Los Angeles – California

Looking at moving on options from Ecuador it seemed the natural progression from there was the US. Whilst we would have liked to have spent a lot more time in South America as per our original pre-covid plans we weighed up the options, risks (re covid rates, entry requirements and what was open) and the US would not only allow us in, their rates of Covid had dropped considerably and their vaccine programme was well underway. We decided our first US stop would be Los Angeles.

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A Month in Antigua – The Land of Sea and Sun

Antigua and Barbuda is an independent commonwealth country in the West Indies, which lies between the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean sea. Barbuda is 63km away from Antigua, and both major islands are part of the lesser antillies and are roughly 17 degrees north of the equator. Antigua is 14 miles long and 11 miles wide; and it encompasses 108 square miles. For an English comparison it is smaller than the Isle of Wight in both size and population and any two points on the island can be reached within around 45 minutes maximum. We had seen pictures of the beautiful beaches here but were curious if photoshop was involved and indeed what else this beautiful island had to offer.

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A Day at the Cricket in Barbados

Now I know we’re getting very much into niche territory here, but I LOVE cricket. Days out with my besties Churchie and Tone always feature sunshine, alcohol, and laughter, all in huge quantities. Best not to mention our boy’s away trip to Bristol, where it rained for 4 days solid and we never even got to close to the cricket ground, let alone see any cricket. Usually, it’s all about sunshine, alcohol, and fun, and sometimes we even get to enjoy what happens ON the field lol. Actually, whether we’re supporting Hampshire or England, both teams have an excellent record of winning when we’re watching 🙂 These days out with the boys, whatever the weather, are always amongst the highlights of my year, I love ’em!

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A Month in Barbados – Must See Places

Where do you start when talking about Barbados, or Bim as it is affectionately known by the locals? The beaches right? It’s all about the beaches. Well I imagine that for many people, that’s all it’s about. And why not? They’re spectacular, picture postcard scenes featuring palm trees, gorgeous sunsets, white sands and the loveliest shades of crystal clear blue water we have ever seen.

One absolutely fantastic thing about the beaches here, is that there are NO private beaches. I imagine it’s a law long since passed by the government, who incidentally managed to place their headquaters right next to the best beach. The result is no matter who you are, be that a rich corporation running a 5-star resort or two, or a multi-millionaire Bajan pop-princess snagging the best real estate on the island (One Sandy Lane) you cannot buy the stretch of beach between you and the beautiful blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Barbados is NOT in the Caribbean Sea, contrary to popular belief, but is still considered to be part of the Caribbean region.

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Entering Barbados During the Covid-19 Pandemic

As many of you know who have followed our social media know we have been in Barbados for the past month. Although never originally on our travel plans, we decided to come here quite last minute from Turkey. This was our first trip where we had been subject to strict quarantine laws including a negative PCR test 72 hours prior to arrival and a period of isolation before a second test. Once the negative result was received then we were free to explore the island.

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