In the tradition of spending the weekends out of San Francisco, last weekend we went up to Russian River for a few days of camping. Well, *my* kind of camping...

We rented a car, made a quick pitstop at BevMo (believe it or not, a cheap kind of Dan Murphy's) and picked up $80+ worth of booze for our weekend. Once the car was weighed down with beer, we headed over the Golden Gate Bridge and toward the Napa/Sonoma wine region where the campsite was. It always surprises me how close Napa is to San Francisco, I always imagined it to be further away!!

We picked up dinner on the way, and got to the camping ground around 9:30. Sam and Thuy had arrived a little earlier, and were battling to pitch their tent in the dark. James and Sinead had only arrived minutes before us, and as we were the ones with the beer, we were well recieved!! Before heading to the pub (conveniently located next door...) we had a few pre-drinks and were on our way. It turned out to be a fairly basic pub, but the bartender made up some awesome cocktails for us girls while the guys were playing pinball. I don't remember a whole lot from that night... 5 free pour drinks in close succession will do that to you ;-) If I remember correctly, we left around 1:30am, headed back to the site. We all had another drink or so, then headed for bed. The cabins were pretty basic, no electricity, curtains, but at that time, I didn't care :-)

Waking up the next morning was not easy for me... I felt quite sick!! I didn't end up keeping anything down for quite a while, and James had made these awesome burgers on the grill and all I could think of was how ill they made me feel at that point. I passed on the burger and headed back to bed. Not that I stayed there long!! The river was calling to me, it was a sunny day and the water wasn't far away. We ended up in the water for a few hours (talk about freezing water though!!), and I didn't even get burnt int he sun!! Neither did Sinead (fellow Irish fair skin...)!! Good old spf50 ;-)

I couldn't drink a lot that night, my stomach still wasn't up for it. James once again cooked up a storm on the BBQ, we had a steak each the size of my head. I ate as much as I could, purely because it tasted sooooo good. We all headed back to the bar again, but it turned out to be a quiet night, the night before counting for two!! We were in bed fairly early, and up around 10. Had my yummy breakfast of grilled burgers that I had been hanging for since Saturday, and I was ready for the day ahead. Jeremy and I actually ended up leaving earlier than the others. We wanted to get some shopping in on the way home, and the car needed to be home by 5:30. They sure do love their outlets over here!!

We were welcomed into San Francisco by a swirling mass of fog over the Golden Gate. Got some pictures (just because we haven't taken enough!!) and actually made it home in time...

What's in store for us coming up? This weekend we're off to LA. DISNEYLAND!! We're doing that on the Saturday, and then we have 2 days for Jeremy to catch up with some mates from home. Another weekend out of the city!!

I'm going to *try* and make this one kinda quick... We had yet another big weekend!! We made it to Vegas...

We left on Friday evening, and that day was a total rush from the start. My knee had been playing up a little from personal training, and too much on one machine so I was told to take it a little easy. Easy said, not too easy in practice... There were things around the house I wanted to get done, as well as packing for both Jeremy and myself. I slept in a little late, I had a hair appointment at 1pm and I rushed to it.

Emily cut my hair (at this cute little salon called Jubilee) which was luckily for me, quite close to our house. The appoinment took a little longer than I expected it to, and I didn't manage to get home until after 3:30. We actually made it to the BART (train), and the airport, on time. After getting a cab from the world's longest cab line, we made it to our hotel, Aladdin. It was under extensive renovations (it's changing to 'Planet Hollywood Hotel & Casino, allegedly in 2006).

We dumped our bags and headed straight for the Strip. Got as far as the hotel next door, Paris. We played the slot machines for a little while in the hopes of getting free drinks while playing. It took a little while, so the drinks turned out to be expensive, rather than free. We made our way back to Aladdin, Jeremy had a bit of a play at a Black Jack table, and we actually got our free drinks!! I think we made it to bed about 2am, it had been a long day...


We had to be up early-ish on the Saturday morning, mainly to pick up our rental car next door to drive to Hoover Dam. The drive itself wasn't that long, only about an hour or so. It was INSANELY hot (go figure, in the desert...) with a hot wind, and not a chance of a cloud. We took a load of photos, and walked the length of the Dam, before getting back to the air-conditioned comfort of the PT Cruiser. On the drive back we stopped at Las Vegas Outlet Centre. I could'nt believe that Outlet shopping was a first for Jeremy. I took it on as my job, no *responsibility* to introduce him to that world... We bought a few things, and two hours later we were on our way back to the hotel.

By this stage it was late, about 7:30, and time for dinner. After a long wait, we decided on the Aladdin's buffet for tea. Awesome. Lots of yummy food, over all the courses, and as we had only had 'Brunch' all day, it was needed. I found a Fairy Floss machine and had a ball, and the sugar gave me a bit of a perk. Photos of it to boot!!

Got to Paris again, they have these massive drinks that you can buy, the Eiffel Tower, and they filled it with a huge Strawberry Daiquiri. On a hot night, it went down very well :-) We walked up and down the Strip, into Harrah's, Flamingo, Casino Royale, the Venetian, Caeser's Palace and the Bellagio, drinking and gambling along the way. Before we headed back to our room, Jeremy had another go on the Black Jack table at Aladdin, some more drinks, then home. I was rather tipsy, had just finished another drink, so it wasn't the best idea to fall straight asleep. Room service. Perfect for people too drunk/lazy/forgetful to get food before bed. It hit the spot when it came, then I was out like a light. 5am at that stage...

So hard to rise the next morning, a shower, some water and some food made me feel instantly better. Before we knew it, we had to leave for the airport. San Francisco seemed like Antarctica in comparison to the desert. We were welcomed by possibly the thickest fog we've both ever seen. I didn't last too long last night. Made it through new Simpson's, American Dad and Family Guy, then I passed out... What a weekend!!

I can honestly say that I have been busier than usual these last few weeks, and I look back and wonder where all the time went... It's hard to say, day to day things didn't seem all that busy, but there was a continuous feeling that there was always something on. So, let me think what was on...

The first thing that comes to mind is our trip to Oregon last weekend. It was American Labour Day on the Monday, and we thought that we should make the most of it and go on a trip. Ideally, we both wanted somewhere that we both hadn't been to before, but there wasn't going to be any states that we could drive to in time that neither of us had visited before. Jeremy had been to Oregon, a few years ago, and that was during the ski season, so Summer was going to be different.

We started planning maybe two weeks before we were due to leave. We looked on Google maps and found a place just a little north of California. Perfect. A little town called Medford, not even an hour out of Northern California, lots of hotels to choose from, with a website that listed a load of different places to see. Over a few days, we decided to check out a 'caldera' known as Crater Lake. A volcano that had exploded it's top off thousands and thousands of years ago, leaving a caldera. The lake is made from the snow left after the winter, and tops up the lake for summer. Apparently, it keeps the water level relatively steady.

All that was left, was to pick up the car on the Saturday morning. This meant that we both had to be up before 8am to get on the road, and hope to arrive in Medford at a decent hour with stops along the way. Over the Labour Day weekend, the Bay Bridge was closed east bound, the way we needed to head out. This added a half hour to our six hours worth of driving. The drive itself was easy (America sure has a lot of highways) double lanes the whole way, with a steady flow of traffic. We stopped at a truck stop for breakfast, didn't hang around too long in case of lost time.

Our second, and very notable stop, was at the Shasta Lake Dam. A very impressive lake system through massive mountains, and amazing scenery to boot. As soon as we got out of the car, the 100 degree heat made me almost pass out. I was dressed for San Francisco summer weather, not for anywhere else in the state. There was a little wind, but not enough to make a difference. We walked across the top of the dam, only to half way to take some photos, then headed back to the comfort of our air-conditioned car.

Our next, and possibly most amusing stop, was a town called 'Weed'. Yes, 'Weed'. Don't worry, I took a lot of photos from my passenger seat. We were a little bummed that the town didn't quite live up to our expectations, it was rather small, and I'm sure the people were sick of people (mainly out-of-towners) making fun of the name... Never the less, we had lunch there, took some more photos of signs and made our way back to highway. From Weed, it was only about two hours to our destination.

Medford turned out to be bigger than we both had first thought. Our hotel was at the end of the town, and for what we paid per night, I think we got a good deal. We ended up in Medford for dinner, and didn't have enough time to really see anything else. Ended up being an early night, we were both tired from the early start and long day.

On the Sunday, we headed out early for us, and we were on the road by eleven or so. The drive up to Crater Lake and was beautiful. There were thick forests, amazing river views and Crater Lake to forward to. And Crater Lake lived up to both of our expectations. Before we made it all the way up the mountain, we were hungry for lunch and stopped at the base at a restaurant. That turned out later to prove being worthwhile, we had no idea that the trip around the rim of the crater would take over three hours. There were so many tourists at the rim Visitor Centre, we didn't end up staying there for long at all. We jumped back in the car, and started to make our way around the 33mile rim road. There were photo opps every half mile or so, so I think that might be why it took us so long to get around the road. We met some chipmunks along the way, took photos of the crystal clear, deep blue water and saw a controlled fire making its way through the valley. I'll add a link to Jeremy's photo gallery, the photos are truly breathtaking!

The rest of Medford couldn't really compare after that. Don't get me wrong, the place was very scenic, in a valley surrounded by mountains. In winter, it would be a completely different city, I'm sure!

On the Monday, we were up early and out of the hotel by ten thirty, and on the road again. The drive back was a little quicker, we had an idea where to stop for lunch, and had seen most the scenic stops on the way up. We did however, stop in Weed again to get some stickers that said 'I (heart) Weed, CA'. Awesome.

Because of our speedy drive home, we were able to stop at a shopping mall about thirty miles or so out of San Francisco. It was a HUGE mall, on both sides of the freeway, and our main reason for shopping was a shop called 'BevMo'. Very exciting!! I still can't believe that I got a two litre bottle of Bacardi for $16.99. $16.99!! I was very happy with my purchases, not to mention Jeremy and his beers...

Getting back to San Francisco on the Monday evening, only to be leaving again tonight, for Las Vegas. WOW!! Another big weekend away for us both, staying at the Aladdin. Lots of cocktails, food and sightseeing coming my way all over again :-) Will keep you posted on that too!! Very interesting... And next weekend, Bruce arrives!!

To Jeremy's photo gallery of the trip... http://jeremy.burton.id.au/gallery/oregon_weekend