Flying to Houston, LA and then driving up to San Francisco

Velonutter

Well got back early Monday evening, very tired still but thought I'd post some feedback.

United Airlines were excellent on the way out to Houston, total rubbish internally to LA and even worse on the return home from SF

Houston was good, my agents took us out to a proper Mexican Restaurant and the food was amazing even if I did drop my corn into my fried beans and it splattered all over my white shirt :roll: :oops:

We went to down town Houston and ate in The Grove, superb service, funky food and enjoyable.

Saturday we went to the space centre, it rained a total hooligan, soaked, was OK but probably my own expectations were too high as I thought it would be a lot more towards Space travel and the planets rather than kiddies rides and games that had nothing to do with space or anything similar.

Stayed on the Queen Mary which was enchanting, really enjoyed that and the location to all my shipping agents was perfect. Visited the Griffin Observatory which was really quite cool but as we arrived late we missed viewing through the telescopes and it was a clear night as well

On one of the days my wife took the tour bus around LA whilst I had two meetings, glad I couldn't do it as I can't stand celebrities and film stars as they are over paid and over hyped and do nothing in life to contribute to anyone apart from themselves first followed by charities that enhance their standing in the community!

Drove up to Monterey and our 2nd day off so we went whale watching and were really close to the Hump Backed Whales, loved that and we both got burnt out in the boat, seals were everywhere and were amazed to see them just feet from where we stood in the evening. A Truly beautiful place.

On our drive up to there we started off on Highway 1 but after 2 hours we were only at Malibu Beach and we realised that at that pace we wouldn't get to Monterey until nearly 11 at night so at Santa Barbara we turned onto Highway 101, what a horrible boring road, but we made up time arriving just before 19:00 and stayed in a really lovely Hotel that was like an old schooner and stood out on pillars into the sea.

It took another 2.5 - 3 hours the following day to get to SF, traffic, never seen anything like it, horrendous.

Now I know many may disagree but hated SF, over priced, over populated and for me nothing that really interested me, I had visions of it being similar to Paris, so probably my own fault, I thought there would be loads of cosy street Cafes with chairs and tables outside, nothing of the sort and god forbid fisherman's wharf, it was like my worst experience of Blackpool ten times over and trying to get through Pier 39 with a tandem, well you can imagine it trying to get through whilst every man and his dog in the area occupied the streets and roads.

We took a tandem over the Golden Gate Bridge, now that was fun even with a few hills thrown in and a bike that must have weighed over 60lb and my wife deciding that she didn't want to peddle :roll: :shock:

She shouted that she wanted to get off as she couldn't cycle any harder, I told her that we don't get off on hills and to bloody peddle! Don't know where I found the strength but we passed everyone apart from the two guides, God knows how with my handicap in the saddle behind and the iron horse between my legs.

I got my own back on the descents and pretended not to hear my wife screaming until we got to the bottom :-)

We had a really enjoyable time cycling down into Sausalito and enjoyed some food and shopping and then took the ferry back across the Bay.

All too soon it was time to fly home with more punishment from United Airlines.

Still recovering from the jet lag and a cold I have suddenly developed from no where.

So we ended up flying 12000 odd miles, drove 1250 miles, pedalled 12 miles, had 11 different meetings and am now ready for a holiday :-)

Thanks for everyone's helps and advice, unfortunately due to time constraints we couldn't do everything that we planned but we managed to get around to the basics.