Friday 28 September 2012

Dolly does the USA...

Map of USA
Evening all. I have been a little quiet of late. This is because I have been swanning around America on a quest to make Man vs. Food look like an amuse bouche. I'm always greedy, but this time I have taken the biscuit.

This year, both my husband and I turn 30. Boo. We decided to mark this milestone with a trip to America. We wanted to experience both the 'hype' and reality, so planned a trip across Nevada through to California, cramming in as much food as we could en route. A lot of our trip was only finalised in the last couple of months, as even some of the locations hinged on whether we managed to get reservations in some restaurants.

Once everything was booked, our trip looked a little like this:
Manchester - Las Vegas - Grand Canyon - Las Vegas - Beatty - Mammoth Lakes - Yosemite National Park - Napa - Yountville - San Francisco - London - Manchester.
The reason you may never have heard of some of these places is probably because there is very little there!

As well as eating in some amazing restaurants (ranging from Hooters to the French Laundry...) we saw some incredible sights and met some mental/lovely people, depending on your outlook. Some of the highlights of the trip included:

  • Surviving the 40 C heat of Las Vegas
  • Dining with just six other people in the hidden 'é by José Andrés'
  • Landing in the Grand Canyon
  • The taxi to the car rental place. Our taxi driver was a wealth of knowledge and convinced us we would be eaten by mountain lions. If not, we would die in Death Valley. Friendly chap. 
  • Talking to a champion gun slinger whilst eating chilli at Happy Burro
  • Finally seeing another car after about 100 miles... and getting my phone signal back...
  • Seeing a wolf! (For those of you who know the game... WOLVE!)
  • The huge trees and stunning scenery at Mammoth Lakes
  • Yosemite National Park's many creeks, lakes and wildlife
  • Avoiding running over a baby bear!
  • Miles of vineyards in Napa
  • The French Laundry's heirloom tomatoes 
  • Driving across the Golden Gate Bridge to get into San Francisco
  • Walking down Lombard Street and nearly falling over because it's so steep
  • Coi knocking our socks off
  • Eating some of the best burgers in the world!
  • Seeing beer being made at the Anchor brewery (thanks for the tip Chris!)

Over the next couple of weeks I'll be doing posts on the places that we went to, but please be patient! I took over 600 pictures on my iPhone alone so it's taking some time to go through everything we captured! Here are a few of the journey...
Virgin Atlantic
The Strip Las Vegas
The Hoover Dam and Lake Mead
Inside the Grand Canyon
Happy Burro Chili and Beer - Beatty
The road to Mammoth Lakes
Mammoth Lakes
Yosemite National Park
Vineyards in Napa
Lombard Street - San Francisco
Hope you all enjoy the upcoming posts!

6 comments:

  1. This is exactly how I'd like to do USA. I look forward to your blogs.

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  2. Wow, enjoy the good ol USA. No one quite does food like our good ol American cousins x

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  3. I think I was in Vegas at the same time as you, my boyfriend and I did a similar road trip but around the midwest rather than the west coast. So glad I finally got to try the Cheesecake Factory!

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  4. Wowsers...what a trip!! I bet there was some amazing food too...I'd love to visit the French Laundry! :-)

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  5. I can't wait! I love America and have just returned from Orlando and Washington. San Francisco was my favourite. I really wanted to go to the French Laundry but we couldn't fit it in - next time maybe. Look forward to seeing your posts :)

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  6. So super jeal! I'm obsessed with America! Cannot wait to see more pics of Yosemite - that must have been amazing! We're hoping to do a big states road trip later in the year at some point!

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