The people - really nice and friendly, we Air BnB'd it mostly and the hosts that we met were lovely, full of local advice and ideas.
The places - Seattle was great, we were near Alki beach which was nice and not too close to the city - Portland was Meh but Oregon itself is outstanding, we stayed in a place called Sandy about an hour out of Portland, absolutely stunning, mountains, river swimming, loved it. San Francisco - loved it, very vibrant and a real upbeat feeling city, we stayed in Berkeley again about an hour out of San Fran but an easy ride in on the BART system. If you are visiting Frisco, I heartily recommend Berkeley as a base, much cheaper that the ridiculous rents in SF Very liberal place, University town, interesting shops and eateries, nice culture.
LA/California - we stayed in Van Nuys which again is a more affordable spot, but our house area was really lovely clean and peaceful although you knew you could find trouble close by if you were looking for it!
I loved Santa Monica and Venice Beach, such an energy, we rented bikes and rode right up the coast on the path, beautiful. Tons of freaks and weirdos in Venice and I reckon it could get a bit sketchy after sundown, but wow what a buzz of a place in the day, people of every pecadillo out and about doing their thing.
Malibu beach , beautiful, awesome sea for swimming / getting trashed by big waves, the kids had a ball.
Hollywood Hills, had a nice hike around the Hollywood reservoir which is a great spot for pics of the sign, about as close as you can get to it. The sign ain't all that really though, it brought to mind the times when my kids were small and id give them a big piece of paper and ask them to draw something and they'd do a little doodle in one corner, that's kind of how the sign looks in the hills.
Universal and Warner studios were both great days out.
Las Vegas, We were there for the last 1 and 1/2 days, which wasa day too long for me, Imagine a bigger better Blackpool which is designed to take all of your money even if you're not a gamber, 4 subway sandwiches and 2 drinks - $65. I guess its worth it to see it in all of its kitsch glory though.
Downsides - tipping, I still dont really know if I was doing it right, sometimes I didnt do it at all.
People with untreated mental illness - quite a few people in a bad way, waking down the street screaming/crying/threatening (themselves mostly) Big homeless problems pretty much everywhere.
A big class divide,We rented a car but used public transport to get into central placesPublic transport is only used by the poor, the ,mentally ill, homeless and drug addicts Nobody walks anywhere especially in LA.
Driving - Holy shit those freeway are crazy, 5 or 6 lines on each side, everyone doing at least 80, no indicating, switching lanes, not letting you in, not letting you out, exits on BOTH side of the road, sometimes youd get on the freeway only for the sat nav to tell you to get off on the other side in 1km, across 6 lanes of traffic, all doing 80. Not for the faint hearted.
I'm very jet lagged, its 2.20am and Ive been awake for about 30 hours
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The tipping takes some getting used to, it’s usually a minimum of 15% but 20% is more generally accepted as the norm. I’m amazed you got away with paying nothing... the servers can often give you a very hard time if you don’t stump up.
You've missed out on a big part of Murican culture.
Love Cali, Utah, Arizona.
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Single carriageway roads were dead easy though, and trucks move at the same speed as cars, so there is no pressure to overtake. Some the speeds the trucks go is mental, especially with the steep gradients. It's easier to park a monster SUV over there than an estate car in the UK.
Tipping was a ballache. We bought 3 ice creams from a counter and got presented with options of 18/20/22% for the tip (and zero....which is what they got). We tipped 18% for sit down meals, but TBH, some of the service was not that great, and once you have paid the tip, they pretty much ignore you.
The only bit of the holiday I wasn't keen on was Vegas.I'm afraid I just don't get it at all.
San Francisco with the kids was an experience. We got on a bus at 8:00PM and it was the maddest thing I've experienced in a long while. Kids found a knife (weapon, not kitchen) as soon as we got on the bus, then a lunatic got on and started abusing mum's with young kids while selling stuff he'd obviously just stolen, the bus then broke down and ejected us into the middle of downtown SF with loads of crazy people. It was a hell of an eye opener for the kids :-).
We got to see Steve Earle in Bosie for free! it looked like it had sold out so I went to the theatre on the off chance of getting a couple of tickets and the guy on the box office just handed over two tickets which someone who couldn't make the gig had handed in. Amazing gig too, really good band with a blinding pedal steel player.
The National Parks were amazing. It only cost something like 80USD for a years family pass. That's got to be bargain of the century. We did Yosemite, Death Valley, Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce's Canyon, Tetons, Yellowstone, Craters of the Moon, Crater Lake then came back down the Oregon coast and had a couple of nights in SF.
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I’m actually a good tipper but if I receive shoddy service and they still expect 15% you’re getting nothing. They hold their hand out for tips there for doing naff all