It delivered all of this, and more.
We took off from OR Thambo on the 31st December 2009, but not before I had phoned my boss and resigned formally from my job while in the business lounge at the airport. Some way to wish a Happy New Year I guess?
So with the prospect of a new role within Nedbank around the corner, I was able to climb on the plane and start the long trek across the globe with my fiance and some of my best friends with a feeling of excitement for change ahead and new beginnings, not a bad way to usher in the beginning of 2010!
New York City, as always, is an amazing place. This time around, it was amazingly cold. After two days spent gallavanting around the city with the rest of the Saffers and our awesome friends, Joe and Melissa, we attemtped to climb on a plane down to Mexico. Attempted only because we got off at the wrong subway stop, missed our connecting flight to Atlanta, caught a taxi from JFK to La Guardia and paid extra for another connecting flight, only to arrive in Cancun about 6 hours (and one carry on luggage bag less) later than we had originally planned. But hey, that's what holdiays are for...disorganisation and chaos (Helen will shoot me if I ever try to preach this...)
Cancun and the Riviera Maya are amazing. The resorts: spectaculor, the swimming pools: vast, the food service at the pool: washed down with many a Cerveza (Corona, of course). We had a great time, topped off with a visit to the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza. (and a big party at the Mexican evening at the resort, thanks to Trev for a lot of the entertainment)
From Mexico we went on to Houston for a brief stop and then to Las Vegas. My 3rd trip to Sin City and each time it never ceases to amaze me how much fun you can have. I've played golf there before, hit the casino's and gone out to awesome restaurants. But nothing can prepare the first time visitor to this city in the desert for what they see and experience there. We had a great 3 days and while Ian and I had a tough time at the blackjack table on the first night, we made it all up and more the next day.
We also met up with one of Helen's good friend's, Carryn, and had a brilliant time out with her at Treasure Island, with dinner at Stack courtesy of the head chef and VIP treatment at the hotel nightclub, inclusive of access through a separate entrance and straight through to the VIP area. We got to experience the rock star lifestyle for one night, and it was GOOD!
From Vegas, the intrepid explorers went on to the Grand Canyon, got lost in the Mojave Desert (no indian smoke signals to get us out of that one) and spent a night in Los Angeles.
From LA, we headed north up the coastline and made our way towards the Monterrey Peninsula, a long stretch of coastline considered one of the most scenic in the world. Here, we stayed in Monterrey, ate fish and sour dough bread and visited (what for Ian, Trevor and myself was a highlight), Pebble Beach! Unfortunately we hadn't planned to bring golf clubs along, so could not play, but this creates an excuse for a golf tour in the future, no complaints there!
Next stop: Lake Tahoe! I had snowboarded in Colorado and Whistler, British Columbia in North America before and had only heard good things of Tahoe. We were hurt a little by the weather in the week, but managed to get 4 great days of boarding/skiing in. The highlight was discovering Sierra Nevada on the Nevada side, a smaller resort, but with some amazing runs and awesome powder. It was here that Ian and I persuaded Trevor to follow us down an off piste run below the chairlift on his first day of snowboarding. He did incredibly well considering it was much worse than a regular black slope would be, but it did make for some comical moments!
After we left Tahoe, after a good week's workout in the snow and with one additional piece of luggage (my new Specialized Stumpjumper FSR Elite mountain bike!)
We headed on by train and bus to San Francisco. What an awesome city. We really had a great time there and managed to squeeze so much into a short period of time, including a bicycle ride over the Golden Gate Bridge, through the Redwood Forests, past the coastal town of Tiburon and all the way through to Sausalito, where we had lunch and caught the Ferry back to the mainland.
We also had a great visit to The Rock, Alcatraz, and got to see why it paid to stay on the right side of the law in pre-1970's San Francisco and the greater United States.
Finally, back to New York and on home to good old South Africa! We had been away for the better part of a month and after all the planning and preparation for this trip, had done so much and seen so many new things, that we were exhausted!
The only question left unanswered was...where is the next holiday to? :)
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