What I did on my holidays in 2000

In October 2000 me and a friend of mine went to Toronto, San Francisco and Las Vegas for our holidays. We saw the sights and had some crazy adventures.

So, what did we do? Well, we went vai Toronto so we could see another friend of ours. This meant having to change flights there on the way to San Francisco and so we had about 14 hours to kill en route to San Francisco. During this time we went up the CN Tower, and then slept at the airport This was a bit of a mistake as no flights leave during the night so it was almost deserted. But not quiet. The cleaners couldn't do anything quietly!!!! The next morning we flew over to San Francisco. We'd made the mistake of not booking anywhere in advance and nearly ended up staying a few nights in an area called Tenderloin, which is anything but tender and very much the wrong end of town to be in - it looks like a muggers paradise.

During the next few days we saw the sights of San Francisco, which was very nice. We went to Altracaz, and as they didn't re-open it for us we went on to see some nice bars and restaurants, have a wander round the sea front and visit the Muir Woods which is full of lots of tall trees. From there we went on to Las Vegas via the Yosemite National Park where there's lots of spectacular granite outcrops. En route we stayed in a nice motel in Mariposa. In Las Vegas we gambled, shopped and watched some boxing and stayed at the Hilton Hotel, where I couldn't get the door key to work. Beyond the neon lights of the Strip there didn't seem to be much, and to be honest different themes aside each hotel is very much like the next. We flew over to the Grand Canyon which was pretty spectacular. Certainly the deepesy hole in the ground I've ever seen. Then, after driving back to San Francisco we caught up with our chum in Toronto and then went home.

Most of the time the weather was OK. In fact, I can hardly remember any bad weather which was a bit of a bonus as I'd left my coat at home. In San Francisco we had sunny spells most of the time and daytime temperatures were around 17-19C when we were first there and about 15-16C when we returned. In the sun this was OK, but it wasn't so nice when the sun wasn't shining! On average daytime temperatures are about 19-20C in San Francisco in October. In Las Vegas it was much hotter and about 30-32C when we were there - the October average maximum temperature here is about 28C. I couldn't find any data for Toronto, but when we there it was pleasantly warm and by day above the October average of 14C.

Here are the satellite images made when we were on holiday. The satellite images were made at quarter to midnight GMT, which was the mid or late afternoon where we were.
 
1800ish local time, Sat 30 Sept - flew from Amsterdam to Toronto. Went up the CN Tower and slept in the airport because we were too tight to pay for a hotel room! 1800ish local time, Sun 1 Oct - flew to San Francisco and wandered about.
1800ish, Mon 2 Oct - went on an all day drinking spree with some clown called Jason. 1800ish, Tue 3 Oct - went to Altracaz.
1800ish Wed 4 Oct - set off for Las Vegas via Muir Woods and the Yosemite National Park. Stopped over in Mariposa. 1800ish Thu 5 Oct - had a look round Yosemite National Park. Failed to get eaten by bears and drove on to Las Vegas.
1800ish Fri 6 Oct - wandered around Las Vegas. Failed to become millionaires at the gaming tables. 1800ish Sat 7 Oct - went shopping, and in the evening went to see some boxing. Failed to become millionaires at the gaming tables.
1800ish Sun 8 Oct - visited the Grand Canyon. Pretty impressive! Failed to become millionaires at the gaming tables. 1800ish Mon 9 Oct - started driving back to San Francisco. Stayed the night in some ropey hotel in the middle of no-where!
1800ish Tue 10 Oct - drove back to San Francisco via Monterey. 1800ish Wed 11 Oct - flew back to Toronto.
1800ish Thu 12 Oct - did some stuff in Toronto. 1800ish Fri 13 Oct - did some more stuff in Toronto.

Finding out weather statistics for the time we were in North America was reasonably straight forward! I simply visited the National Weather Service sites for San Francisco and Las Vegas. The satellite images were obtained from Unisys Weather Image Archive

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Dan Suri, 27 July 2001