South Lake to Vegas

After saying our goodbyes to Heather and Dave, we filled up with supplies and crossed the mountain range to join the highway south towards Las Vegas, with the intention of stopping the night at Bishop. However, the car chewed the miles faster than anticipated and after crossing some of the most spectacular landscapes that I have ever seen we arrived at Beatty Nevada and found beds at The Death Valley Inn.

One small piece of advice is, if you drive with the top down as we did, it can take Steve 10 minutes to detangle his hair, must get a hair net....

Considering that this country put man on the moon, getting wi-fi that works in a motel room is so hard to achieve, that's why this blog is a bit slow to be updated, I guess they need all the wi-fi bits to prepare for Mars.... tut.

"That's American girls for Yah" is what Sandy said as I became a fly on the wall of the girls quarters as they prepared for the BIG day. Stu was in the tranquil suite with the the groom party whilst I was treated to all the high fives and hair straighteners that could power a small town (I'm kidding Heather).

Was great to capture the the fun and atmosphere with the girls and then up to Heavenly at 10,000ft with both families and what a way to get married. Heather and all the girls looked stunning.

Then after going even further up to get more pictures suddenly you realise that many easy tasks became harder to do, with very thin air we headed down to the base.

Then finally, our evening was cruising Lake Tahoe on a yacht with Dave and Heathers friends and family, watching the sun set over the mountains was a perfect end to a more than perfect day. I'd like to thank Heather and Dave for sharing it with us....

The day of the wedding, 0500 and I'm awake...kinda... I'm in that Zombie state that can only be cured by caffeine and lots of it. I look like i haven't slept for days, my eyes sore and bloodshot...still heavily jet lagged. Still I can't wait, it's going to be a great day!

Full of Starbucks coffee we head off to shoot Dave and Heather getting ready for their big day.

Arranged to meet Dave and Heather in “Old `Town” Sacramento, what a beautiful place it was. I expected someone to be thrown out of the bar as we walked by and told to “stay out”. The pavements are made of planks and if the cars were removed, you’d swear that it was 1860…

We shot some pictures in and around Old town then headed up to South Lake Tahoe where we shot more shots of our couple in love in fields with such lovely mountain views, truly an amazing place to be, as they say over here “awesome dude”.

Grabbed an early night ready for a long day tomorrow, apparently were about to go up to 10,000 ft where altitude sickness can effect some people, now they tell me…

Hi! Steve here, I'll be the one writing in bold, not because I'm a show off, just so it looks different from young Stuey boy and you know who can't spell etc.

Finally got Doris (our Sat Nav) working on US Maps and she helped us find our destination, thank you Doris I dedicate my first post to you.

Arrived in Sacramento 23 hours after leaving home at 5.30am (UK time) . Dumped bags and headed into town for food. Fell to sleep before my head hit the pillow, 7.17am my alarm sounds and I think what a great nights sleep, only to realise that it's 11.30pm Californian time. I'm really screwed up on this time thing. Still, nice knowing that you can sleep for 8 more hours...

Looking forward to shooting the pre wedding shots later today. We'll be shooting Heather and Dave in Sacremento old town this mornig and then heading up to South Lake Tahoe to do some more shots up there before the big day.

Bye for now!

Driving across the Golden Gate bridge heading towards Sacramento.

California & Nevada Road Trip:

The Road Trippers: Stu and Steve

Destinations : San Francisco (Distance-90 miles-est Drive time- 1.5hrs)to Sacramento to Lake Tahoe (Distance-459 miles + detours-est Drive time-Unknown)to Las Vegas (33miles to Hoover Dam)(Distance-279 miles-est Drive time- 4.5hrs)to Los Angeles -(Distance-387miles-est Drive time- 6.5hrs) Then back up to San Francisco.

Purpose of travel: To photograph a wedding in Tahoe....then to experience 'The American Road Trip' in a Chysler Sebring soft top car!

10/9/09

After reading Jeremy Clarksons review of the Sebring http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/jeremy_clarkson/article4873574.ece we thought we'd go to the Chrysler dealers to check one out and decided as long as Hammond isn't in the back that it would be fine.

Departure September 16th 2009:

Day1

The plan is at 11.30 Take off from Heathrow to San Francisco, an 11 hour Flight to endure. When we arrive we have to pick up the car and drive to Sacramento where we'll meet up with Dave (the groom) and spend our first night. It's going to be a long day...Bring it on!!