This was our longest day on the road, from Las Vegas, through Death Valley to Mammoth Lakes. Before we set off we had breakfast at the Hexx restaurant at our hotel. As the terrace was in the shade we decided to sit outside, overlooking the strip – perfect for people watching. The restaurant specialises in creative combinations, so I had their carrot cake pancakes, which were good, if a little big, and Jen had their take on eggs benedict.

Suitably fuelled, both us and the car, we set off to Death Valley. Even before we got into the national park the scenery was beautiful but it got even better inside the park, with multicoloured mountains rising either side of us. At Furnace Creek we took a diversion to Badwater – at 280 feet below sea level it is the lowest place in America. It was also bloody hot – 41°c, so we only stopped briefly for a few photos and a quick walk onto the salt flat. We returned to Furnace Creek via Artists Drive, a one way scenic road showing off the multi coloured mountains.

The next part of the drive along the Death Valley Scenic Byway (CA190) was one of the best roads I’ve driven, with dips, twists and hairpins. It reminded me of the old military road in Scotland, but obviously a lot warmer! The remaining slog up to our overnight stop at Mammoth Lakes seemed to take forever – it was 8 hours in the car in total, and the sun was setting as we arrived in town.

Tired from the drive, and the after effects of a few days in Las Vegas, we just took a stroll down the road to Roberto’s Mexican Cantina for what turned out to be a lovely, but very filling Mexican meal.

Today was meant to be a chill out day in Las Vegas, but it isn’t really a place for chilling out, everything is so full on! We started our day at the breakfast buffet at the Bellagio. It was the most decadent self-service restaurant I’ve ever seen, carrying on with the Italian theme from the rest of the casino. Pretty much all food groups were covered, but my highlight were the pancakes with caramelised peaches – surprisingly my first pancakes this trip. Breakfast was followed by a quick go on the fruit machines, then a walk round the miracle mile shops and sorting out tickets for a show in the evening.

By this time we needed to relax for a bit and cool off, so we went to the pool at our hotel, it was quite surreal swimming in the pool and looking up at the Eiffel Tower, I’ll admit that I preferred the view from swimming in Santa Barbara though. Suitably cooled down we took a trip up the Eiffel Tower for a great panoramic view of Las Vegas, unfortunately we’d timed it badly as we were too early to see the Bellagio fountains, which start at three o’clock. Next we braved the heat and madness of the strip to check out the Venetian hotel, complete with canal for gondola rides and replica of St Mark’s square – I imagine that this is the only time that the original would be madder than the Las Vegas recreation. We crossed the strip to return to our hotel, but ended up getting lost in the shops under Caesar’s Palace.

When we eventually made it back to our hotel we both felt like we needed to chill out for a while before heading back out. Before long it was time to walk back up the strip for our dinner reservation at St Mark’s square, where we enjoyed pizzas sat “outside” on the terrace, being serenaded by a band and watching all the tour groups coming past. After dinner we crossed the strip to the Mirage for roulette and cocktails before the show. We saw Cirque du Soleil’s Love, which is based on the Beatles music and was easily my highlight of Las Vegas, the choreography and acrobatics were amazing. We finished off our day in Las Vegas with sore feet – we walked over 23,000 steps – but happy watching the last performance of the Bellagio fountains from our suite.

Our day in Santa Barbara started the same was as the previous day in Monterey- with a walk along the beach and a breakfast burrito. We could get used to this! One difference was that Santa Barbara is a lot warmer – even just having breakfast outside my Scottish skin felt like it was crisping up.

After breakfast we hired beach cruiser bikes and cruised along the seafront, it was good to feel the breeze in our faces and allowed us to suss out the best part of the beach to spend our afternoon. We rode 7.4km along the beach, with no elevation change, or mud – very strange for me! We chose the lagoon between Stearns Wharf and the harbour, watching the boats, SUPs and wildlife toing and froing in front of us, with a naval destroyer and oil wells on the horizon. I went for a swim and lazing in the cool water looking back at the mountains towering over the city was very relaxing. As it was so hot, we went for a walk along Stearns Wharf in search of ice cream, the wharf was less tacky than similar piers I’ve visited at Brighton and Llandudno in the UK and gave a great view of the city and mountains.

We started our evening off with some wine tasting at the Santa Barbara Winery – 2 whites and 4 reds, all very nice but probably wasted on me – Jen liked them though, which is the important thing. We finished off with a walk up State Street, the main road in town and another seafood dinner – scallops for Jen and prawns for me.