Highlight:  Utah - most any part of Utah is stunning and truly awesome.  The desert is beautiful and quite unique to a Kiwi - we don't really have any deserts here.  Bryce, Glen Canyon and Zion National Parks are very pretty but I wouldn't want to be there in busy season.

Lowlight: Las Vegas.  It takes about 1 hour to realise what a scummy place it really is. On the outside it looks interesting but as soon as you walk into any of the hotels on the strip they all look identical - full of sad pathetic losers glued to brain washing machines.  I just hate all casinos...

Highlight: The people are friendly and actually quite normal! 

Highlight: Apart from Seattle the weather was clear and hot - which is apparently unusual for March.

Lowlight: San Francisco - I feel violated!  For a big city it's not bad but we had a hotel in a very seedy part of town and we were constantly pestered by street bums, beggars and people trying to sell stuff.  Waiting in line for a cable car we were hassled by 'entertainers' and beggars - not my idea of a great time.

Highlight: Seattle - despite the weather I like Seattle.  It has a nice feel to it despite having it's fair share of street people.  I didn't feel as taken advantage of as I did in San Francisco.  The pace seems more relaxed there too.

Lowlight:  Grand Canyon.  From the air this is breath taking but like most of the USA, it takes more time to absorb than most people have in a life time.  We only had 2 hours to spend looking over the edge but I felt it was too commercially exploited compared to Bryce or Glen Canyon. 

Lowhighlight: It's not that expensive.  It's a lot cheaper than Europe or the UK for a holiday and certainly very easy to get around.

Highlight: Driving in the USA is a joy.  The roads in Utah, Nevada and Arizona are long, wide, mostly straight and not too busy.  We drove about 1100 miles from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas in 6 days. Our biggest trip was about 450 miles on the first day which was a very leisurely 8 hour drive.  Sticking to the wrong side of the road was a lot easier than I thought it would be.

We spent most of our time in the Utah desert so overall, it was very happy experience - the lowlights of Las Vegas & San Francisco where very minor in comparison.  We are thinking about Vancouver and/or Colorado for the next trip - once we pay for this one.