14 days in the US ..........

Key West is a wonderful place to relax and look back on the first 14 days of our trip around the world. We arrived Monday evening as south as you can get in North America, after a near 4 hour drive down Route 1 from Miami. We will stay here until Saturday when we will drive back to Miami and join Liberty of the Seas, RCCL and the worlds largest cruise liner for a week in Caribbean. That will be a lot of fun.... Yesterday we had some typical tropical storms passing by, good weather for sightseeing, 24 degrees celcius (76 F). Today the sun is shining, 27 degrees (81 F)and what a bathing day..... The beach here we comes.
I have just finnished breakfast, looked at the news back home, I have read USA today paper edition, checked my mail, and spent some web time on my IBM Thinkpad surfing the net for news on VG, Hegnar.com and Dagens Næringsliv: The complete paper edition electronic on line, as part of our subscription back home. The kids has communicated with some schoolfriends back home in Norway on MSN, as well as some of their friends in Marbella in Spain. We have visited Its learning and Fronter ,the systems for electronic education the schools is using. We have printed out the weekly plan which William and Celine needs to follow. School is part of our journey.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_West

Key West is a city and an island of the same name near the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys in Monroe County, Florida, United States. The city encompasses the namesake island, the part of Stock Island north of US-1 (the Overseas Highway) (east), Sigsbee Park (north, originally known as Dredgers Key), Fleming Key (north), and Sunset Key (west, originally known as Tank Island). Nearby Key Haven (northeast), the part of Stock Island south of US-1 (east) and Wisteria Island, better known as Christmas Tree Island (northwest), are in unincorporated Monroe County. Both Fleming Key and Sigsbee Park are part of the NAS Key West and are inaccessible by civilians.
Key West is the county seat of Monroe County.GR6
Key West is known as the Southernmost City in the Continental United States. It is also the southern terminus of U.S. Route 1, State Road A1A and the East Coast Greenway.

We spent a day in Miami, but will have 4 full days here after the cruise:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami

Miami (pronounced mī-ăm'ē, mī-ăm'ə) is a major city in southeastern Florida, in the United States. It is the county seat of Miami-Dade County. Miami is a gamma world city[1] with an estimated population of 404,048. It is the largest city within the South Florida metropolitan area, which is the largest metropolitan area in the Southeastern United States with 5.5 million people. Miami and its surrounding cities make up the fifth largest urban area in the United States.[2] As of 2005, the United Nations estimates that the Miami Urban Agglomeration is the fourth largest in the United States, and the 44th largest in the world.[3]


We have as earlier posted in Norwegian, done a fantastic trip from San Francisco, up to Napa Valley, and then all the way down higway #1 to Los Angeles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_State_Route_1

State Route 1, often called Highway 1, is a state highway that runs along a large length of the Pacific coast of the U.S. state of California. It is famous for running by some of the most beautiful coastlines in the world, leading to its designation as an All-American Road.
In Southern California, the California Legislature has designated the segment between Interstate 5 in Dana Point and U.S. Route 101 near Oxnard as Pacific Coast Highway (commonly referred to as PCH for short); between U.S. Route 101 at the Las Cruces junction (8 miles south of Buellton) and U.S. Route 101 in Pismo Beach and between U.S. Route 101 in San Luis Obispo and U.S. Route 101 in San Francisco, the legislature has designated State Route 1 as the Cabrillo Highway; and between Manzanita Junction near Marin City and U.S. Route 101 in Leggett, the legislature has designated State Route 1 Shoreline Highway. However, subsequent to naming the highway the Pacific Coast Highway, Cabrillo Highway, and Shoreline Highway, the legislature has given some segments of Route 1 additional names as described in the State Law section. In addition to this, some segments have been given alternative names by local governments.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_francisco

The City and County of San Francisco (IPA: /ˌsænfrænˈsɪskoʊ/) is the 4th most populous city in California and the 14th most populous city in the United States, with a 2006 estimated population of 744,041.[4] One of the most densely populated major cities in the U.S.,[6] San Francisco is part of the much larger San Francisco Bay Area, which is home to approximately 7.2 million people. The city is located on the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula, with the Pacific Ocean to the west, San Francisco Bay to the east, and the Golden Gate to the north.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napa_valley

Napa County is a county located north of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is part of the Napa, California Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of 2000 the population is 124,279. The county seat is Napa. Napa County was one of the original counties of California, created in 1850 at the time of statehood. Parts of the county's territory were given to Lake County in 1861. The word napa is of Native American derivation and has been variously translated as "grizzly bear", "house", "motherland", "fish"[citation needed]. Of the many explanations of the name's origin, the most plausible seems to be that it is derived from the Patwin word napo meaning house[citation needed], although local residents will often cite an urban legend that gives the translation as "you will always return".
Napa County, once the producer of many different crops, is known today for its wine industry, rising in the 1960s to the first rank of wine regions with France and Italy. Napa is a wine making region in the United States. The Napa wine country was the inspiration for the fictional Tuscany Valley on the nighttime soap opera Falcon Crest.

We visited Monterey and the 17 mile drive around Pebble Beach:

The City of Monterey is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in central California. As of 2005, the city population was 30,641. The city is noted for its rich history of resident artists beginning in the late 1800s and its historically famed fishery. Monterey is home to the Naval Postgraduate School, the Defense Language Institute, the Monterey Institute of International Studies, the former Fort Ord, part of which is now the site of California State University Monterey Bay; Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Monterey American Viticultural Area; Cannery Row, Fisherman's Wharf and a Marine Mammal Center field station located in the area. It is from Monterey that the semi-hard cheese known as Monterey Jack originated.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17_Mile_Drive

The 17 Mile Drive is a scenic road through Pacific Grove and Pebble Beach, California, United States, much of which hugs the Pacific coastline and passes famous golf courses and mansions. It also serves as the main road through the gated community of Pebble Beach. Like the community, the majority of 17-Mile Drive is owned and operated by the Pebble Beach Corporation. Entry into Pebble Beach costs US$9.00 per automobile. Residents of Pebble Beach and their guests enter for free. Entry is also free for bicyclists and pedestrians. Motorcycles are prohibited from entering 17-Mile Drive.

We also stayed a night in Pismo Beach
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pismo_beach

Before California : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California
California (IPA: /ˌkælɪˈfɔrnjə/) is a state located on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, and Arizona to the southeast, as well as by Baja California in Mexico to the south. The most populous U.S. state, California's capital city is Sacramento, and its four largest cities are Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, and San Francisco. California is known for its varied climate and geography, as well as for its ethnically diverse population. The state is divided into 58 counties.:

we spent 4 days in New York: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_york

New York (pronounced /njuːˈjɔrk/) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. With 62 counties, it is the country's third most populous state. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and shares a water border with Rhode Island as well as an international border with the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario.
New York City, which is both the largest city in the state and in the entire United States, is known for its history as a gateway for immigration to the United States and its status as a financial, cultural, transportation, and manufacturing center.
New York was inhabited by the Algonquian, Iroquois, and Lenape Native American groups at the time Dutch and French nationals moved into the region in the very early 17th century. First claimed by Henry Hudson in 1609, the region came to have Dutch forts in Fort Orange, near the site of the present-day capital of Albany in 1614 and was colonized by the Dutch in 1624, at both Albany and Manhattan; it later fell to British annexation in 1664. About one third of all of the battles of the Revolutionary War took place in New York. New York became an independent state on July 9, 1776 and enacted its constitution in 1777. The state ratified the United States Constitution on July 26, 1788 to become the 11th state.