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Well that was a very busy but all together amazing week! It started early at a hotel near the airport. A very kind guy I met at the hostel, Asim offered to drop me off there as he had hired a car which was fabulous as it saved me an otherwise rather stressful trip across town on public transport. There were 10 of us (Hajini, Me, Martin, Robyn, Kate, Bethan, Nuala, Emma, Matt & Kerry) on the trip and our tour leader Josh made quite an impact (visually) thanks to the dead hamster........ahem i mean handlebar moustache he was sporting. Once we were all organised and packed into the minibus we headed straight to Hollywood to see the sights!
Having been there already i was prepared for the underwhelming sights of the strip, but still it was good to be there so early as the Chinese Theatre was basically empty so we got to see all of the handprints of various stars without tripping over people to see them. We then made a bee line to the back of a shopping centre to get a photo with the Hollywood sign. We were quite a distance away but still it was fun to see it. We were only there for about 1 hour before we grabbed some breakfast and got on the road. The journey was spent getting to know each other and settling in. We stopped frequently for breaks/food but there isn't much there worth reporting. We eventually reached our destination, Lake Havusa City in the Mohave Desert.
We were roasting as it was 40 degrees so we quickly dumped our stuff in our rooms and went down to the lake via London Bridge....yes they have a replica of London Bridge in the middle of the desert. We all cooled off in the water and had a bit more of a chat before returning for showers to get ready to go for dinner. We ate at a local restaurant, nice food, good cocktails and not too expensive thankfully. On returning to the hotel we all sat around playing card games and having a laugh before eventually heading to bed. It was lovely to be in a twin room for a change after so many dorms.
It was an early start and we set off for the Grand Canyon. Again it was about 5 hours drive time with a few stop en route. The weather was getting worse and worse the closer we got to the canyon which was sad as it meant that the helicopter flight we had hoped to do was looking more and more dubious. After an extended lunch break at a Mexican restaurant we went into the canyon. In the bus Josh the tour leader had made us each draw each other on the back of some paper plates and then tie ribbon to them to turn them into masks. Once we got close to the canyon we were made to put them on so we couldn't see anything. On arriving we were carefully lead to the edge of the canyon holding on to each other's shoulders in a people train. We even had to make it down 2 flights of steps and had people shouting comments about being so close we were about to fall off at us.....very unnerving! It was well worth the silliness and the paper plate blindfolds as opening your eyes with the first sight of the canyon being right on the edge was just brilliant.
After time for photos we caught a shuttle bus to a different site. This time there weren't any walls or rails next to the edge so you could sit right on the edge and on the rocks that overhang into the canyon. So we had more photos before starting the decent into the canyon. We were aiming for ooh ahh point, which was its name suggests makes you say ooh and ahh. The walk down was good, seeing further into the canyon as we went. We reached ooh ahh point and had more photos of us dangling ever closer to the edge! Unfortunately, the weather had begun to close in on us again and the rain started so we began the walk back up. It was much harder than the way down! But we all made it and headed back to the visitors centre for a quick look before going to our hotel. That night we had dinner in a little pizza place across the road from the hotel. A few people went for drinks and the rest of us headed to bed, saving ourselves for Vegas!
The next day we got a lie in as the weather was too bad for seeing the sunrise and for the helicopter flight so we set off for Vegas. We stopped in a cute town and had photos with some awesome old cars that had been made to look like the cars in the Disney film Cars. We also picked up the best milkshake to date...and possibly ever. On the way into Vegas we stopped to do a quick bit of shopping to make sure everyone had a complete outfit for the evening. We then drove into Vegas...the weather was still not on our side as it was very overcast and was all day but at least the rain had stopped. We checked into our hotel and nipped to the hotel's restaurant/casino to pick up some dinner before we started to get ourselves ready. Once we were ready we met up with some other Trek America people who were on a different tour but were in Las Vegas as well and we shared a party bus.
The bus was awesome, it drove us around town while drinking and dancing in the bus, starting at the Vegas sign and then to the little white chapel, the 4 Queens for a show on the ceiling.....somewhat difficult to describe, but basically there was a tunnel down the center of the building which was a giant TV. So obviously, the best way to watch something on the ceiling is to lie on the floor....so 20 odd people just walked into the middle of the tunnel and lay in a line on the floor. The onlookers thought we were all mad and started taking photos of us! The show on the ceiling was a fabulous tribute to Queen. The tour continued and the bus driver thought it would be fun to take corners very sharply and break hard occasionally (maybe he needed to do that one) but either way a few people ended up getting drinks spilt all over them and one of my shoes ended up with half of someone's drink in it. (Nothing that a quick wipe/wash/dry in a public loo couldn't fix!) We then walked to the fountains in front of the Bellagio Hotel to watch the show before making our way down the strip to Caesars Place for a night out. We started off in the club Pure before moving on to an open air bar/club called Carnival. It was a really good night.
The following morning started a bit later than normal and a few people were nursing sore heads, but after some reminiscing about the night we went to the box office to get show tickets. After much debating we settled on KA, a cirque de soleil show. We then went to the stratosphere where we found the Sky jump...it had to happen. So, I, along with 2 others got kitted out in some gorgeous blue and yellow jump suits and went off to do our jumps. The jump was actually very tame, more like a vertical zip wire as there was quite a bit of resistance so you don't actually fall very fast at all....at least not compared to a skydive or a bungee! It was fun all the same and I got some photos to take home as well. We then went back up to the 108th floor to get a proper view of Las Vegas before heading back to the hotel for a nap in the sunshine before the show.
The show was totally amazing, I could do an entire post describing it but i wont as this is already soo long! After the show we found some dinner in the MGM hotel where the show was. We had designs on a very nice meal, but due to prices and time we ended up with yet more pizza and MacDonald's! After a (rather unsatisfying dinner) we went to the New York New York hotel for a drink at the Irish bar. We had hoped to go on the rollercoaster but didn't manage as it closed earlier than we realised. Next morning we were up and out and on the road for an 11 hour day in the bus to get to Yosemite. The fires had changed the route we could take so it added a few hours on to the journey. The journey surprisingly went quite quickly, playing a few games, sleeping a bit and watching a few of the other having a felt tip pen fight! We arrived at Bug Lodge and had a nice dinner before crashing into bed to energize ourselves for our hike. It was the first night in dorms on the trip and it was kind of sad to be returning to dorms after a few nights in twin rooms. Despite this, I slept well and felt good to start the hike.
We were up and out for 7 and had another 1.5 hr. drive to get to Glacier Point. It gave amazing views of half dome and across the park. About 10am we set off on our 8 mile hike, it was for the most part downhill as we had started at almost the highest point in the park. The hike was fun and we saw a bit of wildlife....lots and lots of squirrels! The weather was absolutely beautiful for the whole day. We made it in pretty good time, it took us about 5 hours to complete and we rewarded ourselves with giant ice-creams at the end. That evening we had another good meal at the Bug lodge restaurant and the played a ridiculous but very fun card game before bed.
We all woke up feeling rather subdued as it was our last day on the tour. We all piled into the bus and set off with some upbeat music to lift the mood. The journey was pretty uneventful and we made it almost into San Fran before we hit the first traffic in the whole tour. After crawling into San Fran we went to the Pier for some lunch....which yet again ended up being good old Maccy D's. We then went to the golden gate bridge and had a whistle stop tour around town before being dropped off at the end point. After lots of goodbyes, especially to those who were flying out immediately, we all made our ways into town to find our various accommodation. After dumping stuff in my room I headed to Union Square for a touch of shopping before reconvening with everyone who was left for dinner. It took us a long time to find somewhere to eat as everywhere was sooo busy, but eventually we had a nice meal. The majority of the group have now left but 3 of us are hear until Thursday so hopefully we will be able to see much more of the place before we leave........5 days and counting!!
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