So we are back in Los Angeles on beautiful Venice Beach after a 3 day trip to Vegas and the Grand Canyon. Toby had a go at surfing and has acquired a few scrapes but he had loads of fun and definately wants to do more.
We left for Vegas on Sunday at 8am in a minibus with 10 other people and our driver Nick from Sussex, England. The drive to Vegas was 4 hours but we stopped along the way at a place called Barstow which is in the middle of the hottest part of the dessert. We stopped for lunch and there were some outlet stores where Toby bought a really nice pair of Levis for only GBP15.00!!!! We got out of our air-conditioned vehicle to discover that it was about 35 degrees celcius outside or 110 farenheit. It was absolutely boiling and you could just feel water being sapped from your body. So after a 45minute roast in the sun we got back in the minibus and headed on to "Fabulous Las Vegas". Driving in it felt so surreal seeing all these massive casinos and the pyramid at Luxor, then the eiffel tower in Paris and the canals in Venice. Nick took us for a tour of new Las Vegas which is actually called "Paradise" and the real Vegas is downtown which we didn't go to.
We arrived at our Super 8 Motel at about 2pm and got our room keys. Columbo thought it was room 94 and after a few minutes of wrestling with the door that, coincidently, had a 'do not disturb' sign on it a rather angry looking man opened it and informed us we had the wrong room. Toby checked the key card and lo and behold our room was room 96. We opened the door to be greeted by the air-conditioning which was welcome because it was just over 40 degrees celcius outside. We lazed about for a bit then when it was dark we went for a wander around to see the casinos. Our first stop was Ballys which is adjacent to Paris which is a french style casino done inside as though you are walking down a Parisian street.
The casinos are very strange because they are so huge and there is more money and more people in one of them than you would probably find in the entirety of Petersfield. Toby knows the figures for how much money is exchanged in Vegas daily and i'm sure he will add that nugget of information at a later date. We then got the monorail to the MGM building which is opposite Excalibur and Luxor. The pyramid at Luxor is the one that has the beam of light comming from the top of it that can be seen for miles around (Toby knows the exact number of miles, he can add that later also).
At night in Vegas it is about 95 farenheit which i think is about 25 celcius so its still really warm. Its quite a clingy heat aswell so its hard to walk about and you sweat alot (or should i say perspire?).
The next day we were up at 5:45 to leave for the Grand Canyon by 6:30. The journey was quite long and we passed over the hoover dam into Arizona. Arizona is very dry and I got dropped off at the Canyon first because I opted to do a Helicopoter ride over the northern rim of the canyon which lasted about an hour and the views were amazing. You could see right down to the Colorado River and the pilot gave us information about how it was formed during the ice age (Toby can fill youmore in on that one also).
After that I met up at the southern rim with Toby and Columbo where we had some photos taken and then the sun started to irritate my skin again (I dont think ive mentioned this yet but i am having really bad rections to the sunlight here and annoyingly the suncream makes it much worse. My chest comes up in a bright red rash and feels like when you get acid or an irritant on your skin and you need to wash it off but you cant. Ive also had a reaction on my feet and that is all blotchy as though the blood has broken though and come to the surface, its a bit like a friction burn all blotchy and dark red - not very nice and incredibly irritating) so i went into the shade and drank fresh canyon water.
After that we headed back to Vegas over the hoover dam again, this time stopping for some pictures, and then on to vegas. So last night we decided to do the other part of the strip and so we started in Flimingos which is a large casino with real flimingos in it and we payed $20 for an all you can eat buffet with amazing food - thai, sea food, suchi, stews, paella, a range of salads and some yummy desserts. So that went down well then we walked down past the Venetian which is where the venice canals are and you can pay to have a boat ride through the canals tothe shopping areas. Then we went to Caesers Palace which is one of the most famous casinos and then to Bellagio where the suinging fountains are. I took a video of it because it was sooooo cool. Then we went to bed and left at 10:15am this morning back to Venice Beach which is where we are residing now. We have a train to Santa Barbara in the morning where we plan to camp for just under a week and then we are catching a coach to San Francisco where we will catch a plane to the east side of the country (either to miami or to cleveland) from where we will make our way up to Niagara Falls and Toronto and New York!
My phone is broken so it's hard for me to make calls - I think I can receive them but I won't know who is calling me.
I hope everyone is well and having a good start of the summer. Missing everyone loads, lots of love
Tegan xxxx