Vegas strip to LA & Hollywood

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We flew into Vegas at night so we were able to see the bright lights of the strip below and marvel at our home for a few nights.

Our friend from home, Dave joined us in Vegas. To try give him a good start, we organised for a limo to take us to the stratosphere hotel from the airport once we picked him up. Through the jet lag, he appeared overwhelmed but impressed and pulled through to go exploring.

We enjoyed wondering around seeing the different hotels; watching acrobats in Circus Circus, being spun around on the New York, New York rollercoaster, seeing the Treasure Island pirate show. One evening we went to the old Vegas strip, Freemont St and soaked in the atmosphere. We watched the video ceiling offer a 80's music montage and listened to live performers.

For lucille's birthday on the 4th July we spent the day chilling around the pool and playing ball games. To start the evening we headed up the stratosphere tower to watch the Independence Day fireworks being set off around the whole city. It was beautiful and great to view the whole city with the lights. We ventured through it afterwards to find ourselves being entertained by a magician. We were baffled at how he was able to make his cards disappear and reappear in windows 5ft away.

At the end of our time in Vegas, Katy caught her flight home while the rest of us hired another car and headed onto the Grand canyon. The views of the vast canyon were incredible with the red rock spanning for miles. We walked around the rim and watched multiple lighting storms spring up in the distance. I hope to return one day and trek down to the bottom and raft the river - it looks like it would be great fun.

From the Grand Canyon we moved onto Seligman, a small town on the famous Route 66 road. Dave & I went to some Caverns nearby for a tour. It was interesting to hear how it had been set up as a potential bomb shelter; though the government only stocked it with water, candy and crackers and not one torch or lighting equipment. The caverns air supply was two weeks old as it was coming through a vent that opened at the Grand Canyon miles away.

From this town we drove straight onto Los Angeles and parked up at a motel close to Hollywood Boulevard. We spent our evening walking down admiring the stars, the footprints & signatures in the ground. We moved to a cheaper motel the next day which offered us a giant room and allowed us to see the city via buses.

While in LA we were able to go see a Dodgers baseball game. It was fun to chant along with the crowd, jump up for the Mexican waves and try a traditional hot dog with a beer.

We spent a day lounging in the beach and were intrigued to see a TV programme being filmed there. Before Ellie and Dave flew home we went up to the Hollywood sign and to the Hollywood Bowl concert hall museum. We tried to go to the County museum of Art but the one day we could go (and took 3 buses to get there) it was closed! We seem to have poor luck on these things but we still enjoyed our time and wondered around the area. Stumbled across a Harry Potter shopping area which was was impressively decorated as the Magical village and parts of Hogwart's school.

After LA, Dave and Ellie flew home and to Dubai respectively and Lucille & I travelled onto San Francisco.



Sent from my iPod

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