Well, we couldn't go on a southern road trip without hitting the Grand Canyon, could we? We got a late start, enjoying the rest day, since drive days we usually get moving early. Serena and I went to the lodge for breakfast while Laura and Amit slept in a bit, then we all got ready to move out towards the Grand Canyon. It's about an hour drive to the North Rim from where we're staying, so we got in sometime in the late morning. We had three trails planned to hike. Originally, we were going to do a quick trip to the Grand Canyon and then another one of the several beautiful parks near us, but (luckily) the others talked me into just the canyon. We started at Bright Angel, which is the point where most ... read more

Well, I finally got to bed at about 4:30 am, still up on money overall. We woke up around 10:00 something...not sure exactly, because I didn't check the time, and almost all Vegas hotels smartly have blackout curtains. Serena was desperately craving bacon, so we went to the IHOP down the street, but there was literally a line out the door. I wasn't about waiting in line for mediocre pancakes, nor were Laura and Amit, so we went back to our hotel and had food at the diner downstairs. After breakfast, we went upstairs to the Radius Pool, an outdoor pool on the 25th floor. Great views of the city, and, of course, outdoors is awesome. They had a bar for drinks - unfortunately, the only places you get free drinks in the city are in ... read more

Well, I certainly can't say we rushed out of the house this morning. We were both due for a good long sleep, which we got. After taking longer than necessary to wake up and get functioning, we left to go a couple blocks away to Snooze, a brunchy place that had great reviews. It was apparently super popular, since at 10:something on a Wednesday morning it had a 45 minute wait. We went to a nearby juice place to get something to hold us over, and walked around the neighborhood until our table was ready. When we finally got seated, it was time for a good old American breakfast: an egg-cheese-ham breakfast sandwich for Serena, and some fancy Eggs Benedict sandwich for me. We then made our way back to the house and got ready to ... read more

I really should probably list this as somewhere over Brazil or something, but we'll go with Buenos Aires for old times' sake. This was our last day in South America, which was sad. We woke up for a 7:00 breakfast before our bus came through at 8:00. A bit of time in the airport, and we caught our flight to Buenos Aires around 10:45. After landing in the city airport, we took a taxi to downtown to change money one last time for lunch and a cab to the international airport. Lunch was one last bout of empanadas at our favorite empanada place near the school. We hung out there for a while and met a Canadian dancer who speaks no Spanish and was very confused about pricing. To be fair, pricing is confusing here. Many ... read more

Welcome back, readers! Sorry again for the long delay. Our hotel in Iguazú actually only has internet at reception, so we were nicely out of touch for quite some time. Anyway, as you should know, we are now in Puerto Iguazú, a town in the north of Argentina. Nearby is Iguazú National Park, where the widest (or second, depending) waterfalls in the world are. The Brazil-Argentina border splits them, so both sides get a lot of tourism. There's plenty to do in the park and a ton of different ways to get a good view. The big ones are the three walkways, and the park adventures, which cost extra but are apparently worth it. For today, Serena and I covered the walkways. Starting with the lower, which is about halfway up the falls, we got to ... read more