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Published: August 20th 2008
well what a journey its been, and now im sat in my front room typing this, as my dad snores asleep in the chair exhausted from the overnight flight home, and the whirlwind 10 day holiday we've just had. before i get all soppy about the amazing 11 month journey we've had, il tell you all about 2 off the coolest places iv ever been, Las Vegas, and New York City.
our holiday started with an emotional reunion of the cocks family at the vegas airport. il name and shame, and mr john cocks shed the most tears. hes a soft lad at heart. it was great to see my family after sooooooooooooooo long, and of coarse my good mate ash (a.k.a, greybar, greyzo, spider, the list goes on.) When we checked into the Paris/Las Vegas hotel 10minutes later, we were all amazed at how huge and amazing it was. We instantly went for a wonder and took in some of the sights of vegas. im already sruggling to remember the order in which we did things, as it was none stop everyday from 8 a.m until 1 a.m. We also met up with our god friends barbara and tony
from southport, who were in vegas for the holiday, but we off to alaska after vegas, not new york.
Las Vegas is unbelievable. Its honestly the most unique city in the world, and the hotels/casinos are just overwelming. We spent each day exploring a few different hotels, and taking in there attractions. it sounds weird to say that we just explored hotels, but the aren't like normal hotels. every hotel has a hugh casino and shopping centers, restaurants and bars, and then their own special attractions. For example, the new york new york hotel looks just like new york. it has a statue of liberty, the empire state building, brooklin bridge and much more. it also has an amazing roller coaster, that winds around the outside of the hotel. me, soph, dad and ash had good fun on this. The venisian is a replica of venise. inside the hotel theres a canal, where they have gondola rides. we all went on a gondola ride, and the lady rowing the gondola sang italian opera to us. she did "its time to say goodbye" by andrea botchelee, and her voice was unbelievable. we all had tears in our eyes and goose
bumps all over, she just blow us away. the best voice iv ever heard. The paris, where we stayed, had an eiffel tower, arche de treonph, and quiant cobbled streets. The mirage had tropical rain forests, and a dolphin enclosure, and a mini zoo, with white tigers, normal tigers, lions etc. the star attractions were the 4 tiger cubs, only 6 months old. they were so cute. The Circus Circus had circus acts on throughout the day, and a full on theme park, complete with roller coaster, log floom, on which helen very nearly wet herself, and all sorts of scary rides that flipped you in all directions, upside down etc. we had great fun there. the ballagio (the casino used in oceans 11) was famous for the fountain shows out side of the hotel. in the evening, every 30 minutes the fountains would dance to music, and they were awesome.
The best part of the trip was when we did an helicopter trip to the grand canyon. i was in a chopper with soph and ash, and mum, dad, helen, barbara and tony were in another. we took off from vegas, and headed for the hoover dam. it
was so great to fly in a helicopter, a first time, for all of us, although it was a little scary. we saw the hoover dam, which was very impressive, and nice to see from the sky. we then headed to the conyon, which took about 45 minutes. the views along the way were lovely, but when we approached the canyon, we were all open mouth. as the floor dropped below us, the vast size and depth of the canyon was amazing. we cruized along below the rim of the cantyon, and then we landed at the bottom. we had 30 minutes on the canyon floor, where we had champayne and nibbles, and took in our awesome surroundings. we took loads of photos and were all overwelmed that we were stood in the bottom of the grand canyon. we then took back off and began our flight back to vegas. as we approached vegas, we flew over and down the main strip. it was great to see all of the hotels from the sky, and it just comfirmed how amazing las vegas is.
the next day me and soph were lucky enough to get free audience tickets to the
live filming of "last comic standing" in our hotel. it was the final show where the winner was to be anounced, and as we had followed the show on sky in the states, we were really happy to get to see the final show live. it was a great experience to see how it was all filmed, and i was even happier as the show was hosted by fern cotton, and she looked super hot. ha ha.
So we spent each day exploring and walking for miles, really enjoying seeing these great sights. the evenings were spent wining and dinning, followed by more exploring, and a little bit of gambling. We all did a bit, and had great fun. over all we all seemed to break even by the end of the trip, so no big wins, but no big loses thank god, ha ha. we did see some big money being throw away though. the nice thing about the gambling is the free beer, ha. the waitresses, who wear next to nothing, and all have huge fake boobs, serve you drinks for just a dollar tip. 50p beer, great. Its strange in the casinos aswell, because there are
not windows, no clocks and they have the ceiling painted with blue sky and clouds, so you never know what time it is and you stay up later gambling. great hey.
well after a busy schedule in vegas we headed for new york, a mere 5 hour flight. Unfornunatly are rooms weren't ready when we arrived at our hotel in new yorks time square, so we just went out for tea and then got back and settled in for an early night. our hotel was in the theatre district just off broadway, and a small 5 minute walk to time square. we couldn't have asked for a better location. day one was spent seeing the statue of liberty, ground zero, and getting tickets for a broadway show.
we got the free ferry over to statton island, which goes right past the statue of liberty, so to avoid paying for a tour etc, on the advice of nat and bandy. it was nice to see the famous statue, although it was a little smaller than we see in the movies, haha. it was also good fun running for the ferry!!!!!! the statue pasts by on the starboard side of
the boat, so when the gates move to allow you on, there is a stampeed of people running to get down the right hand side.we were at the front and we were crying with laughter as we ran (dragging mum with us). we even got told to slow down and stop by the security gaurds. good fun. we then went to the somber ground zero. its basically just a building sight now, but we saw some memorials on the firestation, and all the sad tributes. none of us had a dry eye. its so sad what happened, and we just couldn't believe how big the area left behind was. we were also informed that the towers stood twice as high as the surrounding buildings, and these buildings were already huge. unless you were lucky enough to have seen the buildings before sept 11th, you never get a gauge for the sheer size of the buildings. crazy.
me and soph had been down to the half price ticket both for broadway show tickets that morning, and we were lucky enough to get 6 seats together in the 15th row from the front, for hairspray. and the tickets were half price,
only £28. so that night we went to hairspray, and all had a great time. the show was supberb, and we all loved it, and the seats were perfect. so its great to now say, we've seen a show on broadway.
the next day we went to cental park, for a lovely wonder, and saw the beautiful park, including the place were john lennon was shot, and the memorial in strawberry fields. there were lots of cyclists and nice horse and kart rides. the sun was shining and the city skyline beyond the park was awesome. we then visited grand cental station, and took in the hugh arcitectral design, and saw the crysler building outside. we then went up the empire state building, which took forever in the que, but the views were rewarding. you could see for miles in each direction, and stop all of the citys famous landmarks. its so cereal when you go to some like the empire state building, made so famous in films etc. you just stand there looking out thinking "im on top of the empire state, with new york at my feet." its a great feeling. some shopping was in store for
the afternoon, but me and soph were so exhausted, we went back to the hotel for a sleep before tea. that evening, we went to an italian, where we only had to buy 3 main courses, as the come "family size". the size of us just tucked into the beautiful pastas, and we only managed to clear 2 dishes, they were so huge. great food.
on our final day, we hit the streets for a last shop. me and soph tried getting more half price broadway tickets, but it was a monday, and all shows were day off on monday, so we couldn't get tickets. we just shopped on 5th avenue, time square and around, and managed to buy a few things. that evening we went to an awesome chinese, to celebrate mine and sophies last night of our journey.
and that brings our story to an end. and as you'd all agree its been quite some adventure. the time has flown by, but we've both had the most amazing, life changing, memorable, unbelievable experience. i wouldn't change what we did for the world, we did it our way, and we did it well. we've seen things that
most people never get to see, and things we ourselves may never get to see again, but we've seen them, and are both so proud of ourselves, and grateful or the oportunity to do it. i take my hat off to my gorgeous girlfriend who did so well to save up the money for the trip, and i thank her for being the perfect partner. with out you soph, it would never have be the perfect trip it turned out to be. i'd also like to thank our families for their support and love, we missed them all so much, and its great to be home amongst them. also to our friends, and any of you that took the time to read our blog, and send us messages, it ment a hell of a lot to us.
so i guess this is it. the dream has been lived and life will now go on, and new dreams will thought off, ha ha.
love to you all, mart and soph.
thanks again for taking time to read this. hope you enjoyed the ride.
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Dave and Joy Tremayne
non-member comment
What a Journey
Well we have enjoyed every step of the journey with you, you had a fantastic time and the blog was excellent. Welcome back