Las Vegas and San Francisco

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We have just checked out of our hostel in San Francisco but our bus to LA isn't until 9pm so I have plenty of time to update you.

Las Vegas was really good. We landed in the evening which meant that we could see all the lights as we landed and as we got the shuttle bus to our hotel. Our hotel, Circus Circus was insane! Our room was on the 25th floor and had two queen size beds and a nice size bathroom so plenty of space. The hotel was more like a resort as it had about 6 restaurants, lots of shops, a casino, circus tent and even a theme park including a rollercoaster!

Whilst we were in Vegas we took a day tour to the Grand Canyon which was incredible however there are no railings at all so I got a bit nervous about Rhi getting too close to the edge! We also did the Skywalk which is a glass-bottomed platform which sticks out over the canyon so you can get a really good view.

Also in Vegas we went to Shark Reef, a little aquarium, walked all the way to the Las Vegas sign (a lot further than you'd think!) and sampled the other delights of Vegas including free shows, a few Margaritas and a little bit of gambling!

After Las Vegas was headed to San Francisco and our first proper hostel experience. On our first day we walked to Fisherman's Wharf and quickly discover that SF has some very steep hills! Once we got there we hired bikes so that we could cycle over the Golden Gate Bridge. It started off really nicely and then as we were going over the bridge we were swamped by the famous San Francisco fog but it was still a nice ride.

On the second day we walked back to Fisherman's Wharf to catch the ferry to Alcatraz which is only about a mile and a half off shore, painfully close for the inmates! The best bit was seeing the cellhouse, we had a really good audio tour which gave us lots of information and also explained the different escape attempts.

Yesterday we walked a total of 12.8 miles! We started at the hostel and walked to the Chinatown Gate and had a wander around Chinatown. After that we pretty much walked the entire width of SF to get to the Golden Gate Park. It was pretty big and we saw quite a few lakes, some waterfalls and even some bison!

Both very excited to be going to LA, we leave at 9 tonight and arrive at 9 tomorrow morning. Hopefully the Greyhound experience will be a good one!

That's all for now,

Fran and Rhi

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