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After travelling back in time (leaving at 1pm and arriving at 6am the same day) we landed in the land of opportunity at LAX...knackered!
We arrived at our hostel at 7am only to be told we couldn't check in until 2 30pm...great! So off we went for a very long walk around LA. We stumbled across an amazing outdoor shopping complex where we had lunch and enjoyed the sunshine...this was the life! After an early night (which wasn't as early as we hoped due to a CSI marathon being on TV) we were up bright and early for the LA city tour...this took us to all the famous sites you associate with LA - the Hollywood sign, celebrity houses (beckhams, elvis presleys, Michael Jackson) even to a house Bernie Ecclestone bought for $85 million, containing 123 bedrooms, and gave to his daughter for her 21st <---- I think my dad was a bit tight compared to that! We stopped at Venice Beach for lunch where we both picked up the fattest burrito you could imagine for $5 which Sam chose to save and eat at our next stop, Rodeo Drive, where the rich and famous like to shop...spilling more down her
than she got in her mouth - the saying "you can take the girl out of Essex..." springs to mind! The next day we headed to Disneyland - the happiest place in the world - although I wasn't too happy when we arrived after being charged $100 to get there! But Disneyland soon cheered us up and it was a great day - made even better by wangling some free food for previously working there!After spending our final few days chilling out and spending our money shopping it was time to head to Vegas Baby! As a present to myself, we hired a convertible Mustang to drive to Vegas. Great fun! Good way to get sunburnt on one side of your body - as Sam will tell you! We rocked up to the MGM Grand massively standing out being the only people in the 3500 room hotel with backpacks! After exploring the town size hotel we did what everyone does in Vegas and...went to bed...just kidding...we hit the casinos - after a losing run on the greyhounds I picked 2 winners in a row and was up a dazzling $8 from my last 25 cent! Sam won an equally dazzling
$6 on the horses! Early retirement here we come! We did similar the following nights however we had some company as we bumped into sam's friend from work - small world. On their last night we went and saw Cirque de Soliel which was incredible - saw things which you didn't think were humanly possible! We also went to my favourite restaurant Tommy Bahamas which I have been waiting to return to for 5 years and it lived up to expectations - even Sam was hooked so we went back another 2 times! Made a nice change from Hooters! It was on this day as well were Sam and I got our children...our new iPads...which we can no longer live without!
After a few more late nights exploring all the casinos we headed towards the Grand Canyon, dressed in shorts and flip flops in 40 degree heat...little did we know that after 5 hours of driving we would arrive to -2 and snow!!! The Grand Canyon was pretty spectacular - didn't look real! See pictures...
The next day we had planned to head into Utah and Zion National Park however the snow stopped that so we went back to the
Grand Canyon again! This time with proper attire...2 T-shirts!
We then headed towards Death Valley the following day which was brilliant - driving through the desert, surrounded by snow capped mountains, 30C heat, roof down in the Mustang - may sound like a bit of a prat but it was pretty cool! Sam managed to get herself sunburnt on one side again!!
After spending the night on the outskirts of Death Valley we were up bright and early to head in! The heat was incredible, up to 40+ degrees by 10am. We visited Badwater (285ft below sea level), devils golf course, artists drive...all were amazing. Then we started the climb out of Death Valley and before we knew it we were up to 10 000ft above sea level and at our overnight stop in Independence.
Here, we have never felt like we stuck out so much somewhere on this trip and I include Thailand in that! It was a tiny town where everyone knew everyone and did not like outsiders - to a point where a drunk mum and 5 year old daughter were shouting "Eurotrash" at us as we were walking down the road...was quite funny! We also could
only eat in one restaurant, which shut at 8 - shows you how busy the town was, and was like a retirement home...and smelled like one too!!
Yosemite National Park was next on our list however our nemesis on this trip (snow) struck again. 4ft in Yosemite closed the central park butwe still managed to visit the outskirts which were pretty incredible and gave us the christmassy feeling we missed out on in Australia with all the snow and pine trees. This day personally knackered me out as we were driving from 9 30am to 5pm with Sam asleep for most of it!
We reached San Jose, a few days before we flew to Hawaii, and due to the weather swinging back up to 30C we spent most of our time by the pool preparing ourselves for our holiday to Hawaii, as you do!
Our 5 hour flight to Hawaii was pretty dull...the only thing on the TV was a woman hoola dancing (technical term I think) which became pretty boring after 15 minutes! Once we got to Hawaii though, it was as you imagine it, crystal clear waters, palm trees etc...amzing! Our first few days were spent exploring Waikiki
and sunning ourselves on the beach some more. Then as we were experienced snorkellers from Australia we decided to try our hand at snorkelling in Hawaii. We travelled to Hananua Bay - a secluded bay outside of Waikiki - another amazing hawaiian beach!
We were only in the water all of 5 minutes before we were both being inspected up close and personal by a turtle. So close we both had to back away! It was brilliant - tonnes of other pretty big fish as well which we weren't expecting so close to the shore!
On our final day in Hawaii we got involved in Hawaii's favourite pastime...Surfing! Obviously I was a natural so was catching waves left, right and centre with Sam bobbing around on her Boogie board. I was that good, that I turned to expert teacher and tried to teach Sam, thought when she caught her first wave I got my hand caught in her ankle strap and was dragged along behind (she spend the whole wave screaming rather than standing up) - after that incident I retired! Our time on Hawaii came to an end unfortunately and we both absolutely loved it...cannot wait to come back!!
Onwards to San Francisco... After a 2 hour train journey from San Jose to San Francisco, filled with drunk Giants (baseball) fans we arrived at our hotel in San Fran...dumped our bags...had lunch in an Irish pub and went shopping, spending basically all our left over money from the trip (resulting in us having new abercrombie wardrobes). That night we went to the Giants game and we found that baseball is not as boring as we thought...Sam even made friends with some passionate fans who lent her a blanket as it was fricking freezing once the sun went down....we have never had so many high fives from strangers in our lives! But it was all good fun nonetheless! Our final day in San Francisco, and of travelling, we went over to Alcatraz which was amazing, much more interesting that we both thought and also shopping yet again as we were feeling sorry for ourselves as we knew the 10 hour flight back home to the rain was just round the corner!! Either way, America and all the other countries we have gone to have been great but its back home to reality to save up and do it all over
again ;-)! See you soon!
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