North America

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Hi everyone!!

Lowe and Chops here all the way from rainy LA. This is our last day in North America so we thought we would let you know what weve been up to so far.

First stop was New York, after a long flight which was made better with free wine courtesy of British Airways. We were there for 4 nights and enjoyed it fully, from Times Square to the Statue of Liberty and climbing the Empire State building along the way. We also managed to get tickets to see a show on broadway which was 'Shrek The Musical', and even though it was quite expensive it was well worth it. There was so much to do we couldnt fit everything in to the time we had there. Its an amazing place, we were actually quite sad to leave.

We then headed to LA for 3 nights, unfortunately the hotel was situated quite far from the city centre (ie in the airport!) but we had a hot tub and the weather was good so we didnt mind, we made the most of it and had a good sup in the outdoor pool. We also at this point took the opportunity to wash our trollies.

Next on the agenda was 6 nights in Vegas. As soon as we landed we knew we were going to enjoy the place, however neither of us having a clue about gambling we sat on the 5 cent slot machines most of the time in the hope for free drinks from the passing waitresses. Despite our lack of gambling knowledge we finished our stint up by at least 5 dollars and several free drinks to the better. We also went on some amusement rides at the top of the Stratosphere (a really tall hotel and casino) which dangled you over the edge looking down over the Vegas strip. Lowe was terrified. Phil kept it together.
It was from Sin City that we took a trip to the Grand Canyon by coach as it was far cheaper than the helecopter ride. It wasnt until we got on the coach we realised why it was that it was so cheap, as we travelled for 14 hours with hicks, inbreds and all kind of ill-reputes which we enjoyed wetting ourselves laughing about and in a way it helped pass the time.
On one of the days here we went out to a gun store which had a shooting range and we both fired some handguns and 2 types of machine guns at pictures of arabs dressed as terrorists. Phil claims he was best. Lowe claims otherwise.

From Las Vegas we jumped onto what was to be our transport for the next week or so. It was a coach full of young American, British, Australian and Brazilian people touring California. Our first stop was a hotel next to the Yosemite national park. After staying the night we got up and jumped onto the coach and drove into the national park itself, up and down winding roads and into a beautiful valley. Once off the coach we wandered around and went for a walk up part of the valley persued by two of the more irritating members of the coach trip who took it upon themselves to join us even though they hated all that "David Attenbrough shit" (and continued to follow us throughout the rest of the week). The scenery was amazing, with various tall waterfalls and plenty of snow still lying on the ground. Our pictures may not do it justice as the camera ran out of battery but we think there are some pretty decent shots anyway.

We then headed to San Francisco for 3 nights. Its a great city to look at with interesting architecture and two very impressive bridges. The layout of the city is really interesting, its built upon 8 hills and so when viewed from the water creates a really interesting sight. We cycled over the Golden Gate bridge on one of the days and continued on through a beautiful town named Sausolito and onward until we came to a park which housed lots of Redwood trees (tallest trees on earth). The ones we saw werent as big as they can get as they can live for 2000 years but they were impressive all the same. The bike ride was 22 miles long in total, and considering we were hungover that day we managed without too many stops for breath. Although San Francisco has great buildings and we enjoyed the bike ride there were lots of homeless people which was quite intimidating at night. Its also worth mentioning that the seafood here is amazing. They have this bread called sourdough which, when paired with some clam chowder is a treat.

We are back in LA now doing more laundry before our flight to Fiji tomorrow night, which is the 5th March. We are going to try and upload some photos now, not sure how many we will get done but we will post another entry when we arrive in New Zealand in just over a couple of weeks time. We hope everyone is ok back at home!!

Lowe and Phil

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