Chilling withthe Beckhams in LA!

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Hey guys - this is gonna be a long blog update as I havent updated in a week so here goes!

11th August - After waking up with a hangover from the previous nights action (shotgunning cans of Coors into the early hours!) we headed to one of the 7 wonders of the world - the Grand Canyon. I was extremely exciting particularly as I knew a helicopter ride was awaiting me! So, after pitching up 5 of us headed off to the airport and the trip did not dissapoint! The best bit was flying over these trees and the then all of a sudden the ground dissapearing and voila - you are in the canyon - it was a greta way to see it for the first time -just totally amazing! I couldnt take a smile off my face for a long time after! In the evening we went bowling with our other favourite trek group - of course I won but Daniel pushed me hard! A few of us then stayed up late looking at the stars - some of which were shooting! The next morning boy do I wish I had gone to bed earlier! After 3 1/2 hours sleep I was up at 4.45 to see the sunrise and go on a hike! I was disspointed to see when i got on the bus that many of my fellow late nighters had not made it! Either way after doughnuts and coffee @ sunrise me and the only other guy that had made it started on what I can is the toughest hike I have ever been on. It was 12 miles down into the bottom of the canyon to a point called plateau point where the temperature soared at about 46 degrees. It was so fascinating though - I mean cmon hiking into the middle of the Grand Canyon! Going down into the canyon to start off with was fairly easy it was coming back up all 3200 ft which killed us. Still, none of the other guys did it and 6 hours after starting on completion we got a tremendous sense of satisfaction - high fives all round! I was pretty much KO'd after this and got lots of sleep in preperation for Vegas!

13th August - We arrived in Vegas (after hours of excitement sat on the bus in anticipation!) before we could check in so we decided to go to the Wynn casino for an all you can eat buffet! Then we checked in at the Stratosphere and went for a nap before commencing our VIP night! We were picked up by a limo called "The Intimidator" which so belonged on something in Pimp my ride - it was like a nightclub on wheels. The evening quite quite drunken rather quickly with us drinking excessive amounts of beer and champagne on the limo for 2 hours before hitting the bars and casinos of Vegas! I have a recollection of winning about $70 on roullete thanks to my lovely assistant and then I was eventually crawled into bed at gone 5 - good job! I rose from bed the next day in a state of not fit to do much but managed to drag myself down to a shopping mall for food and shopping - lol! I spent my winnings from the previous night too - Vegas is certainly not short on shops and I could have spent a fortune! I went for another afternoons sleep before getting up to try my hand at some blackjack which turned out to not be as successful as before! We then went to a top notch steak house before hitting the town for a slightly more subdued evening of beer and fun! My Vegas name was Bruno Doesiano!

15th August - A long journey from Vegas to took us to San Diego (home of Jase's super Chargers!). The campsite we were staying at is the largest so far and certainly the busiest! There was no time for chilling as headed straight into town to see a baseball game - San Diego Padres Vs Colorado Rockies (our tour leaders team) - the atmosphere @ the game was party like - its more about the entertainment and having a good time more so than the actual game! So we sat on the terrace, swigged beer and soaked it all up! In the end it was quite a defensive game with the Rockies winning 2-0 much to the delight of our tour leader ! Straight after we headed to an Italian restaurant as was one of the girls birthdays and then the group headed different ways to check out the awesome San Diego nightlife and we partied into the early hours! The next morning I decided to check out the massive San Diego zoo which I'd heard good things about - highlights from this were chilling out with my friends - the gorillas!, getting up close and personal with some pandas and seeing a giant hippo! Dans le matin we headed down to the beach for a bbq as it was our last evening before the girls left us in LA. I had a good time time bbqing the chicken and corn - makes you feel like a real man - lol! Just had a cool evening really and had my 1st preper sleep in about a week! I was a bit gutted as one of the AUssie lads is leaving us for a week to see his girl - will be a quiet camp without him and the girls ! I'm also making a note here to check out these bands when I get back - Spell Toronto and Houston TX. Oh yeah my California name is Ridge Dosiemot!

SO yeah the last 2 days have been spent in LA - gotta be quick with this as time is running out but basically we have been down Avenue in the Stars (which I got my pic with Rod Stewarts!!), saw Beverly Hills, went to the awesome Venice Beach and Santa Monica and got busted by security for sneaking into the hot tub after hours - all in all very amusing!

So now we have finished the SOuthern part of the trip and said goodbye to the 6 ladies who were with us - we start the Northern part tomorrow with just the 1 girl joining us the poor thing! So yeah happy days! I'm missing you all but am way too busy to think too much about it - lol! Hope you are all good and see you soon! xx

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