Las Vegas

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Well this stop is the one I have been looking forward to the most in the US its LAS VEGAS BABY!!!! From all the people I have spoken to Vegas is the one place everybody agreed was great! With all the good feedback I was hoping it lived up the expectation! I'm glad to say it did! The only thing I could have been warned about is the heat!

We found a class hotel with a huge casino and of course the all you can eat buffet! We were in downtown Las Vegas near Fremont street which has the largest TV screen in the world! Dozens of hotels and of course casino's! Really wish I knew how to play blackjack, must learn before I go back there!

Took the deuce all over the Vegas Strip, it was class with every hotel more flashy than the last one! My favourite was the Stratesphere see pic attached! Now I mentioned the all you can eat buffet earlier, some people have made this into an artform and literally eat all they can eat!!! Food has never been one of my strong points so I didn't take full advantage of this but by the looks of it a few people overcompensated on my account, so generous!!!

We had a tour booked so we met up with the tour guide Dave and checked into the hotel. It just so happened to be my birthday so at midnight George had got me a cake so we had a mini celebration! Six hours later we were up to start our trip to the Grand Canyon! The best way to spend your birthday in my opinion is a helicopter ride over one of the seven natural wonders of the world! It was just breathtaking! I got to sit at the front beside our pilot Chad so the view was incredible, and I mean of the Canyon not Chad! I loved every second of it and the helicopter ride also was good training for my skydive in Sydney! We also stopped off on the way home at the Hoover Dam but nothing compares to the Canyon!

Dave decided it would be only fitting to have a few drinks in the bar to celebrate my birthday ! We put on our Gladrags and headed downstairs! After one or two drinks we went outside and to my surprise there was a limo waiting to take all the girls on trip all over Vegas! Everyone on the tour had pitched in to get it as a birthday surprise! All the girls were given a rose and we had a bottle of champagne in the limo too! Best birthday ever! We drove all over the length of the strip, then we were dropped off at the Bellagio where I was told Oceans 11 was filmed; so fancy! Ended up back in a Kareoke Bar near our hotel at the end of the night, perfect way to end a perfect day!

Woke up the next morning to our hotel room phone! It was Dave telling us the whole bus was waiting and were we ready, obviously not! we hadn't even packed! Ten minutes later two very shabby looking girls made it onto the coach, and as you can imagine we managed to live up to the drunken irish facade!!!!

All in all Las Vegas was without doubt my favourite place so far!Cant believe its been a month already! Figi is our next stop, hopefully a little bit more relaxing and I will be able to shift this cold! We cross over the international timeline so there is no 3rd of August for me this year! Will be back on land on the 4th so will check in from there as soon as I can!

Thanks so much or all the great emails and texts Im getting and sorry if I havn't replied yet... & a special thanks for all the birthdays texts and emails it means alot!

Love and miss you all!

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