Las Vegas, Grand Canyon and Novato

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We spent most of Thursday 12th in the lobby of International Hostel, before finally making our way to meet Keith at City Hall ready to drive us to Novato. The journey out of San Francisco was enjoyable, as we got to drive over the Golden Gate Bridge and see the city from a car rather than on foot. The Californian countryside was even better than I imagined and when we arrived in Novato, the area was very stereotypical, lots of American-style houses and small front lawns. We arrived to dinner on the table which was a nice surprise and followed up by walking down the road to play tennis. In the evening we were introduced to a friend of Sarah's (Alex's cousin) and she took us for a drive around the area, which turned out to be so far that we ended up driving all the way back to San Francisco (about a half-an-hour drive).
On Friday we got driven to a small seaside town overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, where we spent lunch and after a long look around got back to the house in time for the basketball playoffs.
Once we were finally ready to leave the following day, Keith took us to the airport where we got on the plane to Las Vegas. The flight was very short, but unfortunately there was an added price to check in a bag that we hadn't realised about. To check one in was almost the same price as being upgraded to business class, so we decided to do that because it included bag check in, (the overall price was only about $25 more). On the flight we loaded up on the free food, and ate almost the entire journey.
We arrived in Vegas in the evening and knowing that the airport was a slight journey from the hostel decided the easiest option would be to get a taxi, luckily it wasn't too expensive.
Although we had to be at the Stratosphere for 5am the next morning to get on the bus to the Grand Canyon West, we were still persuaded to get a limo ride up the Strip. This was only available on a Saturday and because we managed to barter the price down we decided to get it. The ride included free alcohol and although we had quite a walk back to the hostel it was good fun.
Somehow we woke up in time to catch the bus and once we were out of the city it was amazing to see the Mooney Desert and wild cacti just outiside the window. Our first stop was the Hoover Dam, which was amazing piece of engineering and I couldn't believe how they managed to make it so long ago with such little equipment. We arrived at a stop off point, near the edge of the Grand Canyon West and decided that lunch was the first port of call. We got the bus to the 'Ranch' where we ate our free meal and dabbled in a spot of axe throwing and archery.
There were two main stops to see the Grand Canyon, the first was Eagle Point which gave an immense view, with no safety rail. You could literally walk right over the edge. This is where the Skywalk is located. We stayed there for a little while and took lots of photos, before heading further up to the next area which gave a lovely panoramic view of the canyon visible to the right and left, you could also see right down to the Colorado river running below. We were all getting extremely tired by the time we got on the coach and I managed to sleep most of the way back.
For the next two nights, Monday and Tuesday, Zach and Luke went to stay in Hard Rock Hotel, while Alex and I remained in the hostel. They wanted to experience a couple of nights in a hotel and it also allowed them to be closer to the Strip. We explored our area a couple of times over the course of the two days and on Tuesday night we all met up outside the Bellagio to see the spectacular water show. After that we walked around a few casinos and got very lost due to the fact the exit signs are not well displayed. Caesar's Palace was among the best that we went into.
On Wednesday 18th Alex and I made the long walk to Harrah's hotel where we met Luke and Zach before catching the coach to Los Angeles. We made a bad call by booking this coach because annoyingly it only stopped at Chinese areas in Los Angeles, meaning that we were dropped off miles away from our booked hostel near the airport. We ended up splashing out more than we wanted to getting a taxi, meaning that we could have probably got a flight for about the same price. LA is absolutely huge, but so far the hostels here seem very well equipped and also provide free breakfast.

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