Part Two: Las Vegas, The Grand Canyon and LA

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I am already proving to be a slacker when it comes to these blogs, it's just so difficult to find the time. Ok so here's goes Las Vegas in a short and sweet paragraph (as I'm majorly tired...):

So we arrived after a fairly short flight to be greeted with plenty of mental casinos-in the airport. I had to drag Ben away from these as I felt we would never actually get to Vegas itself. Eventually we were greeted by my lovely mother and father, who carried our bags to our rooms and got us ready to see Las Vegas The Show, which they had already kindly booked for us. What a great way to start the trip! Lots of singing, dancing and women wearing...well, not a lot, but it was a fun-filled evening that we all loved before having a little go on the machines itself. It wasn't long before me and Ben became addicted to the Lord of the Rings machine - although is was highly expensive - but the seats with the built in speakers were too amazing to ignore!

We were able to meet up with our cousin Mark at the infamous Hooters bar, which was fun to catch up, enjoy a fat burger and plenty of drinkies with in the evening too. A lot of the day was spent simply walking through all of the amazing hotels on the strip; it sounds like it would be such a boring day, but I have literally never seen anything like these hotels...they are unreal! At breakfasts, we were treated to plenty of huuuuge buffets at Planet Hollywood, Excalibur and Caesars Palace - you literally eat as much as you can...and believe me, some of those Americans can eat eat eat! Other activities we got up to included Gondolas, going up the Eiffel Tower, watching the Bellagio Fountain show, having an A-Mazing meal at Paris Hotel's restaurant, dancing with a crazy woman to Thriller, eating sooo much food, relaxing by the pool with loud music booming out, gambling and getting drinks for free, but the most amazing part of the trip has to be...The Grand Canyon!

It literally took a whole day out of our trip, but it was worth every second!! A coach trip where they played The Lake House...what's not to love?! (...Such a boring film!) We stopped off on the way at a really random village on Route 66 for lunch. It would have been nice to look around further as it looked like the type of place where either nothing happened...or the perfect spot for a serial killer - either or! The Canyon itself was completely out of this world!! It's really quiet there too, so you could hear anyone speaking quite a way away. The only thing that troubled me slightly was that it was utterly dangerous...I can understand why people die there a lot - there are no barriers to stop people! Note to anyone with children...do not take them! It was hard enough with Ben walking down the ledge with his flip flops that he always trips over lol.

So all in all Las Vegas was an absolute dream...the most surreal place you'll ever go to and thanks to mum and dad we were able to experience it to the max!! ('said in an American accent'😉...my goodness you can tell I'm tired! I was really sad to leave them xxx

I won't go into LA, as a horrible experience with bed bugs (leaving me looking like Mrs Blobby) tainted that short trip slightly, but all I'll say is that Venice Beach = Gorgeous, Hollywood = Not so lush (although walk of fame and Grauman's Theatre is definitely worth a look - and tour - as we enjoyed that part)...oooh and also we had a good burritto there!

Right well, I'll be updating you all on what has been going on in New Zealand very soon, but just as a starter I'll let you all in on the fact that it is absolutely bloody beautiful!

Big Love xxxxxxxxxx

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