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Published: April 10th 2008
Well the time has come, this is our last travel blog and it's all very emotional!!!! We've actually just got back and didn't manage to do the blog in America because of astronomical internet costs in Vegas($35 for an hour!!!!!!!!!).
We arrived in L.A from Fiji which was very strange in itself after crossing the date line we lived the same day twice and got there 8 hours before we left, talk about groundhog day!!!!! In L.A we booked a hostel in Hollywood just off Hollywood Boulevard which was quite an experience. It was really weird to be there as you see it so much on T.V and films. When we got in we thought we'd have a walk down Hollywood boulevard to check out the sights. We went star spotting (the stars on the sidewalk that is) and went and had a look at Graumens Chinese theatre where the footprints of the stars are. It is really busy here and after a 10 hour flight and living groundhog day it was very strange to be bumping into spiderman and Marilyn Monroe!!!! That evening we decided to go up to city walk which is just next to Universal studios and
is full of restraunts and shops. We went to Bubba Gumps for something to eat. Bubba Gump is quality and if ever it comes to England I can't wait!!!! It's basically a Forrest Gump restraunt and is full of everything from the film. It serves pretty much everything that Bubba mentions in the Film and if you like shrimp you'll be in heavan!!!!
The following day we went to Universal studios which we'd been looking forward to for ages and we certainly weren't disapointed!!!!! They've got so much to do and I think we did pretty much everyting. They've got a Waterworld show. The film with Kevein Costner was a complete flop but the show was brilliant. There was explosions everywhere and people been thrown to 50ft drops whilst on fire, what more could you ask for!!!! We also went on the terminator 2 ride which was another of my favaourites. They have a mix between actors play big Arnie and the other pair and recorded footage of the man himseld in 3d, it's quite a few years old but is still brilliant. Another highlight was the studio tour. We got taken round to lot and got to see
everting from Bates motel from Phycho to Westeria Lane from desperate housewives!!! We also got to see a very big fish and a huge monkey!!!!! The day was finished off by probably the highlight, the Blues Brothers show!!!! They showed up in the car from the film and put on a great show doing all of the classics from the film and then it finished off by Jake getting Karen up on stage for a boogie in front of everyone (she loved it!!!). Universal studios was fantastic and I'd definately reccomend it!!!!
The following day we booked a bus tour to get to see some of L.a as we only had a day left. We got to see all of the main sights including Rodeo drive, Sunset Boulevard and Beverly Hills. We even got to see the police station out of Beverly hills cop which was my personal favourite!!! Oh yeah and some sign up in the hills!!!Unfortunately we didn't see any celebs, Karen was contemplating going round all the late night pharamcies to look for Britney but I managed to talk her out of it!!!!
The following day we picked up our hire car and were back
on the road again. This was the start of our road trip and we were headed up to Sanfrancisco. As soon as we got on our way we got to see L.A's five lane highways which was certainly an experience!!!! Karen nearly had a nervous breakdown at some points!!! So after a 9 hour drive we arrived in Sanfrancisco. For the next four days my 2nd cousin Deidre had very kindly offered to put us up (thanks again if you're reading this!!!). So onto our 1st day in San francisco. We got the ferry in and got to see our first sights of the legendry Golden gate bridge and Alcatraz, I'll come back to those though. Our 1st day we spent round pier 39 which is very touristy but hey ho we are tourists!!! Pier 39 is full of tourist shops and restaurants and has been made famous by a bunch of sealions who have decided to make it there home. About 10 years ago they all decided to plonk themselves down where all the rich people park their yachts and as they wouldn't move the yacht owners were forced to go elsewhere and the sealions now squat there permanantly,
quite funny really!!!!
That evening we decided to get tickets for a baseball game, we thought we couldn't go to America with out going to see a game of rounders!!! 5t was all quite good fun until it started raining (there really has been a rain cloud following us all trip!!!) So Karen and I were sat there in pouring rain with ponchos on which were basically just glorified plastic bags for $7 a piece!!! It was still good fun and I got to shout WHOA YEAH a lot!!!
Our 2nd day we decided to get some hop on hop off bus tickets to get to see most of the sights. The 1st stop was the Golden Gate bridge to fulfill my obsession with big bridges!!! It is a quality bidge and again it seems very strange to be somewhere that you have seenso much on the t.v. After that we stopped off at Haight Ashbury which was made famous in the 60's as the home of free love where all the hippies lived. San francisco is still very liberal and you can see some crazy things round there aparently. There are lots of colurful houses and characters
about and you can just imagine what it was like in the 60's.
The next day we decided to get the Powell & Hyde cable car up the steep streets which is what San Francisco is famous for. It was brilliant and again I took a lot of photo's the streets are so steep it when you're on the cable car at some points you have to hang on so that you don't fall out. If you've seen the film Bullitt with Steve Mcqueen you'd recognise a lot of it as this is where his famous car chase was. Even though it was only a tram ride it was definately one of my highlights, just imagine getting that to work every day it would be like going on a rollercoaster every day!!!!
The following day we went to Alcatraz which I'd been looking forward to for ages ( I seem to have built up an unhealthy obsession with prisons, I think I've been watching to much prison break!!!!). We got to hear some great stories of the escape attempts and all of the usavoury characters that had been residents there. We also found out that the Native Indians
had claimed the island as there land a few years ago and stayed there in protest for years (obviously the prison had closed at the time!!!). You definately would not of wanted to of ended up in Alcatraz, it was pretty spooky looking around, especially seeing as they give you an audio tour so there are hundreads of people walking round in complete silence!!!!
After leaving Alcatraz we got back on the road and headed to Yosemite national park. It is a beautiful drive to Yosemite and at one point you get to 6000ft above sea level which is a bit scary when there's barrier between you the road and certain death!!! I think it's a good job my mom didn't know we were driving there!!!!! As I have said many times before on this blog Yosemite was amazingly beautiful. We arrived there and there was snow on the ground and trees hundreads of feet high. There were waterfalls everyhwere because of the melting snow and some of the vistas where just spectacular. We thought that in New Zealand we had seen some of the most beautiful stuff around but Yosemite even tops that!!!! The picture can't really do
it justice because of the pure scale of it but take my word for it it is amazing!!!!
The following day we got back on the road again to head for our final stop Vegas!!!!! This was very strange indeed as we went from snow on the ground to 100 degree heat in one day!!!!! Again it was a pretty imense drive, driving through the Mojave desrt to get there, however after driving nearly 20 hours over 2 days I was definatel looking forward to becoming a pedestrian again!!!!! The day after arriving in Vegas we checked in to our special hotel for the final 4 days of our trip!!! We decided to spend a bit of money and stopped at New York New York. The hotels in Vegas are crazy!!!! It was literally like stopping in a mini Manhatten!!! It has a scaled down statue of liberty, brooklyn bridge and Chrysler building on the outside and then on the inside it has replicas of soho and Grenwich village. A bit different to what we have been used to over the last five months!!!! So after checking in we decided to check out sin city!!! It used to be
that people only came to Vegas for the nightlife and the gambling but now there is so much more to do that it'd take you forever to see everything. We went for a walk down the strip and from leaving New york we soon ended up in Paris and the Venice!! The Paris hotel has a scaled down version of the Eiffel tower and the Arc d'triumph!! Where as the Venetian is basically venice inside a hotel. It has St Mark's square ( At least I think thats what its called!!!) On the ceiling of the lobby there is a copy of Michelangelo's Sistine chapel and outside and in there are canal's with gondala's floating up and down!!! Only in Vegas!! (or Venice of course!!)
Obviously the main reason a lot of people come to Vegas is to gamble and they have various catergories of people that come. There are the rich and famous who think nothing of putting £10,000 on black. They are called Hi-rollers. Then there are people who think putting more than $5 in a slot machine is a big loss and cruise round casino's taking advantage of the $1 beers and frozen Margerittas on offer.
The Bates motel
We didn't check if they had vacancies!!!They are called Lo-rollers!!!! So after 5months around on a complete budget Karen and I definately fell into the catergory of Lo-rollers!!!! Ha!!! We had loads of fun casino crawling, you can basically walk into to any hotel you want from the Ballagio to circus circus and nobody will even look twice at you!!!! All of the hotels have free shows and entertainment as well which is brilliant. The Bellagio has a watershow, Treasure island has a pirate show, the mgm has lions and the mirage has a Volcano that errupts on the hour and Circus Circus, well they have a circus!!!!
On our 1st night we thought that we would embrace the cheesiness and got tickets for a legends show at the Imerial palace. It was a great laugh and we had Barry White, Dolly Parton, Maddona and Elvis all singing us a tune. They were all quality but my personal favourite was Elvis. You can't go to Vegas and not see Elvis!!!!
The second day we continued our Lo roller tour of Vegas and went in Search of the famous welcome to las Vegas sign. We then went and checked out the Luxor which has a
Pyramid and Sphinx as it's gimmick!!! On the night we went up the Eiffel tower which gave some amazing views of Vegas at night!!!
On the third day we went down to the old part of town where the Sratosphere is which is the highest building in Vegas. At the top it has 3 rides which all go either off the edge or off the top. Needless to say I was up there like a flash. It was incredibly high up but after the skydive I think I have been a bit desensitised and it didn't seem that scary!!!! That night we had got tickets to go and see Cirque Du Solie which is a world famous circus act. Karen had wanted to see this for years and it was well worth the money. We saw Mystere which is one of the longer running shows. Some of the things they did was completely unbeliveable. There were acrobats flying around the stage, strong men lifting each other in ways your eyes would not believe and a clown playing tricks on the audience. It is quite hard to explain how good it is but if ever you get a chance if
theyre on tour or you're in Vegas you have got to see it for yourself!!!!
And so on to the last day of our 5 month adventure!!!!! I had been planning a suprise for Karen for our last day to make sure we went out with a bang. All Karen knew was that she had to be up at 5am. So when the day came we were picked up at 6.15 and whisked off the Grand Canyon in Arizona for probably the most amazing sights of the entire trip!!!!!! Obviously Karen was a little bit suprised when 10 minutes later we were driving through the deser with Joshua trees at our side!!!! We arrived at the West rim of the Canyon and the surrounding were simply jaw dropping!!! It is just so big that you can't quite believe it. However to get a slightly better view we hopped into a helicopter and flew through the canyon and to the floor where the Colorado river runs. The Helicopter ride was like nothing I've ever done and when you fly into the Grand Canyon your heart skips a beat it's that amazing!!!! At the bottom we were then met by a
boat and went for a cruise down the river. Again it was jawdroppingly beautiful and was the perfect way to spend our last day!!!!
After the Helicopter ride we went to eagle point which is where the glasswalk way is. It's only been there for a year and is definately not for those who don't like heights!!!!! It goes 75ft out into the canyon and when you look to your feet you can see straight down to the bottom. The views that you get from the edge you just can't do justice with words and it truely was a once in a lifetime experience!!!! From here we headed to Guanno point where we had some lunch a went for a walk around the rim to appreciate the spectacular views. This was basically the end of the trip and it was time to just sit back and appreciate the moment. At this point on the edge of the Grand Canyon I told Karen that the trip to the Grand Canyon wasn't her surprise. I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ..................... and obviously she said yes!!!!!!!!!
The last 5 months we have
both had the most amazing time of our lives, we've seen and done things that we never thought we would. From camping in the jungles of Borneo to trekking in the hills of Northern Thailand. Playing with spiders and snakes in Rockhampton to sailing in the rough seas of the Whitsundays. We've jumped from a plane and climbed a glacier we have had the best time ever!!! We hope you have enjoyed our little travel blog and we really appreciate every comment that you have left, they really meant a lot to us and we're sorry we couldn't reply to them!!! Thanks again love Rich & Karen xxx
THE END
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Fran Coleman
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Alls well that ends well
Have so enjoyed the final blog Rich and Karen. It's great to have you both home and we want to say we couldn't have wished for a happier ending to your travels. WELCOME to our family Karen-------we have lots to plan now!!!!!!!!Much love Mom and Dad Colemanxxxxxxxxx