Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon

Vegas. Hmmm. What can you say? You really have to come here to know what its like. Some people just love it. Me? Well I am not too sure to be honest.

We are staying at the MGM Signature. Thirty eight floors of probably the most luxurious hotel rooms we have stayed at so far.

Top Tip….When you register and pass the receptionist your passport, make sure there is a $20 bill in there and on view and ask if you are entitled to any complimentary upgrades? It works. For the same price we moved from the 15^th floor with a not fantastic view to a 37^th floor penthouse room with a very fantastic view.

If they can’t find you an upgrade they pass the $20 back.

So, 37^th floor. Right, let’s lean against the rail on the huge balcony. LoL LoL. Neither of us got within three feet of it.

By the end of the stay I could, but at first our legs would not move. The bath is bigger than our king size bed and you could fit a family of six in the shower cubicle!

Walking down the strip - Even that takes some getting used too. All you want to do is look at all the sights, and by that I mean the hotels. New York, New York.

Bellagio, Caesars Palace and Paris.

All sites to behold. Problem….you run the gauntlet of people clicking these cards and shoving them in your hand. WTF? Stopped for a coffee and had a look. They are cards with pictures of naked prostitutes on, with phone numbers, price and a promise to be round in 20 minutes. Bear in mind I am walking with Lucy and they are still passing them to me. It must be that they think we will be up for threesome. I did ask her but she gave me a good slap. I hated it at first. Then I found out the clicking is to get your attention. They are not allowed to utter a word or its soliciting which is illegal. Later on I was used to it and walked down the middle with both arms out saying “Bring it on man” ;)

Food – Oh so much of it ! We went to the carnival buffet at the Rio on the first night. Absolutely huge and I ate the best rare beef rib I have ever had. All for $12.95 each (50% discount from discount ticket booths), oh of course plus tax, plus tips………

Last night we went to see Cirque du Soleil KA production. It’s spectacular and well worth the money. To be honest that last statement just doesn’t do the show justice. Everyone who reads this you owe it to yourselves to add “Cirque du Soleil KA” to your bucket list. I don’t think we will ever see this production in the UK because the stage is a totally independent motorised surface that can move round on the horizontal plain as well as tilt up to completely vertical and spin 360deg on that axis. Confused?

Try http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cuyUKEKRLc to see the stage in the up position. Ohhhh and this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBt1tVm-E1E&feature=related Anyway, it was the most enjoyable evening.

The previous night we saw Penn and Teller, the comedy magicians and they were pretty good as well.

Today is Grand Canyon visit. I am not sure if it was a good deal or not but we have paid $245 each (£155) for a trip to the south rim and Hoover Dam on a fixed wing plane.

See the white around Lake Mead. That is the former water level. Its dropped 100 feet in the last four years.

Once again, this is something I have wanted to do all my life. (Dennis) Las Vegas has never really interested me but the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam are places I have always wanted to see.

I am not going to write loads and loads here because the truth is I was very disappointed. My expectations were obviously way too high because it just never lived up to my hype. Yes it is a fantastic phenomenon but 10 minutes at each sight is enough.

There are only so many pictures you can take, so its back to the hotel and pack our bags.

We fly back tomorrow evening. Home to sunny U.K. at 5pm on Sunday.

Depression has just set in. Tara!

San Francisco

First things first, I have say that this week in the USA is going to be extremely hectic, and so we are only going to write a skeletal account of our time here. It is our aim to make this blog into a book for our own keep sake later on, so we will expand on our accounts and add more pictures when we have more time at home. To our children and mates who have been following our trip of a lifetime, thanks for following us. It really has been great keeping in touch with everyone. This fact also prevents there being any feelings of homesickness. In fact I thing the sickness will begin once we do get home.

San Francisco… My mother used to watch “The Streets of San Francisco” when I was a child.

All I remember is deciding at the age of 8 to join the Royal Navy when I grew up, transfer to the US Navy and then go live in SF. Well I joined the RN, I spent a couple of days on a US ship and I went to the East coast several times, but that’s as far as the dream got. I sent my parents a postcard the other day saying “It's taken me 40 years, but I am here at last”

I was so looking forward to getting here and I have to say the city did not disappoint me. Sadly jet lag ruined the second day, but the first day we went on a city tour.
                                      
The weather was kind to us again so we got to see some fantastic sites. We went out of the city to Muir wood. OMG another wood/forest you say. Yep, but this wood is full of giant Redwoods.

                                                      Lucy showing us her D.O.B.


Stand next to one of these babies and you definitely feel insignificant. Well I did anyway.

There were seven of us on the tour, four Aussie kids, Lucy and I and Tine’s Austrian sister.

The tour guide certainly knew his stuff so all in all it was an excellent day.

When we got back to the hotel in Union Square we decided to have a drink at the bar. Oh dear! It turned out to be more than one drink..... 

Next morning jet lag caught us up big time. Added to this we were both hung over. We had to leave the hotel at 10am to visit Alcatraz.

How they lived in those cells I will never know. Solitary in "the hole" must have been terrible. It was pitch black in there when they shut the door.

Luckily I have not done much wrong so I was able to leave there after a couple of hours.

Unlike the bloke that Clint played in "Escape from Alcatraz" who was never heard of again and presumed drowned. The paper machee head in the following picture is the original. Everything in the cell is as it was the day they realised he had escaped.

That was also very interesting but when we got back in the early afternoon we both collapsed in bed. Unfortunately that buggered the day up and all we managed to do for the rest of the day was go out for a meal and then pack ready for the early morning flight to Las Vegas, the last stop on our holiday, sob sob.