Sorry I haven't written on here for a while, it has been quite busy for the past couple of weeks, getting back into the swing of moving from place to place again! Since I last wrote on here, the rest of our time in San Diego passed very quickly. Anne (Mel's aunt) continued to look after us extremely well. One afternoon we went for a walk in the Torrey Pines reserve which looked a lot like a hilly desert with lots of cacti. On another day we explored La Jolla where we saw a huge seal colony. We also spent another day in Balboa Park and walked to downtown San Diego. On Saturday (a week ago), it was Arthur's first communion which we were all invited to. We went out for a meal after with the family in a really nice restaurant on Del Mar beach.
We had a really great ten days in San Diego leaving last Sunday very early to catch a greyhound bus to LA. It was only a three hour journey but the greyhound station we got taken to was miles away from Hollywood, so it took another couple of hours on a few buses to get to our hostel. When we arrived we realised what a great location we had booked ourselves into as our hostel was on Hollywood Boulevard, directly opposite the Kodak Theatre (where they hold The Oscars). That afternoon, we went on a cheesy star tour which drove us around Beverly Hills, Bel Air and the Hollywood Hills to look at the huge houses and also to get a view of the Hollywood sign. We then went to see a film in the famous Chinese Mann Cinema, I was really tired from the early start that morning so fell asleep for most of it! On Monday we went to a pancake house for breakfast/lunch and ate a lot of food. We then jumped on a bus to the Warner Brothers Studios for a tour and were taken around the sound stages and back lots. Because it was memorial day in America, there were no films or TV shows being made but it meant we were taken to lots of sets, most of which were brand new American shows which aren't on TV in the UK yet. We were taken to the WB museum which had a special exhibition of Harry Potter props and costumes. They had a sorting hat and I got put in Hufflepuff which is not that exciting, but Ashling got Gryfindoor so she was happy.
Another early start on Tuesday morning to make our way back to the out of town greyhound station to get our bus to Las Vegas. The bus took six hours and I was stuck next to a loud Argentinian who wanted to talk about football and who gets paid the most. We eventually arrived in the afternoon and again had to make our from the greyhound station which was nowhere near the main strip. It took us well over an hour to get from one end of Las Vegas Boulevard to the other because we happened to time our arrival with President Obama which held up traffic outside Cesar's Palace hotel. We checked into the Luxor and straight away bumped into Liam who happened to book into the same hotel as us for the same few days even though we left him after Peru. We were up on the 26th floor right at the top of the pyramid so as the lift travelled up it moved sideways as well as upwards, it was quite strange. That evening we had a huge buffet then explored at our end of the strip having a look around the MGM, New York New York and the Excalibur. All the hotels are connected to each other with huge walkways across the road and escalators in the street so it is very easy to get from one casino to another. The next day we spent by the pool and then started looking for Grand Canyon trips. We spent the rest of the day walking up the Strip to see the other hotels like Paris, The Venetian, The Bellagio and Cesar's Palace. The Venetian was really cool, even at midnight as soon as you walk in it feels like day time because the ceilings are all painted as blue sky and the lighting all comes from the sky. The gondola trips looked like fun too but we ran out of time, will have to do a real one in Venice to make up for it. We stopped outside The Bellagio for the famous water fountain show which we saw on many times during our stay. It must be great fun for the designer of the shows playing around with huge water fountains and making them dance to different pieces of music. On Thursday we woke up early again to get picked up for the long drive into Arizona for the Grand Canyon. On the way, we stopped off at the Hoover Dam for a photo. It really is huge. We drove along the top of the Dam, but they are building a new bridge to bypass the road on the dam so it might not be possible to do that in a couple of years. We picked the trip to the South Rim of the canyon which meant we also stopped off at the National Geographic centre to watch the Grand Canyon IMAX film. After about 5 hours of driving we finally arrived at the national park and we did a 2 hour walk along the edge of the Canyon. It was really impressive, I will upload the photos soon. There were Condors flying overhead the whole time. We got back to Vegas at about 11pm and since we had yet to gamble we put a dollar in a slot machine back at the Luxor, but nothing came of it. Ashling was a bit upset that there were no instructions for the machines, and the tables were all a bit intimidating being only a beginner so we didn't make it onto one, maybe next time! We also checked out the siren show at Treasure Island hotel which was full of fireworks, pirates, explosions and dancing on full size ships that sailed in the tiny lake outside the hotel. It was really good fun. We then walked down to the Mirage Hotel in time for a Volcano eruption with more pyrotechnics.
On Friday we got up for a huge buffet breakfast with Liam and then went to Las Vgas airport to get a flight up to Reno at the top of Nevada. It is only an 8 hour drive but the greyhound goes via Salt Lake City, adding another 15 hours on top of that so the flight was definitely the best option. Ashling's uncle had frequent flier points with the airline we were using so he kindly used them to pay for our flights up which was a great help. The flight was less than an hour long but was definitely the most turbulent one we have been on the whole trip. Apparently it is extremely common for strong winds near Reno airport and many pilots arent skilled enough to land planes there so I guess we were lucky we didn't get diverted to another airport! We were met at the airport by Ashling's cousin Katie who drove us to her Mum's house. All the local children from on their street were round to play so we joined in with their basketball game for a couple of hours and then went out for a Mexican where we met up with another of Ashling's relatives her aunt Pat and cousin Morgan. Yesterday we were woken up early by Dyllan who let us know it was nearly time to go for a swim in their pool so we spent most of the day in the water. A friend of Ashling's aunts, a police officer, decided to bring his gun collection round to show us as he was so shocked to learn that police in the UK don't generally walk around with guns. It was all a bit strange really, but the laws in Nevada are very loose on gun ownership and it seems most people have them! Morgan picked us up that evening and took us to his brothers wedding shower, an excuse for a party before the big day. It was had an outdoor theme so they set up horse-shoe and washer throwing in the back garden. I wasn't too good at the games to start with but got the hang of them. We were the centre of attention at the party as they were all so fascinated with our accents and our travelling stories. Americans really find it hard to understand what we are doing generally as they don't tend to do trips of the same scale. Ashling drove back from the party, her first time doing so on the wrong side of the road, and her first time in six months, but she really enjoyed being behind the wheel again! We stayed the night in Carson City with Pat and Morgan ready for our trip to Lake Tahoe today. It is a huge freshwater lake, one of the deepest in the States. We were told we had to go for a swim, but it wasn't that hot today and the water is freezing so that put us off! We had a picnic on a beach by the lake and then drove to a smaller cove off of the lake which has much greener looking water so they call it Emerald Bay. This evening Mike (Morgan's dad) took us all out for a meal where I had a huge steak. We have two more days in Reno/Carson City and then on Tuesday Ashling's uncle Jimmy is picking us up and taking us to his home in San Fransisco.
Sorry its a long one, will put the photos up when my camera is charged.
