So this post comes to you from the lovely state of Utah! Its actually really pretty, all one town of it that Ive seen!! My escapades in Utah so far are really easy to update you on, I arrived yesterday after a 6 hour drive from Las Vegas, which I slept through. I got here, ate dinner and fell asleep. I got up today at noon-ish, had some lunch, had a bath and read a whole book, then had dinner and now Im informing you all of my life in the past week before I go to bed again!! Its amazing, for anyone who is wondering travelling is EXHAUSTING!!!!! (and yes, I know I could sleep before I left, but even I wasnt this ridiculous!!)
So that's Utah so far covered. Before I tell you all about the bright lights of Vegas, Im going to go back a week or so and tell you all about San Francisco! Im going to be honest, I wasnt a massive fan of the city, the hostel we were staying was in the dodgiest area of town and it was honestly terrifying, even during the day, and especially at night. Amy (the girl we drove up with) had a horrible experience when she went out early the first morning we were there, with people yelling at her and harrassing her for money. She came back all freaked out and really worried me and Lorna, by the time we left the hostel it was much better but still not a holiday kind of place! We got a bus (for free coz we got on the wrong end!) up to the tourist part of town and it was much nicer, but Im still so unimpressed that a hostel would be in the worst area of town. As a tourist I didnt know to recognise the address and when they send me the survey asking for my views Im going to be very cross. It probably wont do anything but it'll make me feel better!!
Anyways, all was not lost and me and Lorna spent a very lovely afternoon on Pier 39 at Fisherman's Wharf. Whoever said retail therapy makes you feel better was right!! :) We tried clam chowder from a traditional sourdough bowl and got most of our presents for people and I got some pajama pants that are actually long enough for me!! (Theyre New York Giants ones, a team I had no idea what sport they even played, but its upset my 13 year old cousin who is a massive fan of the team they beat in the Superbowl last year, the New England Patriots. He took some convincing that it was an accident, oops!!) We then booked our tours of Alcatraz Island for the next day and (very reluctantly) headed back to the hostel. Very randomly a friend of mine, who Im meeting up with in New York, was in San Francisco so we met up with her and her travelling companion and went for dinner in Chinatown. It was a really nice meal and the area is so cute! I could've bought so much stuff (being the souvenir whore I am!) but limited myself to just a beautiful silk purse. We were then insanely cold so headed back to the hotel for a rock and roll cup of tea before heading to bed.
Just as an aside, the weather in San Francisco is RIDICULOUS!!! Its so windy, especially on the piers, and cold even when its sunny! It did however give me an excuse to take advantage of the Gaps $35 jeans sale, and got some very nice skinny jeans, that serve the purpose of keeping me warm and fitting under my brace! I havent used them since I left San Fran but heyho, Ill use them when I get home!!
Our second day in San Francisco we actually got up and me, Lorna and Amy headed out to do stuff. We started with going to get our tickets for the Greyhound the next day, in yet another dodgy area of the city!! We then started our sightseeing with the Yerba Gardens, which were very pretty and contained a lot of people doing some morning yoga. We then wandered through the very attractive Union Square shopping centre and sought out a cable car stop to take us to the Wharf. We stood on the outside of the cable car which was very exciting, and went whizzing through the city for the bargain price of $5. We got off just before the Wharf at a place called Lombard Street, which is apparently the 'crookedest street in the world'. It was designed that way to make it easier for cars to go downhill safely. If you're interested Google it, its mad looking!! We then headed to the Wharf and hung out for a couple of hours, and maybe shopped some more, and then me and Lorna headed for our Alcatraz tour. The island was amazing, and if you ask me all prisons in the world should be designed like it!! It was a fascinating couple of hours, but eventually we headed off to get some slices of pizza to have while we packed and got ready for our bus journey at stupid o'clock the next day........... 4am is a really early start but we managed it and got onto the first of our buses for our epic trek to Las Vegas. It took forever but went fairly quickly and was fairly uneventful. We slept a bit and didnt eat much, and after several hours of boring landscape (the Mojave desert is really really dull!) we reached the bright lights of Sin City! We arrived at night, which was definitely the best time to get there as it was an amazing sight!!!!!!!!
The hotel we were staying in was called New York, New York and it was genuinely amazing!! It was designed inside to look like New York city, and it really did! There was a Statue of Liberty and a Brooklyn Bridge outside and a rollercoaster going around it. The inside was naturally Times Square and was very well done. We got to the hotel and said hello to Gill and Mike (my aunt and uncle) and Steve and Julie (my uncles brother and his wife) and then went to our GORGEOUS hotel room to get showered and changed for dinner. I had a very nice steak, Lorna chose to pay for cocktails rather than food, and then we headed out to check out the bars in the casino. There was a rowdy Irish bar, a dueling piano kareoke bar which was awesome, a 'nightclub' which as it was only one room we classified as a 'nightarea' and the Coyote Ugly bar. It was amazing at once but the girls weren't nearly as good looking as in the film, and it got pretty old pretty quickly!!! We were then on the verge of being up for 24 hours so headed off to our queen size bed each, which was dreamlike after the hostel beds we'd been in!!
We got up the next day and headed down to the box office to take advantage of the hotel's 3 for $54 offer, we got tickets for an aquarium, the CSI experience and Sigfried and Roy's Secret Garden. The Secret Garden tickets were traumatic to acquire and we had to walk miles to get them, but they were so worth it coz we saw some incredibly beautiful dolphins and then some of the cutest tigers EVER!! They were white ones, and there were two 11 week old cubs that were the most adorable things I have ever seen!! Lorna got some gorgeous photos that Ill post as soon as I can! We then headed up the strip to the MGM and the CSI Experience, which was awesome and yes, I did indeed solve the case! In case you're interested it was the guy's twin brother :P We then went back to the hotel where Gill and Julie had rented a cabana, a private tent thing by the pool with a fully stocked fridge, sunbeds and a personal waitress!! It was awesome and we sat and ate some fish and chicken and chips (the hugest portion ever - 2 pieces of fish!) until the pool closed. Then we decided to take advantage of another of the hotels offers and bought tickets to the Cirque Du Soleil show that the hotel had on. It was amazing and they were clearly talented, unfortunately they were also showing us the sensual side of Cirque, so at times it was pretty uncomfortable, as Lorna said!! But we survived it, and it was in keeping with the tone of Vegas so we were happy!! We then wandered for a bit and had a couple of drinks at places like Caesars Palace and MGM before pausing to watch the Fountains at the Bellagio. Which are genuinely the most beautiful thing Ive ever seen. They are unbelievably elegant and graceful, which are odd words to use to describe water but they really are! They are so well choreographed with the music and they gave me goosebumps (or duckbumps as Simon and Tina re-christened them in Chicago!!) I could go on about them for hours but you can never really appreciate them till you're there so I'll shut up!! I was so taken with them Im ordering a book on them off Amazon so I can learn how they work, yup Im that geeky!! :)
So after another comfortable night in a gorgeously comfortable bed, we got up to say a sad goodbye to Steve and Julie, who were heading back to Denver, then the plan was to go to the Grand Canyon. However Gill had vastly underestimated the time it took to get there, she thought 2 hours when its actually 6, and after learning that a helicopter ride was out of the question ($450 per person plus tax and gas charges is ridiculous!!!) we decided to head for the much closer Hoover Dam, which was only 45 minutes down the road. It was a good decision as it was a really good day out, the Dam stuff is fascinating, although marred slightly by our insanely annoying tour guide that even the Americans among us couldnt handle!! We finished wandering around under Lake Mead and over the Nevada/Arizona border and headed back to the hotel. We then had a brilliant dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, with very good food and a balloon giraffe and turtle bracelet, then headed for one more look at the Bellagio fountains. We did this via a Hawaiin Market which was cute and I got some lovely jewellery. I also got harassed by a woman determined to sell me a dress but I managed to outrun her in the end!! We then had one last drink at Caesar's Palace and then went back to the hotel to gamble what money we had left! Which in mine, Lorna and Gill's case was $10, so thats what we put in the slot machines!! We were all up at one point, and all inevitably lost it!! And so went to bed for one last amazing sleep happy with our Vegas experience!!! :)
So that's about all Ive done since I last updated, and blogging about it was nearly as exhausting as doing it!! Lorna is now, very sadly, safely back in England and Im almost on a 2 week countdown till I join her!! Im now off to continue my week of sleeping and being looked after before I head to Denver on Sunday. So keep reading, coz the trip aint over yet!!!!!! :)
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