WEEK 21 - LAS VEGAS - tuesday - thursday 14 - 16 september 2010

tuesday today and we headed out and hung out on the strip, getting japanese for lunch again, and exploring the casinos. we went back to the place where we found the giant cakes and ordered the chocolate cream pie, which was a total let down, ew yuck, it was just mock cream, and gross mock cream chocolate filling. 

we stopped and watched the T I sirens show, cheesey but pretty cool, then headed up the strip and watched the volcano at the mirage, and the fountain at the belagio go off as well.

we looked through ceasars mall, then grabbed two for $10 margaritas and sat by the pond drinking them, and this is where is saw a duck YAWN. so amazing. ask me to do an impression. it was great.

wednesday today, more walking around exploring today, and went down to our end of the strip and spent the evening there, its pretty dingy, id rather be staying on the main strip, so looking forward to a return trip here with more money for entertainment and lots more people to hang out with ;)

thursday today and we are heading to san francisco, hooray! totally over vegas right now! we picked up rental car, which smells like dirty old vegas, cigars, sweat, old carpet, or as joseph likes to put it, like a bunch of homeless people had an orgy in there. ahem.

we went to outlet mall and picked up a few last minute things, stopped at walmart and grabbed a spare bag for putting our shopping in and some car air fresheners, then drove to san francisco, a 9 hour drive away, and arrived at 10.30pm.

WEEK 21 - LAS VEGAS - monday 13 september 2010

today we headed out to take loads of photos. after being utterly sick of greasey food, we headed to Fashion Mall, and found a cute japanese restaurant called Ra, and ordered a plate of sushi and a bowl rice meal each, sooooo yum! although i dont think we needed the sushi, i couldnt finish the bowl in the end! 

then we slowly made our way up the strip taking photos of all the hotels outside, take a look

we even got to see the Bellagio fountain go off during the day

its 37 degrees today and not muggy, but its still soooo hot! so we decided to head to Town Square and catch a movie [yay!], we went and saw Resident Evil 4 in 3D. it was  little bit scary, i only screamed once cause i got a fright [the people behind us laughed at me], but it was a totally awesome movie, and i ended up only having a tiny nightmare haha.

then we went to another japanese restaurant for their late night happy hour, and got cheap sushi rolls for dinner YUM!

after all of this we were so tired, we just headed back to the hotel, deciding that we will have a late one on tuesday night instead.

WEEK 20 - LAS VEGAS - friday 10, saturday 11 and sunday 12 september 2010

friday today and we awoke early to drop our rental car back at the pallazzo on the strip. we then headed out. its AMAZING. they play music when you walk down the street. just like disney land. crazy! the building are all amazing, and there is just stuff everywhere. its like a theme park for gambling, hungry adults!

we decided to head to the premium outlet mall and do some shopping today, since we are near the tail end of our trip and can finally do some decent shopping hooray!

i got lots of tshirts, a couple of hoodies and a skirt, and some gym gear, and joseph got a nice jersey, some dress shirts and tshirts and a couple of pairs of sketchers shoes, so hes very happy too :)

we headed back to the hotel, and just lounged around, watching tv and being lazy, because we can! at about 9.30pm we headed out into the night. we caught a bus up to the strip and got out at ceasars palace. its so massive! the giant fountain at one hotel was going off, so amazing and everyone here is really excited to be here and usually very drunk! we headed into ceasars and grabbed some dinner [ripoff!] of a hot dog and pizza, 

which of course, was full of msg, so i got really sick [i knew i shouldnt have eaten it, but i really wanted a hot dog!], so we sat in the courtyard drinking a cocktail each [reasonably priced] from a stand on the side of the road kind of] joseph got a spanish steps cocktail and it was SO strong, and i got a black cherry yellow lemonade, soooo yum! we just sat around drinking and chatting and watching all the crazy people yell at each other, all excited to be in vegas on a friday night.

we headed into ceasars palace, but i still want feeling well, so at 1am, we headed back to the hotel to sleep, theres always tomorrow night, i think ill have to stick to stupid subway!

saturday today! and we have slept in till lunchtime, yay! because thats how we roll!

we are heading out to the strip today to see it in the day time and find out some cool things to do tonight :) we headed out and just looked around at everything, there are mini everythings here! mini eiffel tower, mini arch du triumph, mini sphinx! crazy!

we met some nice people on the bus who directed us to a bar doing $5 cocktails. once we got there a guy in the restaurant heard our accents, turns out hes a kiwi that lives in ozzie, and wanted to know the all blacks score [so we googled it] and ended up sitting with them while they had dinner and chatting. vegas is so cool for random stuff happening!

then we went to meet matt who we met on our contiki tour and hung out with him for a bit, then decided to go gamble, joseph played roulette and won US$75 and then lost it all! oh well!

sunday today, and after going to bed at 4am, we slept in again [sssoooooo nice to sleep in a bed, not the car!] and then packed up our stuff to shift hotels. the hilton is nice, but they charge you or anything and everything and its kinda dead, since its down the other end of town. so we taxi’d over to the california hotel, not as clean and fancy, but way more pumping, there are way more people here, and the gaming floor is buzzing all day and night, makes you feel like youre in vegas, not a retirement village!

we headed out for a buffet lunch, which LOOKED so good, but actually tasted awful! all the food was just covered in oil and had no taste! and the creamer for the coffee was ‘non-dairy’. so it was just corn syrup, gym syrup, and artificial additives. mmmm delicious!

so we rolled out of there and walked over to the outlet mall, which was about 2km away, to try and walk off our brunch.

i got a couple of cute tops from Guess, sooooo cheap! $20 each! and we both got leather jackets, so hot! cant wait to get home to the spring time and wear all my nice new warm clothes :) [i cant believe im actually sick of wearing dresses and singlets and shorts! i cant wait to wear jeans and boots and coats, and go to a cafe and drink delicious hot flat whites :) ]

after our shopping adventure and denting our credit card, yet again, we headed back, dropped off our goodies at the hotel, and walked to the laundromat that was about 1.5km away. its a lot cheaper than europe to do your washing here, thats all ill say! $NZ6 dollars is much better then NZ$16 in europe!

in the evening we came back to the hotel and bought a few things online to get delivered to our friends place in san francisco, then headed out for dinner.

we went downstairs to the market street cafe, and got a steak dinner each, what arrived [and i dont mean to complain, but here i go] was a piece of broiled meat, fried and then swimming in liquid. over cooked beans covered in fatty water sauce stuff, and powered mashed potatoes that tasted like nothing, covered in a disgusting gravy that wasnt too crash hot tasting either. i managed about a 1/3 of the meat before i felt like puking, so revolting! GET ME HOME! i just want my kitchen, im craving brocolli and stir frys like crazy! i NEVER thought id say this, but apart from kebabs and homemade burgers and cafe food, i NEVER want to eat fast food AGAIN!

WEEK 20 - THE GRAND CANYON - thursday 9 september 2010

today we awoke at 5am and headed towards the grand canyon, we stayed about an hour away from the entrance, so we enjoyed a nice quiet morning drive in.

we parked up at the first light car park and grabbed our sleeping bags [its FREEZING!] and headed out to the lookout. heres what we saw...

we then continued around the park taking photos from different view points

and reached the point where the grand canyon became famous, due to mining and a hotle being built in the early 1900’s. we walked the track down the side of the canyon and took more photos, the view is stunning!

finally we stopped for lunch at the cafe, and took advantage of the free wifi, as yet again, our t-mobile phone has no coverage, and booked in some cheap last minute accommodation on wotif.com at the hilton - $70 a night for the weeend yay! :)

i took a few more final shots of the canyon

then we headed out to vegas baby! woohoo! we passed the hoover dam on the way

and made it to vegas!

the traffic is crazy here, so we are returning the rental car early tomorrow morning.

we headed out for an evening walk, but got lost and couldnt find the strip, plus we are really tired from getting up so early and sleeping in the car for a week, plus we gained an hour driving here [crossed a time zone], so we headed back into the hotel to the mexican bar and had chicken quesos and a massive margarita for dinner