USA

Today was yet another day on the bus. (We are very quickly getting over these travel days as they leave us very tired!) We stopped for lunch in Barstow and had a quick break in Bakerfield before we arrived in Bass Lake. We had to give introductions of ourselves again to all the new contiki members who had joined our group in Las Vegas so the time was passed pretty quickly. We arrived in Bass Lake after dark so our tour manager arranged a pizza party for us. It was a rather early night for us as we were getting up early the next day to go to Yosemite National Park.

After our escapades at Rum Jungle the night before and the week of early starts we both decided that a nice long sleep in was on the cards. And so sleep we did! After we woke up we headed to the Las Vegas outlet shops to shop up a storm. We both had a few items we wanted to purchase and after those chores had been completed we walked around for a while longer before deciding that the outlet store was massive and we would rather catch a few z's before dinner with the group. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner with the contiki group before we went to see a classic Las Vegas Show - Jubilee. It was very interesting but definately more for the girls as most of the gentlemen in our tour group fell asleep or went outside to gamble. After the show we both wanted to walk up and down the Las Vegas strip as the bus tour we did the night before didn't quite cut it for us and we wanted to take some photos which is rather difficult on a bus with 50 other people.

On the strip we walked past the Bellagio, Treasure Island, the Mirage, the (Paris) Hilton and Ceasars Palace. Most of these hotels are themed hotels, Treasure Island as the name suggests is like Treasure Island, the Hilton is made to look like the Paris Skyline, and Ceasars Palace is made to look Roman. By the time we had arrived at Treasure Island (the last place we visited on the strip) we were so cold we headed indoors to play some Blackjack (we had been practicing on the bus) but all the tables had a minimum $10 buy in and we finally found a table for $5 but it was completely full. We actually met two Australian guys playing but after watching them for a while we decided we would play blackjack on the electronic machines instead (plus they were a $1 buy in!) After loosing our money (which didnt take long!) we decided it was time for bed as it was now past midnight and we had yet another early start in the morning.

Yet another day on the bus as we headed away from the peaceful Grand Canyon and into the Bright Lights of Las Vegas - the City of Sin! Along the way we were stopped by boarder patrol for passport checks and then experienced a massive dust storm that stopped traffic for close to half an hour. That evening we experienced a Las Vegas style buffet (basically huge amounts of food! Sizzler multiplied by 10!). We did a city tour of Las Vegas before stopping outside a Chappel which we were tricked into thinking that we would be able to view a typical Las Vegas Wedding. Our tour manager had organised a mock wedding Vegas Style with two members of our group being married by Elvis. There were alot of laughs and photographs that evening as a good time was had by all. We then headed down to the old part of Vegas and saw a lights festival. We then headed to a club called The Rum Jungle which serves over 100 types of rum (however they did not serve Bundaberg Rum!).

We started the day with a helicopter ride over the magnificent Grand Canyon. We paid extra money to do a 45 minute trip and it was worth every single penny. We had amazing views of the Canyon and the Colorado River below. We spent the afternoon walking the rim of the Canyon back to the Sunset lookout point for some spectacular photographs (and cold weather!).

Unfortuently time differences between the states of the US created havoc for us this morning as we were woken by our tour manager to tell us the bus was leaving. We had signed up for a Hot Air Ballon ride over the Arizona Desert with a 6.15am start. We franticly packed our bags (more like threw stuff into) and were able to make the bus in time. We arrived at the departure site and loaded ourselves into the basket for an absolutely breath taking trip across the desert. We safely landed and enjoyed a champagne and quiche breakfast before joining the rest of the tour group to start our trip to Sedona, Arizona. Upon arriving in Sedona we bundled ourselves into a Jeep for a cross country experience through the red rocks of Sedona. Arriving back (covered in dust) we had lunch and then progressed to Tucion to watch an IMAX movie of the Grand Canyon. We arrived at the Grand Canyon after dark (and severly lowered temperatures) where we settled in for the night.