We have our longest drive today - 300 miles. This is nothing to us, especially as we have a warm, comfortable minibus to travel in! We arrived in Monument Valley just after lunch and were taken by Navajo guides for a really interesting tour of the valley. There's been so many movies filmed here the views seem fairly familiar at times! Our guides were very informative and enthusiastic about showing us their land. Our tour ended with a typical meal of fire bread, m...

New Year's Day started early with a walk in Zion N.P. to the Emerald Pools,which were solid ice surrounded by beautiful fine white sand. The sun is shining and the sky is blue, the sandstone cliffs are red and the views more spectacular at every turn of the trail. We then drove to Bryce Canyon, stopping for a picnic lunch on the way. We are now in snow, making the scenery even more stunning. Its very cold up here. Bryce Canyon is small and the sandstone formatio...

We joined our Canyons Trek today. Leaving Las Vegas we crossed the Nevada Desert, through Arizona, into Utah, arriving in Zion N.P. in time for lunch. Its very cold but sunny and the scenary spectacular. Several of the walking trails are closed due to ice falls but we were able to walk along the Virgin River and visit the frozen Weeping Rock. We then headed to Pioneer Lodge, our hotel for the night, in Springdale. This very small town was mostly closed for New Ye...

After a five hour flight we arrived in Las Vegas at around 7 pm (10 pm New York time). We walked to The Strip and our Tinsel Town experience began! We spent this evening and the whole day on Sunday 30th wandering around in sheer amazement. Susan spent that lucky dollar in the casino and came away with 800 (cents!) We watched the lions (real ones) at MGM, the gondalers in the Venetian, admired the water show and flower display at Bellagios, dined in Cesars Palace,...

Gap Year Part 2 has begun! We arrived in New York on Thursday afternoon which gave us time to explore Maddison Square Gardens, Time Square and Broadway by night. New York is certainly lit up for Christmas. We took a wander through Macy's, which is huge, and managed not to spend a cent. On Friday (28th) we took the first boat out to Liberty Island and the Statue of Liberty, visiting Ellis Island on the way back. We walked around Battery Park and along to B...