We had an early bus from San Diego to Vegas as it was an 8 hour journey and we hoped to get there before dark. However, when we arrived at the bus station we were informed that our bus had been cancelled, but not worry as we had been transferred to an alternative. The alternative turned out to be going to Vegas via L.A.!! We got onto the bus hoping that we wouldn't be delayed too much......16 hours later we pulled into The Las Vegas greyhound station. After being taken back to L.A. we then went back down to Palm springs as a road was shut and finally across to Vegas. As it was after midnight when we arrived at our hotel, we checked in and immediately went to bed.

The next morning we explored our hotel/casino before heading out to the strip. The strip is huge and lined with very impressive buildings, we walked along amazed at the view. Near the centre of the strip is a large shopping centre where we were able to buy reduced tickets for a comedy that evening. We had a walk around the shopping centre before heading back down the strip to our hotel; Circus Circus. We had dinner at one of the restaurants in the hotel, choosing a very American option of meatloaf and milkshakes:-) After dinner we walked up the strip, with all the building now lit up, and onto Tropicana where the comedy show was being held. The Laugh Factory show was great and we really enjoyed the show.

The following day we had booked onto a trip to the Grand Canyon. As it was a 3 hour drive to the west rim of the canyon we were picked up from our hotel at 6.15am. The trip was amazing, we stopped at the Hoover dam on the way to the canyon and arrived at the west rim at around 11am. We were given passes which allowed us access to the buses that would ferry us around to the different sites. We were first taken to Eagle point where the newly built skywalk is built out over the canyon. We were blown away by the views and the size of the canyon. We were unable to comprehend the size of it and couldn't really judge how far away the base or the other side was. We took a lot of photos and were even brave enough to sit on the edge and dangle our legs over. We got back on the bus and were taken around to the second viewpoint where we also got lunch. The second viewpoint was stunning with 360 degree views. At 3pm we returned to the bus and set off back to Las Vegas.

We got back at around 6.30pm and were dropped at the Bellagio Hotel where we watch the amazing fountain show, which they show every hour each evening. After the long day we returned to our hotel for an early night.

The next day was our last full day in Vegas and we had decided that we had to have a go at gambling. So that morning we got up on time to attend the free blackjack, roulette and craps lessons. By 1pm we had a fair idea of what we were doing and so signed up to the hotels membership club and exchanged some money for chips. We spent the afternoon in the hotel swimming pool and jacuzzi before getting ready for our night in the Vegas casinos. We had pizza in one of the hotels many restaurants before heading for the blackjack table. We had agreed on a limit so that we wouldn't spend too much and had split this between us. Initially I did ok at the blackjack table but it didn't take long before I found myself with very few chips. Ben on the other hand had done quite well. We decided to move onto the roulette table where again I did ok and then suddenly lost everything. We managed to make Bens chips a little longer but eventually I helped him to lose all of his as well:-) We had fun though! :-)

We returned to our room to pack ready for our departure back to L.A. the next day. We were heading back to L.A. in order to pick up a hire car as we planned to spend the next week driving up the California coast to San Francisco.