Thursday 3rd May we touched down in America after going back in-time 24 hours when we crossed over the time line, we did feel a bit of turbulence during the flight so assumed that was when we crossed it. We had filled out our declaration forms declaring all our Souvenirs, food and Kava, expecting to be spending the next few hours having our bags searched. We headed to the first station and after being told to go from one desk to another, then back again we finally got to a man at the desk who took our finger prints and retina scan then told us to continue. We grabbed our bags then headed for the declaration desk, he asked us what food we had then just let us go through, so it was actually pretty quick. We then spent half an hour trying to find the correct shuttle to our hotel, getting a bit concerned when the first few people we asked had never heard of our hotel. We finally got on one and after doing a couple of laps of the airport headed to the hotel and checked in.

After relaxing for a bit and getting refreshed in the room we headed out for a short walk around Hollywood and to get some cash out before we headed back to the hostel to cook dinner and relax for the evening before an early night.

On the Friday we got up, got showered and grabbed our free oats for breakfast then headed on the metro to Universal Studios. After getting the shuttle bus from the metro to the park we headed in. Throughout the day we were greeted by lots of universal studios celebrity look a likes, we saw a blues brothers performance, we went on a studios tour, did a 3D King Kong Ride (most intense 3D experience in the world), saw a water world show, did a 3D Simpsons ride, 3D Shrek show, Jurassic Park water ride, Mummy's Rollercoster, and even got to go on the Transformers new 3D ride which was amazing, it doesn't open till the end of the month but they wanted people to try it out to check it was safe.

After exhausting ourselves from the studios we headed out around 7ish to catch the free shuttle back to the metro, unfortunately when we got to the station there was a sign saying it only ran till 4 in the week. We walked all the way down the hill towards the metro, only to get to the bottom and see the shuttle bus, ahhhh guess it was still running after all. We then headed back to the hostel for dinner. After dinner we relaxed in the lounge area watching the scary film 'Jeepers Creepers' before heading to bed.

On Saturday 5th after a lie in and oats for breakfast again we headed to out on the metro to downtown LA. When we walked out we noticed there was a festival straight opposite the metro. We headed over and got a load of free stuff, including a free 5 minute massage for Rachel. After a few hours we headed for a walk around downtown seeing various bits including the cathedral, the Disney concert hall, the jewellery district and hundreds of shops which Rachel loved going in to look at the pretty dresses in the fashion district. We then headed back via the supermarket to grab some taco's for dinner. After dinner and a shower we headed out into Hollywood for a drink, followed by another, followed by another, etc, etc, etc.

On Sunday 6th we pulled ourselves out of bed feeling a little rough and then rushed to get ready and check out on time. We left our bags in reception and headed out to Madam Tausauds for a couple of hours seeing all the wax look a like models of famous celebrities, taking some fun photo's with Spiderman where we had to climb onto the ceiling and stick to the roof hanging upside down. Afterwards we had a wonder around the Hollywood shops popping in and out and then grabbed a Mc Donald's before heading back to grab our bags and catch the metro to Universal Studios where our shuttle would pick us up at 3. We spent a bit of time trying to work out which of the 2 car parks they picked up from, after deciding we sat waiting……and waiting….and waiting. When 3 o'clock had passed a while back we started to panic, we walked round looking to see if there was any other possible pick up. Since there wasn't we asked another couple who were standing in the same area and thankfully they said it was the correct place and they caught the shuttle often. After a bit more time the couple rang the company who said they were running late which allowed us to relax a bit knowing we were still going to make it to Vegas. After they finally arrived and did a few more pickups we were on our way, we watched a few films on the laptop and the time flew by and before we knew it we were heading into the lights of Las Vegas. We got dropped of at Ceasers Palace and after a long half an hour walk through all the crowds along the strip with our big rucksacks on we arrived at Excalabour and checked into our castle getting a free room upgrade. By now we were pretty shattered so we had a quick walk around Excalabour and Luxor having a few bets and grabbing a pretzel before heading to bed in the biggest bed I have ever seen.