So, after leaving San Francisco I hopped on the plane for a quick flight to Vegas. I'm glad it was a quick flight as the plane was shaking the whole way there! If it had been a longer flight I think I would have started getting worried!!

After getting to Vegas I met up with Lucy and Ed and we went to get some dinner. This ended up being about 11pm, which seems ridiculous, but Vegas is so busy all of the time that you kind of forget what the time is. We kept seeing people gambling at 8am!! After dinner we had a bit of a flutter, made arrangements for meeting in the morning and going to pick up the car and then went to bed. It might not sound like much but it was 2am before we got there! I was quite disappointed overall that I had an amazing hotel room to myself where I could spread out but in total I think I only had about 5 hours sleep a night!

On the Thursday we met up, had breakfast at the buffet in the hotel and then got dropped off at the airport to pick up the car. Lucy and Ed had arranged to rent an SUV, at first I was quite disappointed it wasn't going to be a Mustang, but we ended up with a MASSIVE Kia which we affectionately nicknamed 'The Pimp-mobile'. We'd already decided we were going to road trip to the Grand Canyon, which we had been RELIABLY informed would take us about 4 hours. HAHA, if only!

When we finally worked out which way we needed to head off we got on the road and started the looooooooong journey to the Grand Canyon. In all the day was to be a bit of a failure, but we hadn't quite realised that at the time! We stopped off at The Hoover Dam for a quick look along the way. The dam is bloody massive! We weren't overly impressed they charge $7 for parking, robbing b******s!! After a quick walk along the dam and some pictures we hopped in the Pimp-mobile and got back on the road and started to play 'Hick Radio Roulette'. That was...interesting. As well as finding a Hick radio station we managed to find a God Hick radio station, I swear you couldn't understand a single word he was saying!!

It was getting on for early afternoon by the time we were on the road properly, Arizona is an hour ahead of Nevada which doesn't help, and neither does the ridiculous amount of changes in the speed limit. I think we could of got there a lot quicker if we could have stayed at a steady speed along the way! It ended up that we were chasing the sun in the hope that we would make it to the Canyon and still be able to see something. The people who told us 4 hours lied, it was more like 5 and a half! In the end we got to the entrance to the park for the South Rim at abouot 5, when it had already gotten dark. We turned round and came straight back to Vegas, not a brilliant way to spend a day but the road trip was fun!

By the time we got back to Vegas it was after 10pm. If we'd been at home that pretty much would have been cup of tea and bed time. Luckily in Vegas it's early so we still had some vestiges of an evening left! We decided we were going to go for Grand Canyon, attempt 2 in the morning so we didn't stay up too late because we were having yet another early start in the morning!

On Friday we aimed for the West Rim of the Canyon. Now, I'd been warned that this is the American Indian side of the Canyon and they pretty much rip you off, thats why everyone heads to the South Rim. I think we were so determined to see the Canyon that we forgot that in our haste to get there! After driving down a dirt road (I was very glad we had the Pimp-mobile instead of a Mustang at this point!) we finally got there and went to buy our tickets to see the Canyon. Now, we wanted to do the Skywalk, which is this massive glass bottomed walkway they've built out into the Canyon. You can't do the Skywalk without first having paid for the tour, so in the end we had to cough up $72 for the privilege! There's a reason people go to the South Rim, money robbing b******s!! I think if he'd told us we could pay for the Skywalk out there I probably would have done that, as when you actually see it its really not that impressive. You get just as good views from the side and you can take your own pictures too. You aren't allowed to take cameras on the Skywalk ''for safety purposes''. Ha, yeah right!

In the end though I was glad we'd finally gotten to The Grand Canyon, the views were amazing and the the wasted day before didn't matter in the end.

After we'd finished at the Canyon we headed back through Hicksville to Vegas, where we had a quick walk up the strip, some dinner and then back to the hotel for Cirque Du Soleil. I was uber excited about this as I hadn't thought I'd be able to see one while I was away. We went to see 'KA' (no relation to anything Ford!!), and it was AMAZING. The stage and the set kept moving in this instead of it being a fixed stage and it was just breathtaking, I'm so glad I got to be able to see a Cirque show in Vegas!!

We were pretty knackered afterwards so we ditched the plans to go to Fremont Street and the Old Vegas strip and we went for a bit of a gamble in Excalibur. Lucy and I decided to have a go on the 'Happy Day's machine as we couldn't find the Jaws ones they seem to have everywhere else. I'm still miffed at the Fonz, he pretty much robbed us! The only Happy Days there are for the casino!!

After a whirlwind 2 days in Vegas and ridiculously little sleep it was off on the Greyhound Bus in the morning for my trip to Los Angeles.

I arrived into LA in the dark, having no idea where I was supposed to go or without realising how far away the hostel was. I'd booked into the hostel in Santa Monica, which when I eventually got the bus, took me over an hour to get to! I was knackered when I finally managed to arrive so wasn't really up for any night time exploring, I just sat in the room and chatted with Lizzy and Ali, 2 Aussie girls who were here for a few days.

On the Sunday I got up early and started trying to work out what to do for the day. As luck would have it there is a tour organising company right next door to the hostel so I arranged to do the Movie Star, Hollywood and Universal Studios tour and induldge in a bit of celeb spotting.

Unfortunately, there were no celebs out in Hollywood that day! We got to drive past some of their houses, hence lots of pictures of really big gates! We had a stop at Hollywood Blvd so I got to walk along the stars and have a bit of a look at the hands and feet outside Graumann's Chinese Theatre. After a quick drive up into the hills for a pic of the Hollywood sign I got dropped off at Universal Studios. I think I could have done with a lot longer there to be honest, by the time the tour finished and I got dropped off I only had 3 hours there, which was only enough time to do the Studio Tour and go on The Simpson's ride. I was a bit disappointed with the Studio Tour, they make out like you're going to see a lot more than you actually do. I was excited that I might get to see the set where they film CSI, but all you see are the soundstages where the sets are as you drive past on the tram!!

After we got back to the hostel I went out for dinner with Ali and Lizzy and then for a beer before we headed back. It's been a bit of a whistle stop tour of LA so I haven't really had time to do anything in depth. I went with Ali to an outlet shopping centre yesterday, we thought it would be a lot bigger than it was!! After that I just had a quiet night, went for a pizza and then back to the hostel.

I'm just going to finish writing this and then I'm off out to enjoy some sunshine on the beach before I have to get back here for my flight to Fiji later. I might even take a walk along to try and find the muscle beach so I can gawp at some poncey and overly muscley men! I'm loving the fact it's November and I'm walking round in vest tops!! It's been really sunny the whole time I've been in the US, I've only really needed a jacket at night or if it's been windy. I could get used to this no rain malarky!!