10th Feb - We drove 5.5 hours to somewhere I have been waiting to visit for a long time - Sin City itself, Las Vegas! Leaving the Grand Canyon area we saw a guy on horseback riding along the Interstate and then pulling in at a petrol station, like he was refuelling the horse!It was one of those things you think only happens in movies!On the way to Vegas we passed the Hoover Dam, which on first sight from the top of the hill did not look that impressive, given that it is regarded as one of the modern wonders of the world. When we descended the huge mountainscape to drive over the dam it became more and more impressive - a masterpiece of design, only used as a hydroelectric generator as an after-thought. It apparently has enough concrete to pave the whole of Rhode Island (although its the U.S.' smallest state its still a state!), and yet it is full of art deco detail which makes it beautiful when you get close up. The fact that this giant, sculpted into sheer rock, was created in the early 1930s, with 1930s technology, makes it even more impressive.One side of the Dam is in Mountain Time (7 hours behind the U.K.) and the other is in Pacific Time (8 hours behind the U.K.) so we adjusted our clocks for the last time on this trip.We then carried on and drove into Las Vegas itself.Once we got close we were able to put the laptop on and sing Elvis' "Viva Las Vegas" all the way into the city!We saw Las Vegas by day from about 30 miles away and it looked so tiny that we thought it must have been another casino city on the way to Vegas but, as we got closer and closer, we started to see famous sights such as the Stratosphere Hotel with its huge tower and the black Pyramid of the Luxor Hotel. Before we knew it we were driving along Las Vegas Boulevard (The Strip) with a Manhattan skyline and a Sphinx on one side, an Eiffel Tower and a huge gold MGM lion on the other, but not a single person dressed like Elvis! New York City is the only place we've visited that comes close to this place for having a skyline that just mesmerises you.Really The Strip is like Times Square in New York City but on a long road as opposed to in a confined area.We checked into our hotel, The Golden Nugget (which houses the largest gold nugget ever found).It leads out on to The Freemont Street Experience in the downtown area, about 2 miles from The Strip, and so we headed straight out to walk along Las Vegas Boulevard and see the sights. We found that the area around our hotel is great but the 2 mile walk between our hotel and The Strip is run-down and looks a little hostile so we decided not to walk in again (this may be us being overly careful after New Orleans).Things picked up when we reached Stratosphere, a white hotel and Casino complex that is the tallest building west of the Mississippi with wild views along The Strip and 3 theme park rides on the top! (there's a ride that blasts you a hundred feet into the air and back in 3 seconds, a carousel that spins you off the edge of the tower and a carriage ride that pushes you out from the top of the tower and dangles you over the edge a few times - and this is all 1,140 feet up!).We decided to skip the rides (they looked totally terrifying!) and take a look from the indoor and outdoor viewing platforms on the top instead (only the rides get you higher!) and the views are really impressive, especially after dark.We had tea at the hotel in a 1950s style diner where the waiting staff took it in turns to sing whilst walking round the tables.Surprisingly they were actually quite good singers!The biggest surprise was that there was a wedding party in there having burgers and fries for their wedding meal - only in Vegas!We crossed the road to take a look at the Sahara hotel, which has a NASCAR themed rollercoaster inside, but as we had just had a bellyful of food we didn't really fancy going on that ride either so we pressed on to the Circus Circus Hotel and watched a free circus trapeze act.Circus Circus is one of the only hotels in Las Vegas that is children friendly and you could tell, kids running around all over the place and over the top bright colours everywhere.They show different 10 minute circus acts from 11 a.m. to midnight and its okay for free entertainment (if you can beat the kids to a seat!).We carried on our walk up The Strip, taking a quick look at some of the other hotels on the way, but we wanted to take a proper look in the daytime.We called in at the Mirage Hotel and found that the dolphin habitat and secret garden was closed for the evening.We decided to take the Duece bus (it's a bus that does a continuous circuit between Downtown and The Strip for $2.00 a ride or $5.00 for a 24 hour pass) back Downtown to our hotel and fell asleep immediately.

11th - We got up and stepped out of our hotel into the Freemont Street Experience.This is a type of precinct which is covered by a canopy and every night, on the hour from about 6 p.m. to Midnight, they put a light and sound show on the canopy.The precinct consists mainly of cheap souvenir shops, Downtown hotel/casinos and restaurants.There is also a place which sells same day half price tickets for shows, and we managed to buy some for a show called "The Rat Pack is Back", basically impersonators of Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jnr, Marilyn Monroe and some other guy called Joey!We bought the tickets and were then sent to the hotel where the show was being held, The Greek Isles Hotel, to pick up the tickets.That done we could start looking around the hotels again!We went back to the Mirage and managed to get into Siegfried & Roy's Secret Garden & Dolphin Habitat.This has a pool area which houses the dolphins and a jungle style area which houses lions, white tigers, leopards etc.We noticed that these animals are now safely behind bars (this is where Siegfried/Roy was mauled by one of the tigers in their magic show at the hotel in the 90s).By the end of our first full day in Vegas we had bet $2 in the casinos and were $2 down.Risky gamblers! We then headed back to the Greek Isles hotel and casino to watch the show, and they were brilliant. Sinatra sang great but didn't look too much like him and was bizarrely shorter than Sammy Davis Jnr (who was also good at singing but didn't look much like he was supposed to), Dean Martin was spot on and Joey 'whatsisname' had a bit of a chip on his shoulder about Brits not knowing who he was supposed to be. Only Marilyn Monroe was a little cringe worthy, and not because she wasn't realistic, but rather because some poor old guy in the audience got her full attention which ended up in red lipstick kisses all over his face!The show was really good and we highly recommend it.We then headed to The Treasure Island hotel, which has a boys versus girls pirate show on replica pirate ships outside the hotel. It's a bit tacky (at one point the girls sink the boys ship by dancing sexily at them!!) and the girls could not wear fewer clothes, but for free it's a good bit of entertainment and a bit of a giggle. We headed from there for some late night food at a very classy venue, Café Bellagio in the Bellagio Hotel.It's a wonderful inexpensive place to eat in a beautiful setting and open 24 hours a day.

12th - Today we can tell we are in the desert - it is so hot!!Back to The Strip and we looked at the wonderful Venetian casino and hotel which has a replica of Venice's St Mark's Square as a shopping mall with gondolas running through it. It is, in our opinion, the most beautiful hotel on The Strip.It has a hand-painted ceiling to look like the sky, frescoes, mimes and full scale reproductions of famous Venetian landmarks.We couldn't resist the temptation to go on a gondola but we weren't prepared for a gondolier who sounded Scandinavian and insisted on singing opera at the top of his lungs throughout our ride, as well as responding to everything we said, no matter what it was, with "Oh yes".We had tears streaming down our faces by the end!We then headed next door to the Wynn hotel.This hotel was built in 2005 to the cost of $2.7 billion dollars!Totally crazy money but it shows.It has a 50 storey curved tower covered in bronze glass and the entrance is covered by a $130 million dollar man made mountain, complete with waterfalls, fountains etc.The size of the hotels in Vegas is hard to explain.They are each the size of a shopping mall, and nearly every one of them has a shopping mall in it, usually designer, with the usual shops being Jimmy Choo, Manola Blahnik, Chanel etc.We headed onto the Paris Las Vegas hotel which for us, because of our total love of Paris, was stunning.We had a beautiful meal in scorching desert heat on the terrace of a French restaurant in the hotel, which also has re-productions of the Arc de Triomphe, Montgolfier balloon, Opera House, Champs-Elysees and Eiffel Tower.We went up the Eiffel Tower (why not?We always do in Paris!) and were told that it has been built exactly one half the size of the real one.The views from the top were lovely and we were able to catch three of the choreographed dancing fountain shows at the Bellagio hotel situated across the road.The first song of the day was the American National Anthem (no surprise there) followed by Time to Say Goodbye (which emitted a wobble from me as it was played at my grandad's funeral) and then Elvis' Viva Las Vegas - all totally brilliant!The Bellagio is full of Tuscan architecture and the lake in front which has the dancing fountains is 8 acres alone.Its really beautiful inside and they had (as most of the hotels have that we have visited) special pieces of art and decoration inside to celebrate the fact that it is Chinese New Year (Year of the Rat).We then headed to the MGM Grand, complete with the USA's largest bronze statue, a 45ft tall, 100,000lb lion on top of a 25ft pedestal.The MGM also had a lion enclosure which includes a glass tunnel you can walk through while the lions lie on the glass above your head.Whilst there we thought we would have a giggle and participle in watching and reviewing a CBS pilot episode at CBS Television City.We had to watch a pilot episode of a 'comedy' called The Captain and rate it throughout (we both slated it throughout so don't expect to see it on your t.v. anytime soon!!).We got a free keyring and a free Starbucks coffee each for our troubles!We then headed to the TropicanaHotel to watch a stand-up comedy show, called The Comedy Stop, which was okay but we are sometimes a bit uncomfortable with American stand-up because many still think the funniest thing in the world is to put on a funny accent and joke about Chinese, Indians or anyone who isn't American.Even Jim Davidson had to give that up 15 years ago (this does not apply to the stand-up we saw in New York City which was fantastic).Another $2 bet in the casinos and we are now $2.25 down - Kirsty had a 75c windfall, but we're not going to let it go to our heads - tomorrow we're going to cut back on our betting, we don't want to get a gambling problem.

13th - Before looking at the rest of the big hotel/casinos we went to Elvis-a-rama which our guide book told us housed the largest private collection of Elvis memorabilia in the world - unfortunately (for Kirsty) it had shut down and she did a good job of not bursting into tears and keeping her spirits up for the rest of the day!We took a quick look at Caesars Palace hotel, where lots of the big boxing matches are held, although today they were preparing for the arrival of Bette Midler, who is doing two weeks worth of concerts there, followed by Cher.To lift the spirits after the disappointment of Elvis-a-rama (!) we went to eat in the New York New York hotel, which has huge replicas of the Brooklyn Bridge, Empire State Building (529ft and 47 stories tall), Chrysler Building and the Statue of Liberty, which has a memorial to September 11 around part of the bottom.Its really amazing inside and even has authentic New York City adverts on the outside of the building.We then carried on to look at the last hotels we were interested in seeing (although there are many more) such as Excalibur (themed like King Arthur's Castle), the Luxor (themed like Ancient Egypt with a 10 story high crouching sphinx, a hieroglyphics etched obelisk and a 30 story pyramid made out of black glass) and Mandalay Bay (South China Sea themed).There was a book store in part of the shopping mall of this last hotel and we were actually able to get a British newspaper (albeit the Daily Mail!), our first of the trip!We soon wished we hadn't though, the normal doom and gloom.Over here we read USA Today and it simply tells the news, there are no opinions given, you are just left to make your own mind up.Compare that to the British paper where every article gave an opinion and every opinion was negative, its certainly not something we miss.We contemplated going to see Penn & Teller tonight who are playing at one of the hotels, but Ralph's flu is back with a vengeance and so we decided to head back to the hotel and write the blog instead. The wind has really whipped up today and sand and grit was getting into everyone's eyes.Arriving back at the hotel we had a gamblers splurge and hit the Blackjack hard - $15 hard! We're not holding back anymore! After 20 minutes the weekly deficit is $17.25 - it's time we got outta here, phew!

14th - Unfortunately Ralph's flu has gone full blown and he is really suffering.We left Las Vegas and headed for a small place called Oatman.The GPS told us to turn up a road and wow, it was not really a road at all.It was as if no one had passed that way for years and the "road" itself was made of builders rubble.Seriously, large pieces of brick, stones and rock made up the surface and we were only able to go a few miles an hour to save pieces of the car being broken off. Ralph expected to have to get out and change a tire at every turn but the trooper car pushed on, over 15 miles on road like this.It was a strange place to drive through.Everything that could be shot had been shot.Signs (one so much that it had come off its holding), washing machines shot to pieces, even a car.Items had just been taken out into this desert area and shot to pieces.It was as if we expected to see Indians whooping on horse back and firing at us at any minute.This area gave way to areas where we were told that if we stepped onto private property (you couldn't tell it belonged to anyone it was just desert) you could be killed!Then, in the middle of nowhere, we saw a tent and a tramp living there, no idea how he sustained himself in the middle of the desert.Then, out of the blue, we arrived in Oatman. It's a single street place and somewhere you would never believe still exists.It's a former gold-mining town which now holds gunfights at high noon for the tourists (we had unfortunately just missed it) and has wild burros (donkeys) walking up and down the road.Kirsty was in seventh heaven when she saw the burros and, knowing exactly what I had to do, I hotfooted it to a shack selling carrots.The problem with these burros is, because they aren't trained, they don't know to stop coming at you when all the carrots have gone, so soon Kirsty was surrounded by a pack of wild burros, all closing in on her, carrots gone, shouting "help me!".There is rumour that companies are looking to go back to Oatman to mine gold again and, if they do, the place will never be the same.We travelled onward to Lake Havasu City.When the city of London, U.K. auctioned off its 1831 bridge in the late 1960's, it was bought by a developer for $2.5 million dollars, disassembled, transported and reassembled here.Around the bottom of the bridge is a mock up English village, with a red telephone box, red mailbox, British flag etc.Unfortunately its very run down and signs seem to indicate that restoration works will be starting soon, so it may be that improvements will be made.It was still nice to see the London Bridge all the way out here and I had a proud to be British moment as we looked at it!Ralph was really feeling terrible but he wanted us to carry on so that we could be in San Diego for his birthday on Saturday as opposed to Yuma, our next stop over.We therefore pressed on.On the way we passed a check point which we have experienced near all towns that border Mexico (as Yuma does) where you are stopped coming out of that town by border patrol who ask questions and check your car if necessary to ensure that you are not smuggling illegal immigrants or drugs into the country. We got stopped at one of these when we left El Paso and to the Officers question "What have you got in the trunk of the car?" Ralph gave the answer most likely to cause suspicion "Nothing you would be interested in!".Luckily, after checking our passports, they realised we were just a couple of touring Brits and sent us on our way!Arriving in Yuma we faced a problem.We didn't have a hotel and it was Valentine's day.We hadn't thought this would be much of a problem as who would want to take their beloved to a Days Inn, Super8 or Motel6?Apparently loads of people as they were all booked up and the ones that had the odd crappy smoking room left were charging well over $100.00 dollars!After about an hour Ralph spotted a Motel6 which was advertising rooms available.He went in and they told him they only had a queen bed room left at $66.00.He came to ask me whether that would be okay and I saw an old couple pull up in the car park, looking for a room.Much to my shame (remember Ralph was ill!!) I made Ralph run back to the lobby, past the slow old couple and take the room!Karma will get us back for that one day!

15th - We left Yuma and headed for San Diego in readiness for Ralph's birthday tomorrow.We got the camera ready to take the shot of the California state line and the "Welcome to California" sign and we waited…and waited!It seems that we either missed it (although I can't imagine how that happened as we looked at every sign we passed) or they don't have such signs on the road we were on, which is really unusual.Anyway we could tell we were in California as the landscape changed and we got a mixture of fields growing grass (we think it may have been to sell to golf courses) and sand dunes with sand blowing fiercely through the air and across the road.Ralph is still really unwell and we both only got a couple of hours sleep last night so we are looking forward to arriving in the really nice hotel I have booked for two nights to celebrate Ralph's birthday which is on San Diego Bay.As we approached San Diego the landscape changed again and it was green and lush everywhere - trees, grass, hedges - a total change.We checked into the hotel and as Ralph was really ill I went out and brought us back some chicken and we went to sleep early (again!).

16th - Happy 33rd birthday Ralph!!Because Ralph was not at all well it took him until lunchtime to decide what he wanted to do with the day. He settled for a day at the beach so we headed to Ocean Beach, north of San Diego.It's a nice beach area which is filled with people with dogs!Seriously, everyone has a dog here, which was pretty cool as I got to see a Bassett Hound!We played football, baseball and frisbee on the grass next to the beach, and saw loads of people playing American football, volleyball, soccer etc.It's really a place for exercise and sports here.We then headed up the main street in Ocean Beach for a look around and it mainly consists of loads of really cool unique shops, selling clothing and surf gear.We stopped at a Mexican takeout place where I had the best beef burrito I have had of the trip.It was huge too and only cost about £1.40.Ralph just had to sit and watch as the flu bug still has him off his food.We then headed back to the hotel and got in the swimming pool and hot tub (we were joined in the swimming pool by some ducks!) while the sun came down.After, again because Ralph was really not well enough to go out, we ordered room service (although it took me half an hour to convince Ralph to order room service as he thought it was too decedent, even on his birthday!!) and had another early night.

17th - We checked out of our expensive hotel and in to a more standard hotel and then went out to explore San Diego.We took a walk through the area known as the Gaslamp Quarter, which is filled with expensive hotels, lovely modern art galleries and restaurant upon restaurant.It really is a lovely place to walk around.Ralph spotted the oldest pub in San Diego and so (he must be feeling better today) stopped in for a pint.We had a look at the shops in Horton Plaza, which is a sort of outdoor shopping mall built on numerous levels and then headed back up to our hotel, which is right next to the area known as Little Italy.We took a walk through there and decided to return later for something to eat.Even through its full of Italian restaurants, Ralph spied an English place which was serving lamb Sunday roast with Yorkshire pudding, so there was no way the Italian restaurants could compete, and we therefore had our first Sunday dinner since we were with AC and UJ at Christmas time!