San Diego

Sad to leave Sydney behind! But we
will be returning in three months to explore some more... Yay!

Airport bound for another couple
Of hours. It seems the airport is becoming our second home haha. Loving being on the move. We thought we'd just missed Mcdonalds brekkie but they still had some left, so a scrumptious sausage and egg mcmuffin went down nicely. We all ate in silence as there was free wifi. It seems that as soon as there is wifi around we are like recluses. Nobody speaks for a while. I'm sure people think we are the most unsociable friends around! Haha.

All aboard flight QT11. Sydney to LA. Time to party in the U.S.A! Sophie should be joining us on the other side!! Yay!!

Well what a flight, thought we'd flown in luxury with Thai airways...until Quantas!! Who needs first class. A choice of over 50 films, loads of tv programmes(Ab Fab, and keeping up appearances haha) and some old school music... Loving a bit of the spice girls and Whitney whilst chilling with my blanket and pillow. If that's not enough the waitress brought round a menu! A menu!!! There was actually a cooked breakfast as an option! Oh you have no idea how appealing it was...that was until it was time to have it. Not so appealing when I saw it, so went with the cereal option. Haha. It was a mission getting to sleep to... Not as comfy as I first thought. The flight had gone from being luxurious to just uncomfortable and crappy. Thai airways moved back to the top of my list.

As we were coming into LA the pilot announced on the left hand side you will get a good view of the Hollywood sign...that was great news... For the people sitting on the left. Where were we on the bloody right side, getting a good view of the clouds! Haha.

Finally arrived in not so sunny LA. The sun was hiding for a little while. It was a mission getting our transfer to the hotel! The shuttle didn't show so we were sat on the curb waiting and waiting...and waiting! After no sleep we were all pretty grumpy. After an hour we gave up and got a cab!

Excited for 3 to become four again :). Checked in and felt like I've walked into the past. Very trendy rooms I must say. Floral decor on the bedsheets and patterned carpets... Lovely! Soph finally arrives also with a flight story that beats goons hands down haha. Let's just say it involves a cup of water, feeling slightly ill, a lazy flight attendant, paramedics and a wheelchair. Eventful flights only seem to happen if you fly alone. Everyone was pretty zonked especially coming from Aus we'd been awake for over 24 hours! Liz found a papa johns close by and takeout pizza to the hotel was our evening meal! Was soooo good! We didnt want to leave the hotel for food as we were in the ghetto of LA. We would have had to have been on guard all night. Haha. After food everyone was pretty much ready for bed. Len was up all night though couldn't sleep.

Up bright and early for our ride to the hotel to meet our tour group. Liz made a deal with a member of the hotel staff to take us for $45 instead of a taxi taking us for $60. saved a few quid there! On arrival we checked in and waited to board the coach...our home(hotel on wheels) for the next two weeks.

Day one we visited San Diego. We met our kontiki tours group and our group leader, Jack(apparently the man of lizs's dreams) and bus driver Richard (Richie Roo) they both seemed pretty cool, well jack did after he'd going through the very LONG list of rules! He knows his stuff though! Loads of Aussies on board...GOOD NEWS! This will be mine and liz's chance to make some pals and fish for some info, ready for when we go back, haha!

1st Stopped at Balboa park just to have a little wander and get some snaps, followed by San Diego harbour. We had the option of taking an hour cruise around but decided against it and went for a walk instead. We probably should have gone as the whole bus pretty much went to mingle... We then became outcasts haha. Next stop was lunch. We went to a pretty mall, lots of shops...but window shopping for me...saving the pennies and that.

We drove over cornado bridge to cornado island. That's where the dollar is!! I could definately get comfortable living there! Have my own yacht and pull up to the Marriott hotels private harbour stay for a few nights and then carry on with my sailing! Haha.

Old town was our next visit, it's like a small Mexican village... The oldest part of San Diego! Loved it there! very pretty and has some awesome little nick nack shops.

Staying with the Mexican theme, we went back to old town later for our meal. I wasn't very adventurous and just had half a chicken... Which was yum by the way. Went down nicely with a cocktail! The portions of food are just ridiculous here. A starter is bigger than a main meal at home. 3 months of portions like that I won't be recognised anymore, I'll be a right heffalump!

So we hit the first bar in the gas lamp quarter. Pretty cool place. They had a bucking bronco there but I chickened out, the bull was a crazy one, I would never have been able to hold on! We met a group of american guys in there. They had no clue where Wales was. One even told me 'Wales is a city in England, right?' not quite sure he did geography in school. One of them was a bit on the crazy side, Curtis always wants shots, shots and shots. He definitely took a shine to Soph. We left to go to another club, slightly more lively there... Weird choice of music. One minute there were chart songs played and the next old music which we didn't really know. Still boogied on down though!! Was time to go home at 2am. That's when everything shuts 'round here... strange for us!!

Early morning and was time to visit Marcell at the Party Zoo (San Diego zoo). Felt slightly delicate on the bus journey there...but I powered through! Took Soph a bit longer to come 'round, she wasn't very with it in the morning. We started with a bus tour of the zoo before walking around to see all the animals. We saw pandas, elephants, polar bears, laughing hyenas(which were extremely lazy and just slept). Zazoo (lion king) was also there making lots of noise! At the polar bear area Len was a bit bummed, she said 'these are not the bears I wanted to see, are there different types of polar bears?' I replied 'no, they are just big White bears.' her next question was, 'what are the big black and White bears then?' obviously talking about a panda. How she mixed those up I will never know... But she kept calling them polar bears all day. She couldn't get to grips with them being completely different bears!

We grabbed a few hours of sunshine at mission beach. Chilling chatting to the group. Me and Liz went to go into the sea thinking it would be quite warm...my god we were wrong. One foot in and I was back out.

One hour for us all to get ready for the baseball game. Instead of buying Padres tshirts we all wore our American flag tops...we all looked like we were cheerleaders. The girls all got a hot dog, tradition and stuff, I got myself a burger...a bloody good one to. Yum!! The game was cool, plus the San Diego Padres won, so everyone was in high spirits to head on out!

The plan for us was to go for a drink at pacific beach and then go home, as you probably know this didn't happen! It all started with our taxi ride there... We had an absolute nutter of a driver who was drag racing with the taxi the boys on our tour were in. Was insane, he was, speeding, switching lanes, winding his window down shouting abuse at people. Liz called him a crazy mofo! This was a new word to the cab driver... He just burst into laughter and started shouting it at random people in the street. How he got away with it I don't know. We got there in one piece though that was the main thing!

We all went into the club... It was student night there so more people our age and CHEAP drinks. The crazy dance moves came out yet again... There were free shots for girls and dancing on bars(not us), beer pong, we just knew after the first shot it would be a CRAZY night!

Safe to say after my shot of tequila at the bar, I have no memory at all of leaving the club and getting home. All I know is that I woke up in my bed face down in the same clothes I wore out! There will be no more tequila for me...EVER!

Scottsdale, Phoenix.

With an extreme hangover, we started our journey to Scottsdale in Arizona. New state, new start...laying off the alcohol for the day. Tried to get a nap in before our lunch stop at a Walmart. With a few hours left before arriving in Phoenix Jack got us all up one by one to introduce ourselves. Hate this sort of thing... I think to hard and then just stutter and mess up my words, this wasn't my idea of fun haha. The next game was two truths one lie... Pretty self explanatory. We had to write two truths about ourselves and one lie... Then jack would read them out. My lie was I used to pole dance on the weekend to save money for travelling... Not very believable really. Fun game though.

Soph gave Jack her iPod, so we could have a bit of British music to sing along to. I managed to fall asleep when they started playing...luckily as the only music that kept playing was hardcore club anthems. Something you dint expect to come from little Irvines iPod. Apparently she kept going up to check if it was her playlist, and kept defending it saying 'this is not a true reflection if who I really am!' haha.

Finally got to the hotel after 6 hours and had some free time to chill by the pool before our meal. You just can't lie in the sun out here, the heat is just insane... It's like you are constantly in a sauna, just without the smell of burning wood. BOILING!

We ate at my Big Fat Greek restaurant. Didn't really stick to the Greek theme though, as I ordered chicken... again. The waitresses were over the top friendly... They gave everyone a free shot of oozo before food. Couldn't stomach it...the smell was making me feel sick. All four of us just left it. Im not sure the waitresses were too happy about it though! I think they were slightly insulted. Oops! Ah well can't be pressured into drinking... Plus it was a shot that got me in a stats the night before, didn't want to chance anything haha.

We casually strolled back to the hotel. Len decided to ask whether you can still catch a tan at night. I'm not sure what's going on in her head lately! Funny times. Got back to the pool bar where we got some drinks (non-alcoholic of course) and we've just been relaxing and chatting with a few of the guys on our tour by the pool since. Quiet night tonight, especially 'cause Len and soph have their hot air balloon ride at 4.45am. I will happily still be asleep at that time...well hopefully.

Loving the group we've got with us now. Everyone's mixing quite well and we're all getting along which is wicked. Not feeling much like outcasts now.

So my journey in Phoenix has ended it's been HOT but awesome. Next stop on our drive through America...The Grand Canyon. So stoked to get a helicopter ride over it. I won't be getting the chance to do this again! Making the most of it. Long bus journey before we get here though. A sleep catch up is on order I think.

I Shall be back in touch in a few days guys!!

Love love
Mwah
J.L xxxx