Day 160: Hollywood, Viva Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon!

Here we are in the last few days of our trip! At this stage we have also realised that we counted our number of days wrong! We actually get home this Saturday, making it 163 days not 168, so maybe ignore the title of our blog page now. Oops!

We have a week here in America, which we started with a few days in LA. Both of us weren't quite sure what to expect, having heard quite a few negative stories about it from other people we have met. However, we have had good fun being proper tourists at last! We are staying in a hostel in Hollywood, on Melrose Ave which has lots of posh shops but is actually quite run down to look at.

We did a city tour, which included going up to the Hollywood hills and seeing the famous sign. We didn't realise that it is all on the big San Andreas fault line, so one day it will all come down when the next big earthquake hits. It doesn't seem to stop them building massive houses in dangerous positions though, which we found quite strange.

After the hills we went to the walk of fame, and saw all the stars in the pavement and the famous kodak and chinese theatres, where all the premiers and oscars are held. We didn't recognise that many names though! Then we were taken on a drive through Beverly Hills and Bel Air - where lots of famous people have homes. We saw the houses of Michael Jackson, the Osbournes, Elton John, Tom Cruise, Leonardo DiCaprio, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Tom Hanks, Madonna... the list goes on. They were very impressive grand homes, but for all we know they could have just made up all the names!!

We then drove out to Santa Monica beach and venice beach - home to baywatch and muscle beach. This was a very strange place, which we were glad we didn't have to spend much time at. The best part was seeing the high school that was 'Rydell High' in Grease!

We also managed to get tickets to see a TV sitcom being filmed. It's called 'better with you' and we'd seen adverts for it in NZ, not sure if its on at home yet though. It was actually quite funny and it was interesting watching how they film it all on the sets.

Having decided that a week would be too long in LA, we got a coach out to Las Vegas and stayed in a nice hotel for a couple of nights. Vegas really has to be seen to be believed! The good part was the hotels were very cheap and very nice. We had a go on the slot machines, but didn't get involved in the gambling as neither of us have a clue what we are doing! We did some shopping in some of the huge shopping malls, and took advantage of the cheap tax and exchange rate. We were there for Valentines day - and no - we did not get married!!

We also did a day trip out to the Grand Canyon - our main reason for going to Vegas. This was absolutely amazing, so huge and vast that it almost doesn't look real. It was a long 6hr drive to get there, but worth it. It was so cold there though, 13C which is the coldest we have been in a very long time! Good preparation for coming back home though...

So now we are on our final 2 days, and have got a nice hotel booked for our final night as a treat after staying in some very basic places for so long! It is also our 4 year anniversary on the last day of our trip, so we will celebrate with a meal out. The portions here are so huge, that we couldn't even finish a starter each the other day!

We're really looking forward to coming home now - we've had an amazing 6 months but we're ready to come back!

See you all soon!

Lou and John xxx