Wow I have so much to catch up on! I have had no internet access since that
night in Pheonix. On this one there is no usb connection so I cant upload
all the photos yet, and there are sooo many it is going to take me hours
when I finally get the time! I'm on my second 2gb sd card (thanks Kylie) so
I have been taking lots of snaps. I will do this blog for Grand Canyon and then tomorrow I will catch you up some more with Vegas followed by Mariposa. Then I will be up to date. The internet is charging me by the minute so I have to be careful!

OK so after 2 hours sleep I woke up at 415 am to get ready for hot air
balooning. We drove out into the desert to where we were to hop on the
balloons. It was very hot even at 5am rising to about 44 degrees by 8 when
we were done. TThere were no toilets in the desert so we all had to pee behind cactuses. Very interesting. The balloon was initially great, scary but with great views over the barren desert. There were cactuses everywhere and we got to see a
big jail out in the desert. After a while though we were all sweating from
the heat of both the sun and the hot flames. Our pilot was a little grumpy
and he couldn't land the thing. One by one all the other balloons were
landing and we were going down and then back up down and then back up again.
We were inside private land with fences surrounding us and due to the lack
of wind we couldn't get outside of the fences to land. We were all so fed up
that we sat down looking all grumpy haha I have a photo of me looking like a
fed up kid. Eventually we landed on top of a tree and got to eat a breakfast
of chocolate croissants, quiche, cheese and apples. It was ok but we had no
appettites from the heat. Oh there was champagne too. Then we got back on
the coach and I fell asleep for a few hours before arriving in Sedona. I
loved Sedona, it was red desert with huge red rock formations, similar to
Ayres rock but larger and there are heaps of them. The roads are rocky and
the heat is intense. We got in these jeeps and wentfor a joy ride through
the bush and got to see the amazing hugge rock mountain things (except they
arent mountains) our driver was great, very funny and entertaining. He told
us stories about mountain lions, rattle snakes and took us to an old house
where a murder took place. It was basically a wooden hut. After the jeep tour we got back on the coach to drive to the Canyon. By the time we arrived we were so deleriously tired that when we watched the sun set over the canyon we were like "wow thats great but can we go to bed now" it wasn't until the next morning that we took it in and respected it.

So in the morning we got up for our helicopter rides. I was so lucky as I got to sit in the front next to the pilot, with the best views. We were seated in regards to weight to properly balance the helicopter. I was so happy because when I was weighed I discovered I haven't put on any weight even though I feel I have! So we set off and when we flew over the very edge of the canyon my jaw literally dropped, it was so magnificant, it really is. The canyon stretches for so many miles that we could not see where it ends from the sky. I think it goes on for hours and hours. It was so cool to see all the huge cliffs and ridges and it really needs to be seen to be believed, I can't describe it in words and the photos do not show how it really looks at all. After the helicopters a few of us went for a hike down into the canyon itself. It was pretty hot so we didnt do the whole trail as it takes 3 hours to get back up even though it is just an hour to get down. It was cool seeing the canyon from within it. When we got to the top exhausted we stopped to read a sign that was a little shocking. A 23 year old 'Boston Marathon winner' died in 2004 while hiking the canyon. She had attempted to get all the way to the river which is a 30 something mile trek and she underestimated the amount of water she would need and her body was found days later. It was sad to read about that after just walking from the canyon ourselves. That night we did nothing other then eat and have a couple of drinks. We had a big day ahead of us - VEGAS!