Free trip to the Caribbean?

Since we had an apartment sorted, it was on to job hunting. I had already teed up an interview with Flight Centre while I was back in NZ, so I had that on Tuesday, and they rung on Wednesday with an opening in a store. I went along to the store on Thursday and met the team, and the Area Leader, and I start on Wednesday! So it's all happened pretty quickly. I asked if I'd get to go on an educational trip while I was here, and they said yes - I'd get 5 educational days to use, and they'd suggest I go to the Caribbean, as Aussies and Kiwis normally struggle with that area!! Oh no - really? The Caribbean? Must I? Oh.............. go on then. If I have to........!!!! YYYAAAYYY!!! And the team seem awesome as well, so everything should go well!

Andrew has been applying for jobs, and has got past the second interview for one place, and should find out on Monday hopefully. Fingers crossed - he's had to jump through a few hoops, mine was a bit easier as it was the same company as at home.

Thursday night we went to Yuk Yuks with Adam and Jeanette - its a comedy club, and was fantastic! Stand Up can be a bit hit and miss sometimes, but these guys were awesome - for $10, it's a bargain, and somewhere we'll definately go again. We also went out for dinner with A&J on Friday as well, to this great little cheap & cheerful Greek place. Then it was off to the casino, and then for dessert. A really good night.

Today we've been shopping for some stuff for the apartment, and tomorrow is the big moving day. We also went out for dinner with Nic & Daragh tonight, and then for a drink at an Irish pub - one of those authentic Irish places, not those kitset "Irish" places that think they're Irish if they serve Guinness. Good place!

Apartment hunting

Vancouver is a pretty city - surrounded by water and mountains, it's quite picturesque. This photo is the view from Nic's balcony at night. During the day you can watch the sea planes come in and the cruise ships sail past from the deck, and the sunsets are gorgeous.

On Sunday Andrew got up first and scoured the internet for apartments, and found one that sounded nice, so I got up and we went to look at it. As soon as I walked in I loved it - it was so light, the sun was pouring in - it faces south, which in the northern hemisphere means you get the sun. A couple had just bought it as a rental, so were looking for tenants. We got on really well with them, and loved the place, but I was worried that as neither of us had jobs we wouldn't get it. That evening we got a text asking us to come over, and they offered us the apartment! Yes, they were worried that neither of us have jobs, but they gave us a shot as they liked us so much! YAY! So we're no longer homeless, and move in on Sunday.

It's a one bedroom apartment, on the corner of the 10th floor. And there's a Starbucks downstairs - does life get any better??!! It has a decent size kitchen, complete with huge oven and fridge - guess they build 'em big to take the turkeys - and an unusual luxury, an in-suite washer and dryer! Normally they're down in the basement (like they are in Friends). Score. It also has a little balcony, enough for a small table and a couple of chairs. It even has a dishwasher! So we're really lucky. And our landlords, Adam and Jeanette, rock!

The rest of our Sunday was spent with Nic & Daragh, and we went out for brunch to Commercial Drive (the "hippy" area), and then to Granville Island, which is really close to the city and has great markets.

On Monday we went to the bank to find out how to set up payments for our rent. Big drama. The banking system here is like stepping back 30 years. If I thought Irish banking was bad - Canada is worse. The effort required NOT to bang my head through the wall was huge. As we were with a different bank than our landlords, it was going to be a huge deal to pay them each month. Yes, we could've withdrawn the money from our account, and walked over to their bank and deposited the money, but how inconvenient is that? All we wanted was an automatic payment. Ahhhhhh NO. It was going to cost us $30 each time we wanted to make the payment. So we quickly closed those accounts (that had only been open for 4 days), and opened up accounts with the same bank as Adam & Jeanette. Much easier. Only thing is, that now we have a limit of $1000 per payment, and our rent is $1300 - so we have to make two payments, and therefore pay for two transaction fees. Crikey.

Landing in Vancouver

We flew from San Francisco to Vancouver, which was about a two hour flight. Nic picked us up at the airport, and we went out to dinner to a great little Japanese place near where her and Daragh live. Nice introduction to the city!

The next day we were on our own to explore, and do such things as get bank accounts, mobile phones, and social insurance numbers, all of which were completed successfully. We also started looking around at a few apartments, but didn't really find anything - interesting to look though. Friday was more apartment hunting - we're looking for something downtown, so that we can hopefully get away without buying a car. There is quite a bit available, which is good.

While apartment hunting, it's also giving us a great look around town, and it's a good way to get orientated, as we're on foot. Vancouver is set out in a grid system, which makes it very easy to get around. Also, at home, where you would say, for example, 282 Queen St, and you'd have to find out where on Queen St that is, they have made it very simple. Here, you would say "Robson at Thurlow". So you would know that it was on Robson St, where it meets Thurlow St. Smart. And, even better, all the parallel blocks are in the 1100 numbers, so you can easily tell where things are. So easy!

On Saturday, Nic took us out to Jericho Beach. That's where the photo was taken - nice views back to downtown Vancouver, and good to get a bit of perspective. It was a lovely day, so there were people out sailing, biking, running etc. Very nice. I wouldn't say the beach is up to kiwi standards, but it's still a nice place to go, and there are lots of nice parks alongside. And, it's only about 10 minutes from downtown, so it's great!

Last day in the USA

On our last day in San Francisco, it was a mixture of relaxing, shopping and packing. We surprisingly managed to fit everything in to our bags, as luckily Nic had taken one of our bags back to Vancouver with her, so that had allowed our luggage to expand a bit.

We caught up for dinner that night with a friend of Andrew's that he went to Uni with, and his wife. They've been living in SF for 6 months or so, and love it. It was interesting to hear what they thought of the city, from a different perspective than just a tourist. We had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, which is at the top of the Macy's building, right on Union Square, with some great views. And yes, they have more than just cheesecake! But their cheesecake menu is two pages long..... mmmmm............

After rolling out the door, it was back to the hotel and curling up to nurse our bellies.

Life on the Rock

We had an early start this morning to get to the ferry to take us to Alcatraz. It was overcast and foggy, and a quick 15 minute ferry ride over to The Rock and we were there.

Alcatraz is very well set up - your entrance fee includes the ferry ride there and back (where you have a great view of the city), and an audio tour of the former prison. The audio tour was fantastic - it's commentary that leads you around the prison, narrated by former guards, inmates, and families that used to be on the island. Very informative, they have set some of he cells up like they used to be (apart from the prisoners), and the commentary gives you a real feel for what life was like. As it's so close to the city, the prisoners could often hear the noise from the city if the wind was blowing the right direction. So close - yet so far away.

You only made it to Alcatraz as a prisoner if you were a bad boy - so you always came from another prison beforehand, where you misbehaved, and got sent there. So it was the baddest of the bad that were there. It eventually got shut down in 1963 due to the high running costs, as they had to ship all the food and everything over from SF.

After getting back to the mainland it was time for lunch and then a big walk - I may have mentioned that SF is one hilly city. It was quite a hike up to Lombard ST - which has a section that earns it the title of the crookedest street in the world. It zig zags 8 times down the hillat a gradient of 27%, and is filled with flowers and shrubs, so is quite pretty. There are people there all the time, taking photos and walking up and down the footpath, and cars driving down constantly. The residents there must dread having ever bought on that part of Lombard!

After walking up there, I was too scared to walk down in case we ended up having to walk up again, so we stayed up high and made our way slowly over to Chinatown, and came across Green St on the way - a street so steep they have cut steps into the footpath to make it easier. The cars were parked at such a steep angle, just pushing the drivers door open must take some serious muscle. Crazy.

Chinatown is supposedly the biggest Chinatown outside of China. Have to say it didn't have as much character as some of the other ones I've seen though, but still interesting and provides a good contrast to the rest of the city.

Then it was back to the hotel for a rest before heading out to the brilliant local Thai for the 3rd and final time. Damn, we'll miss that place. Fingers crossed we find somewhere like that in Vancouver, or we might find ourselves moving to SF instead....

Wearing flowers in our hair

In the morning we got picked up by a bus for our half day city tour. I have to say, I was expecting a local guide, but was had a Glaswegian with a thick Scottish brogue. Granted, he had been living here for 33 years, so he did know his stuff. I think we had it a lot easier understanding him than the Americans on the bus did!

He took us on a tour around the city, and gave us a bit of background and history as well. SF has experienced two big earthquakes – one in 1906, and another in 1989. I remember the 1989 one being all over the news in NZ, with the freeway collapsing and things. We went around Fisherman’s Wharf, Union Square, Chinatown, Little Italy, up to Twin Peaks for a great view of the city, and to Haight St – the centre of the Summer of Love, and there was even a guitar playing hippy sitting on the hill! We also saw the Victorian houses, the painted ladies, and the view that was at the beginning of Full House, back in the day. The Victorian houses were probably the highlight for me – loved the colours and the detail.

SF is very hilly – I was glad we didn’t aim to do all of that by walking. It’s also a lot colder than anywhere else we’ve been – the high is around 22 degrees, so it’s about 10-20 degrees colder than anywhere else – it feels like we’re back in winter. This is typical SF apparently though. It’s also very foggy in the morning, and it’s unusual to see the Golden Gate Bridge not shrouded in fog.

After getting back to the hotel, it was afternoon nap time, and then time to hit the Thai restaurant again. Another thing I’m fond of in the US – the shops open later in the morning, and close later in the evening – normally 10am–8pm. Makes a lot of sense, and the shops are busy in the evenings.

There are a lot of homeless here – about 6,300 at last count. The population of SF is about 810,000 – and doesn’t change much, due to it being on the tip of a peninsula, there is nowhere for it to expand. There are height restrictions in a lot of areas, so you can’t build too tall, and the land is already taken up there’s nowhere else to build, so nowhere for the population to expand. The surrounding areas (the Bay Area), are made up of separate cities, and add about another 7 million people, but are not technically part of San Francisco.

On the way to San Francisco

After packing up our stuff (it’s amazing how your suitcases explode when you are in one place for more than a day), we took a detour to Emerald Bay, supposedly one of the prettiest places at Lake Tahoe. There were a lot of trees around, which made it hard to get a good view, so I actually think that the place we went to the day before was a better viewpoint. It was just a brief stop there, and then on towards the wine regions and north of San Francisco.

Andrew has been driving most of the time since Nic left, but I have driven a few times. I get tired of Andrew screaming every time I drive off the road to the right hand side though, so I prefer him to drive. I’m fine with driving on the right side of the road, but keep creeping over to the right even more so that I end up off-roading sometimes. It all adds to the experience, right?

We stopped at two lots of factory outlets on the way, then drove through Napa and Sonoma wine regions, and stayed the night in Petaluma, about an hour north of San Francisco. That night we had probably the best meal of the trip so far, and it was at a cheap and cheerful place that was a bargain! Stoked.

The next day we had to drop the car off in San Francisco by 3.30, so we took off and stopped at a town to get petrol, and came across a classic car show in the main street. I’m not really a car buff, but these were very cool – old classic American cars, really nicely looked after and done up. We wandered through them and then it was time to hit the Golden Gate Bridge.

It’s a great way to arrive in San Francisco, over one of the main symbols of the city, the orange bridge. It’s not called the Golden Gate because of the colour, the Golden Gate is actually the body of water that the bridge spans. Then we had to navigate through the streets to find the hotel to drop me and the bags off, and then Andrew was on his own to drop the car off. Considering it was just around the corner, I was a bit concerned when, an hour and a half later, he hadn’t returned.

Turns out he wasn’t lost (of course not), but had been given the run around by the rental company to drop it off at another location. With all the one way streets in SF, going up one street and back a block can mean almost doing a figure eight, so it had been quite an experience for him, but he managed it well and we are now carless.

We’re staying right in Union Square, in the centre of town, and found this amazing Thai restaurant around the corner from the hotel, which we had dinner at, and then retired to watch Discovery and Animal Planet.

Fast times in Tahoe

Today was a leisurely day. It would've been a sleep in, if a car alarm hadn't gone off outside our room at 7.30am. By the time we got going it was nearly 11am - luxury - and headed off to yet more factory shops. After about an hour in Adidas (one pair of shoes each to show for it), we were sitting in the car in the parking lot almost ready to go when the car jolted. At first I thought that it was in gear and Andrew had taken his foot off the clutch. Then I remembered that the car wasn't going and it's an auto anyway. I looked behind us and saw a car had just backed into our rear end. I jumped out and had a look - no damage done - and two old ladies hopped out of their car, with the driver stating "I'm sorry, I didn't see there was a car there".

YOU DIDN'T SEE THE BRIGHT RED POSTMAN PAT VAN????!!!! How could you miss it??

She procedes to tell us, once she realised we weren't going to sue her, that she probably shouldn't be driving, as she didn't even see there was a car parked there. Ya think??!! In her tie-dyed dress leftover from the 70's, she was probably on some acid leftover from there too. Anyway, no harm done, and they were actually a bit of a laugh - "Where are you from, England?" - everyone guesses we're from England.

After lunch we wandered around Heavenly Village, and walked over the state line to the casinos for a quick flutter. Ahhhh we miss Vegas. Heavenly is full of buildings made of timber and stone - your typical Alpine ski resort look. Very pretty. You actually can't see the lake from the shops though, as there are pine trees all along the lake shore, then the road, and then the shops. When you do see the lake though, it's multiple shades of blue - very distinct colour blocks. I imagine the view from the ski slopes is amazing.

We also went for a drive up the lake away from town, on the east side, to try and get a good view. And good view we did get. It was beautiful, in my opinion better than the spot where we were told to go by the townsfolk! As the lake is so deep, it's constantly moving, so you can hear the sloshing of the water against the shore.

Yosemite & onwards

Yosemite is so different to other national parks we've been to so far - although there are still rocks, it's so green. None of the others have been so green - more just rocky. Yosemite has the rocks, trees, lakes, rivers - it's beautiful. There are lots of families cycling around and picnicking, and even though there are lots of people there at the moment, it still felt quite peaceful - different again to the other parks.

There are lots of walks and things, but as we were short of time, we didn't get to do much, but would both like to come back at some stage and do more.

The two main attractions are El Capitan - on the left of the top photo, which is a huge granite monolith, standing 3000ft, or 910m tall. A favourite with rock climbers, that thing is massive and very distinctive.

Even more distinctive, is Half Dome (left), more granite, and even bigger. It is about 4737ft, or 1444m. It looks as though it's lost half of the side of it, as if it used to be "whole dome", but it hasn't - it's just made this way.

From there it was about a 4 1/2 hour drive, a lot of it through windy rural roads, to get to Lake Tahoe. The drive was actually quite interesting, winding through tiny towns, and seeing the odd ranch or two.

Some of you may know Lake Tahoe from the Elemeno P song "Fast times in Tahoe" - needless to say, there has been a lot of singing of that on the way today.

Lake Tahoe is home to a few ski resorts - most famously Heavenly, which is just up the road from where we're staying. The lake itself is split over two states - California and Nevada. We're staying in California, but within 5-10 minutes walking distance is Nevada. The shops are in California, and right next door are the casinos, which are in Nevada. Imaginatively, this part of town is called "Stateline". Lake Tahoe is the 2nd deepest lake in the US, pipped by Crater Lake in Oregon.

The drive to Yosemite

We left Bishop and drove towards Mono Lake - and decided we may as well stop off at Mammoth Lakes on the way. In the winter, it's a ski resort, complete with all the wooden alpine buildings, and waiters that look like they're snowboarders working in the off season. Lo and behold, there were factory outlets. Mmmmm. So that took a bit of time and we ended up having lunch there (with the snowboarding waiters). We analysed our route for the day and figured it would still work, despite the shopping delay. It was only about 40 minutes from there to Mono Lake (pictured).

Mono Lake is one of the oldest lakes in the US, and is three times as salty as the ocean. It stinks. The weird formations in the photo are called "tufa". They are essentially limestone, but formed underwater, and as the lake level has dropped, they've become visible. The lake is also a haven for migratory birds, and there were some there on their way to South America. If you know me, you'll know that I didn't take too much notice of them.....

From there, we headed off to Yosemite National Park. To get there, we had to cross Tioga Pass, which is the highest highway pass in California, at 9943ft, or 3031m high. Pretty high. It's only open about 4 months a year - the rest of the time, there's too much snow. As we were already at about 6000ft at Mono Lake though, it wasn't too much a climb to get up there, and the Postman Pat van managed it fine - the mail must get through.

The scenery was gorgeous - typical high alpine stuff, lots of pine, beautiful blue lakes, sheer rock faces, great stuff. We stopped at a couple of viewpoints, took lots of photos, and were in awe of Mother Nature for a while.

This is prime black bear territory, so we read up on the etiquette - there are red bear signs around the park where bears have been killed by cars. I imagine they'd make quite a mess of your car.....

Yosemite, being a national park, doesn't have the cheapest accommodation around, but we managed to find somewhere reasonable, so bunked down for the night.

Death Valley

Today started positively, with a celebrity sighting. We hit the buffet breakfast in Paris - unlike your normal buffet, this thing was huge. I was standing in the crepe queue when I look up and see Holly Madison, from Girls of the Playboy Mansion fame, and Hugh Hefner's previous number 1. Woohoo! She had smaller boobs than I expected. Obviously needs more crepes.

After checking out and loading up the red Postman Pat beast, we headed towards Death Valley. It can often reach 50 degrees there, so we were aiming to miss the heat of the day. But failed. It also has the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere, Badwater, at 282ft below sea level, or 85.5 metres. It was stinking hot, about 46 degrees, and the brake pads didn't appreciate it.

It's very barren - not much can grow in the heat - and it's not actually a valley, but a basin caused by earthquakes.

Death Valley has the highest recorded temperature in the USA - 134 degrees fahrenheit, or 56.6 celsius. Pretty hot. The landscape was quite moon-like at times, and there's also sand dunes, salt flats, and mountains that look like they've been transported from Morocco or something. Very other-worldly.

We're beginning to realise why a lot of Americans don't have passports - we've seen such a small chunk of the country, and yet the variety and distances are huge.


We found a hotel in Bishop, California, and bunked down for the night.

Vegas by night

Ah, the neon. Quintessential Vegas. The crowds, the glow, the gambling, the discarded pictures of naked girls lying on the footpath. Love it. Although Vegas is busy during the day, it heaves at night. The shops are open until at least 10pm, and the casinos never shut. The lines for the clubs are huge. There are shows on every night - this place never sleeps.



A lot of the hotels have free shows outside the hotel that happen a few times a night, and these often become their trademarks. Treasure Island has the Sirens of TI - a pirate ship that duels with another ship and sinks it; The Mirage has a volcano erupting every hour; the Wynn has a light show; Atlantis sinks once an hour at Caesars, and my favourite - the fountains at Bellagio. Going every 15 minutes at night, coreographed to music, they are spectacular. Considering that the Bellagio is around 17 stories high at a guess, and the biggest ones go higher than that, they are amazing.














Another big highlight was going to see Wayne Brady's show. Having seen him on Whose Line is it Anyway, I was SO excited to see him live, and he didn't disappoint. He's so clever, witty, and being handsome helps a bit too I guess. It's all done off the cuff - he asks for ideas/words from the audience, and then makes things up from there. So much fun!

Nic left on the Sunday morning, and Andrew and I went back to the outlet malls and shopped up a storm, a bit more successfully this time. We also had a bit of an unsuccessful flutter at the casino, got offered comps, and I was so used to saying no to anyone trying to sell stuff that I turned the comps down. Doh. Still kicking myself now.

Livin la vida Vegas

The next two days were spent wandering around exploring, checking out the hotels and the sights. The first day we headed south on the Strip, and saw, amongst others, the MGM Grand (has a lion enclosure inside it), New York New York (pictured), Excalibur (looks like a castle), Luxor (the pyramid), and Mandalay Bay. The MGM Grand is supposedly the biggest hotel in the world, and owned by the same guy that owns the MGM movies. Each hotel is quite different, and we managed to go in to most of them. As all hotels are casinos as well, you can wander around freely in all of them and no one bats an eyelid. The New York New York has a rollercoaster going around it - there are also rollercoaster around the top of the Stratosphere (think of rollercoasters around the top of the sky tower and you get the picture). Crazy Vegas.

The second day we walked north, and saw the Venetian (pictured), The Mirage, Treasure Island, and Caesars Palace. Caesars is massive, and if I didn't know that MGM Grand was the biggest, I would say that Caesars would be. I think the difference is that Caesars has a shopping mall in it, so it that will be part of it's bulk. The Venetian comes complete with gondola rides, Venice style.





The inside of these hotels are just as impressive as the outside, in most cases. This is the inside of Caesar's Palace.

We also took a drive out to the Hoover Dam, and it proved that once you've seen one dam, you've seen them all. It's huge. And that's about it.

It's been pretty hot in Vegas, 40 degrees and up. Even at night it's hot. Lots of people out wearing very little, but have the feeling they'd do it anyway in winter.

Viva Las Vegas

After rewarding ourselves with a sleep-in - we'd been pulling some early starts, long days and late nights - we headed off for a spot of retail therapy, something else that had been lacking for the last week. We attacked the Premium Outlet Mall, with mixed success - Andrew: 0, Pip - 2, Nic - I lost count.

We also wandered around the Miracle Mile shops at Planet Hollywood, and then went to the Jubilee! show at Bally's - and old school Vegas show, complete with topless dancing girls and lots of feather boas. Depsite the bare chests, Andrew still managed to "rest his eyes" through part of it.

Zion National Park & arrival in Vegas

First of all, let me treat you to something special. Behold, the wallpaper in our Kanab hotel bathroom:
Love it. When I said it felt like a Cowboy Western town, I meant it. Also, a big shout out to someone for saying that our car looks like a Postman Pat van. Now, whenever we see one coming the other way, we start singing the theme song. And for us, we have "Postman Pip, Postman Pip, Postman Pip and her ugly red van". But, it's doing the trick just fine, thank you.

We headed of to Zion (about an hour from Kanab), after a hearty breakfast courtesy of the hotel, and the best cinnamon rolls on the planet. What a brilliant discovery those things are. We didn't realise that the main road was actually part of the national park, and you had to pay to even go on the road. But, turns out that the road was the best part of it! It was quite hard to capture the grandeur of it all on camera in the park, but the view from the road leading up to it was fantastic.

Just when we thought we'd seen enough rocks, there were more. Each place we've seen has been quite different though. It was quite busy here, and shuttles are compulsory in summer in the park due to the number of vehicles, but we got to drive the best part so it was OK.








After leaving Zion, we headed for Las Vegas - about 2 1/2 hours away. Shortly after leaving the park we came across a town called Virgin, where it's illegal to NOT own a gun. It's a small town, about 500 people, and had a brilliant sign saying "Virgin - New and Used Books". Except that the "Books" part was obscured by a truck, so it was just "Virgin - New and Used". The mind boggles.

We arrived in Vegas late afternoon, and checked in to the biggest bargain of the century, Bally's. Right smack in the middle of the Strip, next to Paris and across from the Bellagio, this hotel is a bargain! Not flash, and not themed like most other Vegas hotels, but cheap and clean and huge rooms. And you can't beat the location - highly recommend for those on a budget! We went for a wander that night before heading to bed for our first sleep-in in ages.

Bryce Canyon

The next morning it was off to Bryce Canyon - I'd never heard of it before researching this trip, but the pictures looked pretty good, so thought we'd check it out. And boy, was it cool! It's about an hour from Kanab, and is about 8200ft above sea level. The picture to the left is just before you enter the Canyon area.

We stopped at the gift shop (compulsory, with two girls on board), and then continued on into the park to stop at the view points. We were mainly only interested in seeing the "Silent City" - I'm guessing it's named that as the hoodoos all look like buildings, or maybe people.....





Pretty impressive, with great views over part of Utah. Bryce was an unexpected highlight of the trip so far.

I'm amazed at the lack of safety - a lot of the lookout points didn't have railings or anything - can't imagine that happening at home.

Few other things to get used to over in the good ole US of A - the gaps in the public toilet doors, in the cubicles - if you wanted to, you could see right on in there and check out what people are up to. Hmmmmm not such a fan.


Another unexpected highlight of today was Andrew getting ID'd at dinner when he asked for a beer. Awesomeness.

Monument Valley

About two hours from Cameron we came across Monument Valley - a fantastic outcrop of rocks, eroded into stunning shapes, in the middle of nowhere. It's on the border of Arizona & Utah, and you may recognise it from such movies as Forrest Gump, Back to the Future III, and various Western movies.

The fact that they come out of nowhere means they are even more impressive.

Then it was about another three hour drive through the top of Arizona before ducking back in to Utah - the Beehive State. We didn't have accommodation booked that night, and we stumbled across a town called Kanab. It's got about 3500 people, and has a real Western feel about it - lots of Chevy pick-up trucks around, cowboy boots for sale...... and being Utah, funny laws with alcohol. The State Line is only 5 miles away to hop back in to Arizona, where we were told we needed to go if we wanted to buy Spirits or Wine after the liquor store closed. Beer we could get from the "Beer Cave" at the gas station. Including one by the name of "Polygamy Porter", complete with the tag line "So good - why stop at one?". At least they can make fun of themselves!

The Grand Canyon

So, today was all about this:
The Grand Canyon. We headed off from Cameron and got to the Grand Canyon about 10am. As we arrived from the East entrance, it's a lot less crowded, and actually more scenic as you drive along the canyon rim. First glimpse is amazing - you know it's going to be big, but it's HUGE. A long way across, and a long way down. Apparently it was quite clear when we were there - sometimes it's a bit more hazy - it's about 2200m above sea level - so I guess we were lucky. There are lots of viewpoints to pull over along the side, and we also caught a free shuttle around as well which was handy. Being a Sunday, we were expecting it to be rampant with tourists, but it wasn't too bad. We didn't have to elbow our way in to take photos or anything, or queue for food. Bonus. The Canyon changed colours all the time, depending on the light, and by sunset the rocks were turning red. Gorgeous. We easily whiled away hours there, it went surprisingly quickly. On the trip home, by which time it was dark, we came across a big elk on the side of the road - our first wildlife encounter! Yay! Bring on the moose I say.

The long drive

Saturday - and time for the loooong drive from Anaheim, California, to Cameron, Arizona. This was going to be our base for the next two nights while we explored the South Rim of the mighty Grand Canyon.

We set off early from Anaheim, as we knew it was going to be about an 8 hour drive. Turns out it was longer as we added in a few rest stops along the way..... so it was lucky we left early! We have a temperature gauge on the car (a Chevy HHR - bright red, and butt ugly), which shows us the outside temperature - it got up to 113 Fahrenheit today - about 45 Celsius - blimmin hot. Lucky we have air con! Lots of long, straight roads, and easy driving. And a good KFC in Needles, CA for lunch - where it was stinking hot and we wondered why anyone would live there. But the people were nice, and the KFC good. We bought a chilly bin in LA for the road trip, so thankfully we could keep water cold, as we drank gallons.

We crossed in to Arizona after lunch, and it was apparent that there are a lot more rocks there than in California. Despite this, the landscape is still quite flat - but rocky. As we drove from LA, at sea level, we didn't realise how far up we had climbed, as it was all very easygoing, and by the time we had reached the Grand Canyon area, we were up around 2000 metres above sea level. The landscape in Arizona is very desert-like, but the rocky kind, rather than the sandy kind. Lots of bare rocks in interesting formations and colours. We made it to Cameron at about 7.30, so it was about 11 hours after we'd left LA that morning. Killer day.

Cameron is about an hour from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, so a good place to base ourselves to check it out.

Meanwhile, check out our red beast - I think it looks like a painters van: