Las Vegas back to L.A.

Miles driven in USA: 2368
Bear sightings: still none - not likely to happen now!

So we spent 3 nights in Las Vegas. Wasn't totally sure I'd like this place but I was told that no matter what preconceptions i had i would be impressed by the scale of it - and i was. Colin had been before so knew what to expect. As you can see from the photos everything really is neon, over the top and horrendously tacky. But also quite fun too. It is, however, very difficult to do Vegas on a budget. We spent the first two days wandering around checking out the different hotels/casinos. It was really hot again so walking through one hotel to the next and avoiding the outdoors as much as possible was definitely the way forward.

The first night there we decided to see Cirque du Soleil at our hotel which was so good. Very impressive acrobatics. On our last day we took a flight out to the Grand Canyon. Again, hugely impressive. Not as beautiful as parts of Yosemite but we were both gobsmacked by the landscape. The plane ride was interesting too. It was a very small plane and a very bumpy ride. There were some stomach lurching moments and a few screams from passengers but the pilot had it all under control.

We actually spent hardly any time gambling as a) we didn't want to throw our money away but mostly b) we didn't have a clue what we were doing with most of the games. A few dollars were gobbled by the slot machines but that was all.

One evening we went to the Stratosphere tower at one end of the strip which has amazing views from the lookout tower. We also took a ride which involves you being strapped into a seat and shooting even further up the outside of the tower and then plunging straight back down. Another stomach lurching experience! But really good fun. Last night we wandered down to the Bellagio hotel to see the massive fountains. They do it all set to music so it's quite a show.

Today we travelled back to smog city (L.A.). Dropped off the car which has done more miles in 3 weeks than we normally do in our car in London every year. Then we spent a very lazy afternoon relaxing in our hotel room and trying desperately to pack everything back into 2 bags. Colin may need to sit on mine for me to zip it up but it will happen.

Tomorrow we fly to Tokyo where we'll spend the next 4 days after our 18 hour flight. Looking forward to that so much. Better get on with memorizing some japanese phrases.

Sianara (or something like that!)