Sept 2012 - Photopass Pictures

Yay...! My photopass photos arrived in the post today :)

Here are a selection of them:



We aren't in this one - but I love it!

Sept 2012 - Back to LA and home :(

So today we were heading back to Los Angeles before flying home the following day :(

It was a Sunday and we had heard that traffic heading from Vegas to LA could be really bad so we wanted to get an early start.

We left the hotel just after 8 and started on our way. We noticed loads of things on the way that we had meant to visit...like New York New York!

The journey was pretty uneventful. We did notice more traffic on the roads than we had seen up until now.

We were going to stop and get some lunch on the way but didn't find anywhere interesting and before we knew it we had arrived at the hotel.

I had booked the Hilton Garden Inn Montebello as I had some hotel points to use.

We actually arrived about lunchtime but they allowed us to check into our room early. So we dropped off the bags and went in search of food.

We ended up at a McDonalds as by this point we were really hungry!

We were also quite tired from our busy trip and the early start so we went back to the room for a bit. I read some of my book while Rob had a rest.

I did think about trying to investigate around LA but we didn't have the energy so instead we decided to spend some time by the pool.

By now it was getting close to dinner time. The menu in the hotel wasn't particularly interesting and we didn't really want to go far in search of food. We had a look in the sat nav and managed to find pizza nearby so off we went :)

We then had a lazy evening watching TV and eating pizza!

We had some issues with our return flight whilst we were away - they had moved the flight home and sent us a very odd email. Turned out it was delayed by a couple of hours - but we had to return the car at a certain time so we were set for a dull wait at the airport.

We got up late in the morning and slowly headed towards the airport . We stopped to get lunch quite close to the airport and then went to drop the car back.

Car dropped off and we headed back to the airport on the shuttle bus.

We checked in ridiculously early - which did at least get us seated together (we had lost our prebooked seats when they changed the flight time).

Security was typically annoying - they demanded (not asked) that shoes be removed.
I wouldn't mind if they:
a) put this on a sign; and
b) ensured that the floor was clean and dry

Once through security we were disappointed to find that there were only a couple of shops and nothing to do. They did at least have very slow free wifi to help keep us entertained.

We got a coffee and a snack and bought some sweets to take back to work and finally it was time to get on the plane and go home.

Generally the flight was good, although the people sitting in front of us had to be asked to put their seats up so that we could eat our food (so rude!)

We arrived back only about an hour later than planned and the parents picked us up and took us home.

You will notice that there are no photos in this part of the blog (cos we didn't take any!) so here are a couple from World of Color to brighten it up :)

So that's me all done. We had a great trip and are now looking forward to two Disney World trips next year!

All of my photos can be found here: All the photos

Sept 2012 - Las Vegas

So we headed out to take a look around. First on the list (and just up the road) was Bellagio.

We arrived just in time to see the fountain show - which was impressive but less so having seen World of Color at Disneyland!

We went inside to take a look around - having seen the casino so many times in movies - it looks smaller though in real life!

We also took a quick walk across to Caesar's Palace. We don't really gamble (or drink) and so we only put a few dollars in the odd machine.

It doesn't appear that we actually did very much this evening but by now we were getting hungry and so we headed back to the hotel in search of some food.

We found a restaurant (not sure what it was called) and I can't even remember what we had to eat....! The food was quite good though and not too expensive.

We did a little more wandering and then headed to bed.....probably the only people in Las Vegas who went to bed at a reasonable hour!

We got up the next morning and went in search of breakfast. We had tried to find the buffet the night before but couldn't...so we tried again :)

On the way we got a phonecall from home about a trip to Disney World next September. So, hilariously we were booking our next holiday whilst on this one!

We eventually found the buffet - which at weekend was brunch so a little expensive (I think $32 each) but whilst walking around I saw they had what appeared to be a roast dinner as part of it!

I did take the opportunity to have cake and cookies as part of breakfast though!

We decided to take a walk across to the Rio to pick up our tickets for the Penn & Teller show later that evening.

This seemed like a good idea at the time......however, it was really hot and the Rio was really far away! We did get slightly lost on the way but eventually found it!

We got a drink and collected our tickets then had a look around.

After a little while we set out on our long trek back :)

We went back to the hotel and decided to look for the pool. It was very busy so instead we went to Crystals - the shopping mall attached to the hotel.

Rob wanted to buy himself a new watch but it wasn't that much cheaper than in the UK so he didn't bother.

I had planned to go on the gondola ride at the Venetian...so we set off on another long walk.

Once we got there I realised that the ride wasn't that exciting....so we didn't bother!

We did win our biggest prize of the trip here....the grand total of $25! Rob played a 5c machine and somehow won our huge prize :)

After a while we went back to get ready for the show.

We decided to drive to the Rio as it was such a long walk...!

So, we picked the car up and off we went. We self parked at the Rio - assuming that it would be faster to get the car once the show was over.

We saw the weirdest thing as we walked into the Rio - they had these boats and things which were hanging from a track on the ceiling which had people dancing in them!

We got some food at the sports bar in the Rio. I had a sandwich and Rob got some little burgers.

Just after 8 we headed into the theatre and listened to the pianist and Penn on the bass :)

We went up on stage and signed the envelope...we did resist taking our photo in the box though!

Now, some of you will remember that I rearranged some of our trip so that we could see Penn & Teller - so was it worth it?

Absolutely.....! They were AMAZING!!! We had seen a little bit of their show on TV but they were even better in person!

I am still completely confused by some of the tricks and have no idea how they did them!

I don't want to spoil the show for anyone so won't give away any of the details but if you are ever in Vegas I highly recommend them!

After the show they both sign autographs and take photos with anyone who is prepared to wait....so of course I had to :)

So, after all the excitement we went and found the car and headed back to the hotel.

Tomorrow, back to LA - almost time to go home :(

Sept 2012 - Grand Canyon to Las Vegas

We didn't manage to get up early enough to watch the sunrise this morning. So, we headed instead to El Tovar nearby to get some breakfast.

The food was again surprisingly good considering how many people they feed and the somewhat remote location!

After breakfast we had a wander from El Tovar back toward our lodge.

It is weird how the view of the canyon changes depending on where you are!

So, back to the room to pack up our things. I went up to the main lodge to settle our bill. We paid $80 in total for 2 meals which I thought was quite good considering.

Rob was waiting in the car and we left the park at about 11.

We probably could have stayed a little longer but we wanted to try and get to Vegas before it got dark.

We had another long and fairly uninteresting drive.

We stopped in Kingman, Arizona again to get some petrol and a giant drink in McDonalds!

We made reasonable time and so decided to stop and take a quick look at the Hoover Dam.

We parked up at the Hoover Dam and wandered across to the visitor centre.....man it was hot here!

We were just in time for the final powerplant tour of the day which was $11 each and so we decided to check it out.

The tour was quite interesting....apparently the concrete in the dam is still cooling even after all this time!

So, our little stop over we carried on towards Las Vegas.

The sat nav did quite well right up until this point - and then it told us to turn off when we were on a divided highway - which was impossible!

Having said that it worked out quite well as the road it wanted us to take was really busy and the way we ended up going was quite clear.

We arrived at Aria and valet parked the car. Left the bags with the bell man and went to check in.

A few minutes later and we got to our room on the 29th floor.

We got the bags brought up, unpacked and Rob investigated the gadgets in the room - all the lights, tv etc were controlled by a little pad thing!

Time for a little rest before we go out to explore!

Sept 2012 - Grand Canyon

So, this morning we were heading off to the Grand Canyon.

We got up and packed the last few bits and we were in the car just before 8. It was sad to be leaving Disney but we were off to the Grand Canyon!

There isn't exactly much to be said about the drive.....it was a long way! We stayed on the interstate for most of the trip but we stopped at a gas station which turned out to be on route 66!

I tried to take a few piccy's along the way - some of them better than others (especially through the car window)!

We stopped to get some food in Kingman, Arizona and then carried on our journey.

We eventually arrived at the Grand Canyon just before 4pm. We checked into the Bright Angel Lodge and got the key to our room.

The room was clean and tidy, and had a fridge and tv. It's real selling point though was the location.

We only had to walk for a few minutes to see this view:

We decided to take a short walk down the Bright Angel Trail before it got dark.

Some of the time we were a bit closer to the edge than I would have liked!

We didn't walk too far down as it would be getting dark soon and we had been warned that there aren't too many lights at night.

So, we walked back up the trail and went along another path - which was mostly pavement so seemed a little safer :)

We stopped to sit on a bench for a few minutes whilst another couple walked past and told us to look behind us:

We walked a bit further and found a spot to watch the sunset.

We took a lot more pictures....I have only posted a tiny selection here :)

After the sunset we headed back to the room to drop off our stuff and then went to the lodge to get dinner.

There was a wait of about 30 minutes so we sat in the lobby and used the wifi for a little bit.

The food was much better than I was expecting - and not too expensive really.

After dinner we headed off to bed. I was hoping to catch sunrise in the morning but we were really tired and so we weren't sure if we would be up in time.

Tomorrow morning we head to Las Vegas!