Friday 31 July 2009
Las Vegas Encore....and meeting Mel Gibson!
The next day we took a trip up the Stratosphere which is the highest tower in Vegas. It gives you an amazing view of Vegas and the desert, and at the very top is the highest thrill ride in the world which shoots you up another hundred odd feet into the air which we all just had to conquer. (it seems we've seen/done a lot of 'most in the world' things this trip - but I guess it makes the trip all the more epic...!). They caught the funniest picture of us 4 on the ride that we all laughed about for days. Chris was trying to overcome a hangover when we got on it and so his 'on the brink of death' face will get you everytime.
Then that night Matt & Cathy had got us a VIP table at the nightclub Tao at The Venetian. It was one of the craziest nights we've ever had. It was the bizarrest, the wildest and the most fun time, including a personal security guard, waiter and lingerie clad server, state of the art toilets, girls in bathtubs, escorted toilet queue jumps, two of the largest bottles of Vodka we've seen and, of course, Donna's boobs...! She was our server I mentioned, but her chest was truly a thing unto itself. We excuse ourselves to our parents for the news and pics on this night but it was so mad that we had to give detail about this landmark night out. And if its any consolation, Donna was actually the nicest, sweetest girl who was amazing at her job. This pic cracks us all up on so many levels...!
Chris and I had a night either side of Matt & Cathy's visit and so we mixed it up a bit and stayed in a couple of different casinos along the strip. We stayed at Sahara, Imperial Palace and Circus Circus, but The Wynn that Matt & Kathy stayed at, by far outstripped them all in elegance.
Yosemite National Park & Death Valley
After a couple of nights camping in Yosemite, we headed to Las Vegas via Independence (where we caught some locations of where Electroma was filmed) & Death Valley - the hottest place on earth. Its a very dramatic desert landscape. Very beautiful. We hit it at 6pm and it was still 43 degrees when we left at 9pm. We kept getting out of the car just to experience it. Again, there was a strong breeze but it was really hot too! At midday in the summer its average temperature is 47 degrees!
Tuesday 21 July 2009
San Francisco
Its very european in atmosphere and appearance. All the houses are like pretty painted townhouses and there's pockets of tiny independent stores and cafes around. I'd describe San Fran as a big gay, friendly, bohemian seaside town. Here's a sea lion colony that live on some rafts by the pier. Its like a soap watching the 'families' and the guys fighting over territory etc.
We're staying here tonight with Speedy and Katrina. Speedy is Chris' old friend from back in his travelling days in South Africa. They have a beautiful house on the hills with lots of forest and wildlife about. Here's Chris and Speedy (aka Michael Cain - what an ace name) in front of 'The Crookedest Street'
Reno and the Bonneville Flats
Friday 17 July 2009
Yellowstone National Park
Monument Valley & Utah
After visiting a Navajo Reserve and seeing their crafts, later that afternoon we drove through Southern Utah to make our way north upto Salt Lake City. Totally unexpectedly it was stunning - we travelled through several plains and canyons (including The Valley of the Gods where Thelma & Louise was filmed) that had immense rock mountains and formations and some of the bizarrest landscapes - sometimes moon like. When we stopped and read a little about them, it was crazy to learn that some bottom layers in the rock were over 100 million years old. At one point we were walking along a ledge hundreds of feet up at a viewpoint when we spotted a big rock that had tide marks on it from when the sea had been at that level...! That and all the dinosaur stuff just makes you feel so insignifcant in the grand scheme of things...