Day 1 - Hollywood / Arizona / Colorado River banks
After an amazing week in Santa Monica, we joined a group of 13 young people mainly between 25 and 35 yo. Amongst them, were kiwis, Brits, ozzies, a Korean girl and us ! The plan, a week of guided tour going from LA and ending in San Francisco with stops at the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas and Yosemite park.
We left from LA on Monday morning to head straight toward the Grand Canyon. But we had to make a little detour towards Hollywood !
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Jour 1
Apres une superbe semaine a Santa Monica, nous sommes allees rejoinder notre groupe organise au centre de Los Angeles. Une douzaine de jeunes entre 25 et 35 ans, des neo-zelandais, australiens, anglais et une koreenne.
Au programme, depart de Los Angeles et arrive une semaine plus tard a San Francisco en passant pas le Grand Canyon, Las Vegas et Yosemite park.
On est parti de Los Angeles le matin meme en direction du Grand Canyon mais avant petit escapade a Hollywood !
Sharon Stone
Whoope Goldberg
Ricky Martin
An Oscar for the most scary face
After a few hours on the road, it was time to stop in the middle of Arizona to set up our camp for the night along the Colorado River. Only issue... is it was 40C !! Not easy to sleep with such Heat !!! Result... Nat spent half of the night with half of her body out of the tent and sleeping in her bikini!!
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Apres quelques heures de route (5 heures), nous nous sommes arretees au milieu de l'Arizona pour la nuit. Nous avons installees notre campement au bord de la riviere Colorado. Seul petit problem... Il fait 40 degres meme a 8 heures du soir... Du coups pas facile de dormir dans ces conditions et Nathalie a passé la moitie de la nuit a dormir la tete hors de la tente pour tenter d'avoir un peu d'air...
DAY 2 - Route 66 / Grand Canyon
Today we departed from our campground to head in the Grand Canyon direction. A bit more driving... (4 hours) before we get there.
On our way we stopped to see the 'London Bridge'. It appears that an American guy loved the original London Bridge so much, and London was going to get rid of it, therefore, he shipped piece after piece to a small city in deep Arizona...
On our way to the Grand Canyon, we also stopped on the famous route 66 which starts in Chicago, crosses the USA to end in Santa Monica on the west coast. Also where the Pixar movie has been filmed a few years ago.
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Aujourd'hui depart en direction du Grand Canyon, encore un peu de voiture en perspective, un peu plus de 4 heures de route.
Sur notre chemin, nous nous sommes arretees au London Bridge. Ce pont originairement a Londres a ete deplace pierre après pierre dans cette petite ville au fin fond de l'Arizona !
Nous nous sommes egalement arretees sur la route 66 qui traverse les Etats-Unis en large partant de Chicago pour finir a Santa Monica sur la cote Ouest. C'est egalement le lieu de tournarge du film d'animation Pixar 'Cars'
London Bridge
Route 66
Just arrived at the Grand Canyon - Pizza time at sunset
DAY 3 - Grand Canyon Hike / Las Vegas here weeee come
Geees !! Guess what !!! This morning we woke up at 4am to go and watch the Sunrise at the Grand Canyon... Sophie wasn't a happy bunny hahaha, to be excepted. It was pretty cold and after 4 hours sleeps it was now time to go for a 4 hours hike !!!! hahahaha
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Jour 3 - Grand Canyon / Las Vegas on arrive !!
Devinez quoi... Reveil a 4h du matin pour aller voir le leve du soleil sur le Grand Canyon.... Sophie n'etait pas tres contente ... et en plus il y avait un vent glacial ! Et c'est pas tout... on est parti pour une randonnee de 4h a 6h30 du matin !!!!
Happy 6.30am Hikers !
Finally arrived at our destination...
Meditating, gathering energy to hike UP
Group 'Selfie'
Nat with her new best friend the Squirrel
Sophie calling her daddy... from a pay phone at the top of the Grand Canyon...
DAY 4 - LAS VEGAS !!!
We arrived late afternoon after a very long drive and were staying at the Golden Nugget, a 4 star hotel/ casino. Well this one was like most others in Vegas... HECTIC! absolutely huge place with full on casino, black jack, poker, slot machines etc.. swimming pool with a ride that runs through the aquarium with sharks etc... people walking through the lobby, casino area in bikini, driving remote controlled cars, wearing dresses, smoking away.. just crazy!
But we were quite happy to settle in a real bedroom for two nights!
At 9pm we all embarked on a Party Limousine bus.. Party time commenced.. we then went through all the main strips of Vegas whilst dancing, enjoying wine etc.. very cool!
The next day was a free day, so we strolled around, discovering more of Las Vegas' craziness, Nat went to shoot a few guns with people from the group whilst Soph stayed in town seeing more of it.
We both tried a little gambling.. I won $17 on the slot machines having spent probably $6 on them and Soph played Blackjack at the table and did well being $15 up!
In the evening, we all went to see The Cirque du Soleil 'LOVE - The Beattles' at The Mirage.
Look what we found! 'Flip Flop' Bubbly!
Party bus time! (with the typical huge red cups you see in all American films)
Posing with Caesar at the famously known Caesar Palace where the film 'The Hangover' was filmed
Celine Dion also has her show there! Sophie was a fanatic being little!
Quick stop in Paris
All posing in the lobby of Caesar Palace
Fake blue sky! ( very well done as this is inside!)
Nat practicing her shooting skills! beware!!
Ammunition
Don't Ya mess with me! or else!
The Beattles
DAY 5
Leaving Las Vegas, we headed for 7 hours driving to Yosemite Park which is a very well known National Park in Nevada.
On the road, we stopped at a big grocery shop, the group got divided in 3 smaller groups and we all set out to buy tonight's dinner, tomorrow's lunch and dinner!.
At the start of the trip we had all put in $70 each for the food kitty and have been using this money for breakfasts, lunches and some dinners! ( we got back $19 each at the end as not all was used up).
We set up camp for 2 nights, spraying ourselves with bug spray as mosquitoes had invaded! It was our turn to prepare food, so that night it was pasta and sauce on the menu.
That night, Nick, our guide gave his usual brief to tell us what the plan was for the next day and especially what precautions to take on the campsite as, being in a national park, black bears could very well come next to the campsite. They are not vicious creatures, however they can easily smell anything with a scent. Before going to bed we therefore had to take food, perfume, shower gel out of our tent and put in the trailer. The next morning, we were getting ready to wake up at 6 am for us to go hiking in Yosemite Park.... and here it goes....
You can imagine Sophie's state:
- ' I hate camping cos I can't sleep'
- ' Hence I am shattered and do NOT want to be woken up at 6am tomorrow morning'
- 'Nat has again chosen the worst spot for our tent! close to the kitchen/ cooking area, i.e. banging pans in the morning'
- Sophie being a control freak (I can so imagine Cat (Nat's sister) being in the same state) she was petrified of going asleep knowing that a bear could very well attack her in the middle of the night! and that probability would be that it would be OUR tent as because of NAT it was OUR tent that was the closest to the trailer where all the food was!!!!
Do you want to know the outcome?... well Nat falls to sleep..easily.... Soph takes a while to fall to sleep (as camping is not comfortable and one must anticipate a solution of what to do IF the bear does attack!).. well at around 3am... I (Nat) open my eyes and Sophie is there sitting upright in the tent.. Sophie says: 'Nat, something has just bumped into the tent and I can hear bears! I am scared!'
Nat answers: 'Don't worry, someone has probably just gone to the toilet and caught their foot on one of the pegs!... go to sleep' ( whilst saying that, Nat can actually hear roars of bears far in the distance, but no way is she going to mention this to Sophie as she is petrified enough as it is!')
... DING DING DING.. the alarm wrings... Nat jumps, having well slept and Soph turns over NOT having slept at all OOPs....
We have breakfast and set off for a full day of hiking and hanging out in Yosemite Park!
Sophie in her sleeping bag!
Camping style toaster
Breakfast time
Vernon Falls
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DAY 6
Again, we woke up at 6am to go and see giant Sequoia trees.. these are trees of 1000 plus years measuring 4m diameter base and very tall trees!.
A Sequoia tree
