US All In

Our first experience driving on American roads was a good one. We were out of Vegas in about 10 minutes & then onto the large roads (Ive no idea what denotes freeway or interstate so Im just calling them large roads :S) Once your on those its plain sailing (For anyone who hasn’t driven an automatic theres no gearstick or clutch to worry about, once the cars in drive, you just control acceleration & break) So anyway once your on the motorway, the inside lane is for trucks & slow moving vehicles, middle lane(s) for normal traffic, & outer lane for fast moving & overtaking. A lot of the way there was a hard shoulder on both sides too, & Darren reckons that’s for emergency vehicles, good idea. As we got closer to the city another mysterious lane appeared on the fast side, lined on both sides with continuous yellow. Took us a while to cop that this was the car pool lane , but once we did we took full advantage.

The first thing that hit us as we got closer to L.A. was the drop in temperature, & that was just fine with the 3 Irish boys. Desert climate doesn’t suit pasty white Irish skin too well. L.A. isn’t exactly cold either, but the weather we’ve had while we were here was akin to a really nice Irish day, so much more manageable.

So enough intro. What did we do in L.A. already? Well pretty much just universal studios. Yesterday morning we got up early & subway’d our way over there. Tony did a different universal in Orlando & him knowing the lay of the land was the only reason we got to see as much as we did. When the lads initially told me about universal I didn’t think it’d be my kind of thing at all, I’m not into rollercoaster’s & generally a big chicken when it comes to anything that tosses me about too much. I was pleasantly surprised that there were only 2 of them though, so most of the attractions were chicken friendly.

We saw 2 3D cinema type things (Shrek & Terminator), A couple behind the scenes exhibits (special effects & animals), backdraft & the famous studio tour & a couple more which escape me right now. Even being there at 10am, we barely fit in the last thing we wanted to see as the park was closing at 6pm. All in all I think we really enjoyed the day out, but it really took it out of us. Theres tonnes of cool pictures & videos but we haven’t had a chance to upload any so those will follow shortly.

As I type this its 8am the following morning & the other lads are still asleep. Im having trouble adjusting to the sleeping patterns & woke at 6 this morning :S. In a couple hours we’ll be on the road to San Fran & the next leg of the adventure! See you there

Were all finished with Vegas, and I’m sitting on the bed in our room in LA. Items of note so far and my highlights in Vegas. We got 2 double beds in the rooms. We were expecting tripple rooms (3 single beds or a double and 2 singles). Its been fine so far though. Bed is only a place to lay our heads. The first night we were all wrecked, especailly me. I was buzzing when we got to the hotel and pushing to head out, but once we got out and were having a bite to eat it all hit me. A good nights sleep later and we were all set up for the first full day. Myself and Tony were pushing to see the Irish game as well as wanting to head on the helicopter tour.

Tony said there was an Irish bar at the golden nugget, so we checked at the front desk as to when and where we could do the chopper tour. There was one going later that day, so we set a pickup for the golden nugget. After just getting a taxi, Tony realised that the golden nugget was not the place where the Irish bar was, and when we got to the irish bar, we were told a German bar shows football, and then when we got to the German bar, they only showed the Hungary, Denmark game. We watched it anyway as there was nothing better to do till the chopper pickup. A text home at half time told us Ireland won and that the game was over.

The chopper ride over the canyon was amazing. Videos and pictures are available. Tony will get round to posting links to the videos. It was a real highlight of the holiday so far.

After the chopper ride, the first post applies, but we did head out on the night. It was some night that included me betting $100 on one game of roulette and winning. Then blowing it all

Next morning was hangover central for me, but a swim really woke me up. We headed to hooters for breakfast, a fine upstanding diner based on owls. I have to say that I was disappointed in the owls on display, but the girls were very pretty. The final evening in Vegas was spent, going to the Mandalay Bay hotel and the aquarium thats in the hotel. The hotel is that big it can hold a massive aquarium with shops etc. For dinner we headed to the Tournament of Kings show. We were sat in a section that cheered on the Irish king. He lost every game but got the best cheers. It was a fun night, especailly booing the French king. The whole section joined in. The actor even found it amusing. Then we headed down the strip to see the Balagio fountain show which was amazing, videos to follow, and finally into the Venitian, which was one of the most amazing hotels here. Once you got to their shopping area, it looked like daylight inside. They also had a river and gondala ride.

Hightlights:
The luxor is a sight to behold (especially the lighting at night)
The height we were up on our floor looking out over the floor
The entire grand canyon flight
Putting $100 down on one bet and winning
Doing a Matador and walking down the hotel corridor in an irish hat, sunglasses and my underwear
The Mandalay Bay hotel, the hotel is huge inside, and the aquarium is class too
The Balagio fountain show
The inside of the Venitian
The drive to LA.

Darren

Taken Friday night at the Luxor:

Out photos so far are here

So we were all back from the chopper experience. I decided to leave my glasses somewhere in the chopper area. Thankfully a quick call and they were willing to drop them back to the hotel. I have to say, I was bricking it for a while there. Sure while waiting on them to bring them to me, we decided to hit the bar and have a drink or two. I only had prescription sunglasses on, and they came in handy. Especially as the buxom waitress waited on tables. That girl had no shame.
So it was only the one pint, before we headed for a siesta, Tony worked on the blog photos, and myself and Paddy hit the sack.

1:24AM as it is now typing this, tells us the alarm was set wrong and we have not headed out. a few quick showers, a check on hooters opening hours (its closed ) and we are off looking for some soakage before hitting the LAX nightclub.

We were supposed to post before this, but sorting out the multitude of photos is a bit of a chore. Expect the first set and intro blog to go live first thing tomorrow.

Darren X