27 Sept: Las Vegas (Day 1)

Williams was pretty sleepy in the morning, aside from the multitude of hikers getting ready for their early morning hikes. We headed to a little cafe for breakfast that we had seen the night before. It was called some coffee brewery company and so Mark figured he’d get some good coffee there. Alas, the search continues. Brekkie was pretty bad, and the tea, well, it’s the first time I’ve not been able to drink tea (even after the hot milk with a tea bag in it in Spain). It was really, really bad and smelt like it was from the dregs of an urn. There was a table full of old guys next to us and one turned out to be pretty chatty. He’d never been to Australia but had shared a tour bus with a load of Aussies to Disneyland. His opinion was that Aussies knew how to party and so he just wanted to visit Australia sometime. He was a nice guy actually, didn't try to teach us about Australia (unlike others) and then wished us fun for the rest of our trip.

Before we left the town for Vegas, I found Smokey the Bear and we had a little chat (see photos) and we saw the Grand Canyon steam engine getting ready for its day of work. We were a bit late heading out of town as we’d really taken it slow and easy this morning, but soon enough, we were on our way to Vegas baby!

What a crazy town! You just immediately come alive as everything is buzzing, electric and alive. It was an instant burst of energy. We found the Flamingo and tried to get into the valet parking - this in itself was an ordeal. Too many lanes, too many circular driveways, too many cars, and too many people. But we eventually ended up in the correct lane and a nice man took the car away after unloading our bags for a nice sum. Walking into the actual hotel part, we were greeted by an enormous gold cage that housed a beautiful macaw parrot. While he was lovely to look at and coo over, we both felt a bit sad that he wasn’t free to fly around. I had images of that macaw in the animated movie ‘Rio’. He should have been out there looking for his girlfriend.

Both Jamie and Connie had arrived and as we were walking through the massive complex that is the Flamingo, amongst the throngs of people, we saw Jamie walking towards us. It was so good to see her again, it felt like it had been forever and what a place to reunite. On to the lobby only to find that we couldn’t use the self check in as our passports were safely locked away in our luggage.

While we were standing there trying to figure it all out, someone behind me wrapped their arms around me. I froze as I knew it was Connie and I didn’t want to turn around too quickly. Ten years of being online with each other, skyping, sharing birthdays and Christmases and so many stories. I was so excited to actually be in the same room with her, to be able to hug her for real. When I turned around, we both looked at each other, burst into tears and just kept hugging. It was fabulous. Skype doesn’t do her justice LOL. We’d chat a little, hug again, cry again, chat some more - hit the repeat button here. So, so good.

Jamie and Mark headed off to wait on the massive line for the check in and were somehow, bumped up to the silver class for check in, so we all walked through some pretty snazzy doors. Alas, we still needed the passports, so it was down to the valet, grab the right bag, grab the passports, and then start again. Needless to say, Mark and Jamie looked after all of that so that Connie and I could chat, hug, cry, chat, hug, cry…… etc.

We were given a room on the 27th floor (out of 28) which was on the strip. We were pretty excited until we got to the room. It needed some work. That’s the best way to say it. Plus, it was very small. We saw into a few others around us during the few days we were there, and yes, ours was very small in comparison. Even the guy who brought our bags up noted that we were in the smallest room on the strip side (without prompting - and he said he was baffled as to why it was a small and dodgy room, again, without prompting) BUT, the view was amazing and made it so worthwhile that we didn’t ask for another. We were directly opposite Caesar’s Palace and the Bellagio fountains were just to the left, so we had a great view of them. The Mirage was just to the right, and that was where we saw the Cirque Beatles show ‘Love’. So we were right in the middle of the strip and looking down on all the action. We went for a quick tour of the hotel and saw the pool (what a crazy party place that we were about 30 years too old for) and the flamingo enclosure. The flamingos seemed pretty happy. They were all standing around, like flamingos do, and having a big wing flap here and there. It was pretty cool - flamingos at The Flamingo. We wandered out to have a look at Caesars and the Bellagio fountains. It was bloody hot in the sun, so we headed into the little mall near the Bellagio and I fawned over the Harry Winston jewelry window display. As we headed back towards the street exit, the fountains went off. We watched them through a window in the air conditioned mall, and they were dancing along to Elvis with ‘Viva Las Vegas’ which seemed entirely apt for our first hours in Vegas. We didn’t realise at the time that the fountains play a different song every time.

Mark and Jamie had a little snooze (poor Jamie had been awake for almost 30 hours at this stage) and I went to Connie and Kelly’s room. Connie brought her friend Kelly along for the ride (very pragmatic of her) as she knew there would be times that we’d be doing our own thing. It worked out well for everyone. Connie had brought some LuLaRoe Disney leggings for me and so I got to try them on and decide which ones I wanted as well as a very funky top. Needless to say, I’m living in them at the moment. It was lovely to meet Kelly and sit around laughing and having some fun.

After everyone was awake and refreshed, we headed down for some dinner. There was a little arcade strip beside the hotel which had some great little restaurants. We found a place that seemed right, and headed in, along with what seemed to be 500 other people. It was loud, and frantic and very Vegas. We had a booth and craft beers and cocktails and a heap of laughs. Kelly tried her hand at learning some Aussie words (and pronunciation) and it had us all in hysterics. ‘Mate’ and ‘ridgey didge’ were just hilarious. We all had tears streaming down our faces and Connie and I complained about how much our tummies hurt from laughing so much. It really was such a fun night. Laughter, good friends, good food and some nice little drinkies.

Jamie needed to crash and so Mark, Connie, Kelly and I headed out for a little wander. Connie needed a little help walking (what can I say! She was tired?) and we saw the Bellagio fountains do two shows, one to Michael Jackson’s ‘Billie Jean’ and the other to ‘All That Jazz’. They are pretty amazing to watch. I can’t get over how totally packed the streets were on a Wednesday night. There were people everywhere and some were really interesting to look at LOL. We saw Iron Man and a very dodgy looking Chewbacca. People were handing out hooker business cards and “free” offers to this and that. Seriously, there were people everywhere. We all decided that we were buggered and headed back to the Flamingo. It was an excellent introduction to Vegas. Tomorrow - the wedding!

Click here to see some pics. 

26 Sept: Grand Canyon (South Rim)

So I was the only one who made sunrise. What an incredible experience. I’m so glad I got up. The colours on the rocks kept changing and it was soooo quiet. A crow flew past and I could hear his wings flapping. I’m so pleased that Mark got to hear this later as I didn’t think anyone would believe me! When the sun was finally up, it was directly behind one of the large buttes - so more amazing photos ensued. I think I said it before, you just can’t take a bad photo around here. It was bloody freezing though - I reckon that’s why Mark stayed in bed. It wasn’t really that early - it was 6:30am their time. Oh, and during the night, I got up to have a look at the stars. It was too cold to go out on the balcony, so I peered through the glass doors instead. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many stars before. The sky was full, totally. It’s all the little things. 

After brekkie at the restaurant with a view, we took a few weeks more photos and then hit the road to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. The scenery changed again - this time, large, smooth, flat rocks everywhere. Also dinosaur footprints at Indian roadside stalls (go figure). We stopped at another roadside vendor and got a lovely bracelet and some matching earrings (and a couple more pressie pieces). The trip is taking longer than we thought it would, even though we pick up that ‘hour’ due to the daylight savings time change. Plus, there has been a large number of very slow drivers and few overtaking lanes on the highway. 

Today seems to be a day of mini stops at road side traders, both large and small. The large one was to restock on mints and Oreo cookies, oh and the obligatory restroom break and quest for good coffee (alas on the last one). There were a couple of very Southern ladies in the restroom complaining about the lack of toilet paper “God dang it, I’m gonna go out there and tell them they need to put some paper in this place” (but you need to imagine that with the very strong accent attached). Off we went and then found another trading place to grab some dreamcatchers for Jamie.

We’re back on the road again now - yes, I’m typing while Mark drives) but we had to turn around to find an ATM as the Grand Canyon National Park has a $30USD entry fee and they generally don’t take credit cards, unlike the tiny roadside vendors. 

Once inside the park, we caught glimpses of the canyon between trees. Lots of trees again as we were around 5000miles up. There are a few roads inside the national park, and the one main one has a few viewing points before you reach the visitor centre. Like every man and his dog, we stopped at the first one. I think that first real look at the canyon is mindblowing. It’s immense, deep, wide, craggy, jagged, raw, powerful, so many adjectives and like the photos - doesn't do it justice. We sat down on a seat near the edge (again, many places with no barriers) and just took in the fresh air. A couple came over and were trying to selfie a happy birthday message to their granddaughter, so I offered to film it for them. They were really cute, but very average singers LOL. I did the ‘hip hip’ thing at the end, but they just looked at me blankly. I don’t think it’s an American birthday thing. (I later asked Connie and it seems that it’s not). 

We stopped at the gift shop here as we figured it would be madness at the visitor centre. Some bad lunch (some weird chicken roll doovey) and then we hit the road again to the next lookout. As we were leaving, there was a lone tarantula crossing the bus lanes. I walked after him and took a video - I was pretty excited about seeing him. Mark said a guy had stirred him up by pushing him around with a camera, until it burred up at him and he walked away then. Why do people do that? While I was videoing, an American lady was laughing and telling me that it would jump on me (they don’t) and was trying to scare me - again, why do people do that? I was enjoying watching him go on his journey (did I mention that Shea had earlier told us it was tarantula migration season?). I just laughed at the American woman and said I was from Australia and not scared of little spiders. She shut up then. 

The first three lookouts were all similar, just (obviously) a little further around. Each view was magnificent though. They all had an area that had a barrier, which made it easy for me to look and take photos. Everywhere else was barrierless though, and so many people were climbing out on ledges and the like. Good on them - I do wonder if any of them fall over the years though. At one of the lookouts, we saw black hawks flying overhead. We know they were black hawks as a tour guide told her group that they were. Blessed be us eavesdroppers. 

We got to the ‘Grand View’ lookout and as the name suggests, this was the best lookout we saw. It was on a bend and the canyon stretched out on either side of us. The Colorado River was an electric blue snake way, way down there. If you stood in the right spot, you could see the rapids. As beautiful and peaceful as this was - too many groups of Germans and Chinese were loud and pushy. (I feel like I’m being racist and stereotyping, but it just seems to be this way). They’d push in front of you, particularly while you were taking a photo, and they yell! Like really yell! I know I can talk loudly at the best of times, but these people were all amazing. Soooo loud. And it seemed to me that they weren’t interested at all in what they saw, they just wanted to get that perfect photo and then move on, so much of it seemed to be yelling directions to pose this way or that. Anyway….

As we were driving, there were road signs warning of elk and mountain lions. I really wanted to see a mountain lion. We had learnt from signs at the redwoods that if you see a mountain lion, you need to make lots of noise and wave your arms around to scare them off. It’s the opposite for bears. Just don’t get them mixed up. Alas, no mountain lions (from the safety of our car). Elk though - well, we saw elk. There was a mum and three babies just grazing on the side of the road. We pulled over (like many others and how convenient was it that there was a car park right there!) and took some photos. There are signs everywhere saying not to approach of feed wild animals - makes sense. Now, its single lanes with double lines, so if you get stuck behind someone, you just have to stay stuck. So, while we were peacefully enjoying watching the elk across the road with lots of other people, a four wheel drive full of young German people, stopped in the middle of the road and held everyone up. For ages, no exaggeration, at least five kminutes. People were nice and not blowing horns as they didn’t want to scare the elk (I assume) but eventually, cars started to cross the double lines to get going again. All of the drivers that passed them make rather rude gestures or said something out their windows. The Germans didn’t care. The really arrogant part of it was that there were three vacant car parks right in front of them. Everyone on the side of the road was shaking their heads at them and we were all pointing to the vacant car parks trying to get them to pull over. They just kept taking photos, but then eventually, one of the girls pointed to the space and had the driver pull over. He didn’t get out of the car, but the girls did and they all raced across the road into the bush and got into the elks’ faces. Naturally, the elk moved on. Sigh. Luckily for us - there ended up being elk everywhere the further we drove into the park. At one stop sign intersection, a very large stag wandered across the road, letting everyone know we were in his territory. I would not want to mess with one of those things. His hooves were huge and he looked very strong. Beautiful, but strong and scary. 

We decided to miss the visitor centre when we saw a huge and completely packed car park. By this time, it was well into the afternoon and we really wanted to see what the canyon looked like down at the other end of the road, which was a half hour drive away (dependant of course on not running into people who wanted to stop on the road and hold everyone up). So we skipped it and headed for the Canyon Village. We found a park at some of the lodges and went for a wander over to the canyon, via the train tracks. More trains (yay, Shea). We had a look at this end, but we both agreed the other end was much more impressive. Then again, when I say ‘end’, we’re talking about a tiny, tiny part of the canyon. On a map, if the canyon was 30cm long, we saw maybe 5mm. There were hiking trails down to the floor of the canyon and this is also where you can take a mule train down. There were many red faced, sweaty people coming up. some looked painful, others looked painful and happy. I’d hope they were all proud of themselves as it looked like no small feat. 

By this time, it was getting late, we badly needed to do laundry and it was around an hour drive to our hotel, so we hightailed it out of there. We’d really love to go back and do some of the (easy) hikes around the place. I’d like to see more of the wildlife. 

It was a nice drive into Williams, but if you ever stay there, don’t stay at the Howard Johnson. When you book, they don't tell you that you may be in an entirely different building or on a second floor with no elevator on the night that you need to lug all your bags into the room to get ready for the laundry and the next leg of the trip. They also didn’t mention the choking smoke in the hallways of the non-smoking part of the hotel that is so bad, you’ll need to put a towel on the floor to stop it getting in under your door. BUT, the town of Williams is amazing. Totally amazing.

It is the last town to have lost Route 66 to the interstate, and has retained all of its old buildings, gas pumps, and paraphernalia from it’s Route 66 days. We drove down the main street to the laundromat and got really excited about checking out the town. Mind you, it was already 7:30, we hadn’t had dinner, and we hadn’t started the laundry, and we were totally exhausted - but the town was so alive that it perked us up. Laundry done, (bloody hell, it took almost an hour) we were beyond famished and tired and dragged ourselves over to the steakhouse across the road. Rod’s Steakhouse. OMG, so far, this has been the best meal choice of the trip. This was the steak that my nan used to cook. I haven't had a steak that good in about 25 years. It was not only melt in your mouth, it was totally flavoursome and juicy. We both fawned all over it. It was also huge, and we were starving. It definitely hit the spot.

It was a big meal and even though we were dead on our feet, we couldn't resist having a look at some of the stores on the main street. We wandered down one side, past fairy lights, partying people and old gas pumps, onto the other side where we passed life sized fibreglass Elvis and a theatre with a very large bear at the front of it. We walked into what we thought was an interesting store that turned out to be a gift/souvenir/oddities shop that really took up four shop fronts. The place was amazing and we couldn’t help but grab some things. I liked the town so much that I bought a shirt with it’s name on it. Arizona delivers! While we were at the counter, Mark spotted some old photos and the young girl brought them down for us to look at (after I fell for the Jackalope heads mounted on the wall - just like a drop bear story I guess). The photos showed the main street in the 50s and 60s. It's been very cool looking at old photos and comparing them to the new in many places that we’ve been. I think America is very proud of it’s heritage. 

So, it’s off to Vegas in the morning. I’m very excited as I’ll be seeing Jamie and meeting my friend Connie. Connie and I have known each other for over 10 years now and although we Skype frequently, we’ve never been in the same room, or city, country or hemisphere before. It’s going to be good.

See the Canyon and Williams photos here.

25 Sept: Monument Valley

We’ve left Page on our way to Monument Valley. We needed a pretty hearty brekkie as our Valley tour goes over lunch and the early afternoon - so no doubt, we’ll be starving when we are done. we stopped off at a little cafe called The Ranch Grille Cafe. It was a really yummy brekkie but for the very first time in America, the eggs were undercooked. In general, food here has been pretty amazing. Big, but pretty amazing. We had people tell us to just order one meal and share, and that’s pretty much the case. Each place we visit has ‘Christmas Globes’, baubles you hang on your Christmas tree and this cafe had lovely ones that were sand paintings by local Navajo Indians. If they weren’t so delicate, I’d have wanted one to take home. 

The road out of Page reveals stunning view after stunning view. It’s hard to take your eyes off the scenery - all the reds, oranges and yellows, dotted with green shrubbery here and there. We pulled over at one of the Indian trading spots that are alongside the road. It’s so hard to make choices when there are so many beautiful jewellery pieces. The turquoise is especially stunning. I really couldn’t decide between some pieces, so we made a deal and that was that. They even take credit card! We’ve ended up with quite a few lovely necklaces and some little pressies to take back home. Back on the road to Monument valley again - this time, the scenery changed back to no greenery (pretty much), just red, earthy, ochre colours with big rocky outbursts. There were bits of stone jutting out of the earth, all angular and stacked on top of one another. It was very rugged. 

We came to the pay station, paid the fee, crossed the line, and voila, we were in Monument Valley. We followed the line of cars up and as we walked to the visitor centre, the buttes that you see in movies were right there, just in front of us. It was almost like an alien landscape - all red dirt with these huge things just sticking out of it. (Descriptive hey?). It’s really very hard to describe, and the photos we have don’t do it justice - story of our nature trip life. They are enormous, beautiful, angular, worn down, real (as in the ancientness of the place is palpable), and you are surrounded by beautiful earth colours. 

We arrived with only half an hour to spare before our tour. We met the tour guide in the lobby of the hotel there (the only one) and she was a young Navajo girl. I still don’t know her name as she was a little shy about that side of things and mumbled out a little of her history. We jumped onto the jeep - there were only six of us; Mark and I (obviously), a young German couple (who turned out to be pains in the ass - what is it about Germans on holidays? Nice people until they go on holidays and then they turn into arrogant obnoxious people who think they are the only people in the place and are entitled to everything. Can you tell how annoying these two were?), and a lovely 94 year old Californian with his sister-in-law. We were suitably impressed with how much the old guy got into, especially getting in and out of the jeep. His sister-in-law just wanted me to keep talking as she loved my accent (what accent?) and was very apologetic about Trump. LOL. The jeep turned out to be just as bumpy and dusty as the one for Antelope Canyon, but add in sunburn and windburn and that’s what it was like. Not that we complained - the view was worth it all. 

Our first stop was to see the buttes that we could see from the visitor centre, just from down below rather than up top. These things are just magnificent. Honestly, I can write about the names of what we saw, but you just need to look at the photos to understand the majesty of the place. We stopped at ‘John Ford Point’ which was the film directors’ favourite scene shot. This is the one you see in all the old Westerns with John Wayne. There was a guy with a horse so you could have your photo taken sitting on the horse, looking all Magnificent Seven-ish. I don’t think I could mount a horse (give me a bull, no problem!) so we dipped out of the $5.00USD fee. We stood there and gazed in amazement - again, there are no words. 

She took us into the ‘back country’ which is Navajo tour only. We saw some more buttes and a few natural arches. One was meant to be like an eagle, but I guess my imagination just isn’t that good. There was a large curve of rock arcing from the bottom to the arch, and she had us lie back on it to look up at the arch. It was one of those moments. It was a little surreal and again, you could feel the spiritualness of the place - the ‘ancient-ness’. While we were all laying there looking up (including the most impressive 94 year old) she played a flute - it was a really special moment.

Back up and off to visit a hogan. Navajo do not live in teepees, that’s the Indians who live further north. Hogans are their homes, built of sticks, covered by bark and then packed with mud that bakes in the hot desert sun. After monsoon season, they re-mud the areas where they see bark, a nice indicator that it’s time to cover up again. We went inside one, and it was about 10, maybe 15 degrees cooler, even though it was sitting in the sun with no shade around it. A small hole at the top lets the hot air out (logically) and also any smoke from cooking. Inside were rugs on the dirt and skins on the chairs (no backs, more like short and wide stools). A lady gave us a spinning demonstration and taught us a little about the designs on rugs. Aside from the symbols meaning different things, anything without a ‘spirit line’ (a type of patterned border woven in) is probably made in China (she said). We talked a little about the types of plants and stuff used to dye to rugs their beautiful colours. They are expensive though, and understandably so when one about a metre wide and 700 high takes around 6 months to make if you've made the design many times. 

On the road again to see another couple of arches and buttes. One of the arches this time was called ‘the eye’ and it really did look like one with eyelashes provided by dark streaks in the rock face. The guide took some really good photos for us all here. Our last stop was to look at the ‘totems’ and she pointed out the four figures to the left of the totem that were shaped like people facing over the land. These shapes are what appear a lot in the paintings and weavings, as they are the spiritual beings protecting the land (“watching over us, protecting us” she said). While you can drive around the valley yourself on the dirt roads, I’d recommend the Navajo tours because 1. you help support them, 2. you get all the back country and 3. the stories and significance of things. Oh, and the occasional prairie dog - at least, we think it was a prairie dog. It may very well have been a chipmunk sitting up having a look around. 

Tour over and done with, we headed back to our hotel room to wash off the huge amount of dust we were covered in. I’ve never enjoyed a shower and hair wash so much before. We hit the restaurant for dinner, which was surrounded by huge glass windows looking over the buttes. What a great place to eat. The food was a little hit and miss, I guess we’re just not quite used to it. We had some Indian fry bread, which was very yummy. A flour mix that is fried up and then you put some honey on it. I liked that. We tried the ‘Navajo sampler’ which had red chilli with beans, green chicken chilli and a mutton stew. The red chilli was way too hot for me but Mark liked it. The chicken was the best I think and the mutton stew was very strong in flavour. There was also a Navajo taco which was really quite nice. A million times better than the bloody silly Taco Bell one. I should mention that I ordered a lemonade. Lemonade is actually lemonade here, not fizzy like Sprite (if you want that, it’s called a sprite, go figure!) and I had ordered one for dinner. We both laughed at the enormous cup it came in, but, after the chilli, it was needed!

After dinner we hit the gift shop as we had a $20USD voucher and a 10% discount as we were staying at the hotel. We bought a beautiful sand painting that had four figures that represent balance. Hopefully it makes it home in one piece. The sun was setting, so we raced out to grab some photos and sit on our balcony watching the colours change. I guess it’s a little like Uluru in that regard. Again, even the photos don’t do it justice.

We were both totally buggered and sitting on the balcony was absolutely freezing (even with covered ankles and wrapped in a blanket) so we headed in for a reasonably early night. We really wanted to get up for the sunrise…. but only one of us made it.

Photos here…(many, many photos).