Las Vegas, NV & Coming Home!

Las Vegas July 5^th – July 15^th

We arrived at Las Vegas Airport from San Francisco at about 4:30pm on the 5^th of July. We knew we were in Vegas not only because of the scorching heat but because there were pokie machines in the airport! After getting a shuttle to the first of our four hotels in Vegas, we arrived at the Palms Casino Hotel. For those that don’t know, the stay in this hotel was a birthday present from Shaun to myself for my 21^st birthday last year as I’ve always wanted to stay at this hotel! 

Our three days here were a lot of fun, our room was beautiful and we had a pretty good view. They also had a really cool pool that we spent most of the day at and we got free access into the Playboy Club and Moon Nightclub that even had a retractable roof which was pretty cool! On one night we ventured into the strip which was quite the trek as we weren’t right near the main strip area. We checked out Caesars Palace which was beyond massive and we also saw the beautiful fountain show out the front of the Bellagio hotel.

After staying at the Palms for three nights, we then went into the ‘downtown’ district, also known as the Fremont St experience for a two-night stay at El Cortez Cabana Suites. Our room was very modern and nice, not as big as the Palms and there wasn’t many amenities (no pool!)but it was still a nice place. We checked out the downtown area as there were quite a few casinos and activities going on there and we also went to the outlet shopping areas and checked out some bargains. The Fremont St casinos were also very cheap and we managed to get $2 Coronas if you can believe it and they even had 99c Margaritas! The cheap alcohol was definitely flowing in Vegas with many places serving $2 beers along the strip and everyone just walks around drinking all night!

That evening, I was treated to the second part of my 21^st present from Shaun – tickets to ‘Peepshow’ at Planet Hollywood Casino. We had VIP seating where we were practically on the stage and we had a waitress bringing us drinks which was very exciting. But the best part of the evening was after the show where we got a glass of champagne, and a meet and greet with the star of the show, Holly Madison. We got an autographed photo and took our own photos with her which was really cool. For those of you who don’t know, Holly was in the Girls of the Playboy Mansion series as Hugh Hefner’s main girlfriend for 7 years. While yes I admit it is a trashy show, it’s a guilty pleasure of mine and I really wanted to see the show and to meet her in person. We both had a fantastic time and a very, very memorable experience!

The next day was spent checking out some of the strip and the many casinos it has to offer including the Paris hotel (with its own Eiffel tower), the Mirage hotel, Treasure Island, The Venetian (with a canal!), and many more! Most of the actual casino areas in all of the hotel were pretty much the same, other than size, but a lot of hotels had a unique feature about that or a theme that made them different and really cool to see.

After our two nights at El Cortez, we headed over to the famous Hard Rock Hotel which was just a bit off the strip. This hotel was beautiful and we had an awesome room that had a great view of the strip and doors that opened out so we could see into the amazing pool down below. That Sunday they also had their famous pool party, ‘Rehab’ that we were able to go to. It was AWESOME! They have an amazing pool there that is set like a tropical beach with sand and a waterslide and so many different areas as well as swim-up blackjack! They also had a DJ there all day and we’ve never seen so many people dancing in a pool! But it was so fun and such a good experience! And the cocktails were just a little bit yummy too!

We spent a lot of time at the pool the following day as well as it was so beautiful and relaxing and at night time we went into the strip again and checked out more of Planet Hollywood, Cosmopolitan, Aria hotel and New York New York. New York New York was really cool with an awesome theme and setting all throughout the hotel. Shaun also won $25 on the slot machines there too!

We were sad to check out of the Hard Rock as it was really nice, and sad to be heading to our final hotel of our trip. But we headed on over to the Stratosphere Hotel which is a hotel down below but next door is the HUGE Stratosphere Tower where you can go to the top and they have crazy rides, but also amazing views of Vegas and the strip. We went for a swim in there pool too, but unfortunately it didn’t live up the Hard Rock’s pool in the slightest (oh and did I mention they had 4 different pools at the hard rock?). Anyway that evening we checked out Stratosphere as it was huge and had heaps of shops and eating areas. Then we took a walk up the strip a bit and went to Circus Circus hotel which had live circus acts and then over to the famous Riviera hotel too!

That evening had to be an early one however, as the next day we got picked up at 6:40am for a Grand Canyon Tour! The tour was really good, we even got breakfast and a nice packed lunch for the trip. The bus played movies as well to pass the time as it was a long trip, so that was handy. We had a quick stop at Hoover Dam which was so massive and really amazing to see in person. Then 4 hours later we arrived at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. We had three hours to explore the south rim area and our first impressions were just WOW! It was absolutely incredible to see this famous landmark in real life. It looked like a painting! It was so deep and so wide and there were so many different colour contrasts that it was just beautiful and you had to pinch yourself that you were there! We went for a nice walk along the south rim to a few different viewing points, and saw some cute squirrels. We were glad we didn’t run into any cougars or rattlesnakes! We had a great time at Grand Canyon and will never forget the sight we saw! After arriving back late from the bus we crashed straight away!

The next day was our last full day in Vegas and after our sleep-in recovery from the Grand Canyon trip, we got ourselves a massive yard-glass cocktail as we just had to have one before we left and headed up the strip. We checked out Wynn and Encore resorts, which were really nice as well as The Venetian and Palazzo. We then took the bus up to Mandalay Bay, Excalibur, Luxor & MGM Grand. We then checked out M&M World and Coca-Cola World, which were really cool and had some very neat items and souvenirs there. After that we went to Planet Hollywood and the Miracle Mile shops where we did some last minute shopping and had a nice dinner. After that it was pretty late so we headed back to Stratosphere. The next morning we realised we hadn’t played any blackjack the entire time we were in Vegas so before we checked out we went down to the casino and played a couple of rounds, which was really fun and we didn’t end up losing any money at all – even better! We then packed up all our stuff for one last time (Yay!) and headed to the Greyhound station where we took a 6 hour bus ride to LA and then over to LAX for our flight home at 10pm.

We managed to stay in some beautiful places in Vegas that were all ridiculously cheap so we were very lucky! We saw some really cool hotels and casinos and some very different things that you normally don’t see anywhere else! There was always stuff going on and glitz and glamour everywhere. We got a good look at the horribly tacky side of Vegas and the provocative side, but also the beautiful side of Vegas. You can really see how people end up spending thousands of dollars there especially if you’re eating at fancy restaurants, gambling up a storm and night-clubbing every night! Oh! And we saw the famous Little White Wedding Chapel, as well as many other chapels – some of which (brace yourself!) even had drive-thru wedding windows! How crazy!

So by the time we find some internet and manage to post this blog (finally, my last one!) We may be already home. Right now we are about 20 mins away from boarding our 15 hour flight home and I think I can speak for both of us that while we have enjoyed ourselves immensely, WE CAN’T WAIT TO BE HOME! We really can’t believe it has been 7 whole months – where has the time gone! We want to thank everyone for reading our blogs and staying interested all this time. We have been truly lucky to see and do all of the things we have done in Canada and the USA and we can’t wait to share even more stories with you in person.

See you on the other side!

Love Hayley and Shaun xoxo

P.S. We can’t wait to get some of the Aussie Attitude back in our system! We definitely won’t miss many of the American standards/attitudes/ways-of-life that’s for sure!

Eiffel Tower at Paris Hotel 

 Bellagio

 The Palms Hotel

 Only a small portion of the Hard Rock Pool

 Grand Canyon!

Grand Canyon!

San Francisco, CA

San Francisco June 28th - July 5th

We arrived in San Francisco after a long and interesting bus ride from LA. This is a story I will have to save until we see you all in person! But it was good to finally be here! We checked into our hotel and had dinner and pretty much went to bed as it was quite late already. Our hotel was pretty conveniently located to Union Square, one of the main shopping and touristy areas, so the next day we checked out that area and the area around our hotel.

The next morning we went to check out some of the hop-on-hop-off tours and planned to get a 2-day pass for about $30 which seemed good. When  we got talking to the guy we barely had to say anything and he let us have 4 different loops for 4 days for only $30! Normally this would have cost about $100! So we were very pleased with this as it was a good means of transport around town!

Throughout the next four days we saw some great things around San Fran. We saw Chinatown, Washington Square, Financial District, Lombard St (the crookedest st in the world - but so pretty! We hiked up to the top and saw the amazing view and then walked back down - we slept well that night!), Coit Tower, Golden Gate Bridge, Golden Gate Park (which was absolutely massive!), the Painted Ladies Houses which were beautiful and such an iconic sight to see, Ghirradelli Square, Civic Centre and of course Fisherman's Wharf. And of course we took a ride on the famous Cable Car which was a lot of fun!

There was always something going on down at Fisherman's Wharf and we also managed to take a bay cruise that was included with our hotel booking, so that was nice. On the fourth of July they had lots of concerts and activities going on as well as Fireworks at night which were really cool. We also saw the famous sea lions at Pier 39, however there weren't many there because they had all swam off somewhere for breeding season. It would have been cool to see the place swarming with sea lions!

When we arrived in San Fran we had planned to go over to Alcatraz Island and do a tour. We nearly bought our tickets online a few months back but we figured we'd just get them when we got to San Fran. Little did we know it actually sells out! Especially in the summer holidays! So we were getting quite upset because we just couldn't seem to find any tickets at all for the week we were there and we really wanted to go over to the island. We managed to get some insider info and apparently if you went to the office really early in the morning, they have 150 same-day tickets available, you just have to be in the front of the line! Apparently some people get there at 5am! So we set the alarm nice and early and arrived down there at 6:45am and there was already about 40 people in front of us. The office didn't open til 8am but luckily we got the tickets! It was all worth it!

So a few hours later, we headed out to Alcatraz and explored the island that used to be one of the most notorious prisons. We got to do a self-guided audio tour through the cell-house and around the buildings. It was very interesting and we spent about 4 hours at the island. We both really enjoyed it and were so glad we got to do it!

We both really liked San Francisco as there were so many things to do, but it was generally just a nice place to be. It would have to be one of our favourite places so far! On our last day we packed up all our gear and got the subway out to San Francisco Airport to head to fabulous Las Vegas - our last stop!

Stay tuned for the Las Vegas blog, should be up tomorrow! See you all soon!
Love Hayley & Shaun

Union Square

 Painted Ladies

 Cable Car

View of the City

Anaheim & Hollywood, CA

Anaheim June 15th - June 22nd
Hollywood June 22nd - June 28th

After flying into LAX from Miami and taking the world's longest Super Shuttle ride to Anaheim, we finally arrived at Hotel Menage, just across the road from Disneyland! The hotel was beautiful with a lovely pool and bar area and a really cheap yummy restaurant and the room we had was probably the nicest we'd had so far!

For our stay in Anaheim we had purchased a Southern California Pass which gave us 3 days at Disneyland and California Adventure Park (across from Disneyland) and we could hop between the parks all day as well as being allowed in earlier than the general public on one of the mornings which was very weird as it was so quiet at 7am! We thoroughly enjoyed being at the real Disneyland and seeing all of our childhood disney classics coming to life as well as seeing some great shows and meeting all of the characters! The fireworks each night were very magical and there was an awesome fountain and lights show too where we got drenched! We could also see the fireworks from our hotel on the nights that we weren't actually in the park which was cool! There was always something going on in Disneyland and lots of cool rides to go on. There was a lot of people there at all times, which was expected, but we didn't feel like we were always in lines for hours on end which made it even better! It really was the happiest place on earth!

On the other days in Anaheim we spent a couple relaxing by the pool and also going down to San Diego to Sea World (the ticket was included in the southern california pass too!). It took about 2 hours to get there by bus, but we saw some of the coastline along the way which was good. Sea World was fun with some really good shows and cute animals, but we both agreed that the Australian Sea World is much, much better!

We were sad to leave our lovely hotel and Disneyland, but on the 22nd we took a quick Amtrak train up to Los Angeles to check into the Hollywood Historic Hotel on Melrose Ave. It was in a pretty decent location but just a bit too far to walk. Luckily there were some cheap buses that went around to the main areas. The hotel wasn't as flashy as the Anaheim hotel, but it was good for what we needed!

We spent a lot of time on Hollywood Boulevard where we could see the Hollywood sign, Kodak theatre, Walk of Fame etc which was amazing to see in real life. We even managed to see Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks at the Larry Crowne Premiere which was sooooo cool! We spent some time down at Santa Monica beach and Venice beach too, as well as some shopping areas and of course, Rodeo Drive! We also did a Movie star homes tour and saw some famous houses which was nice, and the Beverly Hills area was really nice to drive through. One thing we noticed about the general LA area is that it was very, very dirty with rubbish and muck everywhere which wasn't very nice at all.

On one day in Hollywood, we did the Warner Bros Studio Tour and instead of having 12 people in the group it ended up just being the two of us with the guide which was so much better! He showed us a lot of famous sets and things from some of our favourite shows which was so fantastic to see in real life! We even got to visit the Central Perk set from Friends! Our tour guide was great and answered a lot of questions for us too. This was probably our favourite part of our Hollywood trip.

On our last day in Hollywood we used the last ticket of our Southern California Pass to go to Universal Studios Hollywood. It was different to Orlando in some ways as it was much smaller and you really only needed one day to see everything. There were only 3 rides, but the shows they had were really fantastic. We could also do a studio tour of the outdoor sets they had there and a really cool 3-D king king ride as well. Overall, the Park was fun to see.

The next day we again, packed up all our stuff, and headed to Monterey Park to take our shuttle/tour bus to San Francisco. And I'll save that story for the next blog!

See ya!
Hayley & Shaun

 Disneyland

 Pluto!

 The Castle

 Minnie Mouse

 Kodak Theatre

 At Central Perk!

 Venice Beach

The Beverly Willshire - Pretty Woman!

Orlando & Miami, FL

Orlando June 3rd - June 9th
Miami June 9th - June 15th

We arrived at about 12:30pm on the 3rd of June in Orlando from Washington after an overnight train trip where, again, we had very little sleep. We managed to find a shuttle bus to take us to our hotel in Kissimmee which was a suburb in the greater Orlando area. It had many restaurants and gift shops and things to do within a short walk of the hotel and the hotel itself was quite spread out with two pools and a nice pool bar area which was good for our spare time. It definitely felt like Florida as there were palm trees everywhere!

One of the days in Orlando was spent taking a cheap shuttle bus up and down International Drive which was a very long road with various outlet shopping areas and heaps and heaps of restaurants including about 5 or 6 Denny's, just on the one road! They love the chain restaurants over here! We also found a really awesome Mini-Golf near our hotel that was set up like a Pirate cove, with waterfalls and really nice scenery. We played at night which was really pretty :)

But the main purpose of our trip to Orlando was to visit Universal Studios and Universal Island's of Adventure. Both of the theme parks where in the same area with an area called City Walk in between full of cool restaurants and shops, including Hard Rock Cafe and similar places. We had a 3 day park hopper ticket where we could go between both parks as many times a day as we liked which was handy. Islands of Adventure was more ride-orientated and had some cool rollercoasters. It also had 'The Wizarding World of Harry Potter' where the streets where set up like Hogwarts and all of the shops and decorations were like the Harry Potter town and movie. It was very authentic and they even had the Hogwarts castle where you could go in and walk around and then there was a cool ride inside as well. You could even buy 'butter beer' which turned out to be really yummy - don't worry it's not actually beer! Universal Studios was based more around the making of movies, but they had rides like Jaws and Men in Black, also a 3-D Simpsons ride and a really awesome Rollercoaster that let you choose music to play in your own individual seat as you rode!

Anyways we had a fun three days at Universal, seeing lots of characters and lots of cool shows. The rides were really fun and it was awesome seeing Harry Potter come to life. We enjoyed our hotel too, and it was lucky they had a free shuttle bus to Universal Studios as well!

After Orlando we got back on the Amtrak train for a 5 hour trip to Miami. Unfortunately the train station was a bit out of town so we got a taxi to South Beach to our hostel, South Beach Hostel. The weather was really nice while we were in Miami and we mainly spent our time just relaxing and chilling out. We had a private room at the hostel but unforutnately it was still bunk beds that were really uncomfortable! But the hostel had a laundry, kitchen and breakfast provided. It even had a bar that cheap drinks at Happy hour so that was good too. The hostel was in a pretty good location - only about 2 blocks to the beach and the water was so clear and blue and warm and calm! There was also a much less relaxed dress code at these beaches than what we are used to in Australia, if you get what I mean! We spent some quality time at the beach lapping up the sun - a bit too much sun as we both turned into lobsters within about one minute!

We also took a 25c shuttle bus around South Beach to go to some shops or to get food which was handy, we used it to go to some of the beaches further up the island too. We managed to find out that you could rent umbrellas for only $10 for the day so we did that for two days which was nice as we didn't get as sunburnt! We ate a lot of sushi in Miami as we found a really cheap sushi place that was yummy and we hadn't eaten sushi in a long time so we made good use of that! There was also a lot of nightclubs and bars in Miami too.

All in all, we enjoyed our action packed theme park adventure in Orlando and then our relaxation-at- the-beach-doing-nothing, in Miami.

On the 15th we headed to Miami airport for our flight to LA, connecting through Houston Texas!

Stay tuned
Love Hayley & Shaun xoxo

 Shaun at Hogwarts

 Hayley at Hogwarts

 Universal Studios

 The Simpsons Ride

 Harry Potter World

 South Beach, Miami - Check out the blue water!

South Beach, Miami