Saturday 26 June 2010

the last day and 9609km completed!!!!!

Thursday 24th June
Today we pack up and leave Las Vegas with just 470km to drive. We need to have the car dropped off at around 6.30pm and then get to the airport on their shuttle bus. The trip was good for the few hours it took to get to LA only stopping for lunch at Quiznos on the way. By the time we got the car back and to the airport it was close to 7.30pm and our flight leaves at 10.20pm. We got through check in and the security screening and are now ready to board the plane. We have a 14 hour flight ahead of us to Sydney and then the 2 hours back to Adelaide. We arrive in Adelaide at 10.30am Saturday morning and Lauralea and Rosalie are picking us up.
Wow we have been to so many places and seen so many things. 2 countries, 14 different states and travelled a total of 5971 miles or 9609 kilometres. Wow!!!!!

fremont st

fremont st by night

the original neon lights

fremont mall canopy

more of the 460 metre canopy

the golden goose

canopy again with light show

at the end of the pedestrian mall

treasure island show

finale

Wednesday 23rd June
Tonight we decided to go back to Fremont Street and see it at night with all the lights and neons lit up. We stopped at Ihop for dinner on the way and it was the worst meal we have eaten while away. It was so bad Bronte sent his meal back and we did not pay for it. We got a good park at Fremont St and we spent a couple of hours walking the mall (Fremont Street Experience) looking at the lights. The canopy is 27 metres from the ground and is 460 metres in length. They also have a light show on the ceiling of the canopy that is set to music, just before this starts they turn off all the neon lights on the front of the casinos and shops. From there back to the strip to watch the Treasure Island show. They have a pirates and boats display at the front of the resort which was a bit tacky but enjoyable. It was really a good night finished off with some fireworks. One last drive down the strip back to the Luxor for our last night on holidays. Tomorrow we head for Los Angeles and then home.

Wednesday 23 June 2010

viva las vegas

the strip

inside the venetian

the luxor

our view
Monday 21st June
Well we did get our room move and we are now on the 24th floor. The view is fantastic out the front window as we can see down the strip and out to the international airport. Today we walked the strip checking it out and just taking in Vegas. We bought some tickets to a show called Divas, which is a drag show. The show started at 10.00pm and it was fantastic. We sat in a booth right near the front and shared the booth with a couple from Chicago. We did alright as Craig from Chicago paid for all our drinks!!! After the show we just had a look around the strip at night and watched Bellagio fountain etc.

hoover dam

from the helicopter

our helicopter
Tuesday 22nd June
Today we had a sleep in and we did not leave the motel room until almost 12.00pm. We decided to head out of town to the Hoover Dam for the day. We have been to the dam before, but we thought we would still check it out. The drive up to Boulder City was OK and we passed helicopter flights on the way. On the way back we decided to do a helicopter flight over Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam. I got to sit in the front of the helicopter and it was fantastic. It was only a 5 minute flight but well worth it. We drove back to the Luxor where we spent a little while and then we went out to the strip again. We went for dinner at the 'Hash House A Go Go' which was in the Imperial Palace, part of our ticket to the show the night before gave us $25 off a food bill. The meals were fantastic and they were massive. After dinner we walked a bit of the strip and again watched the Bellagio Fountain for over and hour. Headed back to the motel and watched some TV and spent some time on the net.
bronte on fremont st

fremont st

fremont east
Wednesday 23rd June
Today again we have had a slow start, we did not leave the room until 12.00pm. We went out for lunch to Quiznos which was really nice. From there we went to Fremont St which is north of the main strip. It has a few of the old style casinos and the old neon signs. Along with a lot of souvenir shops as well. We spent the afternoon walking around just taking it easy. Tonight we are going to go back to the strip and watch the free show at Treasure Island and some more fountain show at Bellagio. We have to pack up tomorrow morning as we drive back to LA and have to be at the airport in 24 hours from now, about 7.00pm.

zion national park

zion national park in distance

petrol station just prior to entering national park

entrance to zion national park

bighorn sheep at zion

bronte on the sandstone

tunnel through the mountain

window through tunnel looking out as driving past

after exiting tunnel and looking back at above window in the rock

a snake on our walk

me standing in the river, nice cold water!

bronte on one of the walking tracks

from a lookout
Sunday 20th June
Today we left Cedar City and headed for Zion National Park in Utah. We were going to be taking a back road to access the park which actually would prevent us from having to track back as we continued to Vegas. The scenery and the drive was fantastic, it had changed so much in the last few days as we are now in the desert. We stopped at a lookout from around 100kms from Zion and could see the national park in the background.
Along the way we stopped at the turn off to the park at this really cool little town/petrol station that seems to have no name! The place was decked out in Indian stuff and was really kind of cute. From there we entered the park and got our map to follow from the ranger. We continued on stopping every few minutes as there was so much to see until we got to the tunnel. The tunnel was built in 1930 and is 1.7km long. The tunnel follows the mountain at a depth of 6 metres in from the outside of the canyon. There are windows in the tunnel that you can see out of as you drive by them. Once we exited the tunnel there was a stop where you could look back at the mountain and see the windows from the outside.
We continued on until we got to the visitor information centre. The national parks main attractions in the Zion Canyon can only be accessed by the designated buses provide by the park. These bus are free, included in your park entrance. We used the map and got on the bus where we hoped on and off as much as we wanted. We spent the rest of the day in the park completing several walks and seeing as much as we could. The park was amazing and you really could spend days and days there. the amount of walks are mind boggling.
We ended up leaving the park about 6.00pm and set off for Vegas which was only 270kms away. The drive was nice and it did not take too long at the 75mph limit. We arrived at the Luxor Motel and Casino as around 9.00pm and parked the car. Checked in and we are staying in the pyramid part of the complex which is cool, but only on level 2. The lady at check in said we could change rooms in the morning, as we have three more days, to a higher floor. The next morning we were moved to level 24 and have a fantastic view of the strip and the international airport. We had dinner in the Pyramid Cafe the first night as we were tired and didn't feel like going out. Tomorrow we are going to walk the strip and check it out, see how much has changed in 2 years and use the facilities at the Luxor, pool, spa etc. The last few days here in Vegas are going to be relaxing!!!!!!!

Monday 21 June 2010

salt lake city

Saturday 19th June
Up and out of bed today and off to Cedar City today. Was only going to be a 400 km drive today so it was going to be quite leisurely. We stopped off at Quizznos subs for lunch in some little town that was about halfway. Arrived at Cedar City in good time and checked into our room. Decided to head out and try to get a hair cut. Found Supercuts in a shopping centre and got a new hair do, possibly much like my normal one. From there we went to Walmart and bought some food for dinner as we had a microwave and fridge in our room. Bit of a change to not have takeaway. As we drove back to our motel we saw a cinema and decided to see what movies were on. We decided that we would come back and see Killers at 9.30 pm. After dinner and a bit of time on the net we went back to the cinema. The movie was not too bad and I would recommend seeing it if you like Ashton Kutcher. Tomorrow we are going to go to Zion National Park which will detour us from Las Vegas by about 100km. We do not need to get to Vegas too early, so we are planning spending the whole day at Zion.

Sunday 20 June 2010

jackson hole

jackson hole central park

main street looking up to ski slopes

shops and side walk

teton mountain range leaving jackson

idaho falls

idaho falls

we like 80mph which ='s 129km/h

Friday 18th June
Today we wanted to have a quick look around Jackson Hole before leaving and making our way to Salt Lake City. Last time we were in Jackson it was snowed in and we almost got stuck there. This time the weather was in the high 20's and beautiful. We went to the main part of town and had a walk around the shops and into the town square. Last time the antler arches were covered in snow and hard to see, this time not the case. We hit the road heading for Salt Lake City taking us on some really nice roads through some more mountains. We stopped for lunch at Idaho Falls and had some Subway and then went and looked at the water falls in the main part of town. Most of the water fall is man made and is used for their hydroelectric plant to produce their own power. Anyway we then hit the road and arrived in Salt Lake City in good time. Decided to go to Applebees for dinner which was really nice again. Tomorrow we are off to Cedar City which is our last stop before Vegas. We are thinking of staying at Luxor in Vegas for the final 4 days.

Saturday 19 June 2010

yellowstone day 2

the entrance


as it says



midway geyser basin

geyser

old faithful

just outside the visitor info centre

and then there was snow!

chromatic pool

more snow

the morning glory pool

a cute bison calf

Thursday 17th June
Waking up this morning felt some what different as our room was not hot like it had been almost everyday that we had been away. All of the motels are well insulated and the rooms seem to heat up during the night. I got out of bed and went to the window to look and yes outside was snow! It was actually snowing and everything was covered in snow. It is obviously June and summer here in the states and we have snow, fresh snow. I got on the net to check the weather and the temp was 0 degrees now and the low of the night was minus 8. This was going to make our 2nd day at Yellowstone really cool.

Today we were going to drive the southern loop and head out of Yellowstone through Grand Teton National Park to Jackson Hole. First stop was a small detour off the main road for 2 miles to a water fall, Firehole Falls. We got back onto the main road and came along the midway geyser basin. As we drove towards it you could see the steam in the distance. We stopped and walked around and looked at the different geysers and the paint pots, (boiling mud) it is amazing just to have boiling water and mud in the ground 24-7.

From there to Old Faithful where we parked the car and planned to spend the rest of the day there. We had some lunch and Old Faithful was scheduled to go off at 2.05 pm + or - 10 mins. Well it did and it was just after 15 past when it went off, it was cool spurting boiling water 30 to 56 metres into the air, pushing out some 14000 to 32000 litres of water, lasting about 2 to 3 mins.

There was a walk that took us past litteraly 100's of geysers and hot water pools that went for 4.4 km round trip past the morning glory pool. We took 100's of photos of most of what we saw and they have all turned out really good. We will have to show them to you when we are back. While walking around the geysers the weather in true Yellowstone style changed from sunny to snowing on two or three occasions. We also ran into 2 bisons with their baby calves, so we took a photo of them, the calves were so cute. We kept walking and got back to Old Faithful in time to see it go off again. By this time it was 5.30 pm and we had to drive to Jackson Hole. As we drove we ended up going through the Grand Teton National Park which we had driven to before. 2 years ago we drove the PT cruiser to the entrance gate through snow and ice to find the park closed. This time we could drive through and wow the scenery was spectacular as we could see it!

We arrived into Jackson by about 7.30 pm and checked into our motel. It had been a big day and we both felt tired. I found a menu in the motel room for Chinese, so I went and got some takeaway and we ate it in the room. Tomorrow we are going to look around Jackson, without snow and then make our way to Salt Lake City.

Friday 18 June 2010

yellowstone and west yellowstone

buffalo bill dam

bison on route

me on fishing bridge

driving across fishing bridge

bison on the side of the road

lots of steam!

bear jam

bear in tree causing bear jam

deer and baby deer

mammoth hot springs

mammoth again, lower terrace

us at lower terrace

upper terraces

us at upper terrace

very bright blue bird at mammoth springs

boiling water

yellowstone beer


Wednesday 16th June
Our night in Cody was not too bad considering the room was probably of the poorest quality we have had and the most expensive. We got up and were on the road with around 80 kms to travel to the east gate of Yellowstone.
Along the way we stopped off at the Buffalo Bill Dam to have a look. This dam supplies electricity to Cody and the surrounding area. On we went to the east gate of Yellowstone and paid the entrance fee. The first stop was going to be Fishing Bridge which crossed the Yellowstone River and was a place that people would stand and fish from for trout many years ago. It is now banned to fish from the bridge. We made it to Grand Loop Road and decided we would do the northern loop taking us to Mammoth Hot Springs in and anti clockwise direction to West Yellowstone, where we were staying the night. As we entered the Grand Loop Road there was a Bison standing on the side of the road. We drove past very carefully as we did not want him to hit the car.
We made our way past many sites including the Mud Volcano boiling mud pits, thermal pools and canyons with the Yellowstone River flowing through them. We stopped for lunch at Canyon Village and got some cheese and crackers for lunch from the supermarket. We kept going until we got to Mammoth Springs and then we walked around the upper and the lower terraces. It is really a kind of eerie feeling as there is steam going everywhere and hot water pours down the side of the hill leaving calcium deposits behind. When the calcium is yellow and orange it means the hot water is keeping the bacteria alive. Where there is white and grey areas it means the water has cooled or stopped all together. We spent about 2 hours here having a look around and it was really fascinating.
We then drove towards West Yellowstone and had a couple of 'bear jams' on the way. This is not something you put on your toast, it is when people see a bear in trees on the side of the road and they stop to take photos. Everyone then lines up behind to get their photo. Next minute there is 50 or more cars and half and hour pasts and you have hardly moved. It took us until about 8.00pm to get there and we only had gone 200 kms for the day. We went out for dinner at a restaurant just down the street from the motel. We had a really nice pizza and I had a Yellowstone beer. Back to the room then as we wanted to get to bed so we could get up and see the rest of Yellowstone and Old Faithful tomorrow. The weather was also meant to be changing as it had gotten very cold.

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