The return to Vegas 'Part One'

With a few delays in traffic that had us at a stand still we arrive in Las Vegas at around 3pm, we pull up to the The Tropicana and a nice valet takes our keys and we enter the hotel only to be confronted with a huge check in line... Uuugh welcome to Vegas!

It took around 30 mins just to check in and in true Vegas hotel style it took a while to even find the elevators to our building let alone walk the corridor to the room.

The room wasn't as tacky and lavish as the bigger hotels but it was comfy and great value for the location, plus with the hotel being a Doubletree we got to chow down on our first of many Doubletree cookies that they give you on checkin.. Seriously the best cookies ever.

We drop our bags and head out to explore, we start at the New York New York hotel, not having eaten anything since 8:30am we were ravenous and find a Mexican restaurant where we ordered chips with salsa, burritos and empanadas, they went down a real treat!

As luck would have it the Mexican domestic league playoff final was on with plenty of Mexicans there watching it, creating a patriotic atmosphere. It ended 7-5 on aggregate, so plenty of goals and lot of very happy supporters.

We continued exploring, racking up a fair few kilometres in our legs. Along our travels we checked out the Bellagio fountains, Caesars Palace, plus a few of the other touristy places all along the strip.

At 10pm it was time to go see Tim Allen, aka Tim The Toolman Taylor. We'd booked tickets to his standup show about 6 months ago and certainly weren't disappointed. We had seats pretty close to the stage and he delivered on everyone's favourites, the Toolman grunt, and the Buzz light year 'To infinity and beyond!'.

He come across as pretty much the same sort of guy as he played on Home Improvement, he even said that he builds hot rods, but funniest of all is that he hates kids and yet seems to keep doing kid targeted movies like The Santa Clause and Toy Story that have kids everywhere doing his head in... Love it!

After the show we ran around town trying to find coverage of the A-League Grand Final. Unfortunately coverage of that was non existent, but we found the next best thing, that being a craft brewery sports bar at the MGM which had the Collingwood vs Richmond game on... What were the odds?

A view out over the Vegas Srip

Another view, right near our hotel

AFL inside an American pub? You gotta be kidding!

Rain, rain go away... please

Our hotel bed being a bit too comfy we accidentally sleep in until 10am, whoops, with the horror of having missed breakfast we get ready at lightening speed and rush to the restaurant and were happy to find out that breakfast finishes at 11.

We pile in the car and although it was still raining we refuse to give up our sole reason of detouring to San Diego, the zoo. Wipers raging we arrive at the zoo in no time at all and make our first purchase of a poncho. While the hood was annoying they kept us warm and dry and were able to enjoy the Zoo as best we could.

I wouldn't say that it was the most amazing zoo we've ever been to, they were doing some repairs and new enclosures so that may have brought it down a few pegs but it's hard to beat our Melbourne and Sydney zoos and they still remain the best we've seen.

With the rain now easing into a sunny day we decide to park the car in the city for the upcoming baseball game that night. We pull into a very random car park and as soon as we find a spot a guy pulls up behind us and hands us a ticket. At the time we thought he worked there but later on we realised that he was leaving and gave us his parking ticket that he'd already paid for, free city parking for us, what a champion!

Off in the distance we could hear a Disney cruise ship preparing to cast off, much to our delight instead of blasting their horn, it played the first few bars of 'When you wish upon a star', you have to google it, it was amazing!

We head to the local Westfield mall to grab a bite to eat which was a make your own stir fry, it's like a diy noodle box, very cool.

Then we make our way to the harbour and walk along the docks checking out the stupidly expensive yachts until we come across a Fox Sports bar, we hang here and watch the Washington v Atlanta NBA playoff game until it was time to head to the Petco Stadium and get our second game of baseball under our belts.

This stadium was like nothing we've ever seen, it was like the mcg cut in half, with a gigantic scoreboard, a grassy knoll to set up a blanket on, rows of craft beer stands, a mini grocery store and so much food the choice was endless, no more burgers, chips or hotdogs, take that AFL!

The game was pretty much over with Washington scoring 4 runs in the first innings, so we explored the ground and ended up talking to a nice old fella who worked as an usher. Turns out he loves every sport known to man and when he found out it was our first time at the ground he gave us a very cool 'First time at Petco Stadium' badge and then let us sit on the lower level, Americans are awesome!

After the game we walked through the the Gaslamp quarter which is all kinds of bars and shops that come alive at night, we get propositioned to join a group of people in a limo, decline, and head home as it was late and after having walked close to 5 hours for the day we needed rest for our big drive to Vegas the next day.

Petco Park from a distance as a train passes by

This stadium was like a craft brewery inside!

A cheeky giraffe from the zoo

Hertz and a very rainy day

I'm not sure if we mentioned this in a previous post, but our hotel smells weird.. And the reception is the worst, not sure what it is but I hope we never have to smell it ever again!

Rant over.. We get up for another bowl of cereal and make our way to Hertz to pick up our car, we walk the 20 mins down the road only to find that it won't be ready to pick up until 1:30pm and that hiring a GPS will cost $13 a day.. 77 days at $13 per day, not likely Hertz!

So we walk another 20 mins down the road to Target where we get a mouthful from some protesting homeless guy about being middle class and ruining the world, truthfully I have no idea what he was going on about, so great protesting you muppet...

We buy our own GPS from a very limited selection, a very cheap one or a very expensive one, having had GPS issues before we go with the expensive one. I do not want to end up down some dirt road in the middle of nowhere ever again!

With another 2 hours to kill we walk back to a very (un)tastefully decorated diner and have some lunch where we found a very cool IQ peg game that kept us busy for the entirety of lunch. The music selections were about as tacky as their fake flowers that suffocated corners of the room and their unisex toilets were quite scary.

A quick rest was in order so it was back to the enchanting smells of our hotel until it was time to get the car and head to San Diego, as soon as we start walking there the heavens opened and we get soaked, this better be an awesome car!

May we present to you our beautiful Brown box of a car, the Kia Soul, it wasn't love at first sight but she purrs along and has a fair bit of get up and go which is what you want in a car, we haven't named the car yet but I'm thinking something like Bear would suit it.

Being back behind the wheel felt like second nature, armed with a single post it note tacked to the window there was no way to forget what side of the road to be on and we were off... Right into peak hour traffic ALL the way to San Diego...

So it took us a little longer than anticipated but we got there in the end and were greeted with a beautiful hotel on Shelter Island that didn't smell weird at all!

With the rain still teaming down (which apparently never happens!) we head over to Belmont Park, but with the roller coaster being closed from the rain and with no 'Sunset Riders' game in the arcade we find a pretty cool bar called the Sandbar and settle in for some nachos, tacos, giant beer and NBA playoffs in which an Aussie Cleveland player got best on ground against the Bulls to make it through to the final, go Aussies!

After the game we head back to our seaside hotel which turned out to be a turbulent drive, the rain had stepped it up a few notches and was starting to flood the roads, in some places the water was up to our wheels, so it was very slow going and we take a park on the higher side of the street just to increase out chances of actually having a car waiting for us when we woke up.

The happiest place on earth

We were awoken this morning to the sounds of a heavy duty vacuum whizzing out the front of our room at 8:15, so with our hopes of a sleep in now dashed we get up, have a quick breakfast of cereal and get geared up for a big day at the happiest place on earth, Disneyland.

Striding up Disneyland drive we are at the entrance in about 10 minutes flat, we purchase our tickets, head inside and are greeted with a street full of colour and character leading up to the famous Walt Disney & Mickey statue that set the enchanting mood for the entire day.

Ride after ride and snack after snack we were having a ball, the rides were fast and the lines long but the fast passes paid off many times getting us to the front of the queue in no time at all.

It was all going well until our second go at the Spash Mountain, we were cruising away through the dark caverns with little critters dancing and singing songs and were only meters away from the big spash drop when the log carts stopped and started banking up.

Then announcement came over the speaker that the ride is having technical difficulties... Really??

The songs stopped, the lights flooded on and in come the attendant, the ride was shut down and we had to be escorted from our log boats and through an emergency exit.. So close!

After a very long day we leave Disneyland two very satisfied people, we head back to the ESPN Zone at Downtown Disney to watch the NBA and tuck into an delicious salad with a side of perfectly seasoned chippies.

Walking home we couldn't resist a nightcap and pop into Coco's bakery and grab a well deserved slice of pie before tucking ourselves in for the night, tomorrow we make our return to the roads of USA and start on our 17000km trip!

Arriving in luxury

It was a very early start, or should I say a very late start leaving for the airport at 2:45am, we decided not to go to bed and stay awake to try and combat the dreaded jet lag so stay awake we did.

Lucky us used a big chunk of our frequent flyer points to travel business class to LA, so after checking in our bags and our tent we hurried in to the business lounge to feast on all the goodies and their surprisingly fast wifi. The call come over the speaker announcing our plane was now boarding, we arrived to a bit of a line that we strolled past feeling all important and got through the right away.

To say that business class is a world above is an understatement, it is amazing, the simple fact that you can raise your legs up and recline was heaven, and then after being wined and dined on delicious restaurant quality food, you simple press the lay down button, tuck yourself up under a quilt and sleep comfortably for 8 hours, they even gave us Jammies!

We arrived safe and sound to LA, got through customs at a  record time, mainly due to being able to get off the plane first, and in no time we were checking in to our hotel which is literally across the road from Disneyland!

With sorting out the SIM cards for our phone a high priority, we head straight to the local mall and get it sorted, 4gb with unlimited calls and text for $60, why don't we have AT&T at home? it's insane value!

We then walked about an hour up the road to our first of many outlet malls where it took us a whole of 10 mins in the Nike shop to pick out new runners... For a whole of $60! We will see you again Nike store!

Grabbing some lunch on the run at Starbucks we then head to Downtown Disney and explore the many shops including Lego Land that had a very cool 'build a minifig' stand which kept us busy making all sorts of combinations for a little bit too much time than we will admit to...

We find an epic sports bar called ESPN Zone and watch the NBA playoffs and couldn't resist the amazing salads that were on offer, so we ended up having an early tea.

With the taxi costing us $20 every time we went in and out of town we decided to take the bus to Angels stadium to watch the Aneheim Angels play the Colorado Rockys, it was great to be back at live sport again.

But wasn't too long until we headed over to the stadium bar to watch the last of the NBA playoffs, what can I say... Baseball isn't that fast paced or overly enthralling so we ended up watching both games as once to keep us awake.

Heading back to the hotel the next bus didn't arrive for another hour so we found a Hooters bar and ordered beer and pie and chowed down until it was time to head home.

Tomorrow we head to Disneyland and are hoping that jet lag won't set in too much!

One week to go!

Its the first week of May which  means theres only one week to go until we set off on another adventure.The excitement is building considerably as the weather here in Ballarat starts to decline we are itching to get back to our second summer for the year.

It will be a struggle to not pack lots of jumpers and pants with the feeling of a looming winter, but we must control ourselves and travel very light as the outlet malls with their insanely low priced Nike shoes and designer clothes will soon fill our cases to bursting points.

We are armed with our Quechua 2 second pop up tent which will be our home for over 40 nights of our 90 day stay. With ample practice in our living room we have the setup and pack up down to a fine art and are confident that we can even tackle it in the dark.

With no short of 19,000kms to travel the car that we will be spending a LOT of time in on the old open road will be the trusty Ford Focus.

Being amazingly efficient on fuel, we are hoping that we wont have to stop in at too many 'gas stations' as you have to swipe your credit card and then punch in your 'zip code' before it'll let you pump, a problem for us as the old 3350 wont cut it over there which will mean we have to go inside and leave our card with the shop assistant, not something we're too comfortable with!

First on the agenda will be Ben and Jerrys Half Baked frozen yogurt, this is one of the most delicious tasting things on earth, PLEASE come to Australia I beg of you!!
Then we'll be making a bee line to the baseball, so we can chow down on Kettle Corn.. Its seriously delicious, popcorn coated in not only salt, but sugar, sounds a bit iffy but its like a party in your mouth where sweet and savory are invited and they're getting along fiiiiiiiiine!

Not to mention the hot dogs, apple pies and pizza in New York,  Doubletree cookies, the little mini carrots that they sell in the supermarkets, mutant Pink Lady apples and best of all, Spearmint Extra gum that I wont have to travel to specialty stores in Aus to find, they will be sitting there at the local servos waiting to be bought by the box fulls.

With everything organised by the esteemed closet travel agent Adam, all we have to do now is wait one more week and then its goodbye to winter, work, cleaning, cooking and hello to Business Class, Disney Land, NBA, the Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, beaches, parks, bikes, hikes and glorious sunshine!

The Plan

It was a on a long lonesome drive home from Port Fairy where Adam thought up the idea of visiting every state in the USA as our next big adventure.

Over the next 12 months he has pondered and planned and researched the best route to take and which cities and towns to visit and has come up with this epic 90 day road trip.

But what about Alaska and Hawaii can I hear you all saying?

Don't worry, we haven't forgotten, after we arrive in Seattle we will board the Solstice cruise ship and sail to Alaska taking in the sights and sounds for 7 days.


Then we jump on a plane and fly to Hawaii and relax in Honolulu for a week before we head home.

Im pretty sure by the time we hit Hawaii we will need a few days of r & r laying on the beach for what will have been an amazing adventure!

May 14th couldn't come soon enough!!

A bike ride and a long plane flight

Ahhh, it was finally here, our last day in South America. Luckily we had a pretty big day planned which included exploring the city of Santiago one last time.

The lovely Santiago streets

We decided to pack our bags early and after being here for a few days already, the room and our clothes were still covered in confetti from the soccer match a couple of days earlier. This stuff was almost impossible to get rid of!

For today we had a bike tour planned which would start at 2:30pm and go until about 5pm. Our flight was at 2am so it was going to be a very long day indeed, so we wanted to make sure we were tired so that we could sleep well on the plane.

Time for a bike ride around Santiago

Again we went exploring, but it was a bloody freezing day so we had to rug up. Even Adam had gloves on which was a rare sight. By now it was about midday and we had found a nice little outdoor reastuarant with heaters that had the France vs Nigeria match playing.

So we settled in here for the match, but later had to bail given it was absolutely freezing outside. We walked about 100 metres only to find a nice little cafe that also had the game going, but inside and with the heater going. Doh.

We watched the second half in here and ordered some coffees and a delicious yoghurt cake. France went on to win 2-0 which was pretty cool given we had seen France play twice live already this tournament. By the time this finished it was about 20 minutes until our bike ride, so we headed off.

Meeting a new friend on our bike ride

On the way Adam dropped his phone smashing the screen, so it was not a great start to the bike ride. Luckily it was still usable so we were able to get some good photos still.

We met with out tour guide, a young girl in her early 20s name Nacha who was super nice. She had just completed university and was an English teacher, so that was good news for us given hardly anyone in Chile spoke English.

Nacha took us around the city and showed us all the parks and famous political areas. Along the way we even picked up a friend; a stray dog who followed us for about 75% of the way. Even when we stopped and went inside buildings, this dog would wait for us and then follow us again.

A pretty famous area of Chile

He seemed like a pretty nice dog, but at one intersection he went off and then come back with a pigeon in his mouth. He ended up killing it and leaving it on the side of the road as we were driving off. Not something you see every day!

It was a great tour. Chile has so much history, some of it pretty gruesome, and Nacha taught us heaps while keeping it nice and up vibe. We even stopped for a hot chocolate half way which was fun and she told us how much she loved soccer and how shattered she was when the Chileans lost to Brazil.

She gave us some ideas of how to spend the evening, telling us of this epic shopping centre just up the road. It was epic indeed, with about 8 levels of shops, so we settled in here for a few hours. We found a Hard Rock Cafe and watched the end of the Germany vs Algeria match, which Germany won 3-2 after extra time.

We then went exploring to kill a few hours and then came back to Hard Rock for tea. We both ordered haystack salads which we usually do when we go there. We then had another hour before going to the airport so went exploring some more.

Germany vs Algeria at the Hard Rock Cafe

It was then back to the hotel to collect our bags and then head to the airport. We booked a taxi which we were told would take 15 minutes, but after 35 minutes of waiting we decided to get one ourselves. Once we got to the airport we saw a massive line of people and yep, it was of course for our flight which had been delayed for 3 hours....

Luckily we were flying Premium Economy so we cut to the front of the queue and bought ourselves into the lounge. The wait was pretty good, Linnie made a bed and went to sleep and there was plenty of free food and drinks to be had.

Linnie enjoying a haystack salad

So instead of flying at 1:50am, we took off at 4:30am in the end. Within minutes of boarding the plane we were both sound asleep and missed breakfast. Before we knew it we were back in Sydney, and then in Melbourne, and then in Ballarat.

It was about 3pm by the time we got to Ballarat, so rather than go home we went to the movies to see 22 Jump Street, then it was time to finally head back home.

What a superb trip, some memories that will last forever and this blog has captured all the best bits. We can't wait to look back on here in years to come and relive it all again.

Our trip to The Andes

Today was our trip to The Andes. We had to get up early and meet our bus driver at 8:15am for what was a 1-2 trip up into The Andes. We rugged up as we had since found out that Santiago is one very cold place!

Enjoying ourselves in The Andes

Along the way we stopped for some breakfast at a BP equivalent and we stocked up on M&M's, chips and some drinks. We also had the chance to hire some snow boots and waterproof pants which later turned out to be an inspired purchase.

With all our supplies now purchased the next stop was The Andes, finally. We went along some very narrow and windy roads which were reminiscent of our trip to Cusco, but the scenery here was absolutely amazing. There were some epic houses in the hills which we have no idea how they got built.

Linnie looking like an angel

Now we were starting to get high and the green grass was now covered in white snow. Our first stop was a little town which was basically just restaurants and snow skiing shops, along with the chance to ski if you wished. We only had about 40 minutes here to explore, but it was good fun.

It was then back on to the bus and the tour guide said we were in for a treat as we got to go to a stop that they normally don't go to. We stopped by the side of the road in a paddock of snow and got to go exploring which was great. After a mini snow fight and falling over a few times in the snow, we had our fun and headed back to the bus again.

Holland vs Mexico at lunch

Our last stop was at the top of the hill where all the hotels, lodges and restaurants were, along with their famous snowfields. It was about midday and we had until 4:30pm to explore. After a bit of a walk around we found somewhere to have lunch and luckily they had the World Cup on.

Mexico were taking on the Netherlands and we got there in the second half right before Mexico scored to go up 1-0. We ordered some soup and hamburgers and settled in for the game. The Mexicans held a 1-0 lead for most of the second half before conceding a very late goal just before injury time.

Strange place to watch football

Then Arjen Robben took a dive in the penalty box and the Dutch received a penalty. They score in the 94th minute and claim a 2-1 win despite the disgust of many fans inside the restaurant. After that we decide to head on and do some more exploring.

We found a little snowfield and had a pretty cool snow fight, with snow everywhere from our hair down to our backs. Some Canadian's walked by and got some photos of us and we spoke to them for a while. They were pretty nice.

Time went pretty quick and we were then back in the bus. It was a long trip home, not getting back till about 6pm. We checked the scores from the Costa Rica vs Greece game and it was 1-1 after 100 minutes, but for some strange reason we couldn't get coverage on our hotel room television, so we set off looking for somewhere to watch it.

Ahhh, a home cook meal

After looking everywhere and realising we were going to miss the shootout, we walked past a phone shop which had a tv. We huddled at the window with about 50 others right when the shoot out started. Costa Rica ended up winning 5-3.

It was now tea time and given our hotel had a kitchen we decided to make a home cook meal. We found a local supermarket and made some stir fry and cooked mushrooms which was absolutely beautiful. It was our last night of the holiday which was pretty sad.

Heartbreak in Santiago, Chile

After a little sleep in we thought we'd go explore some of Santiago a bit. First impressions are this was a very nice city with a bit in common with European cities with plenty of bricks and cobblestones everywhere. We also noticed a lot of bakeries which was a change in scenery from Brazil.

Mapocho River with The Andes

Our aim today was to explore the city a little in the morning, then find somewhere to watch the much anticipated Chile vs Brazil second round match. We got quite a bit of luck coming in on the day that Chile were taking on Brazil and we knew it would be a big afternoon.

Without any idea where we were heading or where the festivities were we set off on our way and got ourselves a Berlinner for breakfast, basically a jam donut which was absolutely divine. They sold these in Germany so it took us back to our time there.

Next up we managed to find the Mapocho River which runs directly through the city from The Andes. There was a beautiful view of The Andes in the background which is what makes this such a beautiful city. We checked out a few stops and then realised the match was starting soon, so followed a few local fans kitted out in their Chile gear.

Chile vs Brazil time

That led us to a Fed Square type area that had a big screen, police everywhere and over 5,000 fans cheering as the game was shortly due to kick off. Of all the fans we saw on our Brazil trip, the Chileans were the ones who cheered the loudest and had the best chants and songs.

Listening to them belt out the national anthem was spine tingling. Kick off was just as exciting and the game started off pretty frantically. But things went quiet in the 18th minute when David Luis scored for Brazil and everyone dropped their head.

It didn't take long to get loud again as their star Alexis Sanchez scored an equaliser in the 32nd minute and the noise was absolutely deafening. They seem to celebrate their goals by throwing their beers in the air in which we were covered in, along with confetti everywhere. It was absolutely superb.

GGGGGOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLL

The two teams went into half time locked at 1-1 and that was the final score as well after they could not be split after 90 minutes. Next up was extra time and Chile almost stole the match in the last minute of extra time, only to hit the bar and fall agonisingly short.

Oh no, the dreaded penalty shootout! It was now a 50/50 and to say the fans were nervous was an understatement. It was an emotional roller coaster to say the least, Brazil had a 2-0 lead at one stage before some goalkeeping heroics from the Chilean keeper got them back to 2-2 on the final kick.

Covered in beer and confetti

Neymar stepped up for Brazil and made it 3-2. So here we go, if Chile missed this it was all over, if they hit it we continue on. Gonzalo Jara was selected to take the kick, much to the gasps of the fans. He stood up, took the kick and then saw the ball rebound off the side bar. Chile had lost :(

You could almost hear a pin drop. Chile fans were shattered, some on their knees crying, while most vacated the area pretty much instantly. It was actually pretty sad as we felt bad for them. The party afterwards would have been amazing had they won.

Columbia scoring vs Uruguay

Anyway after a day which saw us get soaked in beer and confetti and god knows what else, we headed back to the hotel and had a shower and asked the hotel clerk where we should eat tea. We also booked in a trip to The Andes for tomorrow which we were looking forward to.

We found a restaurant area and watched the Colombia vs Uruguay game with a bunch of Colombian fans. That was also good fun as they went on to win the game 2-0 and it was a pretty good vibe in there. After that we grabbed some tacos and headed on home to the hotel to round out a pretty exciting day.