LA - Mexico - San Francisco - Lake Tahoe

I was going through our photos this morning and realised that we’re really far behind in giving you an update on what we are doing. I’m not going to beat around a spade and call a bush a shovel. It’s really not difficult to choose between playing in the snow or updating the blog. I prefer playing, but I feel bad not giving you guys at least a tiny bit of info. And then I have to say that I initially didn’t think it hard work updating the blog, but jees! Typing a few words and uploading the pics can take as much time as I take to shower, wash and blow dry my hair, put make-up on with time to spare for a quick nap. So you better appreciate this! LOL [Laugh Out Loud for those unabbreviated peeps (people)].

Where to start??
Oe, oe….there is no better place to start than Universal Studios in Los Angeles. I felt like a kid again!!!!! AND I got to meet the crazy penguins from MADAGASCAR! (See the pics included). They are too precious…..my precious. And this really hurts to say, but I enjoyed it more than Disney Land. Maybe it’s because I had flu when we went to Disney Land in Paris (2002), but I sooooo enjoyed Universal Studios. It’s really cool to watch Shrek in 4D (yes 4D) and to get soaked with freezing cold water while watching the Waterworld show (remember Kevin Costner in Waterworld?).





You see, the thing is, in America they warn you about everything. From the ‘Keep away from water’ sticker on your hairdryer that they strategically placed right next to the tap in the bathroom, to the sticker that tells you that the coffee you are drinking is hot….yes, HOT. Who in their right mind can drink cold coffee? Nevertheless, they did warn us that the blue benches we are sitting on are the ‘Soak Zone.’ What got to me is that they painted the warning on ONE part of the bench and someone strategically (and conveniently) placed their butt over the sign. How are we supposed to read the sign? Anyway, the moral of the story is that if you spot good seats when the rest of the stadium is full, DON’T take it!!


Who can guess this movie??

Answer: War of the Worlds

Oh and did I mention that I met Captain Jack Sparrow??!!

Los Angeles to Mexico on the LOVE Boat!
*sigh* I love cruising. It’s just such an easy holiday. You have everything you need right at your doorstep. For the food-crazies amongst you, you have three 5-course meals per day with as much snacking as you like (Yum, yum, coconut cookies). Most cruise liners have casinos, the rock-climbing is at the back of the ship, the gym is on the 8th floor, and if you fancy a new hairstyle the salon is next to the gym. I don’t do casinos (too much smoke – yes, they let you smoke on the ship), the rock climbing is way too close to the propellers and who needs gym. But I have to admit, I visited the hair salon. I was in desperate need to get rid of my Christmas tree hairstyle. I needed some help and he came in the form of a young hairstylist. YEAY!

Other than cutting my hair, we managed to do……NOTHING! Ag ok, we did some shopping. We bought ourselves each a Philip Stein TESLAR watch which is supposed to neutralise damaging electromagnetic energy. All we can say is that we haven’t been as tired and don't need to take afternoon naps even when we’ve had restless nights (damn neighbours). Cool!

Cabo San Lucas

But the best for both of us was seeing the whales – humpback whales to be precise. They are remarkable animals!!! WHOA!!!!

San Francisco
This place scares the hell out of me (Andri, you'll understand). It’s not because it’s big or because it’s scary. I just don’t like earthquakes and I can’t see myself living in a city that I don’t know for sure will be standing tomorrow. That said, it’s really beautiful and everyone seems so relaxed and calm. We loved seeing the Golden Gate bridge (and yes, we drove over it), Alcatraz and the crookest street in the World – Lombard Street. We’ve included some pics. What is also amazing is that you don’t have to drive very far to find breath-taking scenery of hills and trees that seems to go on forever.

Oh and then don’t forget the bartenders……they are really awesome people. They are a woman's best friend. They kept asking us for our ID’s. How amazing. *sigh* Only because I look so young.

I WISH!

The truth is...they can ask anyone younger than 40 to show their ID’s before serving them alcohol. If you can't show them your ID, then you don’t get your drink! I’m sorry; maybe I lack insight or common sense, but why ask someone for their ID when they are clearly scrathing the 40 mark (or do 19 year old's have wrinkles and grey hair?) and when the legal minimum age is 21? Yes 21, not 18 as in SA. *Shrug*

Golden Gate Bridge

Alcatraz

Lombard Street - Crookest Street in the World

Oh my beauty….Lake Tahoe!
Any attempt to explain how beautiful this place is will only do injustice. I’m not even going to try. Just look at the pics and you will see for yourself.

We're Back

If you're keeping track of us and where we are, you will know that we spent the last 7 days on The Vision of the Seas (cruise ship). This has unfortunately lead to a very neglected blog and a serious lack of photos.

I promise that as soon as I get to a hotel with decent internet services without charging an arm and leg, I will update the website and give you an idea of what we are doing and where we’ve been.

All I’m saying for now is that we are having an awesome time!!!!

Will chat later!

105km of Bumper to Bumper Traffic

And that is exactly what it was. Kurt and I decided to rather stay another night (Thursday night) at the Grand Canyon and instead of staying a night a Laughlin. This meant that we had 8 hours of driving to do, but it was worth it. It wasn’t a bad drive and although we’ve heard that traffic is really bad in Los Angeles, we’ve never experienced 105km of bumper to bumper traffic.

I believe that although there are more cars on the road here, the drivers are far less aggressive than in SA. It’s like Kurt said…..in LA you only need to really worry about what’s happening ahead of you, where in SA you have to look left, right and behind to make sure no one crashes in to you.

I have never seen so many highways linked together and if it wasn’t for our Tomtom (GPS system that gives you directions from your starting point till your final destination) we would have been completely lost.

Pic 1 and 2: En Route to Los Angeles. Beautiful! The ONLY interesting thing for 800km (Other than LA traffic).

Pic 3: Los Angeles traffic!

Nature is wonderful!

Oh wow! The Grand Canyon truly is an awe-inspiring place. And having a birds-eye view is a once in a lifetime experience. We took a 30 minute helicopter trip early this morning over the Grand Canyon and there aren’t many words that can explain how exhilarating and beautiful it was (and still is). After the snow storm we had yesterday afternoon we were blessed with blue skies and a few (and really only a few) clouds. The air is also a lot cleaner during the winter months.

Kurt braved the cold (an exact -17˚C) early this morning to take pics of the sunrise over the Canyon. We’re going to leave the pics to do much of the talking again! Minimum temperature: -17˚C Average temperature today: 1˚C Maximum temperature: 4˚C



Pic 1: This photo was taken during lift off!



Pic 2: Birds-eye view of the Grand Canyon

Pic 3: Us just after the Helicopter trip over the Grand Canyon.

Pic 4: Us at a look-out point over the Grand Canyon.

Pic 5: Just a beautiful Grand Canyon pic!

It's Just Crazy!

I don't think there is anything more challenging to the brain than trying to type an essay after a busy and tiring day. So instead of writing an essay, we're just going to post pics. Often pics say a lot more than words so I hope the photo's we took today does justice to the experience we had.

We always associate deserts, Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon with extreme heat. We only hear about the heat, but very little is ever said about the freezing temperatures these places experience. Also, did you know that once a year Las Vegas gets snow? Well we didn’t and believe it or not, we even saw it.

To add to our “Wonders of the World” list, we have to add “Driving through the desert to Grand Canyon in a snow storm.” WHOA! It was breathtaking. At some places it was mainly due to the absolute beauty of the snow and in some because you can’t see a single thing in front of you. Nevertheless BREATHTAKING! Here are some gorgeous pics for you to see. ENJOY!

Current Temperature of this post: -12C...damn freezing if you ask me!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pic 1: Our hire car. Luckily Kurt decided it's maybe better to get a 4x4 instead of the convertable he originally booked. Just as well.......If you look closely, you will see the snow flakes. This pic was taken in Las Vegas.

Pic 2: Hoover dam. Named after the 31st President on the USA: Herbert Clark Hoover.

Pic 3: Hoover dam again.

Pic 4: Driving to Grand Canyon in the snow. Nice hey!

Pic 5: Phew! Interesting drive.

Pic 6: Our car at the petrol station. AND more snow!!!!

We're doing a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon in the morning, so we're off to bed to get some sleep!!!!

Impressive

Pic 1: Outside the Luxor Hotel on the Strip. So far one of the most impressive hotels.

Pic 2: Outside Excalibur Hotel

Pic 3: Inside Excalibur Hotel

Pic 4: Inside the Luxor Hotel - The Tomb and Museum of King Tutankhamun. Did you know they put the vital organs such as the heart and kidneys in a shrine for his afterlife, but the brain is not considered important and is therefore sucked or picked out via the nose a discarded?

Pic 5: Entrance to Las Vegas Fashion Show Mall. Ummm....a bit pricey for us!

Pic 6: Ship on the corner of Las Vegas Blvd. This one belongs to Treasure Island Hotel.

Pic 7: This pic was taken outside Treasure Island Hotel. Pretty Awesome!!!

Pic 8: This is the stage of the show called Mystere (Cirque du Soleil) currently showing at Treasure Island. ABSOLUTELY GREAT SHOW!

It's Freezing
So we thought that if we get ourselves an open top car for our trip to the Grand Canyon, we will be able to enjoy the fresh air. Well let's say we don't think this is going to happen. The weather forecast for the Grand Canyon is minimum: -13C and maximum 8C. Sounds rather pleasant.

The temperatures we've experienced so far is between 5-15C and very different from the 25-35C we had in Durban (SA).

Sin City

Pic 1: Flying over Greenland

Pic 2: Outside Las Vegas at Primm Valley where we went for some retail therapy. Some serious rollercoaster!

Pic 3: The is the famous Las Vegas Blvd or otherwise known as 'The Strip'.

Firstly, I have to apologize for the delay in updating the blogspot, due to certain circumstances (which I will explain)…..

Viva Las Vegas
We are here! A good few hours later, and we’ve landed safely. Despite a few bumps in the road and a bit of turbulence here and there, we managed to get here with a few stories to tell and minus 2 bags.

Travelers Cheques? What travelers cheques?
So my dearest decides to get travelers cheques this time around, you know for safety reasons and so forth. Well, just as well he did. In my state of excitement, I placed the cheques in the front of the 4x4, out of sight as we all know in South Africa you don’t leave things lying around for everyone to see. And so I left them just there and off we go without the travelers cheques. Luckily we can cancel them and have them reissued. The only problem is to actually get those guys to cancel them and to tell us where we ca pick the new ones up. We’re still without them, but at least we have credit cards!

DBN->JHB->LND
Between Durban, Johannesburg and London, noting exciting happened. We didn’t sleep much as cattle class is just what it is. Uncomfortable, painful and plain annoying! The one thing I have to say is that I have never experienced a landing a smooth as we did at Heathrow. It was unbelievable. I didn’t even realize we landed until I looked out the window and saw we’re on the ground!

Virgin Atlantic…..We’ve seen better!
I can think of a millions ways that Virgin Atlantic could've made our flight to Las Vegas less painful and more fun! They gave us this old crappy plane that only shows 10ish movies instead of the 51 they promise as we had on the plane between Jo-‘burg and London. Also between JHB and LND you could watch the movies on demand whereas the last flight they only showed every 2-3 hours and if you missed the beginning,… well tough luck. To add insult to this minor injury, they had the audacity to split me and Kurt. We got to sit separately, with neither of us with an isle seat for 10 straight hours. I won’t say more.

But the best is that these incompetent people somehow couldn’t get the doors to the cargo hold open and therefore could only get a few bags out. I was lucky that my two bags came out. Kurt on the other hand had to do without his two bags. But what we didn’t think of immediately is that some of my things had been packed into the other two bags, including my laptop charger. Which is one participating factors in the delay for updating the blogspot.

What is so ironic about this situation is that most planes including Virgin Atlantic planes are apparently build in Seattle (please note that this is all hearsay). Instead of calling out someone from America to help them out, they wanted to fly the plane back to London to get the engineers to fix it there and then fly our bags out back to Las Vegas. Our bags were delivered the next morning, which we can only assume means that they managed to fix the problem here.

Jet Llllaaaaggggg!
After a good 12 hours sleep and a sleeping tablet later we were relatively sufficiently rested to take on a day of shopping. It’s unbelievable what a 10-hour time difference, 24 hours of flying with only 4-5 hours sleep can do to you. During supper on Friday night (your early Saturday morning) I wondered for the first time ever why we’re actually doing this. Sleep deprivation is the worse torture I can think of. Luckily there is nothing 12 hours of good solid sleep can’t sort out.

Shop till you Drop!
Saturday morning we went shopping. Ooo, this is so evil! The things you can buy here are amazing. Not everything is cheaper than SA, but the variety is huge. I’m not even ashamed to say that I didn’t go into all the stores. It’s impossible to go through everything. We just looked at which shops looks good and then let that guide us. What makes it even better is that it’s extremely easy getting around in Vegas. It increases you shopping experience ten fold!

Karen’s Favorite Buys
1. This one was on Kurt’s demand: A beautiful formal blue (between baby and royal blue) coat with white buttons and lining.
2. Two pairs of Tommy Hilfiger Jeans

Kurt’s Favorite Buys
1. Banana Republic Camel Diner Jacket
2. Blue Polo shirt

Some interesting shop and restaurant names:
1. TGI Friday (restaurant) – after the very famous abbreviation TGIF (Thank Goodness It’s Friday)
2. A Pea in the Pod – Shop selling maternity wear

Food for Thought
Typical me, I will always have something to say about food and eating habits. I am amazed, shell-shocked and absolutely disgusted with the eating habits of some of these people. They are some of the friendliest and well mannered people I’ve ever met, but serving doughnuts and apple-crumble (to name a few) at a breakfast buffet is beyond my comprehension. Now you can argue that not everyone indulges in these wonderful desserts (they are called desserts for a reason), but you have to ask yourself why these things are available in the first place. Isn’t it true that they will only serve it if there is a demand for it?

The statistics for America says that 2/3 of the population is overweight. I can see where they get these stats from and I can see why. I’m just wondering how anyone can be foolish enough to believe that it’s good old fruit, vegetables and starches such as potatoes, sweet potatoes and other whole-grains that is the cause of these problems. Look at what is served in the restaurants and you’ll find your answer.

One last thing. We all know these tiny plastic containers filled with 20ml of milk we often find at B&B’s? I couldn’t help but to keep one just to list all the garbage that is in that teeny tiny container.

Ingredients: Water, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, corn syrup solids, sodium caseinate (milk derivate) and mono & diglycerides sodium, Stearoyl-2-lactylate, salt, sodium citrate, disodium phosphate and artificial colours.

NO Milk??? Eewwee!!!

Have a good one!