Honeymoon Around the World: Las Vegas and LA

The weird thing about flying around the globe is that at some stage you have to cross the time line. In our case flying from China at 14:00 on the 21st caused us to land in the United States at 10:00 on the 21st... After a 12 hour flight! So somewhere in the time warp we gained an extra day (to Wiets this did not make one little bit of sense, so we physically had to take a world map and trace the sun, it turns out that its just how it works, weird, but true :)

After confirming the date with passport control (which, by the way, America seems to be seriously lacking in efficiency, and we can say this because we've been around and have never spent more time in queues than in the USA) we headed to the the car rental company in Los Angeles. A yellow convertible Mustang - yes please! So we hit the streets of the City of Angels with the top down :)

LA; glossy, glamorous, hip and happening... Not so much. This was probably our least favourite city... Ever. Yes, we got to walk on the stars, yes we drove Mulholland Drive and yes we saw the Hollywood sign, but LA is a widespread city with small pockets of interesting sights and $10 parking. We meandered along Venice Beach up to Santa Monica Pier and did some serious people watching, but after losing our appetites because of all the overtly overweight locals and scraping the tar off our feet we concluded that 2 days are more than enough in the city.

Driving our Mustang through the desert up to Las Vegas was a treat! We even stopped at a 50s themed diner on the way, filling up on burgers and curly fries in one of their classic booths. We've heard millions of stories about Las Vegas, some love it and others loath it. We absolutely loved it. Bright, loud, unapolagetically pleasure driven and over the top - fabulous! We fed off the energy of the city, and for three nights we didn't get to bed before 03:00! We watched the sun set over the themed hotels from our bedroom window, tapped to Elvis as the Bellagio fountains danced, walked for miles up and down The Strip, stuffed our faces at a seafood buffet, spent some time lounging by the pool and even watched a (relatively) naughty show.

Part of our road trip plan was to visit Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon. One is a magnificent engineering feat, and the other a grand natural wonder - two epic sites in one day, wow! It was quite a drive (part of it on a dirt road), but with the wind in our hair and the sun burning down it was a fun day in the desert :)

Vegas was just fabulous, and we left feeling like we didn't even scratch the surface... We'll be back!

Mustang!

Cool tar pits in the middle of Los Angeles.

Oh yum!! The Farmers Market was such a great place wi

Santa Monica Pier.

Tar feet after walking on the beach, ewe!

"Ys koue Sauvignon Blanc!" South African nogals :)

We found Charlize! This, by the way, is no easy feat as there are thousands of stars - most of which we didn't even recognize...

The Hollywood sign! This (and their local radio station) was my favourite part of LA.

This is supposed to be a salad... In a giant nacho, covered with cheese... Right.

Road Trippin to Vegas! Stopping for diner food is essential, and we loved Peggy Sue's 50s style diner.

We could see The MGM Grand, New York New York, Excalibur, The Luxor and Mandalay Bay from our window on the 18th floor - awesome!

Hooters buffalo wings and a bud, super spicy and super tasty! Especially with the blue cheese dip and celery sticks!

The Strip. Its MUCH longer than it looks or than we anticipated... There was some running involved.

OMG, after this amazing seafood buffet of Crab legs, Oysters, Prawns, Sushi (and much much more) I vowed that I would never eat again... That only lasted to 2am when: