San Francisco, Las Vegas and Utah

After seeing "nightmare on elm street" we got our stuff together and said our farewells to Catherine and LA. We caught our bus with little problems and after our many strenuous rides in South East Asia there was little to complain about. However, our bus arrived at San Francisco at 5am instead of 9am. This left us with alot less sleep than we intended and stranded at San francisco bus station till stores started to open. After trying to sleep on the bus station floor to kill time and get some valuable sleep, we were soon told to get up of the floor or leave. Therefore we decided to hit the city and head down to the piers until we could be picked up by Ian (a Grieve family friend). With it still rather early in the morning there was little to do but eat and sit in an american diner burning time till eventually we were kicked out. As things started to open and no hope of being picked up by Ian until 4ish, we decided to hit alcatraz an island which had served as a high security federal prison until the 1960's. After checking out the cool views from the island and the eerie prison cells we headed back to mainland for some food and to meet up with Ian. We eventually met up with Ian, after a long day walking up and down the piers countless time, who drove us over the famed Golden Gate bridge and to his supposed small suburban town (population 60,000) just outside San Francisco. It was not to hard to settle down in with the family who kindly put us up for the night. Especially with comfortable seats, tv and a basketball court just a short walk away. The next day we slept in till midday due to a nackering day before and quickly caught a ferry in to San Francisco to see the rest of the city. After catching a tram through the centre of the city we spent the rest of the day walking around and just checking out the sites. Seeing a gay rights march, China town and little Italy. Catching a ferry ride back we spent the remainder of the evening chilling back at Ian's and getting ready to wake up at 4am for an early plain flight.



Las Vegas and Utah

We arrived at the airport early in the morning and headed to the United Airways check in desk. After giving our details we were told that our information could not be found. As we all started to panick and think maybe we had booked some dodgy flights on the internet we look slightly closer at our tickets. To our great relief they said US Airways and not United, obviously it was to early in the morning for our brains to function. The flight seemed almost 10 minutes with me passing out as soon as i sat in my seat. However, we were all excited to be waking up in vegas and caught a shuttle to Hotel/casino Excalibur on the Strip. With us waiting to be picked up by Grievzy's Uncle "George Grieve" and age being a major issue we didn't spend to long in any casino. We walked down the strip with all our baggage (looking a bit ridiculous) and checked out the famous casinos such as Caesar Palace, where we got a bite to eat, and ended up at venetian hotel/casino watching some basketball playoffs. George Grieve then picked us up in his chevrolet suburban and drove us all the way to Zion national park in Utah. We checked out some of the views by car and then procceded to find some food and a lodge for the night. Waking reasonably early for a big day of sight seeing and trekking. George guided us into Zion national park and took us on a moderate trail to Angel point. However, with George telling us some true stories of men getting hands trapped under bolders and cutting them off to survive, i was a bit skeptical of what lay ahead. But the trek proved fun and the view at the end was spectacular. We continued on through the national park and saw more impressive sights with my poor english being little justice for what we saw. With some great photos we had to get moving as a long drive lay ahead, if we were to get to Bryce Canyon (another national park in Utah). We arrived at Bryce National park and drove round checking the views which just seemed to get better. With another big day ahead of us we decided to find a place to stay which turned out to have an all you can eat buffet. Like usual we tried to make the most of our money and stuffed ourselfs to the point where we could hardly moved. We woke up the next day to our great suprise with heavy snowfall. This left us skeptical if we would be able to trek round Bryce National and check the famous hoodoo rock formation. Hanging around the hotel the weather started to clear,thankfully. Therefore allowing us to proceed with a quick trek around the hoodoo rocks. The weather continued to change from snow to sun which made the trek even more astonishing along with the alien rock formations. There was once again a big drive ahead of us, so we started our drive to arches national park taking turns driving the chevrolet...sweet. Arriving there every hotel/motel appeared to be full and after a worrying period we found a single spare room. Tomorrow we have a day of seeing the sights of arches national park.