Viva Las Vegas and howdy Houston...

Day 3

After conking out the previous night, I found myself woken by my alarm at 9am. I tried to get up, but I knew it wasn't gonna happen. I ended up getting out of bed, going to the door, putting up the "Do Not Distub" sign and climbing back into my bed. Next thing I knew, it was 12:30pm. I had already lost the morning, but in the city that never sleeps, this was hardly an issue.

This day was quite relaxed as I explored the various hotels, casinos and shopping complexes along the strip. Lunch was a buffet at Wynn which did not even compare to the Bellagio one, but it was still good. I eventually found myself at the new retail outlet mall near the end of the strip called Fashion Show, where I ended up buying myself a navy blue Tommy Hilfiger suit for only $280USD. Everything was on sale (65% off) because of the July 4th sales, and I scored a further $25 discount from the salesman because I'm awesome! New suit in hand, I trekked it back to the hotel, trying as hard as possible to avoid venturing outdoors to the blistering heat. Word of advice: many hotels have trams/monorails that connect to each other, as well as side entrances which are relatively close to side entrances of neighbouring hotels. Use these and you should be able to minimise your time in the heat.

Over, on and in the Grand Canyon...

Day 2

When I previously left off, I was getting ready for my Grand Canyon tour. I had managed to find this tour online and it happened to also be partnered by Qantas so I could claim frequent flyer points - win! It was $350 though, but hey, you gotta splurge when you're on holiday. Anyways, I had a quick nap and was up at 5:30am, ready to be picked up by the tour company (breakfast was some good ol' Cruskits that I had brought from Oz).

After some paperwork and reshuffling of people onto coaches at the tour office, we were on our way! First stop was Hoover Dam, a magnificent architectural feat on the border of Arizona and California - too bad that it wasn't full, but when you're in a desert, you're glad for whatever amount of water you have. Annoying thing happened there, a woman refused to take a photo for me. Who does that?! And it's not like she didn't know how to because she was using her own phone to take photos. After fuming and raging silently at her, I found a much nicer (and more normal) person who helped me out. After a few quick photos, we were back on the road.

Hayden does the USA...

So it's been a while since I last posted. About three and a half years since I returned from my amazing three month stint backpacking across Europe. I thought I should continue documenting my travels, once again for those interested and for myself to read when I'm old and reminiscing about my worldly adventures. I realise now that I should have documented my awesome road trip from Adelaide to Melbourne in Australia earlier this year, but I just completely forgot about this blog. I will really endeavour to update this whenever I have a worthy adventure anywhere.

Anyways, onto this current chapter of travel. The catalyst for all this was my cousin Ginny's wedding in Houston, Texas. It had been a while since I had seen a lot of the family overseas so I took this trip as an opportunity to see everyone as well as travel the US a bit more having never ventured outside of California. Long story short, I booked my tickets, and as usual, left most things to the last minute, and would wing the rest as I went.