Honeymoon Recap – Week One

Our first week was fast paced. In a short space of time we did and saw more than we could have imagined.

What we did in the first week:

• Left home on an amazing journey
• Had the flight from hell
• Nearly missed our connection flight to Las Vegas due to the long security lines at LAX
• Had our first ride in a hummer
• Sweated our arses off in the Las Vegas heat
• Went clothes shopping
• We were suspected of using counterfeit money
• Watched the Bellagio Fountain display
• Wipe our room key card
• Drove over Hoover Dam
• Drove through Seligman on Route 66
• Walked around a portion of the Grand Canyon and watched the sunset
• Went out for dinner at 3am
• Gambled in Vegas
• Nearly deafened by a malfunctioning car radio
• Had an encounter with Sea Lions
• Rode around Stanley Park
• Saw Harry Connick Jr in concert
• Saw Killer Whale pods up close
• Viewed Vancouver from the top of the Vancouver Lookout
• Hired a car and drove the Sea to Sky Highway
• Impressed by Shannon Falls
• Drove on the left side of the road by mistake once
• Arrived in Kamloops at the end of week one

Here are some photos of the first week:

Las Vegas

Foyer of the Bellagio

Bellagio Fountain

Grand Cruise – On The Road To The Grand Canyon

First View of the Grand Canyon

Sunset Silhouette

Vancouver Aquarium Jellyfish

Vancouver from Stanley Park

Breaching Orca

Vancouver at Night, from the Vancouver Lookout

Shannon Falls, Sea to Sky Highway

If you would like to read more about the first week, and see some more photos, please have a look at these blog posts.
1. The Journey Begins
2. Welcome To Las Vegas
3. Night Time in Las Vegas
4. Las Vegas – Bellagio Fountain
5. Hoover Dam
6. Seligman
7. Road to the Grand Canyon
8. First View of the Grand Canyon
9. Canyon Storm Panorama
10. The Grand Canyon
11. Grand Canyon Near Sunset
12. Grand Canyon Sunset
13. Kim and her Chipmunk
14. Vegas Lights
15. Up All Night
16. Leaving Las Vegas
17. Welcome To Vancouver
18. Vancouver Aquarium
19. Vancouver Dolphins
20. Harry Potter
21. Stanley Park Ride
22. Harry Connick Jr
23. Vancouver Whale Watching Tour
24. Vancouver Lookout
25. Sea to Sky Highway – Vancouver to Kamloops

One week down, five weeks to go. We still have the Canadian Rockies to travel through, Toronto, New York and the UK. Thank you to all the fantastic people who have been following along with our journey so far. There is a lot more to come so stay tuned.

Leaving Las Vegas

After such a big day at the Grand Canyon, and staying up all night, the little rest we got in bed was heaven. It was just a shame that we had to get up and start traveling again. Kim was feeling quite sick at this point. We think the chicken she had for dinner at 3am was causing it. She didn’t look good and I was worried for her.

To save time and mucking around I had organised a town car to transfer us from our hotel to the airport. Reception rang us when it arrived and said “your limousine was waiting”. I thought he must say that as a general description, but sure enough, our town car had grown into a limousine. That was a very nice way to leave Las Vegas. It was a very short visit, but we can say we have been there.

At the airport we checked in and made our way out to the departure gates via the monorail. When we arrived in Vegas a couple days ago I was a little shocked to see slot machines at the departure gates, but after seeing Las Vegas I can understand it. I took a couple of photos while we waited for our flight. While I was doing that the airline offered upgrades to seating for a small fee. I took them up on the offer for two reasons. One, I wanted to give Kim the most comfortable flight I could manage. Two, I wanted more leg room for myself.

Kim looked shocking for the flight, but she managed to get through it without incident. We were sitting next to a very nice guy (he had the window seat). I saw him as we boarded the plane and knew were sitting next to him. He reminded me of the comic book guy from the Simpsons.

Our flight was to San Francisco, where we would be catching a connecting flight to Vancouver. As we landed in San Francisco we got to see another plane next to us land at the same time. We had never seen anything like that before. We were trailing them as we came into land, but we had more speed. I think they still touched the ground before us by a fraction of a second, but we beat them to the terminal.

Up All Night

You would think after travelling halfway around the world and staying up for will over 24 hours, that we would want to curl up and go to sleep somewhere when we had the chance. Kim and I certainly would have liked to do that, particularly on the drive back to Las Vegas from the grand canyon, but we didn’t get the chance as the rest of the people in the van wanted to watch DVD’s. That was fine, but we had a flight out of Las Vegas early the next morning.

As we drove back to Las Vegas, we both had the idea that we should just stay up and sleep on the plane flight the next morning. We still had to pack and we wanted to see a bit more of Las Vegas before we left. We also wanted to do some gambling. When in Rome, and all that.

I think it was close to 1am when where dropped off at our hotel. We went up stairs and packed our bags so that they wouldn’t be over weight. One of the greatest things we took with us on the trip was a set of travel scales. They were invaluable! My camera bag was always well over weight, but I made it look like it was as light as a feather. (Well that is what I think, but the straps were at their maximum all the time, so I probably wasn’t fooling anyone).

Once we were packed we headed out to have dinner, at 2.30am. I wanted to go to the Venetian just to say I have been there. We were also hopeful of going to Madame Tussaud’s, but I guess wax figures need their rest. It was closed, which I can’t blame them for, but it would have been nice to wander through the exhibit. I imagine the wax figures would be even more freaky at that time of night. We wandered around in the Venetian trying to find somewhere to eat and finally found a place just off the gambling room floor. We had a very delicious dinner at 3am in the morning. As we left we did our high stakes gambling. We put $10USD through a one armed bandit and lost the lot. That was the extent of our gambling.

After having dinner and gambling we still had a couple hours to wait for our flight, and we were both exhausted, so we went back to the hotel and got some sleep. We nearly stayed up all night. We were close.

Vegas Lights

If you have ever driven to the Grand Canyon from Las Vegas you will know that it is a fairly long drive. Google maps is saying about 4.5 hours, but I think George, our guide, drove it in about 3.5 hours. He had a bit of a lead foot. I was sitting in a good spot to see the speedometer and saw some pretty high numbers at times. Thankfully the roads are good and they lend themselves to faster speeds.

Regardless of how fast George managed to drive us back to Las Vegas, it still took quite a while. We had some DVD’s to watch, which made the trip go a little faster. I think one of them was “What About Bob?”. I had seen it before, but it was good to see again. I can’t remember the other movie and neither can Kim. I guess it wasn’t very good? It certainly wasn’t memorable.

To fill in some time, and entertain myself during the drive into Vegas, I started taken long exposure hand held shots out the front windscreen. They aren’t even close to being good, but they were entertaining at the time. I’ve always liked night shots taken handheld so that the motion creates interesting light patterns. I don’t take a lot of them, but these were fun and interesting. These are a few of those shots.

Hoover Dam

When I think of Hoover Dam, my first thought is always of the Penguins of Madagascar. They are very cool! There was a time when I could do a very good impersonation of the Skipper, but for some reason I have lost the knack.

We had to cross the Hoover Dam on our way to the Grand Canyon. We were travelling in a nice sized van which allowed us to stretch out, and I had a brilliant vantage point to take photos as we drove.

Our guide, George, of Grand Adventures, took this very touristy photo of us with the Hoover Dam behind.

We also saw our first of many, many chipmunks here. Kim fell in love with chipmunks, or “Little Charlie’s” as we now call them, during our trip.

Las Vegas – Bellagio Fountain

Bellagio Fountain – Las Vegas September 2010

On our first night in Las Vegas we made our way to the Bellagio. We didn’t gamble. We looked around and had dinner and then did some souvenir shopping. While in the souvenir shop the lady behind the counter eyed us suspiciously and when we went to pay for our things she automatically thought we were using counterfeit money. It was nice to be treated like a criminal on our first night in America.

One of the things I bought was a magnetic money clip. I put all my “non-counterfeit” money, cards and room key-card in the clip. Unfortunately the magnet in the clip wiped the hotel room key-card. Lucky my wife had another card. The clip wasn’t used again after that.

The shot of the Bellagio Fountains was taken as we left the casino. The fountains went off to the music from the Pink Panther, which we quite enjoyed.

Night Time in Las Vegas

Welcome to Las Vegas

We were pretty exhausted after our flight from hell (which the Sydney to Las Angeles flight is now known as). Our experiences in LAX didn’t help matters, but we were extremely pleased to finally be in Las Vegas.

I had organised a chauffeur driven hummer to take us to our hotel. Neither of us had ever been in a hummer, so it was a nice change. Plus we didn’t have to try and get a taxi, which I’m sure would have been easy. But this was our honeymoon so we were living it up, so to speak.

Our chauffeur was Michael and he was wonderful. He had come to Las Vegas for the women and the sex. He couldn’t understand the concept of being faithful to one person for your entire life. I think you could say he was a swinger with the ladies.

On the way to our hotel we stopped and took some cheesy photos in front of the Las Vegas sign. It was here that we felt the full force of the Las Vegas heat. We had just travelled from the very mild temperatures of Tasmania and now we were standing in the 36 degree heat of Las Vegas. We weren’t prepared for the heat and we were paying for it. Thankfully our hummer had air conditioning.

Once we arrived at our hotel I got a photo of Michael with Kim.

The Journey Begins

The first of thirteen flights

I will admit that before this day I had no idea about what to expect on long haul flights. I have since been educated. Before our honeymoon the longest flight I had been on was between Sydney and Auckland, which really isn’t that far, so before we boarded the first plane I was still blissfully unaware of the true horror of international flight.

This was the first of thirteen flights that would take us around the world on a trip of a lifetime. This flight was great, it was over in 50 minutes. However, the next day would bring us the to flight number three which was the long haul flight to LAX from Sydney. The flight was scheduled to take about thirteen hours, but due to a tail breeze we managed it in about eleven. I am extremely thankful for the shortened flight as I’m not sure I could’ve lasted much longer on that flight.

We had grand plan to take some sleeping tablets and sleep for most of the flight. That way we would wake up when we arrived in America and be able to enjoy our first day well rested. Sadly our plans were thwarted by the flight crew and the other passengers, who were all determined to stay awake for a good portion of the flight. As a result we didn’t get any sleep on he plane, which meant we were up for well over twenty-four hours before we passed out in our hotel bed in Las Vegas.

The tight confines of the seats in cattle class, along with the heat and noise made the flight a living hell. It was made worse for me when the guy in front of me decided to put his seat back. I stand 6’3″, so most airline seats don’t have enough leg room even with the seat back in the normal position. With the seat reclined my legs were crushed. That lasted for about nine of the eleven hours we were flying.

Plane journey from hell

The only shining lights of the flight were:
• Landing in Las Angeles
• Talking to some stranger at the back of the plane about a car expo he was attending
• The delicious mud cake dessert we had during one of our meals (I wasn’t going to eat it, but Kim talked me into it and I’m glad she did)