The UNLV Runnin' Rebels

For the first half of our trip the NBA lockout remained unresolved, and it seemed unlikely that we would get to see a game. Our next best option was the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association), and we went to a University of Nevada Las Vegas home game on our last night in Sin City.

College basketball, Vegas-style

UNLV Runnin' Rebels

The Division 1 team is currently ranked 18th and easily defeated the Canisius Golden Griffins. It was great fun to watch and a great atmosphere to soak up, but the level of basketball wasn't awe-inspiring and the Wildcats would have taken them down easily. Daniel devoured some stadium junk food and gleefully added a Rebels t-shirt to his ever-growing collection.

Grand Canyon by Helicopter

The Grand Canyon is a tourist mecca, and over five million visitors make what can only be described as a pilgrimage to it each year. We cheated and took a helicopter from Las Vegas. The night before hadn't ended until 0200 so when our 0600 transfer to the airport turned out to be a stretch limousine it barely eased our pain.

Transfer

Sitting up the front of the helicopter as we made our way across Nevada and Arizona and into the western side of the Grand Canyon was amazing. Unfortunately, though, the glare of the early light made it hard to see at times as we flew in the direction of the sun. We landed at the bottom of the Canyon, on land owned by the Hualapai people. A champage breakfast was provided for us to enjoy as we took in the incredible view.

It cost us an arm and a leg (both Daniel's), but it was an incredible and very easy way to see one of the greatest natural wonders of the world. In hindsight, I think we may have missed out on the true Grand Canyon experience, but that story comes later.

Viva Las Vegas

A more appropriate slogan would be 'Hasta la Vista, Vegas,' but even that suggests we'll be back. We won't. People we meet are always asking us what our favourite place or experience has been so far.  It's an impossible question, so we just say that we've loved everything except Las Vegas. Nobody has yet been surprised. I find myself not really wanting to waste words on it, and dot-points are really all I can be bothered with.

• We stayed at Planet Hollywood, where every room is themed around certain pieces of the memorabilia they've collected over the years. Our original room was a Mary-Kate and Ashley room (creepy), but on our second day we moved into a Baywatch room. For the next three nights we slept next to David Hasselhoff's red jacket and shorts (creepier)... 
• PH is, of course, also a casino, and the whole place is a head trip. The rooms are badly lit, presumably so you yearn for the bright lights of the casino floor. All the entrances and exits to the hotel take you through the casino itself. I suspect even the smallest details are calculated decisions - for example, none of the casinos have automated doors, but instead heavy glass ones that take a lot of energy to manually open.
• The Bellagio fountains were incredible. Equally incredible was the chocolate fountain inside.
• The strip is confusing to navigate and awash with hustlers, selling everything from home-recorded mixtapes to women.
• Alcohol is free while you are gambling - all you have to do is tip your scantily-clad cocktail waitress. We had a couple of well-watered evenings during which Daniel demonstrated exactly why the casinos give you free drinks. There appeared to be a inversely proportional relationship between his blood alcohol level and the amount of money left in his wallet.
• Daniel did, however, manage to win (recoup) $140 on a slot machine from a free $5 credit and $1 of his own hard-earned money.
• We went to a show called the Tournament of Kings, in which Fabio lookalikes jousted and fought with swords. While we watched we drank beer and ate whole chickens with our hands.

Ugh. I can't even be bothered putting up photos. Apologies for the particularly uninspiring post, but I feel dirty even just remembering all this stuff, let alone writing it down.

Things We Wish We Hadn't Eaten #4: Junk Food

We discovered an anomaly at Burger King (Hungry Jacks) that captures the essence of America and sums up its many problems. Daniel ordered a double cheeseburger at a cost of $1.29 and I had a single cheeseburger at a cost of $1.59. Yes, that's correct (but so so wrong in so many ways) - a single cheeseburger in America is thirty cents MORE EXPENSIVE than a double cheeseburger. Go figure. Daniel says I should just order a double and remove one of the patties, but I refuse to on principle.

We actually haven't been eating much fast food, even though it seems to be somewhat of a local delicacy over here. It's true that America has an obesity problem - let us show you why.

1. McRib. This McDonalds favourite only appears sporadically and is met with much rejoicing. Never mind that it's not sold in Australia because it contains a chemical that is used to make gym mats springy. This didn't seem to bother Daniel the chemist.

You may be able to tell that this photo was taken some kilograms ago

The belly of the beast

Did you catch the look of bliss on his face? The amount of food on that tray is due to another fast food curiosity - cheeseburger meals at McDonalds only come with two cheeseburgers. Mind-boggling.

2. Cheetos. Daniel called these 'poor people food' but proceeded to demolish a bag the size of an average American trailer-park home. We were at the top of Hurricane Ridge, up in the Olympics, with a spectacular view that reached as far as Canada in some spots. It was freezing cold, windy and there was a sign that said please be careful with your food because it may attract bears. But never fear, Daniel showed more courage than he did when faced with a horse.

Who's the big bear now?

3. Cinema food. What you see below is a medium popcorn combo. The scale isn't particularly apparent in the photo, but the bucket of popcorn was the size of Danny's abdomen. HUGE. Goodness knows what a large would have looked like.

A medium popcorn combo

The City of Angels

One of the most amazing things about touring America is seeings familiar sights for the first time. We've come across so much incredible stuff that we'd never dreamed of seeing, but the sights we recognise and feel we know are equally awe-inspiring. Pop-culture and the entertainment industry have made this country so ubiquitous that we sometimes feel like we've been here before, and nowhere is this feeling present like in Los Angeles.

We truly had a perfect day here, unexpectedly and mostly by chance. We hit the freeways at 0730, and being a Sunday morning it kind of felt like we were the only people in LA. Then the Boulevards - Santa Monica, Sunset and Hollywood, with Rodeo Drive thrown in for good measure. Our destination was the base of Runyon Canyon - a Hollywood Hills "hiking" spot popular with all local sorts including celebrities and the actual real housewives of 90210. Why this place isn't on more "must-do in LA" tourist lists, I don't know. It's got to have one of the best views of the Hollywood sign, at the very least. The trails have a reputation for kicking one's bottom, but we didn't find them too bad at all - either we're surprisingly fit at the moment or we took the path in the easier direction (no prizes for guessing which). It had rained the night before, which cleared out the fog and meant that the view from the top took in most of Los Angeles. And Los Angeles is one behemoth of a city.

View from the top of Runyon Canyon

As seen from the Canyon

When we got back to our car we realised just how close we were to the touristy part of Hollywood and decided to walk in and have a look around - we figured we at least needed to see the pavement stars. Much to our amusement, we stumbled across the premiere of Happy Feet 2 outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre. It was 1030 by this point, and the red carpet (actually ice blue) had been set up and people were lining up along the barricades. We were torn between excitement and embarrassment -  would never have made an active effort to go and see something like that, but when in Rome... Most of the cast turned up - Sofia Vergara, Pink, Robin Williams, Hank Azaria, Common, Elijah Wood, and we had Billy Bob Thornton thrown in for good measure. At the very least it made for exceptional people watching. We weren't the only Aussies around - Ruby Rose (MTV) was in the press line.

Mayhem

So very L.A...

Pink

The roads were much busier by lunchtime, and we crawled home through Beverley Hills and Bel Air behind many a Maserati. We ditched the car and walked down to Venice Beach, through the Venice Canals, about twenty minutes on foot from our accommodation in Marina Del Ray.

Venice

 It really is a place like no other. There aren't words - or I'm going to need some time to come up with them. Muscle Beach, "medical marijuana" dispensaries with "doctors" in bright green scrubs, basketball courts, handball courts, beach volleyball courts, skate park, circus school, freak shows (both intended and not).

Venice Beach Skate Park

We walked all the way up the beach to Santa Monica Pier (3 miles/4.8kms) and got there roughly half an hour before sunset. We won't inflict any more sunset photos on you - at least not yet - but it was spectacular.

Santa Monica Pier

From the ferris wheel

By the time we'd had dinner and been on the ferris wheel it was dark, our feet were sore and we were freezing cold because we hadn't taken jumpers out with us. Somehow we managed to hail a cab and called it a night.

Things We Wish We'd Never Eaten #3: LA Sushi

When we arrived in LA we decided we should have something decidedly LA for dinner - they're not called California Rolls for nothing. Sushi is really popular in this part of the world, and there happened to be a shop across the road from our hotel. We shared a chicken teriyaki, which was delicious despite being Hollywood appropriate - it was a grilled chicken breast with rice, broccoli and some sort of sauce that did not resemble teriyaki in the slightest.

Sushi spread

As for actual sushi, we ordered a cucumber roll (for Daniel's five-year-old tastebuds), serves of tempura prawn and vegetarian, as well as miso soup. The Vegetarian was unlike any vegetarian sushi I've ever had. It was described as 'lettuce, gobo, avocado, asparagus, pickled radish and eggplant wrapped in brown rice and soy paper.' So LA. I guess we should have known better - it tasted as good as it looks... Make of that what you will.

Vegetarian

Shrimp Tempura

The miso soup was good!? Given that we had Japanese food in Japan, at Narita Airport in Tokyo, on our way to America, it was no real surprise that Californian sushi paled in comparison. Next time we'll stick to chicken teriyaki.

Monterey to Los Angeles

Yet another day of driving California State Route 1 down the Pacific coast; I promise I'll keep this short. There were, however, a few cool things along the way that deserve a mention.

The first part of our drive today took us through Big Sur, where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise out of the ocean. It's wild country and coastline, and we passed over some spectacular bridges.

Bixby Creek Bridge

The other direction

Did you realise that there are groves of gum trees all along the west coast? We first noticed them when checking into a motel in Oregon. Walking up the outdoor stairs to our room, Daniel and I looked at each other and asked "what's that smell?" It was eucalyptus - the tree next to us smelt like home. In Mendocino, Charles (innkeeper) asked us if they had been introduced to America. After some research, it appears they were indeed. First planted in the 1850s on the recommendation of Australian miners, by the 1870s they had proliferated. They're now known as "America's greatest weed."

In less bizarre news, we came across a colony of elephant seals on a beach. Hundreds of them lay upon the sand, huddled together for extra warmth. The males are the ones with trunk-like noses.

Elephant Seals

Do Not Feed Daniel

We arrived in LA mid-afternoon, which was ideal as it meant there was natural light to aid our navigation of the city's infamous freeways. Actually, there were no problems at all - it was surprising.