Week 30

The next two days we decided to spend at Palm Springs. Although mum and dad claimed that it previously was known for the resort of the rich and famous, all I saw was sand and desert mixed with a couple of Palm trees. On the second day we all went to see Horrible Bosses at the cinema. It was pretty good. Palm Springs just seemed to be a big town with a lot of golf courses. The most amazing thing that I found about Palm Springs, was the unbelievably huge wind farm. There were thousands of wind generators. The next day we left for the last destination of our trip; Las Vegas. Mum and I were once again given the opportunity to choose the accommodation, so once again, we chose luxury. We didn't stay at Caesars palace, or the Bellagio, or any casino hotel. We stayed at the platinum which was awesome. That afternoon, we went for a big walk down the strip. It was odd being able to be right next to a slot machine, but not get into trouble. Unfortunately, whenever I'd walk up to the people handing out flyers they wouldn't give me one, even though there were cards with naked ladies strewn across the entire strip. The next day we had to move to different hotels, but before we did that we went for a drive to the Hoover Dam, and then to the Pinball Museum. The Hoover dam didn't seem too impressive, just more like a big wall. However, when you'd look over the edge, it was like a really steep slide. After going to the dam we headed to the pinball museum and emptied our pockets at the '1 quarter a go' machines. After playing pinball machines for over an hour we headed to the hotel was staying at with one of her friends. Dad and I were just down the road, at the Riviera. The buffet was good and afterwards we spent a long time in the pool, trying to offset the high temperatures of 99 (which is apparently mild). The next day dad and I had a tennis tournament. It was extremely hot and they had to stop play between 1 and 5. I made it to the semi's and dad forfeit. Yesterday we left early to head home. We left at around 9 and arrived at 12 at night. Although it was pretty fun, sitting in a car for 3000 miles isn't something I plan to do again.

Week 29

The first week of our road trip was very hectic, having to travel at least four hours every day. Tuesday we left Louisville and headed to a small town called rifle. We found that the name was very fitting after having dinner amongst trophy bears, mountain lions and an arsenal of weapons. Wednesday we drove to Moab via the long scenic route. There were some spectacular cliff formations along the way, but when we reached Moab we headed up to the Arches national park. The previous drive up was a bit of a spoiler but it was still pretty cool to see. Thursday we then went to Cortez to see the Mesa Verde national park. The main attraction was some remnants of an old building, but for us it was a gigantic walk down and then back up the mountain. It was also in extreme heat, so much so that mum nearly fainted. At this point we'd been in Colorado to Utah and back to Colorado. From Cortez we passed into Arizona and stopped at Holbrook. We weren't very impressed with the accommodation, questioning whether we'd found small stools spread throughout the cabin. The "forest" leading up to it was also misleading. It was a petrified forest with nary a tree in sight. The first of our road trip's major stops was next. We headed out to Grand Canyon to try camping. Despite the long drive out, the view was amazing. We set up our tent just in time before the rain came, but it passed quickly. We spent the rest of our time there (the afternoon) doing some walks around the canyon. We did two walks. The first walk was just along the rim, looking down into the vast chasms. The second was down into the chasm, although we only went to the first lookout due to not having water or sunlight. We also got some firewood and tried to make some light for us to use. After getting up at 5 in the morning, we packed up the tent and headed out to Kingman for our last day in Arizona. That Sunday was one of the days that were assigned to Mum and I for the accommodation. We decided to live in Luxury.

Week 28

This week is basically a rest week before heading out for our big road trip. We didn't do much, just a couple of things. Dave (neighbor), dad and I went for a round of golf and mum went for another walk with Jeanie, but the remainder of the week was lazing around. The exception was that on Monday night we were invited over for an Independence day party with the neighbors. Afterwards we walked down to see the fireworks which were really cool; especially since all the people there let their own off. It was like a competition for the best fireworks. We headed out for our road trip the next morning.

Week 27

This week was the cruise. The cruise was generally a sit down for a week holiday. A large amount of food was consumed and there was a lot of drinking while many cruise patrons volunteered their answers to the many trivia and 'game' shows available. Two of the days we spent entirely at sea scoffing at the many people running to the rare sightings of whales. The cruise ship had a circumference of half a kilometer and was packed with 2 golf driving cages, 3 shuffleboard courts, 2 ping pong tables, and lots of restaurants, bars, and buffets; and small rooms. As I said before, the best part about our room was that we had an awesome janitor. On one of the later days we went and explored some of the glaciers but was pretty uninteresting, 1 seal (says dad) and barely any (visible) ice. The first day after departing, was at sea. For that day I managed to win the ping pong competition. Unfortunately, on one of the later days, all the adults found out and there were platoons of people wanting to play. I got to the semis, but then a Chinese man who had his own ping-pong bat in a case destroyed me, while dad also got obliterated by his son. Throughout the cruise there were other events like trivia, shuffleboard tournament (which mum and I won), and lots of other things which earned you points. We collected 30 points and were given a t-shirt, water bottle and a deck of cards. That was basically the routine on-board the cruise ship; sleep, eat, play, eat, drink, eat, sleep... While on land we tried to do as much walking as we could. We travelled up two very steep mountains, shopped, and walked some more. The first town we went to was Ketchikan. There wasn't much there, not even shops. The only thing we could find to do was go for a hike up the Deer Mountain trail. It was wet and rained at the end, but once we walked a mile to the viewing platform we had a pretty good view of the town, the numerous cruise ships, and sea planes. The second village we went to was the capital of Alaska, Juneau. There we undertake another strenuous walk up the mountain. It seemed much harder, probably because of the stress (especially on the knees) from the last walk. At least once at the top there was a tram that took you back to the bottom. The third, and last place in Alaska, that we topped at was Skagway. Although we didn't do much that regular tourists would do, we went to some show called "Days of '98". I didn't like it very much, but they called on someone from the audience to help; he was the star of the show. Other than that we bought a couple of souvenirs from the shops. We got a hand crafted totem, mum bought an Ulu knife, and we got some dolls and a book. The only other place we stopped was Prince Rupert in Canada, where we bought some Canadian dollars and went to Safeway. Other than that the remainder of the cruise was eating, drinking, sleeping. The next day we spent at sea, doing just that. We also had a day in Seattle. We went to one of the museums which had an exhibit on fears. I did the falling, loud noises,& electricity displays but reaching my hand into the black box filled with cockroaches, scorpions and tarantulas was out of the question. From there we went to the airport and caught our plane back to Denver. Our first excursion of America. We got home and slept well, and rested on Sunday.
PICTURES ARE ON SEPARATE PAGE: "CRUISE"