Day 10, 11 and 12: CA

So this was it, we finally came to the furthest point west of our trip... California! We stayed in Buena Park near Anaheim and about 30 minutes away from downtown L.A and the first place we head to in the morning was Hollywood... the historical venue for all thing U.S. cinema
Hollywood Blvd. greeted us with familiar looking palm trees and the famous "Walk of Fame"




























This place was awesome, filled with street performers, waves of people and haha what do you know... our friend from Bikini Bottom... pleasant surprise :)




















Don't forget also our Vietnam War Veteran, John James Rambo... Mugi got a little taste of action with the man himself :)















We visited this wax museum and my favorite celebrity is of course my homeboy Jackie... haha i don't think this wax figure looked chinese enough but I figured it was Jackie only when i saw Owen Wilson and figured that this was from Shanghai Noon :)















And of course, trip to Hollywood will not be complete without a trip to the Chinese Theater where the famous celebrities had their hand and footprints resided. My man Will Smith was there where we stood :)















So that's that, we did our minimum requirements for Hollywood and then head to downtown L.A. There's really nothing much around in downtown... except that I got to meet my Kenya Mission 2007 teammates Susan n Will!














But we went to this little district called Little Tokyo... where a population of Japanese American resides and a tourist attraction now...




















Almost all of the buildings are replica of what you would find in Japan, with authentic Japanese food and rare Japanese gifts and souvenirs to household items only you can find in Japan :)
















Left our mark...




















We didn't miss to visit Huntington Beach, the famous surf city of US!















Being a beach boy myself, I love this place! I would love to live here and spend the rest of my life chilling here..















We went at kinda the wrong time though... the wind was chilly and water was freezing. Bummer.. couldnt really swim in the pacific ocean but we still had fun at the beach















Mugi tried to pull Jessey into the cold water :)















Topped off our trip to Cali with a meal at In n Out... the fast food place everyone has been hyping about...














And I tell you, this was the best fast food meal i've ever had! If you ever get a chance to visit the west coast, try In n Out!!!! i join the ranks :)

Day 7,8,9 Las Vegas, NV

The Vegas tagline is "whatever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" well, I just couldnt do that :) Day 7,8,9 of our trip we spent in Vegas, we saw and experienced so many things that I just have to tell it to everyone. Everything about Vegas was just amazing.. from the view and hotels on the strip, each hotel lobbies are unique and has a theme of its own, to the craziness and sinfulness of lifestyle there its a must visit place in your "bucket list" (hint: the movie bucket list)
So the main road of Vegas or Las Vegas blvd. or they call it "the strip" is alive 24/7.. whatever time you come out, it's always bright as day and the sound and sight of the strip just unlike anything we've ever seen before. truly an amazing experience...

There's this hotel called New York New York (ring any bell?) which takes on the theme of.. you know where.. with replicas of the statue of liberty, Brooklyn bridge, empire state bld., chrysler blg and almost any landmark and distinctiveness of the great city of North America and the world.











































Across from it is a hotel and casino... well every hotel in the strip has a casino in it :) ... called MGM grand.. with a huge lion stucture after the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie studio company (remember the lion that pops out before every tom n jerry cartoon? and roars? hehe) and there's even a pair of real lion inside the hotel for display.. awesome! mugi n vic went to the David Copperfield Grand Illusion - according to them it was pretty mind-blowing :)

Then there's this hotel called Paris... complete with miniature version of Eiffel Tower and Arc de triomphe :)














The hotel beside ours is called MandalayBay... with a tropical (south east asian) theme - there's even a 12000 gal of saltwater tropical fish tank in the hotel.















Then there's Bellagio... with the impressive fountain display... check out the video- it was amazingg!

















The Monte Carlo, with the largest casino on the Strip...



















And Caesar's Palace...















Of course,the main reason why people go to Vegas is $$$... me n mugi (vik n jessey still underage) decided to play a little slot machine and blackjack machines... You're not gonna believe what I did... at one point, I was smokin hot on the blackjack machine and this is how much I got after I investe $20...














See, before you say anything, this machine only bets $1, $2 and $5... so haha earning $60 was pretty crazy!
Until... my greediness destroyed me!! I wanted to play more and I ended up losing all $80!! how pathetic :<

In the morning we went to the Stratosphere, the tallest observatory tower in the US. What's so special about this tower are the 3 thrill rides on top of this tower... yes 100o feet above the ground! Its scary enough to be on thrill rides on the ground imagine 1000ft above ground! Mugi n Jessey went on the Big Shot, the highest thrill ride in the world!

































Yess, I admit that I was dead scared to ride the rides... but i took a video instead of the XScream at 866 feet... which dangles the passengers on the cliff... see it for yourself :)



Finally, the place we stayed for 1 night in Vegas... its called Luxor and its theme was the pyramid of Giza














Our room for the night...















The view from our hotel patio... amazing... all the small squares opposite me are the rooms... in pyramid shape.. the small pyramid thingy down there was the Imax virtual reality theater
















View outside of our room - Excalibut Hotel, medieval theme...














That night, we got our appetite satisfied with the Pharoah's Pheast buffet at the hotel...













































So in my case, whatever happened in Vegas didnt stay in Vegas...but you wouldnt know :)

Day 5 and 6 - Phoenix, AZ and Grand Canyon

Day 5 - We left El Paso after a night there to continue our journey to Phoenix, Arizona. FYI, during the wild west era, El Paso attracted gamblers, gunfighters, thieves, cattle and horse rustlers, murderers, priests, Chinese railroad laborers, prostitutes, and entrepreneurs for its perfect climate and green valley. El Paso was dubbed as the "Six Shooter Capital" due to its great remoteness and lawlessness. El Paso hired a town marshal with rough reputation, Dallas Stoudemire, who was known to shoot first and ask questions later. (thanks wiki!) . This is a picture of current day El Paso - flat land and a pretty big town, i wouldnt mind living there except its in the middle of the desert.

left El Paso to Phoenix, Arizona. It was certainly a once in a lifetime experience to be driving in the desert with nothing around and the next nearest exit is like 20 miles or more ahead, speed limit of 80 mph and awesome backdrop...

we crossed new mexico and this is one of the stop/souvenir shop...















In our stay overnight in Phoenix, well actually our lodging was in Mesa, Az we saw the movie Hitman. It was alright, decent action scenes but lacking in plot development and story.
Day 6 - 4 hr 30 mins drive to South Rim of Grand Canyon. Again, we encountered some pretty awesome scenery like this snow-capped mountain...














Finally, my dream came true...always wanted to see and experience myself one of thr natural wonders of the world... 227 miles long and 10 miles wide (on average)!
We parked our car and stepped outside making our way to the observatory deck....

























































The view was breath taking! It was so unreal and even you can see the photos of us looked like someone 'photoshoped' the background :) But seeing is believing eh? Our initial plan was to have a picnic on one of the site and having dinner looking down the canyon... but we didnt take into account that the weather would be freezing!! at one point we were dead serious about having a grill outside but i think we would've had hypothermia... my nose is still running as i'm typing this... anyways, what we ended up doing.....















yea... we actually grill our food in the bathroom of our motel room... number 1- the weather was too cold thus we didnt wanna fo it outside... and number 2 - coz we wanted to do it haha...
see ya grand canyon.. Las Vegas here we comee!!

Day 4 - Fort Worth TX, drive to El Paso

We drove to Fort Worth stock yards which was like an old-west cowboy town with souvenir shops, dining, historic monuments and 'cowboys' and alike. This place is named as a national historic district for it being a place for livestock exchange during the cowboy era. Now its pretty much a tourist attraction...

We got opportunity to meet up with some real cowboys and livestocks. This guy down here is Charles with his horse "Texas Ranger"..

This texas longhorn is called "Big Jake"

Apart from being a historic district, Ft Worth Stock Yards is also famous for its cattle drive daily where cowboys take their herds on a walk around the district...

Finally it was time to say goodbye to our trip to Dallas/Ft Worth. Our drive to El Paso was 9 hours long covering around 600 miles. The first 300 miles was trees and crops while the last 300 miles was desert with plains. We got to El Paso around 11 pm at night. To our surprise, El Paso wasn't like what we had in mind at all; we thought that this town would be a mexican town with nothing but we were greeted by thousands of light bulbs shining visible from 100 miles away (on the freeway). Our journey to the west coast will resume after a night of rest here. Tomorrow, drive to Phoenix, Az before our highlight trip to the Grand Canyon... until then...