The Grand Canyon and Vegas baby!!

So we set off from San Diego later than i had hoped around 1pm using the Sat Nav we borrowed from Jo's auntie. I had looked at the route and started in that direction but no the sat nav told me we were going the wrong way...i don't like putting all my faith in something like that but Jo was all for it so we decided to follow it. So after about 5hours of driving and 250 miles to go it was blatently taking us in the opposite direction so we re-programed it and lo and behold nearly 600 miles to go. brilliant! we arrived in flagstaff at about 12.30am after a ridiculous day of driving.
The next day was better, only an hour drive to the south rim of the grand canyon...it was definitely worth the driving! "Spectacular" doesn't do it justice! We couldn't get over the size of the place, over 277miles long!! there was also classic north american wildlife all around us... we saw Condors and Elk but didn't manage to spot any of the 20 mountain lions that live in the park.
That night we stayed close by on the famous route 66 and on the monday we decided to head on to Las Vegas. During the week the casinos in vegas slash the prices of the hotel to try and get people in to the casino so it worked out way cheaper for us to stay in a 4 star hotel in vegas than to stay in a hostel or motel anywhere else! On the way to vegas we drove over the Hoover Dam which was pretty impressive.
After a 4 hour drive we arrived in Vegas! and the stratosphere hotel casino where we had booked to stay for the first 2 nights. its a pretty good view from up there We decided to stay 5 nights in vegas all together because of it being so cheap! We stayed the second two nights in Circus Circus after stratosphere hiked their prices. Both of these hotels are the north end of the famous las vegas strip. Our hotels were nice but some of these were in another world. Not only are they casinos they're shopping malls, theme parks, circus' and stadiums! The venitian has a canal that runs round the outside and through the inside of the shopping mall All the hotels have something unique and extravagant So looking round all these different things takes a long time. We also did a spot of gambling we did quite well really in vegas terms. For most of the time we were up and used our winnings to buy our dinner or pay for activities, but i think we left vegas down $20 between us! Nobody ever wins! We also met some celebs there and of course the man of the moment did i mention this was at madam tussauds? haha. Another iconic vegas sight is the Bellagio hotel fountains, they are brilliant...kind of mesmerizing! It is timed to various songs so changes every time
At the weekend the prices of the room increase to what you would imagine for somewhere like that so we had to leave the hotels and get back to the motels but it was ok...no hotel but ok and still on the strip!
On Saturday morning we left vegas and started the drive to San Francisco. This time we decided to break up the drive and stop somewhere for the night. We drove for around 7hrs through changing weather, we even saw a double tornado a long way off to our right!!! we also saw tumble weeds and oil fields to with in 150miles of san fran and stayed the night in King city. On Sunday morning i drove on to san fran with a very excited Jo as Jo's sister Zoe was arriving in to san fran for a weeks holiday! So we dropped the car off with no problems and waited for Zo at arrivals. For Zoe's birthday Jo managed to book a VERY posh hotel very cheap way back in australia! So we all headed to the Fairmont San Francisco. and the room is AMAZING! two bedrooms and an awesome bathroom, 2 plasma screens etc! . So far san fran is really nice... a bit cooler than the desert but we're getting used to that, and the streets are SO steep
Unfortunately we have to leave the fairmont today and go to a more realistic hotel but im sure it will still be nice!

So thats everything up to now!

Speak to you all soon, Love Rob and Jo xxxxxxxxxx