Destinations USA 08 - DAY 7 - Valley of Fire / Las Vegas

Back from another long delay...

Day 7 was a day trip out of Las Vegas to the Valley of Fire for sight seeing.

We travelled out of Las Vegas to our destination...

What Las Vegas looks like during the day:

The arid landscape outside the city:

Entering the area known as the Valley of Fire, we started seeing rocks and landforms that gave the place it's name...

Red rocks and arid lands:

We stopped by a rock formation named the "Beehives"...

...which was named as such due it's look, which was caused by weathering and erosion.

Loads of beautiful rocks and cool formations there:

A bit of rock climbing too...

...and me taking a photo of my shadow :P

From the "Beehives", we travelled along, and passed an area where the colour of the rocks changed to yellow...

...and travelled along the long winding road through the valley:

Then we stopped by a place known as the "Atlatl Rock", which was a tall rock that had ancient petroglyphs carved on it.

It was quite high up, and I've wondered why the people didn't just carve it at a more accessible level.

There was also more nice looking rocks there...

...and a nice view of the wide desert plain:

Leaving the "Atlatl Rock", we went to look at the "Poodle Rock". How it got it's name is quite obvious:

Another look:

After the "Poodle Rock", we ended our trip to the Valley of Fire, and headed back to Las Vegas for shopping...

I didn't find anything nice to buy, unfortunately, but I think my sister and mother bought more than enough to cover my share.

After returning to our hotel to off-load all the shopped goods, we went out and took in the sights of night-time Las Vegas...

...which was what Las Vegas was all about.

We also saw the light show at old downtown Las Vegas, which wasn't as interesting as I'd thought it to be...

...before we ended the night.

Once again, to be continued.

Destinations USA 08 - DAY 6 (Cont'd) - To Las Vegas

We left Tusayan (and the Grand Canyon) in the late morning, and headed back on the road, towards Las Vegas. Most of the remaining part of Day 6 was spent travelling...

Leaving the highlands, the snow on the ground gradually disappeared.

At lunch, snapped this:

Post lunch, it was pretty much desert again...

Saw some nice vapor trails in the clear skies...

We passed Laughlin again...

... and continued through the desert through the rest of the afternoon.

We arrived at the outskirts of Las Vegas just before sunset, and visited the Ethel M's Chocolate factory (where they made M&Ms and such)...

Nothing much there, as the factory itself was closed...

Going into Las Vegas, we went to our hotel, Hooters, to put down our stuff, then went across the road to MGM Grand...

At MGM, be passed a cool looking bar...

... and had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe...

... before we went to watch a performace called "KA"

It was a really great show, by Cirque de Soleil. Too bad that they didn't allow photos inside...

After the show, it was back to the hotel for some sleep (maybe not some of the adults, who preferred the Casinos of Vegas)

To be continued...

Destinations USA 08 - DAY 6 - Grand Canyon

Continuing on once again...

Day 6 started really, really, early, as we were going to the Grand Canyon to catch the sunrise.

After travelling a short distance by coach, we walked through the snow...

... to reach the South Rim of the Grand Canyon:

The snow and ice on the top of the canyons added a difference to the usual red rocks, but it was as beautiful and wonderful to look at.

More photos from the South Rim:

Sunrise:

The very crowded viewing area:

After we were done at the South Rim, we headed back near Tusayan to take a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon:

Flying towards the canyon...

...and over the canyon:

Then we headed back across the forests, over Tusayan...

...and back to the airfield, thus ending our visit to the Grand Canyon. The visit, I feel, was far too short to fully enjoy and expierence the wonders of the place, so I hope to be back in the future...

Anyway, the rest of the day will be continued in the next post.

Destinations USA 08 - DAY 4 / 5 - Travelling and Shopping

As stated in the title, Days 4 and 5 of the trip consisted of long bus journeys and stops for factory outlet shopping. The somewhat inexact itinerary of the two days was :

LA - Palm Springs - Barstow - Laughlin - Williams - Tusayan

This also meant that we crossed 3 states - California (CA), Nevada (NV), and Arizona (AZ)

DAY 4

Stage 1 - LA to Palm Springs:

Hills and mountains along the Highways...

Shopping stop at Palm Springs: The Desert Hills Premium Outlet Shopping

Stage 2 - Palm Springs to Barstow:

The landscape gets drier as we get closer to Barstow

Shopping Stop at Barstow: Tanger Outlet Shopping

Stage 3 - Barstow to Laughlin:

By the time we left Barstow, the sun had set already, so no photos of this stage... We arrived at Laughlin quite late at night, and had our hotel stop there. (Btw, the hotel had a casino)

DAY 5

Lauglin continued:

Woke up and looked out of the hotel room window to find out that we were next to a river:

Later, I found out that it was the Colorado River :D

Stage 4 - Lauglin to Williams:

As we travelled from Laughlin, the dry, desert landscape continued...

But shortly after having a short break (where the above photo was taken), we started seeing snow on the ground:

Lunch Stop at Williams:

By the time we reached the place where we were having lunch, the snow was a thick layer on the ground:

Stage 5 - Williams to Tusayan:

The name Tusayan might not ring any bells, but this sign does:

We headed further into the Colorado Plateau, into a pine forest:

We arrived in Tusayan in the late afternoon for the Nat Geo IMAX movie on the Grand Canyon (Plus the buying of souvenirs). By the time we headed to our hotel, the sky was turning dark...

To Be Continued...

Destinations USA 08 - DAY 3 - Disneyland

Okay, finally have the time and determination to continue on... several weeks late.

Our 3rd day in the US was Christmas Day, and we went to Disneyland...

(Christmas Tree on Main Street)

There aren't that many photos of our day in Disneyland as we were more intrested in going for as many rides as we could. What I do have includes those of the parade that we watched...

The special Christmas-edition lunch we had...

A photo at tomorrowland as we waited for people who had gone to the washroom...

And one of the castle as we passed by...

After we had dinnner at a pretty classy restaurant...

We ended the day watching the holiday season fireworks at Disneyland...

Destinations USA 08 - DAY 2 - Universal Studios

Okay, continuing on...

After Hollywood, we spent the rest of the day at Universal Studios:

We took the Jurassic Park ride:

The Mummy ride:

And watched the 'Waterworld' show, which was full of stunts:

Pyrotechnics:

And a flying wooden plane:

We also watched the usual backstage effects stuff, which didn't allow for photography, so no photos of those.

We visited their Haunted House:

Which was rather fun, because they used real actors to dress up and scare people.

Went for the Simpsons Simulator Ride and met the Simpsons:

By the time we were done with that and went for the terminator show/simulator thing, night had fallen (It was just before 5pm only). We sat around, had dinner (fast food), did some shopping, and watched a performance, before meeting the tour coach and going back to the hotel...

All in all, a very typical day at a Theme Park.

Destinations USA 08 - DAY 2 - Hollywood

On the morning of the second day of the trip, we saw the famous Hollywood sign:

Looked at the area outside the Kodak Theatre (Where the Oscars are held):

The literal 'Red Carpet':

And we walked the Hollywood Walk of Fame (a little bit anyway):

Some of the "Stars" that I saw:

and...

That's all for now... will continue on the rest of Day 2 in the next post.

Destinations USA 08 - DAY 1 (Continued)

For anyone wondering why day one seems so long, it because we flew across the International Date Line, and travelled back in time (Yes, really!). Our plane took off from Singapore at 10am (SG time), and landed in Los Angeles at 11am (LA time), on 23 Dec 08, which meant that our 17 hour flight only took one hour :)

Anyway, continuing on the main poin of the post...

From the airport, we went to our hotel:

Yes, we wondered why the signage for the hotel looked wierd, but did not find out until a little later that they were replacing it:

After several hours rest, we went for dinner:

and celebrated my mum's birthday:

Okay, end of Day 1.

Destinations USA 08 - DAY 1 - To the USA

I finally have some time to start the 'photojournal' for the Dec 08 US Trip...

And we begin at the airport:

Our flight was SQ 12, and we had a very short stop-over in Tokyo. We flew into Tokyo just in time for sunset, where we were able to see the silhouette of Mt. Fuji in the distance:

(Mt. Fuji is the one on the right)

Transiting in Tokyo:

From Tokyo, it was another 10+ Hrs before we arrived in Los Angeles (LAX). We flew in from the Pacific, over some mountains:

(I presume that they're part of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, but I'm not certain)

We arrived almost an hour early, but the airport could not find a place for our plane, so we had to wait for nearly 30 minutes on the plane before we could disembark...

But we finally did :)

LAX Control Tower:

Will continue in next post...

USA Photos...

I've been back from the US for a week now, and I'm still not done sorting out the US photos... Will upload some here soon, once I'm done being busy with work and other random bits of stuff.