Bad boy bad boys whatcha gonna do?

After the late night cruising the strip with Matt, I was hoping for a lie in today, but unfortunately that didn't happen when I was woken up by Marcus and his daily morning dose of violent movies and cartoons (cow and chicken I believe).
Today we decided would be a good day to go test out our temporary 2nd amendment right, so after some discussion we decided to drive to "the gun store", and I'm glad we did since it was miles away! - We entered in to the store rather gingerly, all of us too nervous to actually go talk to any of the clerks, I eventually plucked up the courage and we were pointed in the direction of the gun range. Where we were greeted greeted by a massive guy kitted out in body armour who proceeded to talk us through the vast collection of guns we could fire (obviously being from the UK our experience with guns is limited). We agreed that it would be best to 'start' with a pistol, with me and Matt choosing a Beretta 9mm, Marcus a revolver and Rob of course choosing to ignore this and start of with a Tompson sub machine gun. After the first round in the gun range Matt decided he'd had his fill of guns, so myself Marcus and Rob stepped up to the plate again, with us all deciding to try the pistols, oh and Rob being Rob deciding to shoot an M249 (SAW). - Oh and we were also given rather snazzy targets to shoot at, ranging from stereotypical terrorist, through to gang members and zombies. Apparently the gun range guy was impressed with my ability to kill the terrorist hijacker with a head shot and spare his helpless victim (whom I eventually shot in the head anyway).

After this three of us hit the strip for reasons I can't talk about. I was then ditched (possibly accidentally) by the guys near Krispy Kremes so I went for a little wander (and gamble) and ended up talking to some Vegas locals and I found out where famous welcome to Las Vegas sign is located, I then wandered back to the hotel to find the guys were waiting for me to go get some food, but I'd arrived with takeaway from Panda Express (as I'm so sick of burgers).

Our final night in Vegas was definitely quieter than the previous one, but still a good day - Marcus was also particularly excited when the lady on the Popeyes chicken commercial used the word 'fanny' - which is currently his favourite Americanism. (oh and were still playing the Marcus wake up game, though he may be getting more annoyed with it :-D )


Overall we all enjoyed the different aspects of Vegas, but it was a lot to take in in such a short space of time and agreed it would be good to go back on a more extended visit. - wish I had picture of my chip stack in from the first night, good times.

First Full Day In Vegas

Once again a retrospective update, but this time because we were out so late!
We all woke up around 9 and had to start the usual fashion of a big breakfast down in a restaurant in the casino. Then we hit the strip! First stop was New York New York for the roller coaster and then a general look up and down the strip from the outside.

After this we split up so I could have a sleep as I wasn't feeling too well so Rob and myself went back to the hotel where he went gambling and I had a nap (aww). James and Marcus stayed on the strip where they done some gambling and Marcus had fun winning smile tickets and came back with his glorious prize of a spiderman basketball.
All back at the hotel we watched Madagascar for Marcus, or that was the excuse I'm sure we all wanted to watch it. But after that we headed out for an In n' Out burger because how could we resist the best burgers in America? Then we ended back up on the strip where we watched the fountains outside the Bellagio which was cool, then visited a few casinos before Marcus and Rob headed back off to the hotel and myself and James headed off along the strip some more.




Among the ones we visited were Cesar's Palace, the Mirage, Ballys, the Flamingo and the Luxor. Somewhere along the line James got the taste for roulette and there was time spent at the tables as well as the slots and a few drinks at the bar. Sometime around 3 we were exhausted so we grabbed a taxi back to the hotel. Then before bed James won back loads of money on the roulette at the hotel and we decided to call it a night.

Death Valley To Vegas

This is a retrospective update as we have had some internet troubles (namely Vegas has no free internet connections anywhere).
Yesterday we all woke up nice and early at 5am and after quick showers we got on the road. After a wrong turning out of the hotel, the only one of the day, we were on the road to Death Valley. We passed through a town called Swansea, population of 3. We started off the day at 7,000 feet in Lone Pine and going through the mountains in to Death Valley we descended down to sea level in a matter of 20 minutes or so.
The scenery was awesome and the roads (after descending) were straight as an arrow and we only saw 3 cars before getting to the small town in the middle of Death Valley.



A stop off there to buy some food and drink we travelled on to the visitors centre which was 190 feet under sea level. So we had fun messing around playing baseball and things "under the sea". After that we turned to the direction of Vegas via the extraterrestrial (ET) highway.

We had to go all around the edge of Area 51 to reach the ET highway and we went through some real deescalate isolated town where we got a lot of "you're not from here" looks when we stopped for food. Eventually we rounded on to the ET highway and were greeted by a thunderous hail and snow storm, so obviously there were some weather experiments going on in area 51! We drove slowly through the storm and actually came out the other side in time to see the sign for the ET highway. We promptly pulled over to have our photo taken by it and saw the little town of Rachel which had spaceships on show.
By this time we were itching to get to Vegas so we continued as quick as we could and while looking over the mountains to area 51 and playing games waking up Marcus as he slept. Then eventually we found I-15 and were soon driving in to Vegas and down the strip. It was one of the most amazing sights ever, just as much as Lake Tahoe and Death Valley just in a different more modern way.

Marcus wake up

Marcus failed wake up
After checking in to the hotel we had a quick drink and gamble but were way too tired to stay awake too long so hit the hay ready to hit Vegas in real style today.

Goodbye Lake Tahoe

Not really an over exciting day today.
As usual woke up and had a big breakfast this time at a restaurant called The Ihop where. After that we went to the tattoo shop, I had misread the sign and it opened at 12 not 11 so we filled up with petrol (or gas as its called here) got some water and some stuff ready for Death Valley. We returned to the tattoo shop which was now open and they were the friendliest people ever, very helpful.

After an hour or so we headed out on the road for a 300+ mile drive with nothing too exciting, except for the AMAZING scenery. So lots of photos.





Arrived in Lone Pine found a motel, went out to eat. Tried the highly rated bourbon burger which was nice but still nowhere as good as In n' Out burger.
Early start tomorrow to catch the sunrise in Death Valley and then on to Vegas!!

Was It 3 Or Was It 4?

We started the day in the usual fashion, with a stupidly over large breakfast this time at McDonalds... Marcus went back for three McMuffins in total (what a fat fanny). Then we headed up to the ski resort of diamond peaks via Carson City (don't ask) and after several hours of deliberating we weighed up the monetry cost, the time cost and the cost of looking like fools on the slopes we decided not to do it. So we were left with the rest of the day to find things to do. We were driving back to the hotel when we came accross a viewing area for Lake Tahoe. We managed to work our way down to the shore of the lake where there were big boulders. The lake was freezing but we all had a good time waching Marcus being a monkey man jumping from one to the other waiting for him to fall in to the freezing lake, which he didn't (I guess some wishes never come true).

After the lake we found that the tattoo shop was closed we came accross the biggest and craziest crazy golf course. All went well around the first of the course of 18 holes so we decided to play the big 28 hole course, what a great idea that was. On the 19h hole (porky pig) James was writing down the scores and it got to what Rob had putted on, he said 3, Marcus said it was 4. All hell broke loose. Arguments between Rob and Marcus that have all turned friendly now, but we still have to joke on if it was a 3 or a 4 (it went down as a 3). Though forever more the incident will be known as golf-gate.
Anyway Rob ended up loosing the game and so had to buy dinner which turned out to be Taco Bell. James and Marcus went a bit crazy and ordered the Grande meals which have ten tacos in each and they proceded to eat 16 between them overall and kept the rest for later. El grande está loco!
We also discovered the welcome to South Lake Tahoe sign (hoorah).
Ended the day with Marcus and Rob in bed by about 7 so myself and James decided give them some privacy (see pic) and go have a drink around 9:30 only to find out that all the bars near us close at 9. No joke they close at 9! We ended up walking about 45 minutes to the Hard Rock Cafe to have a quick beer (and gamble) and ending up buying more hard rock tshirts.

Voice in my head

I have writers block after xxx miles of driving so this is gonna be mostly pictures!
After missing out on 'the rock' yesterday we were up at the crack of a sparrows fart to catch the first boat to Alcatraz, and you could tell it was gonna be another scorching day in the city by the bay. M2t2 was dissapointed he couldn't take his lucky charms on the island, but we promised to get him another box, as well as some more mountain dew (his new addiction).
Gentlemen welcome to The Rock! - was an awesome place. We enjoyed the official audio tour as well as the Sean Connery audio tour provided by me and Marcus! - Don't tempt me! Retired of course! Losers always whine about their best, winners go home and f**k the prom queen.
We then picked up our motor and headed out of San Francisco (which is a truely awesome place to drive, it seems like barely organised chaos, but it all sort of works) over the Golden Gate, which was f**king awesome.

Our first Walmart.

Then after several wrong turns due to getting directions for the type of map you'd pick up from burger king we made it to South Lake Tahoe, which is freezing but is awesome to see some snow, and mountains Gandalf!

day two san francisco

its m & m (marcus to the max) turn to account the day. we started today like any other day with a film filled with mindless violence early in the morning. AHH america. after the car explosions and hardcore one liners we planed the day. so on the top of the agenda saigon sandwich for james:) he sure loves that rat meat. But on the way back we stuck to streets that where well lighted and lacked pimps. ah the getto it was all good.

next we set off to the apple shop which mat couldnt find the day earlier, a look around virgin and a break sitting in union square all nice and civilised. After all that we took a long walk to the AT&T Giants stadium wher on the way we where approached by two attractive ladies who handed matt an intresting leaflet excited about this new prize i snatched it only to be SCIENTOLOGIED!! damn that zenu or zemu depending on your view! stopping off at safeway to make some food purchases, namely a pound of fried chicken (much more than the British measurement of a pound). james got lost and blamed us damn him we did get distraced by lucky charms. After eating it all and finding the stadium we sat out in the sun for an hour and I was set the challenge of taking as many pictures wih animal statues i could starting with the giants seal statue maskot, after hanging around for a couple hours we decided to go get some tickets for the game we where filled with excitement and glee only to be denined at the ticket both as it was only a training day and the game wasnt till the weekend. so me and james went to he store and brought base balls to drown ours sorrows!
next on the agenda we needed to get our selfs some Alcatraz tickets. after a lovely walk in the sun waking by another stunning view of the bay bridge. when we got to the ticket both we where once again denied our tickets. yesterday was more producive wen we didnt plan anything.

After deciding what to do next we remembered Ripleys Believe It Or Not musuem was just down the road so walked and had the best time looking at all the strage things, notably the two headed weasle and the two way mirrors, we now know how to shink heads so backoff!
Coming out of Ripleys we spotted an In n Out burger, after all the recommendations to eat there we all grabbed a double double burger. All the reccomendations were correct.
A short taxi ride back to the hotel where Rob crashed out for the night (at about 6) and James, Matt and myself went to find the comic book store. Got lost, well not lost just missed the turn by a fair few streets. Got there but it was bloody closed on Mondays.
Watched TV, and got a tuna melt sandwich and now back at the hotel eating lucky charms in bed going to get some sleep for an early start ending up in Lake Tahoe. Not a lot that we planned happened today but still had a great day and San Franciso rocks.

San Francisco - First day

First day in San Francisco was awesome, we started out with our 'complimentary' hotel breakfast which was basically stuff from the yellow food group. We then headed downtown stopping on the way at Saigon Sandwich to pick up a vietnamese sandwich, which considering I haven't had one in 4 years was quite an event, and I was not dissapointed (see attached) as it was amazing and alone was worth the hours of travelling. I then took the guys down a semi-dodgy looking street, and they are now all convinced they've been to the 'ghetto', and seen a pimp - so cute (them, not the apparant pimp).
Hit Sears for second breakfast, where we tucked in to waffles and pancakes, and discovered you can never have enough maple syrup, was a great place like a diner with loads of crazy crap on the walls. Full of pancakes we head further up Powell street (with hill's like these makes me wonder why the local population is so fat) and were treated to an awesome view of the city, before heading down to the bay passng through Chinatown and Little Italy (looking for the infamous Apple store) where if I hadn't been so full from breakfast I would of had Dim Sum.We ended up at fishermans wharf, which I know is tourist hell but it had to be done. After we'd explored the WW2 submarine the USS Pampanito we procceded to watch Marcus have the time of his life blowing 40 quarters in the old style amusment arcade.

We ended the day drinking in the Hardrock cafe, enjoying some Long Island Ice teas and Purple Haze's, and btw we were drinking 'fruity' drinks so Marcus wouldn't feel left out while he popped his cherry and enjoyed a raspberry crush. - thank you Matt for the t-shirt, I love it.

but we never did find the Apple Store.

tomorrow we have an evening tour of Alcatraz heheheheh, after i've picked myself up another vietnamese sandwich anyway.

Hell yeah!

It's the final countdown!

Hoorah less than two weeks to go. yay. I seriously can't wait to get away from this hell hole!!!