We wanted to see sunrise but somehow we both managed to sleep thorough the alarm and got up at 8am. The past two night have been bitter. We have slept in more clothes than we wear in the day, including wooly hats! We spent all morning and until about 3pm at Grand Canyon. Claire walked some of the trails while I was the shuttle bus, having a bit of trouble manoeuvring. Then it was on the Las Vegas stopping at McDonalds to wash dishes, bodies, eat and change.
Las Vegas was bright, noisy, vibrant and baffling. We went in most of the major casinos. Claire found a quarter and managed to gamble with it for most of the night. We spent Aaron's $5 at blackjack with a dodgy greek/spanish guy and won, then lost.
We eventually left at 3am, hungry, knackered and with blistered feet. We drove to Jean, half-an-hour south and slept.
Wednesday 31st December
Got up really late, 11am, due to partying too much! Amazed to find how warm it was - no wooly hats! Phoned Marcia to get the directions to the party and were on our way to LA! We are partying at Venice Beach for New Year's Eve. (Cool!!).
We stopped briefly at Baker to see the World's Tallest Thermometer.
We got to LA and amazingly managed to find the apartment we were sent to. We didn't actually have an address so we called it and the woman waved out the window to us. Marcia and Bruce weren't there yet so we showered, there were two, and then sat around chatting and eating chips and salsa. Marcia called later and she was already at the party and could Chris and Kirk take us there? This was just the first party of the evening and there was lots of nice stuff to eat including chilli. We went to the next party which was a lot noisier and younger although not as "dark and crowded" as Marcia would have liked! We drunk margaritas and made newspaper hats. At new year we blew our blowers and swapped hats. Marcia and I watched everyone "shotgun" beers and then went inside, had a few more jelly shots, bad red wine and beer.
Thursday 1st January 1998
Rose Bowl Day!
We had decided to not get up really early and watch the parade and so had a leisurely morning. We went out for brunch and then had a slight panic as we got closer to kick off. We reached the stadium in plenty of time in and Marcia and Bruce went in while Claire and I looked for parade floats. We couldn't find them so we went and sat outside the "cougars" enclosure to watch on the big screen. After about half-an-hour we realised we could go in so we joined the hundreds of fans outside the Rose Bowl watching t.v! The game lasts 3.5 hours although play time is 60 minutes! The score was 14-21 to Michigan, but it was close. We found the car and then watched the amusing display of "seek the car". Marcia and Bruce arrived and then we went for dinner. We decided that instead of going straight to LA we'd go to Marcia's in Santa Barbara for a few days to rest.
<these are extracts from my diaries written whilst travelling and working in Canada and the US in '97-'98>
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