Our last day at our beautiful hotel in LA I woke early, and reluctantly packed all our gear – it felt like I’d barely even scratched the surface of what the city of Angels was about! This morning we were going to do a quick tour of the celebrity homes in LA, before heading to Santa Monica Pier, and eventually fly to Las Vegas that evening. I was so excited to get to Las Vegas, not only because it’s sin city and packed full of exciting things to do, but because it meant I’d also get to visit my friends Sam and Amber. They used to live in Australia, but months before our holiday they’d moved to the UK. I dearly missed them, and was so thrilled they had decided to fly to the USA so we could meet halfway. What a treat! But back to LA.

Our first stop of the day was to grab a bite to eat at Canters deli (who also operate a twitter account – I followed them until it made me miss being in LA). I had actually never heard of the place, and we only went there on Amy’s insistence. Once again, she had managed to find  an amazing place to eat; we ate sandwiches with the most amazing corned beef I’ve ever tasted. They certainly didn’t skimp on the amount of meat you got either, there was HEAPS. I went halves with mum, and was glad since I was quite full after eating just my bit. We all agreed it was definitely an amazing meal.

After Canters, we made our way to Beverley Hills. Amy had done some research and found a street for us to drive down, along with a list of who used to live where. Somewhere in the traffic Mum, Madonna, Mat and I managed to lose the other car with Amy, Pauline, Sue and Fiona in it. Thankfully the GPS took us straight there. As we drove down the street we found that due to the size of the gates etc we could barely see the houses. Fair enough – I think celebrities deserve their privacy too (which is ironic for me to think that given we were driving around purely to look at their place of residence). We didn’t see anything much of interest, so drove the street fairly quickly. At the end of the street we ran into the other car just entering the street. We said a quick hi, before a car behind them meant they had to continue driving. We opted to go for a drive down to the Beverly Hills Hotel, park and go for a walk down the street to have a look.

I was surprised by the number of people on the street. It seemed like there was a walking tour passing by, along with the people sitting on the sides of the streets were selling star maps. In the meantime, the car with Amy, Pauline, Fiona and aunty Sue had their own celebrity spotting (although they didn’t know who it was). A car coming out of a driveway of one of the houses caused pedestrians everywhere to rush towards it. Luckily, in amidst the chaos Pauline didn’t hit anyone, though if she had it would have been the pedestrian’s fault. No one had any regard for the cars on the road, they all just wanted to get in and look at the celebrity. After we’d returned home to Australia, Amy did a bit of searching to find out who lived in the house, and it turned out to have been Michael Jackson!

After they’d done the street we all headed out to Santa Monica Pier. I’d seen a bit of this on various tv shows and pictures from the internet, so was definitely looking forward to it. I got a kick out of seeing the lifeguard towers, it made me feel like I was in an episode of Baywatch! I was also shocked by just how wide the beaches were. Compared to back in Australia, where you’re only about 50m or so from the water when you enter the beach, in LA it was almost like 100m before you were near the water. There was just so much sand!

We elected to split the group up and make our own way around the pier, and meet back a short while later to head to the airport. Mat and I immediately beelined the store called “Bubba Gumps”, as Forrest Gump is one of Mat’s favourite movies. There were loads of cool shirts and caps inside, but in the end Mat decided he didn’t want anything. We kept walking and made our way to the Ferris Wheel and arcade section of the pier. We watched a guy try to impress his girlfriend by playing a side show game (titled “Big Bonger thing” by Mat), then decided we would go for a ride on the Ferris Wheel. Coincidentally, Amy and Pauline were going on at the same time.

It was quite peaceful sitting on the Ferris Wheel, just taking a few minutes to look at the scenery around us. I realised that we were on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, the water which I am so familiar with back home. After the ride was over, we had a look at the roller coaster but unfortunately it was shut for the day. Instead, I challenged Mat and Amy to a side show game “Whac a mole” where you had to hit the little moles as they popped up. Amy emerged the victor, and unsure of what prize she wanted, I piped up and requested a dog. Agreeing, she got the one that most resembled my dog back home so of course it had to share the same name – Turbo. As I received the prize, Mat was still wondering how he’d managed to lose out of all three of us. He’s not competitive at all (ahem).

Amy and Pauline wandered off again, while I decided to try out a dessert from a store. I ended up getting a sundae, and even though I requested a small one it was MASSIVE. When we all met back at the car I desperately asked everyone in our group to eat some, and unfortunately there weren’t many takers. The heat of the day meant it melted incredibly quickly, so I managed to make a mess all over my hands. Looking back, I think I ended up throwing out almost half of it.

Finally, we went to the airport and flew to Vegas. When we arrived, we discovered we had to catch a train from the terminal back to the main part of the airport – very cool. We collected our stuff while Amy tried to confirm our pick up location with our driver – we’d hired a Stretch Hummer to pick us up from the airport and drive back to the hotel! Woohoo! I know Mat and I were looking forward to this most of all out of the holiday, so we were pretty disappointed when the driver turned out to be late. Finally he showed up, and excited we all piled into the car. The small boot meant we had to put some of the luggage into the main area of the limo, but there was still plenty of room for the rest of us. Inside, we had coloured lighting and all sorts of cool effects. Amy and Fiona imagined it was a disco and started dancing. Mat, meanwhile, couldn’t stop looking out all around him. The gambler had reached his ultimate destination.

Originally, the plan with the Hummer was to drive around for an hour before going to the hotel. Since he was late, it meant we missed out on driving around, and spent a total of 15mins in the limo, although he still asked for the full price for an hour. NOT impressed. I put on my bitch face and said to Amy that we should refuse to pay for all of it (and instead pay the equivalent of 15mins), which definitely put some pressure on her. I feel bad for it now, but as a group we were completely ripped off. One of most anticipated moments ruined by terrible service. We still wonder if our group was actually a job off the books, and just some extra cash in the pocket for him. Who knows, but it definitely spoiled the experience for me.

Trying to brush off the disappointment, we remembered we were now in Vegas, and more specifically, the Flamingo Hotel. We made our way inside to check in, where Amy informed me of the $20 tip trick. Put simply, you slip $20 to the front desk clerk and ask if there’s any complimentary upgrades available. If there are, the clerk pockets the $20 and upgrades you to a better room. If not, the $20 is returned. We agreed that I would try the trick first, and if it worked I would do a signal to Amy to let her know. Unfortunately, I completely forgot to do the signal so she didn’t try it, but the trick worked!! Instead of the standard room we had booked, we were upgraded to a bigger corner suite. The only downside was that it was in the smoking area of the hotel, and the room definitely reeked when we got in there, but other than that the room was fantastic.

King size bed and a couch in our hotel room

We had a gigantic king sized bed, two couches and a coffee table, a second LCD tv overlooking the bed, and a counter spanning the entire width of the room. When we compared it with Mum and Madonna’s room later, we were so thrilled with our upgrade. Their room was also very nice, but was literally just enough room for the two beds. Other common features of the rooms was the tv in the bathroom mirror (along with a main LCD tv in the main room) and mood lighting with the bathroom. Also, the curtains for the windows were power operated!! Very cool.

After we’d all gone to our rooms and freshened up, we all made the trips to look at each others rooms before settling in Amy & Pauline’s. They had paid extra for a strip view room, which had actually given them a view of the Bellagio Fountains. Very nice. We watched the fountains for a while (with Madonna providing backing music) before we decided it was time to go downstairs and get some dinner. Unfortunately, we’d left it a bit late so most of the places we looked for were closed. Eventually, we found a cafe in the MGM Casino where we ordered our food. Madonna proudly informed us all that she’d just discovered Lucy had gotten her driver’s license, so she quickly made a call home to congratulate her. In the meantime, I’d managed to get in contact with Sam & Amber, my friends from Australia that had moved to the UK for a couple of years. They were on their way to meet us!!

I got a message from them they were in the casino, and almost wetting my pants with excitement I made my way to find them. Seeing them, we did a slow motion run (like the typical “love scenes” in the movies, or uh, like this guy) and hugged each other. I can’t remember what we said exactly, because I was so excited I pretty much just blabbed away about anything and everything in my head. I brought them back to where we were all eating dinner, and we all chatted for a bit. After dinner, Mat and I said goodbye to the group as we were going to spend the night with Sam and Amber.

We went for a bit of a look around the strip and showed them our room and casino, before deciding we would call it a night. We would meet up with them first thing in the morning, and hit the vegas strip HARD. Arriving back to the hotel we went straight to sleep, knowing the next day was going to be long. We were in vegas baby!

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