Birthday festival: Las Vegas, Nevada; Grand Canyon, Arizona

I'm going to depart from my customary chronological blog to fill you in on my whirlwind birthday weekend, before resuming normal business for the next post. There's more to share about my wonderful California road trip with mum, but I simply must let you know what a fabulous birthday I've just enjoyed.

We'd long planned a jaunt to Las Vegas as part of our road trip, and my wonderful friends Beth and Alex got us tickets to Cirque du Soleil's LOVE show as a Christmas present, but as the schedule firmed up for our trip it turned out we had a whole 4 days in Sin City. I felt that this was perhaps a little long, but was happy to go along with what mum wanted. Well, she let the cat out of the bag a few days ago. It turns out my auntie Lorraine and cousin Catherine were surprising me for my birthday by joining us there, before heading off to San Francisco for their own mother-daughter holiday there! What an amazing surprise... but there was more...

Welcome to fabulous Las Vegas

I will blog properly about the whole of my Vegas experience soon. It was an assault to the senses. Incredible and compelling but simultaneously quite repulsive, and I'm still processing how I feel about it. In the meantime I will tell you about my birthday weekend. As my life straddles a number of timezones I'm lucky enough to call it my birthday for a full 48 hours. Breakfast on 22 February (23 February in Australia, natch!) was at the Bellagio cafe (in our hotel, no less). A gorgeous breakfast of waffles and fruit, with many of our fellow breakfasters clearly fresh from the gaming tables and cocktails of the 'night before', while we were fresh-eyed from a night of sleep before our trip to the Grand Canyon.

The stunning Chihuly ceiling at the Bellagio hotel

Mum surprised me with a trip to the Grand Canyon for my birthday. She and Lorraine had been researching madly while in the UK but kept the whole thing a secret. For those who know my mum you'll appreciate how hard this must have been! We did the trip through a company called Maverick Adventures (I appreciated the Top Gun reference). We flew over the Hoover Dam and the Nevada and Arizona desert to get there, captained by our dishy and charismatic pilots Todd and Mike. The plane was a teeny tiny 2-seats-wide rattly thing, but got us there in one piece. Arizona: the fifth US State of my trip so far! 

The Hoover Dam & Lake Mead from the air

Lots of buttons in the cockpit

Grand Canyon from the cockpit

Selfie with pilots

Colorado River from the plane

Grand Canyon from the plane

Bright Angel Gorge

We drove through various parts of the Canyon, learning the history of the early pioneers there and the Harvey Girls etc. Finally we got inside a helicopter to fly over the Canyon itself. Billy the pilot flew us around the widest section of the canyon (29 kilometres wide). The scale of this place defies belief. It really is one of the most stunning areas of the world, and the sight of it literally moved me to tears. I can't quite believe I was flying above such an awe-inspiring place. In total it's 446 km long and at its deepest is 1800 metres deep. Over 17 million years in the making, it exposes a thick sequence of ancient rocks, beautifully preserved. I simply have to come back here one day to hike through the canyon itself. Congratulations to Lorraine, Catherine and Liz for overcoming their fear of heights and flying to experience the trip!

Ladies at the Canyon

Liz and Lorraine

Lorraine and Catherine

Looking out over the Canyon

Our shadow from the helicopter

Gang with helicopter

In the helicopter: excited!

Canyon from the helicopter

Canyon from helicopter plus Colorado River

Vegas from the cockpit on the flight home

After our astounding day out we got tarted up and went to Hyde bar to watch the famous Bellagio fountains. Every hour the fountains 'perform' to a different song and they really are quite beautiful to watch. After dinner, Catherine nonchalently won a whole heap of money at roulette and blackjack -- it was amazing to watch her. She who dares certainly wins!

Bellagio fountain performance

While we were getting ready I received another totally unexpected surprise. My Karaoke buddies in Sydney had sent me a hamper filled with Moet, chocolates and all sorts of other goodies. Thanks mum for snapping me bursting into tears still wrapped in towels after my shower. My friends are truly fabulous.

Crying coz my friends are awesome

Japanese dinner at Yellowtail Bellagio

But the Birthday Festival was not over yet! On Sunday 23 February (my actual birthday in the USA) we enjoyed Le Champagne Buffet for breakfast at the Hotel Paris. An all-you-can-eat buffet, there was no food you can think of that was not there. Pastries, eggs, steak, sushi, crab claws, tiny cakes, potato rosti, trout... the list goes on. We managed to stay there for three hours, enjoying chatting and really catching up. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to spend time with these wonderful ladies, it's such a rare treat.

Breakfast crab

Le French Bistro

Paris, Vegas

Ladies who brunch

Of course a visit to Paris isn't complete without a trip up the Eiffel Tower, and being Vegas they have a replica right there. The views of the city were amazing from the top, and we even glimpsed the Bellagio fountains at work again.

Mum on French bridge

Bellagio fountains from the Eiffel Tower

We then managed to fit in some time to chill by the pool and hottub before getting ready to go out for the evening.

How many outfits in 2 days?

Our European tour continued as we took a trip down the canals of Venice (or, the Venetian Hotel) on a gondola. Luciano and his charming faux Italian accent sung to us as we marvelled at the fake Saint Mark's Square and 'blue skies' of Venice. He even sang me a happy birthday in Italian.

The ceilings at the Venetian

It's always sunny in the Venice canals

Selfie on gondola

Our gondola driver with the ladies

Dinner was at the fabulous Bouchon Bistro, a recommendation from Kim which I was extremely glad to have enjoyed. And finally, the magnificent Cirque du Soleil show, LOVE. A psychadelic Beatles album brought to life in dance, acrobatics and circus, as well as some truly daredevil performances. It really was incredible.

Caramel with Creme Caramel at Bouchon

Beatles at the Mirage

All you need is LOVE

What a birthday weekend! I'm exhausted just reading back on all of that. So much crammed into just 2 days.  Madness. As I promised, more to come soon on the rest of the Vegas experience and our California road trip, but until then, thanks again to everyone who surprised me and made my birthday truly memorable. I am completely overwhelmed and you are all wonderful. x

California road trip #1

Last week I welcomed my mum to San Francisco and we began our 3-week road trip together. I'd cooked up the idea when first planning my travels and it's amazing that it's finally happening! So far we've covered many miles and enjoyed properly catching up with each other. Here are some of the adventures from our first week.

Thelma and Louise, (in a Toyota Prius)

My lovely STC colleagues bought me two tickets for a nighttime Alcatraz tour as part of my leaving present, so mum and I caught the boat from Fisherman's Wharf out to the island. The history of this maximum security prison is fascinating, and the tour was hugely informative, as well as a little spooky. We walked around the cells and heard about famous escape attempts and saw preserved artefacts and fittings which housed such notable prisoners as Al Capone and the Birdman of Alcatraz.

Alcatraz island from the boat

Original signage and 70s graffiti

Rows of cells

Prison hospital wing

I took mum back to where I'd stayed in North Beach for a classic Italian dinner at Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope restaurant. Over meatballs and red wine I marvelled at the catalogue of famous filmmakers and actors who had graced this room, while mum exclaimed that 'Caesar salad' had been invented on this very spot.

We also visited the de Young Museum of Art, where we were tickled pink to find a David Hockney piece in the foyer. All the way from Yorkshire, just like mum! I loved the landscape paintings here and some of the native American art was also fascinating.

Hockney's shots of Yorkshire

It was great to be able to meet up with my friend Neet one last time before leaving San Francisco. We discovered a lovely little bar called 'Two Sisters Bar and Books' where I had my favourite drink of the trip so far, a cocktail called Stout 'n' Spice, which consisted of wild turkey 101, ginger shrub and bourbon barrel-aged stout. Delicious. I then treated my mum to a 5-course degustation at RichTable, which had a special beer-matched menu on in honour of SanFrancisco Beer Week. Absolutely incredible food, and of course far too much of it.

And these were just the starters!

Finally it was time to bid farewell to this wonderful city. I have loved my time in San Francisco and already long to return. And what a splendid way to leave, to drive over the magnificent Golden Gate Bridge. Next stop: the wine fields of Sonoma Valley, where we enjoyed a wine tasting at the Sebastiani vineyards and wandered round the unique landscape. Vineyards in winter are probably not as impressive as they are in summer, being barren of grapes, but it was still pleasurable to drive among this distinctive region.

Farewell San Fran

Mum with a barrel load of red wine

Only one night in Sonoma, before road tripping south down the stunning pacific coast highway. Words cannot describe how impressive this coast is, nor photos do it justice. But we stopped every 5 minutes to try to capture it! I also enjoyed getting some driving practice in, first time on the right hand side of the road, first time on the US highway.

Beware: Carmel driving

My inner book nerd had to visit the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, where I learned so many new things about the man, as well as fondly remembered some of my favourite things from his fiction. I hadn't realised he'd been a war correspondent, or that he'd lived in England and written about King Arthur. Nor that he'd travelled all round America in a modified truck and written extensive non-fiction about his fellow countrymen. So much more on my 'to-read' list now.

National Steinbeck Center

Inspiration for The Grapes of Wrath: real diaries of dust bowl migrants

We couldn't resist stopping for two nights in quaint, picturesque little Carmel-by-the-Sea, just south of Monterey. This cute little seaside town was captivating, although I did find it somewhat disconcerting that everything had my name written on it! Mum and I got house-envy gawking at the mansions on 17-Mile Drive, and we enjoyed a picnic on the beach at sunset on Valentine's Day.

Sunset over Carmel beach

Liz takes a selfie

Cheers!

On of the houses in Carmel

Carmel Bay Co

Many t-shirts with my name on

Carmel fridge magnets

Like, yeah, man

Big Sur was really where the impressive coastal views were. Driving down through the mist and sunlight was awe-inspiring and I'm already cooking up plans for a future California motorhome road trip.

The Big Sur coast line

Chick with rock

Sea Lions off Point Lobos

Dramatic views from the road

More awesomeness

"I'm so ronery..."

One of many mad cypress trees

We've spent the last two days here in Yosemite, (or as mum calls it, 'Yose-Might'), a raw, rugged part of the world with spectacular views on an unimaginable scale. I dragged mum up a steep hike to Vernal falls and we were rewarded with some splendid views and a hearty appetite. Dinner at the South Gate Brewing Company gave mum the opportunity to experience her first American burger, and me the chance to try some more Bourbon Barrel Stout, which may well be my new favourite thing.

Classic Yosemite view

Giant sequoia tree with pixie for scale

Here be bears

Intrepid hikers

Half Dome

Redwoods

6,000 feet above sea level

Another bloody fabulous view

Early pioneer cottages

Teddy Roosevelt: visionary

Already we have witnessed an incredible diversity of landscapes here in California. I think the word 'wow' has been the most uttered from our lips. From the dusty desert of the highway to the lush, giant redwood trees in Yosemite. The quaint cultivated gardens of Carmel to the giant 'boulder gardens' in the National Park. Even the working land, the farmland, is interesting, with uniform rows of pistachio orchard trees, cauliflowers, artichokes, in various phases of growth. Seeing the hills through a sudden blanket of mist, the coast in bright rays of sunlight, the desert with the warm glow of the dying sun, the snow on the tips of the mountains – each vista is a huge contrast from the last but just as breathtaking. Almost half way through my mum's holiday and already it's proving to be a truly memorable trip. And there's more to come!

Working in cauliflower fields