From a Trans-Atlantic Nomad

In San Diego I did some pretty touristy stuff, went to see the USS Midway which is a decomissioned aircraft carrier you can tour. It was all very American, lots of talk of honour and military prestige by the guide who were all ex-sailors. It was interesting to see what life is like on board a navy vessel.

I went for a surfing lesson which proved to be super difficult. The waves here are huge and during four hours of trying I managed to stand up on the board once for approximately 1 second. Due to my lack of an olympian-esque physique I was aching a lot the following day, bruises, sore arms and torso. Despite the war wounds it was great fun.

I stayed at for a couple of days at the hostel which was awful, the rooms were tiny and we were crammed in. The staff were grumpy and there were tons of rules, it’s only redeeming feature was that it was close to the beach which was great. Luckily Luke and Heather, two of the students I met in San Anselmo, were visiting for a couple of days and I was kindly invited to stay at Luke’s Uncle’s house in a wee place just outside San Diego called Lemon Grove. Uncle Dale’s house had barely been altered since the sixties and it was amazing, it was like living on the set of Happy Days.

Heather, Luke and I had a great time in San Diego we went to the beach the Zoo and had a night painting the town red. The beach was great, the zoo was average and painting the town red was mildly debaucherous. We went to the beach with Erin a friend of Luke and Heather’s. On the night out I wore my kilt and got some interesting remarks. A few San Diegan boys made some unsavoury comments relating to my “nice skirt” but the girls had nicer things to say which redressed the balance a bit.

Las Vegas was ridiculous. As soon as I arrived I was waiting for my bag next to the side of the bus I felt an incredible heat which I assumed was from standing too close to the bus. Once I got out front of the terminal I realised that it wasn’t the bus at all, it was 7.30pm and it was 41 degrees Centigrade. I thought I was going to melt. It turns out to be a good thing for business though as you have to stay indoors during the hours of sunlight, and you can’t have any fun indoors in Vegas unless you’re spending money.

I spent a bit too much I think. The geeky kid in me convinced me to go to the Star Trek Experience in the Las Vegas Hilton despite it costing a small fortune. It was really good fun though like most things in Vegas, fun if you’re willing to pay for it. I gambled a little in the New York New York casino and it turns out that my Black Jack skills are up there with my surfing skills. I found it all a bit nerve wracking, I only managed to relax during the shuffle breaks. I got told off by the dealer for touching my bet after the deal but I managed to avoid getting taken outside by security though so that was a success, it wound up being the only success as managed to rapidly lose $100.

That evening the hostel had organised a night in a club called the Tryst and again it was glamorous, fun and exorbitantly expensive. It had a deck out back with a huge artificial waterfall. A drink was $12 plus tip so it wound up being a quiet time in the Tryst.

After my first full day of hedonistic fun in Vegas I decided that I should leave the following day as my wallet and my body temperature could hack it no more. I’m currently in Santa Fe which is the perfect post-Vegas tonic, its cooler, cheaper and really laid back. I’ll write some about my time here in the next post.

Check out the photos by copying the links below and pasting them into your internet browser.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2194628&l=41f56&id=61006708

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2197568&l=74597&id=61006708

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 27th, 2008 at 9:46 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.