Instalment Two - (Catching up on the West Coast.)

Day two of our Las Vegas adventure was great. We started the day by riding the roller coaster at New York New York, definitely worth paying to do. The rest of the day was spent wandering around the big casinos and checking out their shops. Paris has their shops just like a little french street, with the ceilings all painted like the sky. It took us whole day to walk from the start of the strip back to our hotels but was definitely worth the walk.

That night we had organized to go to a "cheap - like the budgie" comedy club thinking we would get to see some up and coming comedians. If you call one washed up Grammy award winner and two other old guys up and coming, then this would be your place. Imagine this. You're off the strip in a tiny Greek casino (which only has slot machines) watching 3 guys make complete arses of themselves and there isn't enough people at the show for you to discretely leave because it is just that BAD. At least the whole ordeal is funny to look back at now, you know, one of those life experience things.

So that was Vegas. I'd have to say for all I heard about the place it wasn't that impressed. Dirty streets with hecklers at every corner trying to give you cards to strip joints etc, If I had plenty of money I would go back to see the shows that were a little out of my price range. Katie said she happy not to go there again at all. Top marks have to be given to the Stratosphere though, it was a very nice place to stay.

On the road again with our next stop being Eagle Mountain, Utah. Man does the climate change in a six hour drive. We went from sunny hot Nevada to cold snowy Utah 6000 feet in the mountains, with a temperature of anywhere between 0 to -7 degrees Celsius.

Following the trend of Arizona we arrived in Provo Utah right on rush hour and managed to get ourselves lost for an hour because both Kt and myself thought it would be way cooler if we showed up to surprise my Uncle. It turned out that we were within two minutes of his house before getting completely lost in another section of his town. After ringing my uncle and meeting him on the closest main road we arrived in Eagle Mountain a little after tea time to be greeted by my four adorable cousins, Tim (9), his sister Taylor (5) and two other brothers (twins) Cameron and Calob (both 6). They were all tired and didn't really want to talk to us but that changed the next day.

After being on the road travelling for the last week we spent the next few days just hanging out with my little cousins watching scooby doo, playing tea parties, WWF, and piggy back rides, which was by far the most popular game. Unfortunately we arrived at the wrong time to do any sight seeing as Utah has a winter problem called inversion which basically means that there is a mist/fog all day and you cannot see more than 100 feet ahead. The only time this clears is when a storm passes through the valley. We did however go into the city and check out some Mormon stuff just to be a token tourist. We were going to go out to an Island by the great salt lake but when we got to the entrance of the state park (you have to pay to enter) we couldn't see anything but white and mist so we flagged.

By Thursday (third day of the visit) both Kt and myself were getting a little annoyed with the weather so we decided to drive to a place called Park City which is a ski resort town in the mountains and is where the winter Olympics were held. Surely enough as soon we started climbing into the mountains on a 4-lane highway, not some NZ mountain road we managed get above the inversion to a beautiful sunny day. After a quick stop at the 2002 Olympic park for some token tourist photos we arrived in Park City. All the mountains (not NZ type mountains) were covered in pine trees with various ski resort fields and trails visible everywhere you looked. What got me was that you could catch a ski lift from town to the one of the the fields and there was a bridge that crossed the main street so that skiers could come ski into the shops.

That week at park city was the Sundance film festival and there were apparently quite a few Hollywood stars visiting the area so we spent the afternoon people watching and sipping hot chocolates. I can't say I saw Brad and Jennifer, or Sharon Stone, but they were there somewhere. We also drove through an area called Provo canyon which was awsome and had a frozen lake where we could see people ice fishing.

We actually ended up going back to Park City two days later to meet one of Kt's Dad's old best friends. He took us for a drive to an area called Deer Valley where the multi million dollar houses and chalets were located. Seeing stuff like that really inspires you to make a fortune. These houses had ski trails going past there back door, so you could ski all the way home for lunch and then out again for the rest of the day if you desired. Absolutely amazing area.

With time flying by there was only time for couple more piggy back rides and WWF wrestling matches before our all to short visit with my Uncle and cousins came to an end. Ironically a storm leaving only about an inch of snow had come over the night before clearing the inversion so we woke to see the area for the first time. Who would have thought the whole place was surrounded by beautiful snow covered mountains.

That ends this instalment. In part three we adventure back to California and to Yosimite national park. Andie, Rach, and Sunil, sorry I haven't flicked you guys emails, I have only just cleared the back log of unanswered emails. I was intending to do it this moring but my laptop adapter is broken (at least I hope its only the adapter) and I cannot charge my puter. I promise that I'll chat to you soon.

Jared (a.k.a fatti)