Holiday news: So we left for holiday about 3 weeks ago from heathrow and landed in Chicago. Liz hadn't been there before so I was showing her all the sights. There's still not a huge amount of stuff to do, but the bits we did were really cool. The parks are great. It was only about 30-33 degrees but about 90% humidity often made it a little uncomfortable and a bit sticky.
On the first Sunday we flew to San Diego, which turned out to be a really nice chilled out place. We kinda thought it was a bit like Balitmore and enjoyed a seal ride! Which was a part land part sea tour in the same vehicle. temps were around 30, and was nice. Liz's presentations went really well which was good. Coolest thing was going into the top gun bar one night... saw the piano and had a 'slab' of ribs!
Friday we flew to Las Vegas (Lost Wages) to temperatures of around 38-42 which was... hot! but a great change from home temps. The first full day we were there we took a tour to the West rim of the canyon. This meant taking a mini plane which would only hold 8 people + pilot over the hoover dam and mead lake and landed at the canyon. We got out and had a helecopter ride to the bottom of the canyon, followed by a boat trip at the base of the canyon along the colorado river - awesome!!! Just as we we're having our photo taken on the pontoon, I turned to Lizzy, told her I loved her lots, got down on one knee and proposed to her! Thankfully she said yes (I knew she would ;o) ) and I gave her the rock!
After all that, we went on a coach trip round part of the west rim and had lunch courtesy of a native indian settlement on the very edge of the rim which was great!
After another day or so in Vegas, we (won some money! and) hired a car to drive over the hoover dam and accross to Flagstaff, which is a nice little quaint place near to the south rim of the canyon. We stopped off at burger king (Yes, thats a TRIPPLE whopper... god bless america!)...
...We spent two nights/three days there and went on two day trips. Firstly to monument valley which was simply amazing!
The next day we went to the south rim of the canyon, which was extremely pretty, 18 miles wide and 1.5 miles deep - spectacular! Although lizzie didn't like the edge that much! ;o)
A 4 hr drive and a super sized McDonalds later saw us back in Vegas :o) (lost lots of money :o( and) we went on a day trip to death valley and at the lowest point the temperature was 55 degrees!!!!! ouch! even in the shade it was 50! It was these temperatures due to the depth below sea level. At the lowest point it was over 200 ft below the sea level... luckily there was no water there! Its so hot the driver has to pour cold water on the car door handle to open it to avoid burning his hands! Now thats hot :o)
Then finally got a plane back and am now just getting over the jet lag... We both really enjoyed the holiday, so now we're talking about our lives together, our upcoming marrage... probs summer 2009 we think, and of course the imminant house move! (Someone buy my house!!!)
All in all an amazing time!
