Jul 12, 2010

Days 8 and 9

Day 8, Mammoth Lakes – Las Vegas

Today after an extremely hot night we woke up very early, at 8 am. We packed our bags and signed out from the motel, got in the car and started driving. The views were once again absolutely gorgeous. Beautiful blue-ish gray mountains with a little bit of snow on the top… We drove about 40 miles to this little town, Big Pine, where we had some breakfast. Then back in the car and continued our drive.

We stopped at Lone Pine to watch the Uruguay-Germany football match and to have a little snack. Good job Germany! Ausgezeichnet :D (Did I type it wrong? :D) Once again, back in the car and hours of sitting in there. Though it didn’t get boring even once because of the fantastic views. We arrived to Death Valley which is the hottest place in the USA. The temperature at its best was 122 F, 50 C. Whoa! Even though it was windy it didn’t make it any cooler ‘cause the wind itself was HOT. It was colder in my mouth than in the air, even :D

Back in the car where it was pretty comfortable at the cool air conditioning, then after a while we stopped at a gift shop to buy a postcard, something to drink, a cowboy cat for dad and a t-shirt for me. Yay. After driving for a short while we saw a salt lake and me, Aleksi and dad went to see if there was actually salt. There was! It was actually pretty painful walking that 50 feet to the lake and the same back to the car, because of the hot air and wind, shining sun, sweat and heath. I got a cut between my two toes, from a dried old stick, and needed a bandage. I was very happy to get back in the car.

The drive continued by listening to The Beatles and after an hour or two I heard Aku saying “Aleksi, look, that’s Las Vegas down there!” And yes, there it was, you could see it between two hills; high buildings in a grey color. We drove and then stopped at some restaurant for a restroom and internet connection. Mom and dad booked us a hotel from Vegas, and then we drove in the traffic, seeing all those billboards, hotels, signs, shops and stores, people… We got to the hotel, signed in and got changed. It was about 7 or 8 in the evening and the temperature was still 103 F.

It had started to get dark, or actually in Vegas not that dark, thanks to thousands of flashing lights. I must say, it was surreal and the coolest place I have ever been to. So far. Just incredible. All those who’ve seen The Hangover, Vegas is even cooler in real life! :D We walked, took pictures, bought coffees from Starbucks (I really LOOOVE their coffees <3)

Our feet started to hurt a lot, but I think everyone forgot it for a while as we saw an amazing fountain show in front of Bellagio. We took a video of it. Then we walked back to the hotel, though we bought a little breakfast and water from a store. It’s funny how less people know about Finland. There was this guy who asked me which language we were speaking. I said Finnish and had to repeat it ‘cause he didn’t understand at the first time. Then he asked: “So where do you speak that at?” and when I said “In Finland” I could see from his face that he didn’t really know where that was. :D Yay Finns, we’re famous ;)

Back at the hotel around 0.45 in the night we went to refresh ourselves in the pool. The water wasn’t too warm, but in the jacuzzi the water was niiice. Ahhh, relaxing. We went back inside and now I’m writing this as my brothers are almost snoring next to me :D Gooood night and hey, Viva Las Vegas! ;)

Day 9, It's Vegas, baby!

Today we didn’t do that much. We woke up at 11 am to watch the Fifa World Cup final. YAAAY ESPAÑA! Great, GREAT job! :D After the game everyone except me went to Las Vegas Premium Outlet Center to do some shopping. Can you believe, I didn’t choose to go shopping? :D Instead, I went to the pool to enjoy the sun. I got a little bit more tanned ;)

I also went downstairs to a restaurant to have a chicken Caesar salad and water with ice and lemon. Yum yum. Later in the evening I went to walk around the city. I bought some postcards, a cool Las Vegas Black Jack keychain and an ice cream. Then I walked to the nearest Starbucks to buy my favorite coffee: Iced Coffee Mocha. Delicious. I walked back to the hotel and noticed that my brothers had come back from shopping. Aleksi bought two caps and flipflops, Aku got three pairs of shoes, mom came back to the hotel with shorts, a top and a t-shirt and dad had bought two t-shirts.

I wrote the postcards and we went downstairs to put them into a mailbox. Now we are at the pool, I’m writing this text as dad’s in the Jacuzzi and mom’s watching Aku and Aleksi playing Pukkitaistelu. You know, the game where two people are standing on the edge of something (in this case a swimming pool) and trying to make the other fall down. I guess either Aku or Aleksi won since Aleksi just run away :D

Ahh… I really enjoyed the time in Vegas, I’ll never forget these lights. Tomorrow is a day full of driving and standing mouth open at the edge of Grand Canyon… ;)

8 comments:

  1. IHANAA !!! !! ! ! EI VOI MUUT SANOO IISA, ihanaa :)
    ja kivasti lämpöö toi auton mittari näyttää, huhhuh!
    =)

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  2. vitsi siel on KUUMA, mä luulin et tääl on kuuma ja et kuolen tänne kuumuutee ku tääl on melkei se 35 astet lämmint mut ehkäpä mää en taas sano mittää.. :DD :) hei muute, kerro terkkui! :)

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  3. Moro! Fantsulta näyttää teidän reissu, älkää ihan läkähtykö helteeseen.Kuumaa täälläkin, huomiseks luvattu 32-35c. Uima-allas huollettu su-ma 11-12.7, muutenkin asunnossa kaikki ok, paitsi orvokit menetetty, sorry! Paljon terveisiä! Teija & co

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  4. Jep, tääl on aivan törkeen kuuma, 50 astetta, huhhuh! Mut kiva et sielki on kunnon helteet, kerranki Suomes...

    Kiitos uima-altaan vahdille! Ostettiin Santerille jo tuliaisia :)

    Terkkuja!

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  5. Day 8: yeah, it's juust a little hot there... not much... meaning: i would die in that heat, i'm glad you didn't :D :) and yeah, we finns are known throughout the world ;) i actually thought that since everyone in Europe know at least where Finland is, they would know that there too, but i guess not :D

    about the pictures: the views were once again absolutely amazing and the picture of you and the mountains is somehow really cute <3 :) and i bet that, as great and beautiful those pictures of the lights are, they don't do justice to them. i'm guessing that they look even cooler in real life, am i right? :)

    Day 9:
    first of all: i LOVE the headline <3

    actually i don't have much else to say about this day since we already talked about spain winning the World Cup finals. but i'm glad you're having fun and enjoying yourself there :) plus, if you don't put a picture of Grand Canyon here, i promise i WILL kill you some night, when you have no idea it's coming.... just kidding :P but really, you have to put a picture of that here!!

    I'll read some more after a few days 'cause I'm not gonna use the computer at all before saturday. Have fun, byee <3

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  6. Well, I guess the pictures talk by themselves. ;) No need to describe their absolute beauty and impressiveness (and yeah, I'm also talking about the ones in which you don't appear, as slightly worse the might be ;D ). More seriously now, the roads around our area (north of the eastern coast) are rather boring, yet beautiful for some time. Trees at both sides of the road, it really seems like you're driving through a rain forest during the whole trip.

    I have to say you seem to be enjoying yourself quite a lot, which is really good, because as enjoyable as the experience that I'm living here might be, is also a really stressful and tiring one.

    Anyway, keep having fun, and I'll keep sleeping for five hours and eating one meal a day here at D.C. Wow, exciting! It's more than worth it though. ;)

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  7. maria, you're right, in the pictures the lights look nothing like they looked over there, so i suggest you go to vegas sometime to see them yourself ;)

    and OF COURSE i'm putting a pic of grand canyon, we were there today. you'll see it after sunday :)!

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  8. haha javi :D

    but yeah, the views here have been so beautiful so far. too bad they aren't as interesting and "worth watching" over there :S

    as tiring and stressful as your trip might be, i'm so sure that afterwards you'll be thinking of it with nothing but a huge smile on your face and "thank you" on your mind ;)

    talk to you later!

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