Where to begin, I guess, on boarding the 777 at Heathrow. Well, we didn’t take off until an hour after we should have done, for a start. Some silly Americans wanted to do a random security check on one guy once we’d already boarded. So that was extra boredom that I didn’t need. Secondly, my view was the wing. And pretty much only the wing. Fantastic!

The flight was ok as 10 hour flights go, but I was uncomfortable and didn’t feel particularly well, so I didn’t enjoy it at all. We finally landed and did all their tight security checks and everything, and got out to find Cassie (my Uncle’s then wife-to-be) ‘s parents (and a taxi driver) waiting to take us all to the hotel, which was nice. Mum, Dad and I went with Abraham, the driver, and heard all about how his daughter loves British culture and literature so much. Apparently it was the Harry Potter thing that ‘got her’. So apparently she thinks we’re all wizards and muggles. The views on the way into LV were awesome. We saw all the lights on the strip from the plane, but driving in was so much better. There was the Hard Rock Cafe, Harley Davidson Cafe, M&M world, all the hotels.. It was a lot to take in. As was our hotel, the Cosmopolitan. As we turned into the car park, there, in floor-to-ceiling neon lit letters was the name of the hotel, glistening off the marble walls and floors. And I am not kidding. They had floor to ceiling marble, including floor marble and ceiling marble and chandeliers. IN THE CAR PARK. It was awesome. We waited a while to check in, but that was rather worth it. To sign the agreement, they had iPads in every reception desk. iPads that were linked in to the system and then printed a receipt with the signature you failed to write on the iPad because you’re my Dad and he can’t even use the iPhone 3GS he’s had for over a year. One last awesome thing about the check-in. The card-keys for the rooms had your names engraved on them!

The room was awesome, too. The beds were rather large (Queen size, so almost a double, but we had one each), with 6 pillows on each, and the bathroom was even bigger. It had space for two large sinks in the granite worktop, with a walk-in shower on one side, and a separated loo on the other. The view was incredible. We could see down one way of the strip, with the best view of the Bellagio hotel’s fountain show every hour. I’ll try and add a video at the end of this.

So once we got there, we of course, went to bed. It was a well-timed flight for us, since we landed at about 10pm their time, so it was the right time to go to bed.

The next day we got dressed and went out to check out all the shops and get a feel for the place. It was really quite warm all week, with temperatures reaching 30 Celsius by the weekend. We had a browse in the Planet Hollywood’s Miracle Mile shopping center, and spent a casually large amount of money on some show tickets for the Sunday night. Matt had arranged for the Petty’s (my cousins etc.) to go and see one of the Cirque de Soleil shows, but we went for the best. We saw Penn and Teller’s magic show. More on this later.

On Wednesday afternoon we explored the hotel and by the pool. We had a nice lunch, that was huge, and sat on the sofas by the edge of the water. I called Toby on Skype and had a chat about a lot of stuff; it was the evening at home so he was with family and not working. We saw the Petty’s by the pool and eventually headed off to get ready for dinner. We met up with Matt & Cassie on the evening before they went out to a restaurant in the hotel for dinner. We wandered around all over the place before eventually settling on the Harley Davidson cafe and ate with motorbikes above our heads.

On the Thursday, of course we went off sightseeing. We walked up The Strip with the Petty’s to the MGM Grand. Lauren wanted to go to the Rainforest cafe, where we had a great lunch. It was only after this at Cassie’s parents that night that we learnt we could have seen the lions there; we were about 100 yards from them and didn’t know.. You can guess we went back after this! We went to the New York New York as well, and rode the classic rooftop roller coaster. It was great; not the best coaster ever in terms of loops and whatever but the buildings and the sight of cars below us was entertaining!

On Thursday it was Cassie’s mum’s birthday so we went to their house, which was lovely. We met the best man, and the officiant, Taylor, who was rather entertaining. After being told how much we had still to see, we went back to the hotel. Dad and uncle Simon decided to take Matt out for a stag do. All that was told was that the cocktails were like goldfish bowls, and they lost Matt.

On Friday, we left Dad in bed and walked up one end of the strip to Mandalay Bay for the shark aquarium. It was really cool; there were loads of sharks and even some green turtles! (I ADORE turtles.) I took some pretty good photos, after my camera ran out of battery I had to use my iPhone, but it’s got a good camera on it. We then went back to the MGM Grand to see the lions. I watched them for so long, taking photos of the young lions playing and eating, and how the keepers were in the enclosure and close enough to touch them. I wanted to be one of them so badly.

Friday night was the rehearsal dinner, so we went off to the Venetian hotel. The meal was nice, but I didn’t have much of an appetite for the whole holiday, probably because it was so hot. After the meal, Cassie’s mum took us to show us her poker room, which was quite cool. We then took a taxi back to the hotel, which took a while, and headed up to Matt and Cassie’s room to look over the balcony and watch Mumford and Sons play at the pool. It was so awesome, although I was terrified the whole time that I would drop my camera over the side. I was holding it so tightly that my finger was over the microphone, so some of my videos weren’t all that good! I skyped Toby again, but he didn’t hear very much because I lost the wifi every time I went outside.

Saturday was the day of the wedding. In the morning, we went up the other way towards the Mirage hotel. We’d heard there was something very special in there. We walked up past the Bellagio fountains and through the hotel to Caesar’s Palace, which Chris liked seeing from films. We made our way up to the Mirage and had lunch in a Starbucks type place, before heading to Siegfried and Roy’s secret garden and dolphin habitat. Now anyone that’s heard of Siegfried and Roy know that they did shows at the Mirage with white tigers. White tigers that were in the garden. THe dolphins were lovely, and I got some great photos of them, but nothing beats how close we got to the big cats. There was a keeper playing with two young ones in a pool, and a huge great male that was a little too smelly. People got too close to him and he sprayed; their reaction was hilarious! Eventually, the family pulled me away from the cats and we went back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding.

We got a taxi to the Bali Hai golf club (probably spelt wrong), and met up with everyone. Matt and Cassie looked amazing, and the ceremony was beautiful too. The meal was good, and we did a bit of dancing before we headed back to their room for more partying. We spent most of the evening laughing with Cassie’s friend Jason, a politics professor who I now talk to a lot on twitter. He’s very into his own opinions, makes me laugh really. Now we take the piss out of each other really, me saying he’s old and him saying everything he can. I posed in a giant shoe for him in the hotel…

On Sunday we made the most of 32 degrees and spent the day souvenir shopping, and then flopped in the sun by the pool. In the evening, we walked up and down the Rio hotel for over an hour trying to find a restaurant that had space. Eventually we ate in the takeway and watched Baseball on the huge TVs. We made our way to the Penn and Teller theatre for an amazing show. It’s made me obsessed with them, and now watching Fool Us! on ITV, I’m even more obsessed with how incredible and breathtaking Teller’s slight of hand tricks are. I was speechless for the whole show, I really was. And to top it off, they hung around afterwards to meet people and sign tickets! That really made my night.

On the Monday, we rented a car and made our way to the Grand Canyon. We stopped off at the Hoover Damn, which was really cool. But once we got to the canyon, nothing could compare to it. It was even more amazing than the strip, and so completely opposite. I loved the contrast from ridiculous man-made architecture to breathtaking landscape. It was just as I expected. The car we’d hired was huge GMC Yukon Grand, or Yukon XL or something big. It was very American, and it was bigger than our Renault Espace at home, but inside there wasn’t as much space as our smaller 4×4, a Toyota Rav4. I guess that’s all the extras and moulded cockpit and all that jazz that they like over there. It was plenty comfy though.

We stayed over night at a little place, and had a great meal before we went back to canyon the day after. We then drove back to LAX airport to fly off to SFO.

The flight was fine, and it was great seeing San Francisco for the first time all lit up at night. We got to our hotel in Fisherman’s Wharf and flopped to sleep.

Just a pause in writing now, although I’m still writing, but I’ve just realised I’m only half way through the holiday and I’ve written this much, I hope the SF part isn’t quite so lengthy… I’m taking the liberty of an extra post for the next part, since this is now a little daunting to read..