Early the morning of my Day 3 at SFO, I waited outside Macy store, somewhere opposite my hostel for the tour bus to pick me at 7.30am for my 4D3N tour out of SFO. I had booked the tour from a company called GoToBus. The tour members are all mandarin speaking Chinese except for one Indian English speaking family.
Our first visit is to Yosemite. The scenery along the way to Yosemite is beautiful, especially when nearing the place.
This is Yosemite. It's a national park and is known for its beautiful valley, trees etc. Actually I was told by a friend that if you venture deep into the park, it is more beautiful. Many people camp inside the Yosemite Park. Our tour bus only stopped outside the park so all of us just hanged around the limited area. We were given about 1.5 hours to 'experience' Yosemite and there was nothing much to do there. Visited the souvenir shop, took some photos and aited for the bus to move again :-(
That night we stayed over at Fresno Inn. It's somewhere in the middle of nowhere...haha...know what I mean. I felt like a prisoner there but lucky it was already quite a late evening and I was also tired from the long bus ride. The next morning, we left for factory outlet shopping @ Bastow before heading to Las Vegas. We were given about 1.5 hour for lunch and shopping and because of the limited time, I had to skip lunch for shopping instead. Managed to buy myself a pair of Levi's for US$19 and a few branded purse at a good price. Wish I had more time to look around.
Next, we head to Las Vegas. On the way there, all we saw was desert. It was a long journey and by the time we reached Las Vegas it was already about 5pm in the evening.
Las Vegas
We checked in at Four Seasons Hotel. My first impression of Las Vegas? Beautiful city but ..... is life so much about gambling and drinking? What do people get out of gambling and drinking?... I felt like everywhere I went, there were cigarettes smell, people were either drinking, smoking or gambling away .... maybe I was too sensitive ... hey, this is a city of sin remember? We were given about an hour to rest and were supposed to leave for dinner and some city sight-seeing at 6.30pm.
These pictures were taken inside Vientienne Hotel. It was beautiful. I have also visited Vientienne Hotel in Macau. Although it is similar but the hotel in Las Vegas is so much bigger than the branch in Macau.
After this we were quickly whizzed away for our dinner and a night performance. The Las Vegas performance was optional and the ticket price was not included in the tour fare. I decided to be on my own to explore the area while the tour members went for the show.
After the show, we gathered and the tour bus brought us to another place in the city center to watch the volcano show outside the Mirage Hotel. Then it's the dancing fountain at Pellagio. Both places were crowded with tour buses and tourists. After the volcano and dancing fountain show, we went for another round of city sight-seeing for the night view and that ended our visit at Las Vegas. Very express isn't it?
Grand Canyon
The 3rd day was another long journey to Grand Canyon. On the way there, we stopped by Hoover Dam for a while. We were not guided through the dam but was on a lookout from the top. This is what I saw of the Hoover Dam.
Coming up was the much awaited Grand Canyon. I have always been intrique by the amazing formation of nature especially when it comes to rocks and I have been wanting to visit Grand Canyon for a long time. Finally I am stepping foot in this place...
The view that greeted me was awesome. I really felt like I was on top of the world. From the place where I was standing, it looked like the Grand Canyon was endless. I enjoyed myself very much here.
That was the end of the trip. If I have another chance, I would probably go on my own than to follow a tour again. There are too many sights to view and enjoy in a limited time. Though the memories stay but I wish I could see more.
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