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Our Adventures so Far.....

Hey everybody, this is a quick update of what we have done so far, its brief, cos internet is expensive here and you guys dont give a toss about what we had for breakfast blah blah etc etc....


SYDNEY 21/11/02 - 29/11/02

Saw heaps of stuff with our "tour guides" and friendly hosts Kristy, Russell, Robyn and Matt C. These things included

1. Harbour Bridge of course, an engineering masterpiece!
2. Opera House and Circular Quay at night.
3. Darling Harbour
4. Manly Beach, on a busy Sunday afternoon
5. Dee Why Beach
6. Bondi!
7. Pubs and clubs, where you cant drink on the dance floor and some places even have metal detectors! Cool eh?

HAWAII 28/11/02 - 04/12/02

Saw heaps here, including

1. Pearl Harbour, had a tour and saw the sunken USS Arizona, where 1177 sailors died on 07/12/41.
2. Hanuma Bay - excellent snorkelling
3. Waimea bay - 20ft waves and the Eddie Aikau Big Surf Invitational was on so we hung with Kelly Slater, Tom Carroll and Sonny Garcia. Well, we had photos with them anyways....
4. Diamond Head - a meteor crater converted into a US Army base during WWII.
5. Magoos pub near the Uni of Hawaii - $1 beers all night - awesome fun.

LOS ANGELES
Ah, the US mainland finally! Our first stop was the city of Angels, this is what we got up to....


1. Stayed at a young hip and happening hostel. Heated pool, $1 beers, lots of young people. However it was in a dodgy area Inglewood (read: Niggawood) and we did not venture out much.
2. The first night Fabs went to Hermosa Beach with Kristy (Sydney), Steve (from Sydney, not OUR Steve), and Sean (Vancouver), who was the skipper. Checked out some cool pubs, not much else except Hermosa Beach is where punk band Pennywise are from which got Fabs excited.
3. That same night someone flogged Steve and Tina's room key, along with the safety deposit box key and whilst nothing was stolen, it cost them to get the box drilled to get their shit out - they were not happy!
4. Whilst Steve and Tina were hanging at the hostel waiting for the locksmith on Friday night (you know these tradesmen, always late!), Steve's sister Sarah arrived from her two year stay in London. Whilst she settled in, Fabs went with Dave McCarthy and 10 other cool people, mainly Aussies to Sunset Boulevard, where the infamous Taipan Room (where River Phoenix died) is. We didnt go in there but did go in to the Rainbow Room, a cool pub where many celebs and up and coming bands were present. Fabs got photos with Ron Jeremy (infamous porn star), and the guitarists from Fear Factory and System of a Down - SWEET! We also got photos with a homelss man dressed as Santa, a Japanese punk rock group, and all sorts of other crazy people in Tinseltown - will hopefully post these photos later - they should be great! Also there were Jack Osbourne and ben Affleck but we didnt see em.
5. Went to Venice Beach and Santa Monica Pier, which was also very cool. Lots of buskers including an old man with electric guitar and rollerblades - a mobile band!Saw Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke going for a walk!
6. Saw Hollywood Boulevard - took 3 buses to get there though. Saw the sign on the hill and the stars on the ground. Beside that it was pretty ordinary.

7.We (Fabs, Steve, Tina, Sarah, Dave) hired a car! It was a big arse 8 seater Chevrolet Astro 4WD. It was to be our means of transport over the next 7 days, in which we would cover 2000miles, enough to go from Sydney to Perth! Before leaving LA, we went through Hollywood and Beverly Hills, seeing the Hollywood sign, Rodeo Drive and Beverley Hills.

That was LA, plenty of drinking, many cool people, but a total shock to the system! LA is too big and polluted though and we are sure that there are much better places in the US. May the road trip begin....

SAN DIEGO
08/12/02 - 09/12/02

Only got to stay here one night and the following day, here is what we did...

1. Checked in to the Hostel in the Gaslamp Quarter, a restored section of town from the early 1900s. All the streets are one way and criss-cross, and the E-W streets are numbered, and the N-S ones are in alphatbetical order - like driving on a giant road map. Praking is impossible (especially with a truck like ours!) and not far from town there are heaps of homeless people. However, overall the city is clean and the people are very friendly.
2. That night we caught a tram from San Diego to the US-Mexico Border, which we walked across and went to Tijuana, 5 minutes by taxi inside the Mexico border. Mexico is crazy! Coronas are not 17cents like we have all heard but actually $1 US. Unfortunately we looked like tourists and the waiters were serving us watered down beer, so after half a dozen each we could have walked home....bastards! The tip off was that two Corona bottles had different alcohol contents printed on them, meaning they were just recycled bottles! Next time you got to Mexico order Pacifico - they dont mess with that! Caught a crzay tax back to the border before body cavity checks at customs before a taxi back to the hostel - all in all a very eventful and fun evening - we even danced to 50s music - go figure! Also, any latino musi (Shakira, Enrique etc is in Spanish...curious).
3. The next day went to Mission Bay, just north of SD and

LAS VEGAS
09/12/02 - 12/12/02

Vegas! What a crazy town, heaps to do, and heaps to spend money on if you have it! As we didnt have much money, we only did these exciting things!

1. We went into heaps of Casinos for a look see - here are the best ones
a) Treasure Island - pirate theme where they usually have daily pirate wars on a ship with explosions etc but they were not on!
b) New York New York - a mini Statue of Liberty and Manhattan skyline, and an awesome roller coatser (which cost us each but it was worth it) which had 2 huge drops, a loop-the-loop and a corkscrew - make sure you do this BEFORE the buffet!
c) Bellagio - very expensive, very posh, couldnt afford to breathe the air there.
d) Luxor - has a massive black pyramid and sphinx out the front, the pyramid has a "laser" shooting out of the apex into the night sky - very Independence Day.
e) Excalibur - Camelot, King Arthur and all that, very nice and we had a buffet there wehre we ate til we almost spewed/passed out etc.

Vegas was our base for 3 days whilst we saw the sights of the region. We made a few day trips including:
1) Death Valley - A huge desert plain. Cold and very low below sea level.
2) Hoover Dam - A great civil engineering masterpiece. One of 7 great civil engineering feats in America. We hope to see them all. It was very impressive (lots of concrete and rebar) however i couldn't help but think of Goldeneye the whole time.
3) Grand Canyon - We arrive late in the day after a shiteload of driving, so we didn't see alot of it. But what we saw was very impressive and and quite beautiful.

LAKE TAHOE COUNTY
13/12/02 - 15/12/02

After Death Valley, the trio headed off on their final journey before headeding to Northern California for the ski season. We aimed to visit Yosemite National Park which was a long drive north of Death Valley. When we reached the park by 7pm all roads into the park on the eastern side we closed for the winter (too much snow) and there was no way we could get around to the western side (where we had prepaid for accommodation). Ver annoyed we asked a lady what to do and she suggested we just keep going north since a big storm was comming and we may get snowed in if we didn't get north. So we drove to South Lake Tahoe and did a 10 mins tour before we thought we better leave because the weather was getting pretty rough. But having a day spare now (since we couldn't do Yosemite) we decided to drive to Sacramento to check it out. But we need to find somewhere to stay so we drove over the boarder to Nevada (which is distinguished by a line of casinos) and got some really good accommodation ain a hotel for peanuts. It was the best find, plus the bartender gave us free Long Island Ice Teas which made us feel all funny inside. Got a good rest and then headed to Sacramento in some very miserable weather, and we were scared to sliding off a cliff since we have never drivin in snow and ice before.

SACRAMENTO
14/12/02

Well, Sacramento was a whirl-wind tour since we had a hire car for an extra day and a full tank of gas. We got into town and the weather was absolutely disgusting. We drove around trying to find a cheap place to stay, when we came across the youth hostel. When we went inside we walked into what appeared to be a large function. After a bit of feeling wiered and confused, a lady came up to us and asked if we needed help. Well, this lady tured out to be the Mayor of Sacramentio (which is the capital of California i must add) and it was her birthday party. She was very excited we were Aussies and invited us to stay and eat. We feed our guts and took a photo and watched everyone look at us like we were homeless scavengers. After which we left, did some shopping, but that was about all since the weather was so bad. We got a good sleep then headed off for Reno, the place where we were to stay temporarily until we could find a house in the Tahoe area....or so we thought! Stay tuned to find out more.

RENO
15/12/03 - Present

Well, we arrived in Reno, the mini-Vegas, which has a caption "The biggest little city in the world". The sign actually says that. Well, most would say Reno is a shit-hole. It is in Nevada, just over the state border. So yes we do live in one state and work in another crossing the border every day. Reno is a gambling town, since gambling is only legal in Nevada and Dellawa. Therefore there are lots of derros and shabby looking people. However, on the upside it is a cheap place to live. The casinos are a great place to eat for cheap and most other things are cheaper in Nevada than in California (including tax). Its not a pretty town, but it has all the convieniences that you would need. We are staying at the Comstock hotel (775-329-1880, Rm 718) which is a old casino/hotel turned into appartments. Its not the best but it is clean, cheap and getting to work is free and easy. Oh yeah, what sucks is it takes 1 hr in the morning and 1.5 hrs in the eveining to get to and from work respectively. And there is only one bus a day so no staying after work for heavy drinking sessions or nude romps in the snow (we do those during working hours). We get breakfast at one of the casinos for 99c which is awesome. Its is 2 egss, bacon, hashbrowns and toast. Baragin!! We go there for dinner sometimes and get a huge meal for less than 5 bucks!.

SQUAW VALLEY SKI RESORT
15/12/03 - Present

Well, this is where we work. It is situated in the Siera-Nevada Mountains and was howm to the 1960 Winter Olympics. Its a massive mountain and the skiing there is top notch. People pay a lot of money to ski here and the mountain has a reputation of being one of the best. Many extreme sports videos are shot at Squaw Valley (you know the ones with the dude on a snowboard rotating 900 deg in the air whilst holding his nuts). We work near the top of the mountain (about 8000 ft) which means very cold mornings but the view is astonishing. The complex we work in is called Gold Coast and is run by another company called Olympic Plaza Food & Beverage. They are our employer so we are not actually working directly for the ski resort, and hence we miss out on many free perks. However, we still get cheap stuff and the work is ok. The best bit is the fact that we are on the mountain amongst the most awesome scenery. We have not made that many friends within Olympic Plaza as they all seem to be illegal immigrants from South America. Many of them have fake visas, do not speak english and are knobs. However, we have met some cool people. There are many Aussies working directly for Squaw Valley Ski Corp. and they are fun people. There are many bars on the resort and skiers love to drink at any time of the day. We generally have a beer after work most days as it seems common practice. Most of the snowboarders are very typical ski bums, smoking heaps of pot and listening to Blink 182. We constantly reek of marijuana. Oh, and the ski chicks are very hot, however you can never get a good perve at them because they wear so much ski clothes.

Now for our snowboarding attempts ..mmm what to say, well Fabian does not stop grinning every time he comes from the mountain, im not quite sure what rubs him which way but i think he is becoming quite the snowboarding dude.i think he thinks he is pretty cool. Steve on one of his experiences fell hard on the icy snow to realize he had damaged a vein in his buttocks and couldnt sit on it for about 3 days. in the mean time made tina rub that smelly deep heat crap into his bum. Tina's few goes at snowboarding proved to be quite a funny experience particulary to those watching her from the bottom of the mountain as she fell and fell and fell. ouch!!

SAN FRANCISCO
23/02/03 - 25/02/03

Tina and Steve decided to take a well-earned break from work and spend a few days in San Francisco. They left at 3am in the morning and caught the Greyhound bus. It took about 5 hours and was met with suprisingly few freaks. After arrival they headed to the hostel to drop their gear off. After which they went on a walking tour of the city's tourist attractions. These included:
- Union Square
- Chinatown - cheap food, haircuts and chinese junk.
- Nob Hill, Coit Tower and the crooked street.
- Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39 - Had San Fran's famous clam chowder in a bread bowl.
- Travelled around on the historic cable cars - very fun and amazing to watch in action.
- Lots of bums asking for money.
- Alcatraz "The Rock" - very cool.
- The Castro District - San Fran's gay district, had a few beers with some nice young men and passed out with my pants around my ankles.
- The Mission District - nightclub area, went for dinner at a Indian restaurant and quenched our burning mouths at a mexican bar with a jug of frozen margaritas, passed out again.
- City Hall - looked like the white house.
- Golden Gate Bridge - engineering masterpiece
- Postcard Alley - "Full House" (refer to photos)

All in all, Steve and Tina had a great time and it was fun to get away from the shittiness of work for a few days.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE
5/03/03 - 7/03/03

Fabs and Steve took a few days off work to check out South Lake Tahoe, which is the southern point of Lake Tahoe (a very massive lake i might add). This town is much larger than Tahoe City and is more of a party town. It sits on the border of California and Nevada thus the main street has casinos upto the border and then no more. Which is good because you get all the advantages of California (no smoking, sexy ladies, etc) with the advantages of Nevada (cheap food, fun and accom.). Fabs and Steve rented a hotel room for two nights and it turned out we had a hot tub right outside our room. So many hours were wasted in the tub eating pretzels, drinking beer and being merry. Fabs may have touched me a little, but i tried to stop him.

Basically the holiday was ment to be a "veg-out". We did very little sightseeing a lots of sleeping, drinking and watching TV. The few things we did included:
- Went to Club Nero in Ceasar's casino. This club is the most popular in the Tahoe region. It was packed with young aussies and the cover got you any drink you wanted for $1. Thats right, Coronas oh baby!. Needless to say we had a great night, went home alone and woke up with a sore head.
- Saw an adult revue show called "Passion Xtreme". Managed to talk our way into cheap tickets and saw some great dancing, boobies and a globe of death (motorcycles in a steel spherical cage). It was awesome.
- Went to the movies and saw "Cradle 2 the Grave". Starred Jet Li and DMX, not bad action, kung-fu flick.
- Visited Heavenly Ski Resort Gondola. This is the place the trio orignally wanted to work but couldn't get jobs at. BASTARDS!!
- Played many computer games - lots of games which detect your movement with sensors so you duck and weave around to avoid bullet. Its just like the boxing game Fabs described.
- Ate a plethora of TV dinner because they were really cheap and we were lazy. They were very tasty and quite nutritional.

Fabs and Steve had a grat relaxing time and came back to Tahoe City with a renewed desire to quit work forever. Oh, another story, we hitch hiked down (about 1hr away) and got picked up after about the 5th car that passed us (5mins) but coming homw we stood on the road for 3.5 hrs and got nothing. The same bus driver drove past 5 times during the 2.5hrs and everytime he laughed at us. Everntually a taxi man took pity on us and drove us most of hte way for , even thought the meter said . We got lucky!