Best holiday ever. A story in photos.

Just over a year ago I went on the best holiday in the world. Ever.

I went to America. Arizona to be precise, to see my best friend who lives over there. She couldn't get any further away from me if she tried but I don't hold it against her, it's not her fault she's American.

Off I went on my grand adventure for two whole weeks and had such a great time that I've never been able to put it into words.

I still can't so I've decided to use the medium of photography to show you some of the highlights....

My first time ever seeing a real life cactus. They are all over the place and some of them are pretty damn huge. This photo was taken from a moving car as we journeyed from Phoenix to Vegas to gamble away our lives (unless you're me and you daren't go on anything other than slot machines). I was also informed that Arizona is the only place these cacti grow, although this is yet to be proved...

The Hoover Dam - also seen on the way to Vegas. It's MASSIVE and when you look over the side you feel quite sick.

VEGAS!! I did want to get a cool photo of the fountains at the Bellagio but my camera failed that night. Instead here is a picture of the beasty lion outside the MGM casino. You have no idea how big those casinos are. You walk in and it. is. loud. Bells ringing, people shouting, lights flashing - it's almost too much to take in and it's way too easy to get lost in them. Plus you lose all sense of what time of day it is - they are busy at 4am as they are at 4pm. It's bizarre.

The Grand Canyon. We visited on the way back from Vegas. It is very grand. And very busy. But I have to admit I was a little underwhelmed. And also quite scared because I'm quite tall and barriers aren't as high as I would like them. I have a photo of me with the Canyon in the background and my knuckles are white from where I was gripping on to the rail. As we were leaving we saw a runaway dog with some people chasing after it and I've always wondered if they caught him...

Chinese takeaway!! In boxes!! (Except in America-land they call it takeOUT) This was on my list of Things-I-Must-Do-In-America. You always see them on Friends and Sex and the City and every other movie, eating their takeaway out of those boxes and it's always been a huge bugbear of mine that we don't have ours like that.

The weather was amazing. Pure blue skies. And palm trees. And orange trees! And I could enjoy them all while I lazed by the pool in my friend's apartment complex. All the Americans thought I was mad because I got in the pool to cool off. It wasn't summer for them yet but I was practically melting.

And finally, I went to a real-life baseball game. It was fun although it took me pretty much the entire innings to figure out what was going on and how it worked. I wanted to buy a cookie off one of the men walking up and down the aisles but I was too scared to shout out.

There are many other photos which are highlights of my holiday over there but they are not necessarily suitable for publishing on the blog! There are also some things that happened that can't be captured by a photograph. Other highlights included...

1. Getting matching manicures and pedicures. My feet have never looked so good.

2. Getting to eat at a Wendys and an IHOP (that's International House of Pancakes for those of you not in the know)

3. Discovering goldfish crackers.

4. Laughing at lorries on the road which are MASSIVE

5. Discovering Target

6. Pole dancing lessons in Vegas

7. Buying Bride hats from Target for a dollar

8. Making friends with an enormous cat who became my pool buddy.
9. Standing on stage on a bar down Mill Ave, singing YMCA with a stars and stripes hat on

10. The exchange rate!! And having to buy another suitcase to fit in all my news clothes to come back home.

Happy times indeed...