Tanya & Matt's Big Adventure: The Honeymoon - Day 1

Today Tanya and I set off on our Honeymoon, a huge four week trip around the USA!

We awoke around 6.30am after a restless sleep at the Sydney Hilton - not that the sleep had anything to do with the hotel mind you, we were just two very excited people. Our bags packed, and wearing clean clothes that I was told "would probably have to last you a good 32 hours, maybe more", we set off to Town Hall Station.

Matt valiantly guards the bags from the riff-raff of Sydney's seedy underbelly.

Check-in was simple, although no upgrades were afforded the happy couple at this time, our bags were whisked away into the unknown and we were left to meander around the International Terminal for a couple of hours.

Tanya bought a small money pouch, I bought two pies and a Watermelon Crush from Boost Juice. Together we bought a money belt, more security locks and travel related haberdashery. Through Customs we went and then a small wait to board our plane.Whilst waiting I got chatting to an elder couple who were returning to Winnipeg Canada after a long trip around New Zealand and the Eastern Coast of Australia, they had managed to avoid most of the rain we had been having over the month of February and had enjoyed a solid trip. Good for them!

We boarded our plane, in the rear of the cabin, Tanya in the middle next to a lady who sounded like she had a cold, myself on the isle. The plane took off around 11am. There were free movies and TV shows and CDs and games to play, we were served dinner - Tortellini with red sauce for Tanya, Beef Stew for Matt, both very ... "standard" airplane food. The butter was nice! - and we were served breakfast before landing. On top of the food, our Canadian old friends were sitting behind us!

Think you are tired now? Wait 13 hours and we'll ask again!

We landed at 6.40am on Monday morning at LAX. Going back in time and getting to live a day twice is an interesting experience. I have been privileged to see the effects of sleep deprivation on Tanya before, she gets the giggles around 1am most nights, well this was something else! Tanya's brain was goo. Unable to process simple thoughts any more she was a mixture of giggles and "whaaaa?". That glazed look over her eyes, here was a woman who was looking down the barrel of insanity and beckoning it to shoot her in the face.

America - Land of the Line

"Welcome to the USA, now stand in line here so that you can proceed to that line over there."

My god there are a lot of lines to get into the country. The line to get to the line that leads to customs, then you literally go upstairs to wait in line to get back into the airport, which you haven't left yet! Shoes and metallic underwear removed I made my way unimpeded through the security checkpoint. Tanya was held for a good 30 minutes in a glass cage as she was deemed "shifty looking".

Then when we got on the plane to Vegas she found this;

Tanya finds walls confusing.

There was no window on our seat, something to which Tanya was both furious and confused.

I slept the entire plane trip to Vegas - Tanya was not so lucky.

Vegas

Welcome to Vegas, you can leave your money and dignity here.

Cramped from over 14 hours of flights, I splurged on a Limo to the hotel... and it was sweet.

We took a limo to the hotel, I tipped for the first time, first the limo driver, then the guy who put or bags on a well oiled dolly and pushed it into the hotel. One of these tips felt right, the other felt like a waste of time... you can be the judge.

The lobby of the Venetian is awe inspiring.

Awe Inspiring, we literally went Awwwwww

We were also unable to receive an upgrade here "we are all out of upgrade packages" whatever that means. But by the time we made our way down an expansive marble corridor and then through the enormous casino to our Elevator and then into our room, we realised we didn't need the bigger room... this one was huge. And Opulent.

Bags strewn across our huge room

The opulent bath room

A view of the pools

Our window views the Mirage, Treasure Island, the Palazzo, Trump Tower, and miles of nothing, which is literally all there is in Vegas apart from the hotels.

We decided to look around our hotel, gondola rides, high fashion, magic stores, Italian restaurants and...

ICE CREAM!!!

Even though Tanya was sleepy dwarf, the sight of this Ice Cream pepped her right up. So did this sight;

Two-Coffees-Tanya and those are regular sized, the large was a BUCKET!

This is indoors!

So is this! The sky is freaky!

Tanya being freaked by the freaky sky!

She caught me taking photos of her... get used to it honey!

After walking through the amazing sites of the Venetian and the Palazzo we went outside to take in the real sky - it was only 1pm at this time after all. We were greeted by a gorgeous day.

The Gondolas outside in front of our hotel.

One of the many fountains in Vegas

We walked around, got to know the immediate area, all whilst trying to keep our eyeballs in their sockets. I got to meet Whoopi Goldberg, Tanya was already sick of being in all the photos...

"I loved you in Dream Girls... Ohhh, my bad"

"What do you mean 'Palazzo is Italian for stinky socks?'"

We came inside and were once again amazed at the ceiling of the Casino entrance;

400 men died in the painting of this ceiling

Tanya contemplates her height

Tickets booked for Human Nature and Madame Tussauds, we decided to walk around town and perhaps look for something to eat.

We wondered into Caesar's Palace... WOW... what an amazing building and terrific place. Huge corridors with the most amazing shops and a HUGE fountain in the centre;