Less than 24 hours to go now, and finished work for the day. Currently having a drink to celebrate the start of our vacation and no more work until the 28th March

Unfortunately, due to an overzealous cork, I have to mop the floor tomorrow. C’est la vie!

Last night we did a trial pack of our suitcases because we won’t have access to the luggage scale after tonight, so we wanted to get an idea of how much our stuff weighs. We were shocked. Mortified.

As we’re travelling cattle class, we’re restricted to one bag, weighing no more than 23kg. Robbies weighed in at 21kg (which, because the scales are out, means its 23kg) and mine, it weighed in at 15kg, of which, 2kg was cosmetics, and stuff that makes me look/pretty. Something isn’t right here. Since when did I become a light packer of things? I don’t pack light. Ever. I’m a card carrying member of overpackers anonymous. Although probably not so anonymous now that I just outted myself here.

Of course, the good news is that it leaves me room for shopping. I have enough clothes of last me most of a week. And I hate the packing for all eventualities kind of thing. I have to pack summer clothes, winter clothes and everything in between clothes.

The long range forecast looks pretty awesomesauce. Its about the same here in NZ, minus the humidity, so it will be really pleasant, although, it gets a lot colder at night. The high of just 9 8 Deg Celcius and a 30% chance of rain for when we’re at the grand canyon doesn’t appeal much either. I think that will be a long sleeves, hoodie kind of day! Comfort for the 14 hour luxury coach tour from Las Vegas.

So here we are. Just under 35 hours until take off. I sure do hope I sleep tonight!

While SW and I have a girlie night in, the boys have tickets to…

Lakers vs Timberwolves at the Staples Centre!

It’s the final countdown, and not the cheesy power anthem either. The realisation that in just a few more days, we’ll be boarding our flight to LAX has finally hit.

We’ve started packing our suitcases, weighing them nervously in the hope that we won’t be over our allowance of 23kg, ever mindful that the scales are 2kg out, so what is showing as 21kg is in reality 23kg. I’m getting really awesome at this packing gig too. I’ve managed to fit my Nikon D200 and D50 bodies, plus a 50mm Lens, 28mm Lens, 18-105mm Lens and a Lens Baby muse into a Crumpler 5 Million Dollar home bag, and then get this into the bottom of my Kathmandu backpack with enough space left for my phone, purse, headphones, eye mask, pillow, some snacks, a lonely planet guide or two, jumper and some cosmetics to look awesome at the other end of the flight plus rescue/sleep remedy.

And there will be no shortage of kiwi food goodies for our wonderful hosts when we arrive. Presents are bountiful! Tea bags. All one thousand of them. Jetplanes, pineapple lumps, pinky bars, scorched almonds, whittakers chocolate just to name a few treats. Other treats aren’t listed because they’re a sssssssh Surprise!

Waiting over there as well, is a parcel from the toy store. Ah, who am I kidding, its more camera gear! As if I’m not flying with enough!

Toady/Tonights plans for the trip – Print out a map of our hotel in Vegas [DONE], write a list of Things we want to do/see in Vegas, check out the Grand Canyon Village online for awesome shops.