Hayley in Wanderlust: San Diego, Las Vegas and Sacramento

My final week saw me leave behind the chaotic beauty of Latin America and head north for a whistle stop tour of the USA's West Coast.

It has to be said, after 4 months of arriving to new places on my own, walking through arrivals at LAX and having my two childhood best friends (plus one of my surrogate Mothers and Nan) waiting for me was a pretty special feeling. Following a three hour drive, and a shower and many girly squeals of excitement dinner and cocktails at The Cheesecake Factory was the best way to kick start my final week.

On the Thursday, we headed to Pacific Beach for a day in the sun. Having been in Costa Rica for a month, my tan was coming along nicely, but my friends aren't as passionate about sunbathing as I am. So tanning quickly turned into tacos and margaritas at Fat Fish Cantina Grill. We were there during happy hour, so fish tacos were only $2 and a house margarita was something like $3.50. This set up us nicely to move on to Baja Beach Club, where Mega Margarita's were $16.50 and contained 4 margaritas in each one. We drunk three each, ended up making friends with an entire family and woke up as living proof that tequila is the original dirty, rotten scoundrel.


We were, however, unable to bask in our hangovers for too long though, as it was time for the drive to Las Vegas!
I love Vegas. We went at 16 whilst staying with Chelsea, and I was crazy about it then. Now, at 22, Vegas held so many more possibilities and I was going to get to experience them with my oldest friends in the universe. Doubly exciting was the fact that one of the guys I met in Valpariso (Chile) was also in town and I ended up bumping into him in the middle of the dance floor at Drais Nightclub, located at The Cromwell Hotel. He lives in Australia and I live in the UK and yet, through the magic of travelling, we ended up not even a metre away from each other. How I ever thought I'd make no new friends whilst away is beyond me!

We stayed at Caesars Palaces, which is just incredible. I will never cease to be awe struck by the size of Vegas hotels. Caesars is also home to Omnia nightclub, where the likes of Calvin Harris, Afrojack and Above & Beyond are residents. We caught Above & Beyond on the Sunday night and they amazing. Not that any of nightclubs put on a crap night. Drai's opens up into a large outdoor area with a pool that has a pretty mind blowing view of Caesars after dark. As much as Vegas is expensive, sourcing out the club promoters is easy and getting on the guestlists gives you free or discounted entry to the clubs themselves, which comes in handy. Especially when three jagerbombs, a long island ice tea and two vodka lemonades will set you back $106. Ouch.

Should also just mention that if you're in Vegas you should just go ahead and have a meal at Tao, in the Venetian. The food is amazing, and all things considered, not that pricey.

From Vegas, it was a short flight up to Modesto to visit my cousin and his wife, who live out there (I swear I'm not envious in the slightest). We visited what I am told is one of Modesto's only two bars, eating cheese and catching up. The following morning, we set off to Sacramento for the California State Fair. As someone who grew up in a sleepy village in South East England, I have always viewed the concept of a State Fair as a place where food is unhealthy, vegetables are the size of buildings and up and coming bands play (ie: the Jonas Brothers in 2008). To be honest, I wasn't that far off. I didn't see any giant vegetables, but there were plenty of prize winning cows and goats, stands that sold any deep fried any food item you could think of (including Oreos and cookie dough) and wine slushies. The slushies were delicious. There was also a huge fairground with rides brought in from Michael Jackson's Neverland (bit strange) and plenty of stools selling a multitude of crap.
I loved it!

My visit was a mere 36 hours long, but I got to tick another new place off my list before flying back to San Diego for my very last night.

Then, that was it. I found myself at LAX, boarding my flight back to London struggling to believe that it had all come to an end. I was not flying somewhere new, or even somewhere sunny! The 19 weeks that had once stretched endlessly infront of me had caught up to me. A blur of amazing places I'd seen and people I'd met, a long collage of  new memories.
My dream was over; but what a dream it was.

- xo