The houses were bungalows and were huge. At last we had reached their house and my first impressions of the house was it’s a one storied palace. I couldn’t wait to go inside and I was glad I got there safely.
The weather was great and it was humid and there was a dry smell. The concrete was really hot the soles of your shoes were literally melting. I suppose the weather had more affect on my family and me because the weather in Stafford was no way in million days going to be as hot and humid. The weather in Stafford is normally dull and raining most of the time. But the weather in America was incredibly mind blowing, I knew that I wouldn’t get better weather in a long time, and I wouldn’t be going America again for a while, so I took full advantage of it throughout the holiday and spent most of my time outside.
One of the best highlights was going to my cousins wedding. There is three parts of the wedding in a Muslim wedding. Before my cousin got married we went to the mendi. The mendi was successful, and there were dances including my cousins and me in the hall, everyone had fun. We all ate dinner and I saw my mums sister dance! Wow she needs some dancing lesson, only joking! But all round for the first part of the wedding it was very enjoyable.
A couple of days after there was the wedding day and my cousin called Farhan who was getting married was quite nervous. We travelled to the hall in style in a limo. The weather wasn’t as hot as the other days it was a bit breezy and cooler. The journey was long and the traffic on the way to my cousin’s wife’s family was slow. Once we got there we went to the hall and the wedding begun. The wedding day was probably the best day because I had loads of fun and enjoyed myself. Once again there was plenty of dancing to the loud music but this time I didn’t dance. The lights were flashing and loads of people where on the dance floor showing of their moves.
The final part of the wedding was the Valima, which was also great fun. A Pakistani band was hired to sing at the Valima and they were quite good. There were a lot of people invited to the Valima and the hall was packed. The hall was beautiful and was like a palace.
The reason we went to America was to go to my cousins wedding and it was very successful thanks to God. The married couple are now expecting a baby soon. And I will be a nephew!
Another highlight was going to Reno; the music was full blast on the long journey and then going on the arcades, was thrilling when we got there. Only problem was it was too cramped and uncomfortable on the journey to Reno, but it was totally worth it. There were millions of lights; they were as bright as the sun. When we entered the casino in Reno there was a place for arcades, which is where my sisters, my cousins and me went straight away excitedly. The casino was packed! I won heaps of teddies and played loads of arcades; I gave most of the teddies to my sisters. One of the best games was when I had a baseball and I had to knock down 15 cans in one go. It didn’t look that hard to me but when I saw the other people not getting all the cans down I knew it would be a challenge. I gave it a shot and threw the baseball at very high speed like lightning and knocked down all 15 cans. I won £3 and a huge teddy. I had a great big grin on my face, I was really proud. I also completed an arcade called Time Crisis, which took a long time, but it was fun. There was a certain time you had to do part of the level and then you would get a checkpoint and it would add on more time, if the time ran out I lost the game. I had a gun and had to shoot all the bad guys but if I didn’t use the pedal to duck down I would get shot. I had three lives to complete it and used two before completing the game. My cousin who got married went to the casino and they won $400, which was all right considering it was just days after they got married. I was disappointed when we had to go back to Sacramento because I had a really good time. And I knew I would have plenty more highlights to come, as this was only the beginning of my holiday.
Days went by and we decided to go to San Francisco. The weather was great as expected. We went on the Golden Gate Bridge, and I saw Alcatraz Island, which used to be an old prison a long time ago. Alcatraz Island looked very small from the Golden Gate Bridge. I loved the film called ‘The Rock’ which was based on Alcatraz Island that’s why I was so exhilaratingly stimulated when I finally got to see it in real life. I didn’t get a chance to go inside The Rock but just looking at it was bringing me thoughts in my head of the film. This memory will never be forgotten. Going along the Golden Great Bridge was also good, it was huge and there were loads of cars going along it. It was really busy that there we were going really slowly, slow as a snail. It was a great day.
I had the time of my life when I went to Sacramento I enjoyed it the most because my cousin Atif who was fifteen years old hanged out with me most of the time and I also hanged out with Atif’s cousin who was thirteen years old who was called Umair who was also very cool. I really want to go back to Sacramento sometime and I am sure I will have another great holiday there.
It was very disappointing when we had to leave because everyone didn’t want to go back to Stafford, especially me because I had such a good time. It took me a while to lighten back up and be more cheerful. And also a while to get used to the sleeping times because of the five-hour difference. We kept contact by email and we phoned each other time from time. I was missing the fantastic beautiful weather!
