Viva Las Vegas!

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Hi all!

So after flying from Toronto via Minneapolis (check spelling) we arrived in Las Vegas! The taxi ride took us right past all the famous sights which looked amazing when illuminated. Our hotel, which was in one of the oldest casinos in downtown Vegas is about a 5 minute drive from the main strip.

On our first day we headed to the strip to see all the famous Casinos and hotels which were all very impressive, especially New York, New York which basically looked like the NY skyline from the outside and downtown NY from the inside, including a Central Park set where the slot machines were located. Although all the luxury hotels looked amazing I did think that the rest of the strip seemed to look like a building site as there seems to be new constructions popping up left, right and centre.
On our first evening we headed to the Stratosphere Hotel and Casino for a Buffet dinner, all you can eat for $15 each!!! after that we headed back to the strip to see all the sights again but this time all lit up which was much much more impressive as it's not overly impressive during the day. We saw the fountain shows outside the Bellagio (you know the ones at the end of Ocean's Eleven), the Volcano erupt outside the Mirage and caught the end of the 'Sirens of Treasure Island' show outside Treasure Island complete with scantily clad women and a sinkng ship!

Day two, after seeing it advertised in the lonely planet guide, the free magazine we got from our taxi ride and on the destination guide we had watched on our flight to NY we decided, much to Verity's delight, to go to the Elvis-o-rama museum which holds the second largest collection of Elvis props, clothes and stuff only to find that it shut in October 2006!!!!!
In the evening we stayed downtown and had another buffet but this time in the Fremont Casino and Hotel where we then tried our luck on some of the slot machines even though neither of us knew what we were doing. The main part of downtown Vegas is covered by a four block long canopy of lights that every hour puts on an awesome light show with music.

So that was our two days in Vegas, I did like it but would like to go back with a bit more money cos if you're not gambling, getting drunk or getting married (there were actually people on our bus planning their wedding! and most of the chapels are next to adult movie stores or strip joints!) then there isn't all that much to do.

So now we've just arrived in San Francisco after a 14 hour overnight bus journey split into two parts, LV-LA and LA-San Fran, the second of which we had the maddest and rudest bus driver. Some of his best qoutes were

"We'll be stopping for 30 minutes and I mean 30 minutes, if you're longer than that it's a 6 hour wait for the next bus"

"The temperature on the bus is 75 degrees, don't ask me to turn it up or down cos I won't. If your too cold put a jacket on, if your too hot take one off!"

nice!

Anyway we're here for 4 nights so tune in around Wednesday for our tales from San Francisco.

Bye for now, love to you all

G&V xx

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Photos

Viva Las Vegas
not actually the real sign!!

Canal at the Venetian
and that's the Mirage in the background!

Sirens of TI
the show outside Treasure Island

Light canopy on Fremont St.
otherwise known as the Fremont Experience