Las Vegas

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We flew from Toronto via Chicago into Las Vegas, Nevada - from the cool autumnal north to sunshine and warm temperatures in the western desert.

Vegas is, well, Vegas. No other city can be so garish and absurd, yet be so captivating and wonderfully entertaining. What an amazing juxtaposition of different features copied from around the world - 'The Strip' boasts scaled down (but by no means small) versions of an Egyptian pyramid, the Statue of Liberty and Eiffel Tower, cheek-by-jowl with roller-coasters, a Roman Collosseum, 3-masted ship and Venetian gondolas, etc. You can see Elvis impersonators on the street and show girls in full costume on their way to work. most hotels/casinos include wedding chapels with whatever theme takes your fancy. Super-stretch limos just don't look out of place here!

Gambling is everywhere - in the casinos of course, but glittering machines are also found on the airport concourse and even behind the checkouts at the supermarket. Patricia & I dabbled just a little but didn't manage to win back the cost of this trip!

Vegas is also show town, so we went to see Mystere, the Cirque de Soleil show in the Treasure Island hotel/casino. The musical fountain display outside the Bellagio casino was equally amazing.

Tomorrow we rent a car and head east to see the Grand Canyon...

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