Viva las vegas and the grand canyon

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I was here for two nights and decided to stay at a proper hotel on the famous Las Vegas Strip ....... well when in Vegas...........so I stayed at the Circus Circus Hotel. I met a random girl from hawaii at the airport and we spent the first afternoon and evening together exploring the Las Vegas Strip -this is the collective name for the road where most of the major hotels/casino's are found. Check out the photo's, the hotels are tourist attractions, come to vegas, visit the world, there's an eiffel tower for goodness sake!

The next day I took a scenic flight day tour over the Grand Canyon. It was simply amazing, a place for the correct usage of the word Awesome. It is huge and goes on as far as the eye can see. The beautiful colours of the stone and the patterns created by nature from the weathering of the rocks and the carving of the canyon are breath-taking. However if you think my description is cheesy, you should have heard the music on the flight! There was a running commentry about all the places we flew over, this included mentioning Celine Dion who lives in a town near vegas and this lead to the inevitable playing of "My Heart Will Go On" (the Titanic Song). Also as we came into land What a wonderful world by Louis Armstrong was played although I rather like this song. We had an hour flight there and back. We landed near the canyon and went on a bus tour around the canyon. It was just as awesome from the ground and we got to hear some of the stories of the first europeans who settled at the grand canyon, the most famous one was someone called Fred harvey, he owned a chain of hotels and developed something called the harvey girl concept - attractive girls brought in to do hostessing at the hotels to make the wild west more attractive.

I explored Vegas by myself on my last evening, wandering around all the grand shopping centres and in and out of the hotels and casino's, I even did some celebrity spotting! Admittedly I didn't know who the celebrity was but everyone else was taking photo's so when in vegas........I later found out it as a sports legend called Magic Johnson!He was going to the pure nightclub in the hotel/ casino Caesars Palace, there was also a diamond encrusted microphone outside the club -the only microphone in the world to come with its own security apparently, only in vegas!!!!!!!!!
Later on, back at my hotel, I decided to place a bet or two.............when in vegas...I won some back and then I lost it all on the roulette table but it wasn't a large amount and it had to be done!Made friends with a couple at the table and you get free drinks whilst sitting at the table so all was not lost!

Had a great time in Vegas although as always, wish I had more money and more time!And it would have been fun to go see a show too, but maybe next time................

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Photos

the sign for my hotel, does this clown remind anyone else of a certain stephen king film clown?
IT does me!

The famous Bellagio hotel/ fountain (1)
Every 15-30 minutes there is a musically timed display - an example song? Shirley Bassey's "Hey Big Spender"

Shopping centres, Vegas style
Full of elaborate fountains, sculptures and decor and sometimes you can't exit the way you came in so have to walk all the way through the centre to get out!often via a casino!