Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon

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Hello again, I know that I have been slack and Im sorry, but what can I say...? We are having a great time and there is too much to do to find time to blog!

Las Vegas was absolutely amazing! Our first night we stayed at the Luxor hotel which is the big pyramid with the light that shines brightly into space. It was fantastic. The foyer was the centre of the pyramid that tapered up to the top and you didnt take the elevator to your floor, you took the inclinator as it followed the side of the pyramid.

The first thing we did was jump on a bus to the factory outlet shopping centre that we had heard so much about. I think we ended up at the wrong one (there are three) as it wasnt all that great - despite the fact I managed to spend up big on a nice new winter coat (that has now come in very handy!).

That night for dinner we were given "hotel dollars" to use at the buffet. I had heard about Las Vegas buffets before but that didnt prepare me... it was huge, anything that you could imagine was there, salad bars, roasts, itlaian, chinese, mexican and did I mention the sweets? It was almost the end of us. And I am proud to say that I held my own against Tim for a good three plate-fulls, after which I had to let him win.

After that we headed out to find a traditional Vegas show, show girls included. The posters looked promising, the huge costumes (notably less huge in certain areas), the diamonds and sparkles. But we should have known something was not quite right when the two seats next to me were two little old ladies (note that they were sitting next to me, Tim pushed me in front and refused to see a Vegas show sitting next to two old ladies...) It wasnt really that bad, there were two acts of traditional costumes... and the rest was a song and dance routine... oh well, it was still good fun.

After the show we wandered and saw the Bellagio fountain shows, and just gazed and gawked at the huge lights and sounds of the strip. It really was overwhelming. We didnt get back to the hotel until about 2am, but even then there were people all over the place. It was really strange too that inside all of the casinos, they all looked exactly the same at 2am as they did at 11am whne we checked in. I guess they know what they are doing, making people lose track of time...

Any way, after a whole 3 hours of sleep, we had to get up to catch our coach ride to the Grand Canyon. So that was what, two days in a row of practically no sleep...?

The bus ride to the Canyon was amazing in itself. We saw Hoover Dam for a photo stop. I was a bit disappointed we didnt have any more time than that though. The landscape through Nevada and Arizon is great. There are huge flat plains and then these ruged and jaggered mountains that just appear.

I am running out of time... I will up load photos and the rest of the story soon, I promise.

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Comments

[Graeme McMenamin]

Photos
I promise not to use photos from this without the express permission of the Author (Steph and Tim).