Las Vegas

Day 21 – Sunday

Early morning start at 4.45am to catch the flights to Las Vegas. Bit of a hiccup at the airport where both of our suitcases were overweight by a few kilos. They are cheaper internal airlines where you pay a standard $25 for one case. I personally think their scales are out as we did weigh them before we left hotel and we were under the 23k limit. Anyway there we were, doing what you see a lot of people doing, with suitcases sprawled on the floor of the airport with all the world to see undies, bras etc on full show. So in the end we paid for one overweight case a cost of $90 - all those pressies were too heavy!!!

We flew into Salt Lake City first.

We were lucky to sit next to a local on the flight and he was explaining the topography of the landscape and all about the massive salt lake we were flying over. Seawater contains normally 3.5% salt, the lake contains between 4 and 8 times that of the ocean. You can take your book and read it floating in the water with no effort at all, even all you skinny folk.  

Connecting flight to Las Vegas on time and we arrived at another city on this planet that does not sleep.

You should see this fabulous hotel we have booked. It is the Trump Tower and it faces down 'The Strip' - Las Vegas Boulevard. It has 2 bathrooms, one of them bigger than my kitchen and dining area put together, a dining area, kitchen and lounge. We are on the 48th floor anything lower and you wouldn't see over all the other massive hotels.

Totally Gold just to reflect the Trump fortunes

Look closely at mirror there is a TV, every bathroom needs a TV?

Lounge, dining - you could live comfortably in this suite, just like a one bedroom apartment

Spa bath with a view of The Strip- it was big enough to hold a party in.

Settled in and got ready for our first night on the town which was the Rod Stewart Concert at the Colosseum in Caesars Palace. Caesars Palace is amazing it is enormous and Rod Stewart was wonderful, he is the ultimate entertainer. The stage was so big, twice if not three times anything in Sydney.

We even dug deep into the suitcases for the one going-out number.

Day 22 – Monday

Woke early to be shuttled to the airport as we were taking a helicopter flight to tour the Grand Canyon. I must admit I was feeling very apprehensive as this was the first but not the last ride in a helicopter. We were booked on Maverick Tours, the only company that has permission to land in the canyon.

Maverick Tours - where we landed in the Canyon

The journey started with a general introduction to the equipment and there were 6 of us altogether and as the other 4 were a family they were asked to sit in the back and Mez and I were in the front, which felt like there was nothing between us and the ground – very scary but the best seats in the place.

Hovering just off the ground gave you the feeling of weightlessness very unusual. Our pilot was a Tom Cruise, in Top Gun, lookalike – very cute. The flight to the Canyon took in the most amazing sites such as Lake Mead (USA’s largest manmade lake), Hoover Dam, an extinct volcano, Temple Rock and Iceberg Canyon.

Lake Mead from my view in the helicopter of Lake Mead- awesome

Hoover Dam - the white rock near the water line shows how low the water level is and there is real concern in Vegas as the level is dropping every year.

View of the Colorado River from just above the top of the Canyon

Manmade sink hole

We flew through the Grand Canyon along the Colorado River(recent evidence suggests that the river established its course 17 million years ago and has been working its erosive magic ever since) and landed 3,500 feet below the rim on Hualapai Indian Territory.

View of the Colorado River just before landing in the Canyon - as with a lot of rivers in America the water is brown from heavy silt concentration.

We all had to wear headphones and we communicated to each other through microphones - very cool

 We had about 30 minutes to wonder around and Maverick Tours supply refreshments – so we had to have a glass of champagne.

Mez standing at the edge about 90m above the River in the Canyon. Some of the dessert plants were beautiful - took so many pics

What everyone does- drink champagne while standing in the middle of the Grand Canyon. What an experience.

An added bonus- a rattle snake if you look closely you can see she has one eye on you.

On the way back we had another set down in the desert to refuel for the trip back.

At the refuel stop- the orange satchel on my hip is a life vest that we had to wear in an arid landscape very unusual

You always hear and see pictures about how magnificent the Seven Natural Wonders of the World are but until you see this member and are immersed in it you really can’t grasp how majestic it really is. This was the most amazing experience and it is a must do if you ever visit Vegas. You can drive but when you get there you can only see one small section of the Canyon and it is a 9 hour round trip. Save your pennies and don’t even contemplate any option but the helicopter.

Colin our top gun pilot and the proximity of my seat to the controls

Our seats - Mez had a special job - if anything went wrong she was to hit the red switch you can see on the door so it would fly off. This info didn't do much for calming the nerves at the beginning of the flight but by the end we just wanted to do it again.

View of the Trump Tower with The Strip behind as we flew back in across Vegas

Later that night we decided to walk some of the strip with the other hundreds of thousands of tourists. Each of the Casinos have their own over the top attraction to be amazed by e.g. Caesars – has many of the well known attractions of Rome in larger than life sculpture, The Mirage – has an erupting, tribal volcano, The Bellagio Dancing Fountains synchronised to music in an 8 acre lake with the water shooting into the sky higher than a 24 story building and of course the pirates battle at Treasure Island.

Eifel Tower replica 

Bellagio Water show

The Flamingo above and Bellagio below

A massive day one I’m sure we will not forget.

Day 22 – Tuesday

Had a bit of RNR this morning. Did a bit of retail therapy but alas not much as keeping below the required 23k weight is a problem. Across the road from Trump Tower is another BIG mall called Fashion Show Mall housing thousands of upmarket shops with upmarket prices but we were lucky to get a few things on sale such as 2 watches each - a bit extravagant. 

Later went to another show that we had booked from home called The Legends at the Flamingo. Unfortunately is was very amateur production and was a waste. In hindsight we would have been better to book at the discount ticket outlets where you can purchase show tickets once you get some local advise as to what is good to see.

On advise we then ventured down to Fremont Street – the Old Las Vegas. It was less crowded and had better restaurants.

Vegas by night from hotel room

Day 23 - Wednesday

Up early to pack. After much toing and froing, packing and unpacking, weighing and rearranging we made the weigh in at the airport but am carrying about 20k in my backpack and handbag. Flight to LA was rather turbulent and we were glad to touch down. Unfortunately the flight to San Diego has been delayed 3 hours so we have a 4hr transit here but there is always a positive to a situation and I was lucky to have time to finish the blog and get up to date.
Just found out the flight was cancelled but we were lucky to get on another flight later still.
Just found out that the new flight which was to leave at 6.30pm hasn't left San Diego yet so we will be here for another 2 hrs.

San Diego here we come. Eventually.