Viva Las Vegas!

Our last, blissful days of the holiday were, of course, spent in the sweltering desert heat of Las Vegas. 

The first night we arrived was, once again, a family night. This time, we met up with Joyce and Hanna at the Paris. A busy, hot and neon infused walk down The Las Vegas Strip lead us to the famous American landmark, The Eiffel Tower. We knew we'd got the right place! We enjoyed a lovely Italian dinner at one of the restaurants in the hotel and then had to say our final goodbyes to the family. :(

After we'd left the Paris, we stayed around outside to watch the Bellagio fountain show, which was just across the street. It's insane how high the water is jetted, some of the spurts reach over the top of the hotel, which is 36 floors tall! 

 After the show finished, we wandered back down The Strip towards Treasure Island, our hotel. We were again waylaid by one of the many shows, this time, it was the volcano at  Caesar's Palace. This was another cool fountain, but this time a lava fountain! Well, not really, but the water was lighted so convincingly it looked amazing.

After both of those awesome shows, we went back to the hotel and enjoyed the Sirens of Treasure Island show. Again, we watched it from the room, so, it wasn't the best view, but it was easy to see the fireworks!

The day after our Grand Canyon tour, we had a lie in before heading through the casino area to the nearby Fashion Show Mall. We spent the morning browsing and buying, and, by some miracle I found a few shops I actually liked. My favourite: Hot Topic. It was like some kind of weird fan-girl/nerd paradise. Juliet also got to go into one of her favourite shops, Hollister, and make good use of the offers and lower exchange rate price of clothing. Wins all round!

Picci from here

After our shopping excursion, we returned to the hotel to freshen up and pack up our spoils. It didn't take long,  and soon enough we were stepping out into the oven-like heat again. Our first stop was Caesar's Palace, in the hope that we could see the moving statues and changing ceiling the hotel/casino are so famous for. Unfortunately, the statues were broken... :( and, we couldn't find the ceiling. But, we still had a great time just soaking up the atmosphere.

We then wandered down the Strip, heading towards the Palazzo which is across from Treasure Island. The heat was very intense, and I didn't feel very well (I was kind of in a weird dehydrated trance) but the others enjoyed looking at the Palazzo's famous gondolas and general Italian themed awesomeness. We got an excellent look at only a tiny portion of the city, but it was enough.

We returned to the room and got changed, preparing for the last hurrah of the holiday - the Treasure Island buffet... Our mouths-watering, eyes feasting, we waited in line with anticipation. The spread of food was amazing  the choice included Japanese, Chinese, American, French, Italian and so much more... and that's not even mentioning the desserts! We really enjoyed the very varied meal and stuffed ourselves completely. After that, it appeared it was over... We'd enjoyed our 'last supper' in the land of dreams

Picci from here

Desserts! Picci from here

We weren't fully prepared to face the reality that it was over... However, it was, and we were up the next morning to catch a flight. Watch the next (and possibly ultimate) post for our return home and, hopefully, some kind of mash-up-compilation video I'm hoping to make

Caroline :)

The Grand Canyon

After a two day drive from Yosemite, stopping at Bakersfield to break up the very long journey. We stayed there for a night, before beginning the second leg of the drive to Las Vegas. The heat was incredible, and we managed to clock 46 degrees Celsius on the in-car thermometer! After checking in the night before, we visited our relatives again where they were staying at the Paris hotel. I'll mention this in the next post because this one is devoted to a big long rip in the ground... The night before, we rang up and booked our Grand Canyon Maverick helicopter tour and bus-led rim visits for the next day...

After we arrived in a small aircraft, which seated around 15 people. It took a flight of around 45 minutes to reach the Grand Canyon airport terminal, around the equivalent of flying London from Manchester in the UK. There was a little turbulence, because of a large amount of storm/rain-cloud activity in the nearby area, but nothing too bad. After we'd landed, we were taken over to the terminal to board our helicopter flight. We were all very excited, and some were a little nervous... Not Juliet though!

We set off very smoothly, accelerating quickly to a ground speed of  over 140mph as we soared over a large forest of Ponderosa Pines. After around 7 minutes of flight, we approached the rim of the canyon. As we crossed, a wonderful vista opened up before us, as our altitude changed from 700ft to over a mile high! We got a great look at the Colorado river, which we even saw some rafting boats in. Don't get too excited though, the waiting list for these rafting trips is 2 years long...

As well as the stunning Colorado river, we were treated to excellent, otherwise unreachable perspectives, of rock formations such as Vishnu, Brahma, Tower of Ra, Solomon Temple, Jupiter Temple, and many more. Take a look at the answer on this Yahoo question for more information right here

After our helicopter ride, we were taken by bus to some of the more famous points of the canyon, on the South Rim, which was where we were based. We visited both Mather Point and Bright Angel Point, and got some stunning views of the Canyon from right on the edge.

Our day at the Grand Canyon was very long, so after an awesome Vietnamese meal in Treasure Island and enjoying the 'Sirens of Treasure Island' show from our awesome viewpoint room, we slept!
Watch the next post for a view of Las Vegas and our shopping trip in the Fashion Show Mall!

Caroline :)

Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park. Entering it was one of the most awe-inspiring moments I've ever experienced. The entire place is totally beautiful, a natural beauty that is amazing.

These views were taken as we drove into the park, meaning the edges are a little fuzzy because we were moving along the road on the way to our lodgings

 This is El Capitan, a 7,569 ft tall granite wall which is a favourite for rock climbers in the park. It is super awesome!

 These photos were taken after we had made the hour long coach journey up to Glacier Point 7,214 feet up. They show Half Dome at its best as it glistened in the midday sun. Unbelievable there were actually people on top of there!

 These photos show the Mariposa Grove of giant redwood trees. They were huge.

 We also saw this tree: The Giant Grizzly. It's the second largest living thing in the entire world! These pictures don't properly show the scale of these magnificent giants which towered above us.

 On our return journey, we had an unexpected surprise. A black bear ran across the road in front of the coach, and decided to pose for us down the slope to the right. It is a pretty rare occurrence to actually see a bear, so this was pretty amazing!

 This is the impressive vista from Tunnel View. Luckily, we caught it in the afternoon sunlight, which left a lasting impression on us.

 Returning to the lodge, we also got multiple sightings of other wildlife. Namely, the large amount of deer that live in and around the park. Sometimes they even slept in the meadow just behind our lodge. One time, we saw a mother and a fawn hanging around.

 On our second day in the park, we rented bikes and toured the valley floor. Stopping at many interesting photo opportunities and taking a look at the historic Ahwahnee hotel.

 We also took time to visit Mirror Lake, which was very dry, and there was a huge rock, probably deposited by a glacier - just look at the size!

 This was taken in a nice meadow near to the Ahwahnee. Lovely.

These are views of Half Dome, which we saw earlier from Glacier Point. This time from the valley floor.

 And who can complain when this is the view from your balcony...
This is Sentinal Rock... awesome!

Watch the next post for our time in Las Vegas!

Caroline :)