Our arrival in Las Vegas didn't get off to a very good start....
We gave the courtesy bus driver the name of our hotel "Palazzo" and he thought we said "Belaggio" so he deposited us there where we lined up with a few hundred others to check in to be told we were at the wrong hotel.
Back out to a waiting cab for a drive to the other end of the strip and we arrived very tired from a very early start to find that our accommodation had been cancelled at some stage months before by persons unknown.
After a few stressful moments when we decided to pay for that nights accommodation and sort it out in the morning, we were on our way.
It was weird to see banks of pokies at the airport and in the streets as well as clubs and hotels and seeing people still at the machines when we came down for breakfast in the morning, but we loved our stay. We went into some of the hotels on the strip just to say we had been into them, put a couple of dollars in a machine at the LVH - Las Vegas Hilton, which is the hotel where Elvis always stayed and got a $1 chip from there for Kath. We had an early night on the first night (11.30) and set off to explore next day. That night we went to a show put on by Rich Little, comedian and impersonator, who did a James Stewart story and numerous other actors and actresses of the era. A fantastic show...
The next night we went to a Cirque Du Soleil. Another great show. This was a big day as we did a tour of the Grand Canyon and the bus picked us up early for the 1-1/2 hours drive out. On the way we saw mountain goat and wild sheep (which weren't too wild).
On arrival we were weighed in for the helicopter ride to the floor of the canyon where we hopped aboard a boat for a ride up the Colorado river .
Once back we had another helicopter ride to the surface where we had lunch supplied by the Haulapai Indians, got some more photos and back on the bus for the long ride back to Vegas. I absolutely loved the colours and vastness of the gully they call the Grand Canyon but had a very fearful time watching Stuart (and others) getting too close to the edge for photos. As the area is owned by the Indian nation there are no taxes or laws as apply to other people and places in the US so haulapai indians safety rules don't apply either. Hence no safety rails. Fortunately nobody fell to their death that day. Sadly as we were about to get back on the bus for the ride back, Stuart realised that his SD card had malfunctioned and he had lost about 300 photos. He had, thankfully backed up all but the Grand Canyon ones on his Ipad. However I had quite a few photos though none as close to the edge as the ones he got. We even got to see some very dodgy "Elvis'".....
It made us feel right at home - Parkes that is.
The last day in Vegas was spent exploring and checking out the inside of hotels.
A gondola, one of many going through the middle of our hotel with each oarsman singing in Italian to their guests.
At 6.00pm each day a show was put on in our hotel with 3 pianists, a violin player and a classical singer.
Stuart inside the Palaggio Hotel foyer
All inside the Palaggio hotel
The last night we went to the Paris Hotel
where we met up with people we met on the cruise Gail and Grant. A couple we became good friends with over the 7 days of the cruise and who we feel will remain good friends and will have to visit in New Zealand some day.
Unfortunately, we had to say goodby to the bright lights of Vegas and fly back to Vancouver where we had 2 nights R and R before transferring from our hotel to the first night of our cross Canada Odessey at a different hotel and it all begins again.
No comments:
Post a Comment