Viva Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley

Welcome to the opportunity to gamble as soon as you step off the plane. We must have arrived in Las Vegas!

It's everything cheeesy you ever hoped for and just as you'd imagine. The bling is everywhere and at all times of the day or night; flashing lights, blip ding whooooh of gaming machines, colourful shiny surfaces, the ka-ching! noise of computer simulated jackpot wins, the shuffle of cards, the roar of the crowd and of course outrageously large Americans. We got a bargain priced luxury hotel room right in the centre of the Strip and soon got into the swing of things... Here's me enjoying a few goes at the penny slots accompanied by our new favourite thing - Complimentary drinks :-)

But its not all drinking and gambling. There's tonnes of stuff to see and free shows too. We saw a Volcano erupt, an impressive water fountain display to music, and a full on pirate ship battle with singing and swash buckling. All in one evening. Not bad eh? You can see the pirate's sword moving in this pic, that was just before all the guys stripped to the waist and dived into the water. Nice. I suppose that was to balance out the fact that all the lady pirates seemed to be dressed in their underwear...

During the day we walked for miles because each casino is massive. MASSIVE. Past the statue of Liberty, a disneyesque castle, the bridge of sighs and the Eiffel Tower and Arc du Triumphe (which gave me a bit of a shock - it was almost like walking to the office!).

Now did you notice the blue sky in that pic? It was lovely and warm in Vegas. I barely needed a cardi. In fact it was a good 50 degrees warmer than it had been only 2 weeks ago (of course we were in Fernie then) which has got to be a shock to anyones system. Not to worry, I soon discovered a number of mushrooms, which made me feel quite at home.

So after a few days of wandering about drinking free booze and seeing who could get the biggest win from a dollar, we decided to hit the road. Being cooped up in a small town for three months had taken its toll. So, we decided to drive nearly 1000 miles through the desert, to see Monument Valley. In a Mustang. With the top down.

There's Col. Doesn't he look grand.
A real road trip. Motel Rooms, singing Hotel California at the top of my lungs. ahh. Now the thing about deserts is that they are fairly empty. Which means no real need to put any curves in the roads. for miles. And miles. Just straight, empty road, and the occasional passing car. And the side effect of driving for miles and miles down an empty road with the top down, is nice big hair...Here's Cols hair in action before it hit the big time...

So Monument Valley. It's all it's cracked up to be. The stacks are too big to comprehend and we took a good many photo's. Here's the edited highlights.

and of course 'The Mittens', which look like giant mittens, as demonstrated by our model.

So What next? Well on our way to Monument Valley (which is 2 states away from las Vegas) we dropped in on the Grand Canyon and watched the sunset over it, as you do, and rather lovely that was too. But not content with the view from the top we decided to go one better and catch the view over the Canyon. So we nipped back to Vegas and caught a Helicopter ride.

Over Las Vegas and all its shiny things, over the Hoover Dam...

That white strip by the shore line is caused by the water level dropping due to outrageous water requirements in the ever growing Las Vegas. Apparently.
And over the Grand Canyon. Wheeeeeeee. Swooop. Imagine the theme tune to 'Apocalypse Now' playing (In fact we didn't have to imagine it. It was playing over those rather tasteful headphones we were wearing). And then into the Grand Canyon, Where we landed and had a champagne lunch. Yes i know we're bumming it round the world but a girl has to have standards sometimes.

So. That brings us to the close of this little adventure. Another 2 stickers to add to the Uke and then it's off to the South Pacific to Hawaii.
'til then, !kerching!