25thousandmiles – USA

We’ve come to the end of our 3 nights in Vegas and we are totally shattered!  On the day we arrived we managed to stay up until 3am, which was pretty good considering we had been up since 5.30am.  We had a few drinks, played a few slots and spent a bit of time with a local, called Tracy, who just sort of latched onto us as we were walking around.  She was pretty entertaining!

In order to recharge our batteries we spent a day at the gorgeous pool at our hotel, The Mirage.  You can see Angus’s video.  It really was bliss.  That evening was a bit quiter as we were still worn out from the day before and we had a lot planned for our last day.

The last day was excellent.  We visited the Stratosphere tower, Angus had a go on one of the thrill rides, I watched – I took videos of the 3 rides at the top so we’ll post those up, and you’ll see why I didn’t really fancy having a go!

We also visited the Neon Boneyard.  This is run by a charity organisation who are trying to preserve Las Vegas’s history and culture.  Yes, it does have some, but it is all based around glitz, glamour and gambling.  Over quite a number of years they have rescued lots of the old hotel and casino signs, which are currently piled up in 2 dusty yards.  We had a tour around here and it was fascinating.  Our guide Dan was excellent.  He knew the history of every sign and could tell us what movies they had appeared in.

Perhaps the most disturbing story was about the old Stardust Hotel and Casino.  It’s theme was ‘Atomic’, due to the atomic testing that took place in the desert here in the fifties.  It seemed to be really glamourised, like some wonderful thing was happening and Vegas was lucky to be so close.  Part of the Stardust’s sign was designed as a huge mushroom cloud.  In the area where the blasts took place there were even viewing seats so that people could go and watch.  Scary.

We also had a quick look around the Freemont Street area, in Downtown Las Vegas (away from the main Strip).  This is home to the Golden Nugget, one of the famous old casinos.  It’s certainly been revamped a few times.  We finished off our evening with a wander down the Strip to watch the fountains at Bellagio.  They’re quite stunning.

So, what are our thoughts on Las Vegas?  It really is a huge playground, feeding every vice under the sun.  It’s fun, crass, tacky and a completely unique experience.  We would love to come back!  There are so many attractions that we didn’t have time to see and our Vegas motto became ‘definitely next time’.

Off to Yosemite National Park next, camping with the bears.

P.S. we only saw one Elvis!

Probably still one of the most stunning shows outside of a Vegas hotel.

Just one of the thrill rides on top of the Stratosphere Tower.

Beats the office!!!

Wednesday 16th September

Believe it or not we did get up early and we were out the door walking along the Bright Angel Trail at 5.30am.  There was a particular point along the rim that we wanted to get to as it had a great view of the sunrise.  As we walked the mile and a half along the trail (at 7000 feet, mostly uphill!) we felt like we were the only people around.  It was quite a magical feeling looking out over the canyon and it was so quiet and still that we could hear the mules trotting along one of the trails quite far below us in the inner part of the canyon.  We spent about 3 hours along the trail, watching the sun rise and taking photos.  It was amazing to see the colours change as the sun got higher in the sky.
We would say that if you ever have the chance to visit the Grand Canyon try to include an overnight stay, longer if you like hiking.  If you just want to see the Canyon, you can do one of the many sightseeing flights or tours from Las Vegas, which I’m sure are fantastic, but if you really want to experience the canyon then you should stay at least 1 night.  We’re so glad that we did.

At around 11am we had to leave the beauty and serenity of the Grand Canyon to drive to the chaos and debauchery of Las Vegas.  Talk about a contrast!

Tuesday 15th September:

Miles driven – 504 (All by Angus – what a star!)
Blown truck tyres on the highway – hundreds, it must be the heat
Best road name – Devil Dog Road, Arizona
Things to watch out for on the highway – Elk, Deer, falling rocks and speed enforcement aircraft!

As you can see by the number of miles driven, most of the day was spent in the car.

We really wanted to arrive at the Grand Canyon in time for sunset, but we missed it by about 20 minutes!  However, as we checked into our accommodation (Bright Angel Lodge, Grand Canyon Village), which is right on the South rim, we were still in complete awe at the canyon.  It was literally 30 seconds walk from our cabin.

That evening we had a meal and some drinks in the lodge and watched Barry ‘Big B’Brenner, a fantastic blues guitarist.  We did get an early night though as we planned on getting up for sunrise.

One of the things I said to myself that I’d do on this trip is try food and drink that I hadn’t tried before.  So at the end of day 3 I had tried:

• Blue corn tortilla chips.  They are actually dark blue and apparently there are also red and purple varieties of corn.
• Wahi-Wahi, a type of fish.
• Prickly pear flavoured vodka.  Quite tasty, but Angus wasn’t keen on sitting at the bar with a pink drink.
• Grand Canyon beer.

We would definitely recommend a visit to this theme park.  There is a mixture of rides/experiences – including Jurassic Park (log flume type ride), The Mummy (rollercoaster in the dark) and Shrek 4D (a 20 minute Shrek film with brilliant 4D effects and moving cinema seats).  I would give the studio tour 7 out of 10 – I was disappointed with some things, such as being told we would see the stage building where a lot of CSI is filmed but then only being able to catch a glimpse of the door, but other parts were great, including special effects of cars being blown up, the set of Psycho (complete with Norman Bates loading a body into a car) and the set from War of the Worlds when the plane has crashed into the houses. 

We do have a few tips/comments:

• This is a great time of year to visit as there were no massive queues and it wasn’t too busy at all.  During peak season (around July to beginning of September) it would probably be worth paying extra for the queue jumper tickets as we saw the size of the barriers and you wouldn’t want to be at the back of that!
• Food prices aren’t too bad.  We ate at the Flintstones BBQ and it was about £16 for 2 mains, sides and drinks.
• Beware, alcohol prices are extortionate.  It was about £5.50 for a pint of beer.  Although we did get to sit on the street set that was used in Notting Hill and Austin Powers.
• On the studio tour some of the best effects are seen from the left hand side of the carriages.

We have quite a bit to catch up on – here are the weird daily stats I noted from Monday 14th September, when we were still in LA:
Cyclists knocked over – 1
Dogs with wheels for back legs – 1
Times Di screamed in the House of Horrors at Universal Studios – 6 (Angus insists it was 1 long scream)
Celebrities spotted – still none!
People not able to understand Angus – at least 4
People Di not able to understand – at least 3 (LA really is a multi-lingual city)

With the trip being so action packed at this stage, I’ve been finding it difficult to find time to edit and publish my photos on the site.

 I have been taking lots them though, and when we have a little more relaxing time further on in the holiday I promise to get them on here.

It must be the biggest pot hole in the world.