One Of The Natural Wonders Of The World

The Grand Canyon

Today I helicoptered over the Grand Canyon and what an amazing experience it was.  Both Chris and Marie had both been and seen the GC, so today it was my turn.

 

We flew out over the Hoover Dam which is a mind blowing feat of engineering and without meaning to be - quite pretty.

This is a natural plateau that military people used to use to train pilots to land on aircraft carriers.  If you over-land, you're still going to fall off the edge, but I guess you'll be dry.

I'm here..... I did it..... Yay me!

It was such a beautiful day.  The temp was a bit chilly in the canyon, but the sun was shining and it was just breathtaking.  We landed on the Native American reserve side of the river and had a little picnic.

Including a little champas.

We hung around for about 20 minutes, downed our nibbles and got back on the chopper and got the hell out of there.

There are funny little water holes like this dotted around between the canyon and Las Vegas.  They attract a whole range of wildlife from birds to bison.

The landscape here is beautiful, for lack of a better word.  The water, over the last million and a half years, has carved its way through the rock leaving the ground looking like a dry creek bed, but when the water runs through, it is so dry that it doesn't soak into the ground, it just runs down in to the lake.

The water level has been dropping recently and the powers that be in Nevada and Arizona have been trying to work out what they'll do for all their power and energy needs when the levels get too low.  So they've started putting in these solar panels - good idea!

This was our 12 year old pilot, Jamison from Utah and next to him is Carlos, a Polizia from Brazil who was in Vegas for the National Gun Convention.  We also had two couples from Saskatchewan, Canada who were in Vegas for the Curling Championships - North America Vs the rest of the world.  Apparently there were Olympians in town, but these peeps were just spectating and obviously big fans.

 This looks a little bit like the boot of Italy.

That's Vegas in the background.  It is a city literally in the middle of nowhere! 

To the right of the big long road there that you can see on the left of the picture is the Downtown area, which is original site of Las Vegas and is now home to the older casinos, and Freemont Street.  It's pretty seedy if I'm honest with you.  Yes, seedier than the Las Vegas Strip... 

...which is on the right of the middle road.

So that was my trip.  It was about an hour ride out to the canyon, 20 minutes for picnic and champers and an hour back.  I didn't feel nauseous at all - Bonus. 

...Stays In Vegas

 Check out these cakes....

The casinos here have a variety of shops and restaurants and whatnots.  Aria has a patisserie!

None of us are gamblers - at all.

This is as close as any of us have come thus far.

We all had things that we wanted to do or see whilst on this trip.  One of the things high on Marie's list was to go to a Walmart*  Luckily, Vegas has a Walmart Superstore so we were able to make all of Marie's dreams come true... and if I'm honest, both Chris and I weren't one bit upset that we went either.  There's something about a superstore where you can buy absolutely anything - like Costco that just makes you feel happy and warm inside.  We were also hoping that we'd see some of those weirdo people that appear on the "People of Walmart" websites.

It appears we've been wrong all this time about perms.  They seem to still be a popular hairdo - popular enough to have they're own section.  Back in the day Chris and Marie loved a spiral perm.  Does anyone remember those?

This man was just leaving the haircare aisle which wasn't surprising as it was obvious that he was serious about keeping his long silver locks in tip top condition.  If you're unable to see clearly he has a very special, cascading braid. 

Why oh why would someone with such beautiful skin as my cousin need Zapzyt I hear you ask....... well when its 98c, you'd be silly not to take advantage.

These were just some super treats that were available at Walmart*

This first one here promises to have 'about 2 eggs per serve'

I'm not sure any of us have ever tasted a Twinkie before but I always wondered what they tasted like.  I have grown up on Twinkie advertising from the back of Archie comics.  Safe to say that I still don't know what they taste like.

Here are some Las Vegas Strip highlights.

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When we started looking at which shows we'd like to see whilst in Vegas, it was apparent that everyone was on holidays during the month of January.....  Everyone, that is, except Donny & Marie Osmond...

and Celine Dion.  Celine apparently lives in a large house just our of Vegas and is helicoptered into Caesar's Palace where she performs each night.  However, nobody in our party was interested in hearing about how the heart goes on and on, and it appears by the discount posters, neither does anyone else.  She's been playing in Vegas for years - surely everyone has seen her by now?

Big Girl Tee?  Big Girl - My Arse!

Since we weren't going to fit into the Big Girl Tee's, we thought we'd best get straight down to Gordon Ramsay's Burger joint - "BURGR"

The next stop on The Strip was The Venetian - this hotel actually has canals and gondolas and the roof is painted to look like the sky.  It was amazing - like walking through a theme park.

Riding the waves of the Venetian travelator and into the shops.

and only the classy shops for us.

Bless people..... we were obviously taking a photo here on the left but this man walked right in front of the girls and just stood there....... we'll just zoom past him to get our shot then.

Have you ever been to an Oxygen Bar?

One of the shows that we did all decide to see was the Cirque Du Soleil show -La Reve' - The Dream.  It was totally amazing.  The stage was a large round pool!

It was actually quite exhausting to watch.  There was so much going on throughout the whole shoe that we almost got whiplash trying to watch everything at once.

The performers were simply spectacular.  I'm always in awe of people who can achieve these sorts of physical feats.

Some of the costumes weren't the best, but who cares when you look like that in them hey?

Well done Las Vegas.