Viva Las Vegas

  Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
Sunday, April 13, 2008

Arrived in Vegas on April 5th and after settling in our room we got ready to go and see Jay Leno at the Mirage, this was brilliant although I  managed to sleep through half of it (we had been up over 24 hours at this point).  Gareth managed to get a good start on the gambling for the upcoming week by winning $125 on the slots while we were waiting to enter the show.  After surviving the first night with two boys snoring we headed out down the strip checking out a few of the Casinos along the way to the Stratosphere.  View from the top was incredible.  Went to the outlet shopping mall and managed to resist shopping temptations which was torture.  Saw Elton John at Caesars Palace and we have to say it's one of the best concerts we've been to.  Very personal and entertaining.  Great night out.  Took a helicopter trip over the Grand Canyon, hard to get a real perspective on how vast it really is.

Grand Canyon Heli tour

Alanna in the helicopter

Loved the take off in the helicopter.  Also went over Hoover Dam and Lake Las Vegas.

The Hoover Dam

Stopping off at a ranch to refuel

Alanna and her first cactus

 Returned flying over the strip which was great, got to check out all the hotel pools.

Stratosphere

View from helicopter over Vegas

another view of the strip

Went to Freemont Street experience in downtown Vegas which is basically a light show and very impressive.  Checked out the revamped Golden Nugget Casino as we wanted to see the swimming pool with the water slide which goes through a shark tank, looked like a thrilling ride.  Checked out the impressive garden in the Bellagio, photos don't do it justice and the largest chocolate fountain in the world (luckily it was encased in glass ;-).  Definitely our favourite Casino and we'll stay there if we get back to Vegas.  After 3 days in Vegas with two snoring boys I headed to Vancouver to spend time with Kelley, Jonno and Logan and left GT and Mark to have their boys trip.  GT got his bag stolen at the pool but fortunately managed to get everything returned minus the cash and sunnies.  The boys headed out to Wolf Creek in Mesquite for a round of golf.

Ready to take on Wolf Creek

The golf course was amazing and unfortunately the photos don't really do it justice.

Wolf Creek Golf course

It was also a punishing course as if you missed the fairway your ball was pretty much lost. The course average is 2 sleeves of balls.  

perfect hole for my slice

 

A pretty high tee off

 

Our four: Mark and I with a couple of locals

Went and checked out David Spade at Planet Hollywood which just happened to have the Miss USA comp going on at the same time (nice coincidence).  Went to see the 'Dirty Hypnotist', was very funny, not something you would volunteer for if you had some dodgy inclinations (I won't go into details about the guy masturbating a teddy bear) but great laughing at those that did.