Skip to main content

Las Vegas

Image
By

We woke up to glorious sunshine - a welcome surprise after the previous evening's heavy rain. After breakfast we bought tickets for the Cirque du Soleil show 'Zarkana' in the Aria Hotel. We then explored the 'Strip' both on foot and by bus. The hotels vied with each other in their levels of opulence, vastness and should we say gaudiness!

At the Venetian.

Inside the foyer at the Bellagio.
That evening we enjoyed Zarkana with its death-defying acrobatics, balancing acts, trapeze etc. We were amazed at the support structures on which the artists relied such as ropes, cables, lighting etc.



The following day was spent doing some overdue retail therapy at the Premium Outlet just north of downtown Las Vegas which is undergoing much needed redevelopment.

We decided to relax at the pools in our own hotel on our final day in LV. The temperatures were once again in the low 90s so drifting along in the 'Lazy River' was just the thing to cool us down. And to top it off we treated ourselves to poolside massages.


We took the monorail link from our hotel to the luxurious Bellagio hotel that evening to watch the fountains as they danced in the dusk - this is one of the 'must-dos' when visiting Las Vegas!


Every evening Las Vegas Boulevard aka The Strip is thronged with sightseeers strolling up and down taking in the neon extravaganza.

Our hotel.

1/2the actual size!



Most hotels have casinos attached so we popped into a few of them to try our luck and believe it or not, both of us came out winners. We don't feel it necessary to record here the level of outlay involved.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Holbrook, AZ to Peach Springs, AZ

By
We left Holbrook in bright sunshine and continued our drive along Rte 66 which once again had us driving on the Interstate at times. Our first stop was in Winslow made famous when The Eagles recorded "Take It Easy" whose second verse starts with "Standin' on a corner in Winslow Arizona". We then drove on to Flagstaff but didn't stop in the city. Flagstaff has a beautiful forested location high up on the Colorado Plateau and it was a change to be driving on roads lined with tall ponderosa pine trees. We had a picnic lunch off the beaten track in Buckskinner Park, Williams, AZ. We followed a dirt trail to the picnic area which really tested our car's tyres.  They survived, thankfully. We soon found ourselves in Seligman (pronounced Sligman), a sleepy town which maintains a lot of its historic character together with a few unexpected twists - eg Santa in a Chevvy outside the wacky Snow Cap Drive-in. Our destination for the night was th
2 comments
Read more

Seattle, WA

By
  We left Everett on Sunday morning and headed south to Seattle, our final stop on this trip. We drove to our hotel and dropped off our cases before we headed to SeaTac to return our car.  After the brief stop at the hotel we drove to Kubota Garden, a 20-acre Japanese garden in one of Seattle’s southern neighbourhoods. It was started in 1927 by Fijitaro Kubota, a Japanese immigrant. It is an urban oasis  with Japanese and native trees and plants, ponds and waterfalls. It was beautiful with its fall colours.  The following morning we headed down to the waterfront to the historic Pike Place Market where Starbucks first opened its doors to the public in 1971.  Then we wandered through the market which opened in 1907 and strolled by the numerous stalls of seafood, fresh produce, crafts and flowers.  On Tuesday we took the monorail, which was the first commercial monorail in the USA and built in 1962 as an attraction for the 1962 World’s Fair. It still uses the original cars.  The monorail
3 comments
Read more

Volcanic Country

By
  On Wednesday morning after breakfast, we headed back to the airport to pick up our car. We got a very nice car, a Ford Edge, fairly large for what is described as a small SUV. Then it was off on the road trip part of the holiday. Our first stop was in a cabin in Ashford, a very small town near the entrance to the Mount Rainier National Park.  Thursday morning saw us head to Mount Rainier NP. Mount Rainier at 14,410 ft is the tallest mountain in Washington State. It is an active volcano and is the most glaciated peak in the lower 48 states. We drove up to Paradise which at an elevation of 5,420 ft. is famous for its stunning views.  We then walked to Myrtle Falls and the views all round us were just stunning.  After lunch we drove to Reflection Lakes along a road with hairpin bends and precipitous drops to the side.  While in Ashford, we ate at the quaint Copper Creek Restaurant which opened in 1946 and is the oldest, continuously operating restaurant in Washington State. 
9 comments
Read more