Having arrived on TCI 9 months ago, at night, it was great to leave during the day, allowing us the sight of the islands from the air and the reef structure surrounding the islands, we also passed over the Bahamas, before finally arriving in Miami. After 9 months on an island, which is 35 miles long and has a population of 30,000, Miami looked daunting even from the air ! The airport etc was fiasco free ane we soon found ourselves on a plane, flying to Las Vegas. It is at this point you appreciate the size of the States, 5 hours to fly from Miami to Vegas, the same time it takes to fly from the UK to Egypt. We arrived in Vegas slightly worn, adjusted watches to the 3 hour time difference and caught a cab to our hotel - Circus, Circus. 10 minutes and $30 later and wiser (catch a shuttle for less than half the price), we checked in and crashed out.
We awoke, gorged on a $10 all you can eat breakfast and headed out onto the strip. Circus Circus is almost at one end of the strip (only the Sahara & Stratosphere are further), so we took a leisurely walk to see what all the fuss was about (the strip is about 2 miles long). After walking around the Venetian we realised we were in a world that defied reality - walking a mall, designed to look like Venice, with the ceiling designed to look like sky and actual 'canals' of water running through the place, complete with people being transported by gondola whilst being serenaded - truly wierd. Walking past several more hotels/casinos, all seen in one film or another, we arrived at 'Paris' and took the elevator up the scale model of the Eiffel Tower, providing great views of the strip. We then headed to the Tropicana where there is the 'Titanic' exhibition, which in addition to replicating parts of the Titanic to walk around, provides a great deal of historical information and over 300 artifacts recovered from the Titanic. It was an amazing experience, looking at personal artifacts recovered from one of the world most famous shipwrecks was quite moving. We continued down the strip, passed MGN, Excalibur (castle with turrets), to the Luxor (complete with Sphinx and Pyramid - the latter lights up at night and the beam can be seen from the Space Shuttle). Here we saw an IMAX 3D show, 'creatures from the deep', the 3D was so realsitic you felt you could almost reach out and touch what you were watching. Heading back to 'New York, New York', we jumped on the rollercoaster. OK, so we have all been on rollercoasters, but I have never been on one that goes through and round a hotel, where you find yourself upside down looking at a road with passing traffic - wierd again. We slowly wandered back to 'Circus Circus' to find that a whole day had passed us by.
The following day we took a more relaxed approach. We wandered around 'Circus, Circus', took in the 5 acre indoor adventuredome built into the hotel, watched a couple of circus acts (the largest permanant indoor circus in the world). We then headed to the 'Stratosphere', which has the tallest observation tower in the USA, which provided some amazing views of Vegas and the surrounding area. We caught a bus down the strip to the 'Mirage' where we saw the erupting volcano (!), drank Margaritas at 'Jimmy Buffets Margaritaville', watched the fountains at the 'Bellagio', before heading in to see the Cirque de Soleil show 'O'. Now this is not my sort of thing, but Jo had wanted to go and at $150 per ticket I wanted to be impressed, I was not disappointed. The whole thing was out of this world, the show is based around a theme of water, and has to be seen to be believed. It is best to ask Jo to explain it if you want more detail, for those that know me, if I think a show with dancing, aerobatics and synocronised swimming is worth the money, then just take my word for it.
The following day we secured our hire car, successfully negotiated Vegas and headed to the Grand Canyon. About 45 minutes outside of Vegas, we reached the Hoover Dam, had a walk over it and had to be impressed by the feat of engineering. Then on we went, arriving at the Grand Canyon South Rim after about 6 hours (total time from Vegas including stops). The place just appears out of nowhere, you drive through a forest, turn a corner and there it is ! Although you are looking at it, your brain cannot really comprehend what you are seeing. It is 10 miles across, several hundred miles long and 6000 ft down - the statistics don't do the place justice though. We drove along, stopping at regular viewing spots, walking for a while and generally marvelling for the 3 hours before the sun went down. The only dissapointment were the vast number of people doing exactly the same.
The following day, we headed back, choosing a less popular route, and this provided what we had been looking for - absolute solitude. At some of the view points, we were the only people around, whilst at others if you walked 10 minutes or so down the tracks, then there was nothing around but nature and stunning views. 3 hours passed in a blink of the eye, it was time to head back to Vegas. We took a detour along part of Route 66, drank in the Route 66 'Roadkill Cafe' and got back late at night, just beating a massive storm.
Conclusions:
Vegas - 2 days is too much time and yet too little time. The strip soon becomes a blur and you can only take in so much/ walk around so many hotels/casinos, however, at night it is a spectacle with shows, bars and entertainment that you would be hard pressed to fit it in in a month.
Grand Canyon - Get away from the crowds and it really is one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. We would love to come back, but fitter and with more time and actually spend a couple of days treking down to the Colorado River.
Next stop: hawaii
