Day 81 – Las Vegas Day 4

We had our last full day at Las Vegas today! So sad to be leaving tomorrow.. We really like it here. The hotels are so amazing and I love how each hotel has it’s own style! You can be in Paris, Venice, Rome, New York, Egypt etc. very very cool! It’s actually cleaner that what it was last time we were here which is nice!

This morning we drove to the mall and split up, so Logan and Susannah did their shopping and we did some shopping, had Chinese for lunch at Caesars Palace, then went into some more of the hotels and looked around. We met up with Log and Sus at the Bellagio fountains for the 3pm fountain show in the super heat! It is just way too hot here! So we squeezed in the shade under a tree with everyone else watching the fountain show, very cosy.

After the fountain show we drove down to the Luxor (Egypt-style hotel) and saw “Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition” where we saw a huge piece of the Titanic, an almost exact replica of the grand staircase, what some of the bedrooms would have looked like, lots of plates, a hairbrush, people’s suitcases and things that were in them. We each got a passport boarding pass for the titanic which was a replica of somebody’s originally on board! So I had a lady who was heading over to the US with her two children in 2nd class awaiting her husband who was already over there. They survived! I never realized just how many people died compared to who survived!! It was so sad to hear some of the stories of people who were transferred to the Titanic because their other ship was delayed or cancelled etc and they never survived.. It was so sad. But if you’re in Vegas, do go see it!! (As well as the bodies museum they have at the Luxor too which Barnaby and I saw last time we were here) (more info at http://www.vegas.com/attractions/on-the-strip/luxor-titanic/ )

We had dinner at The Rainforest Cafe at MGM Grand. Its a restaurant which is a rainforest with Elephants, Gorillas, leopards which come to life when the thunder and lightening come on. Family friendly. Barnaby had a burger and I had these wonton crispy Mexican wraps, don’t know how to explain it any other way! It was so delicious.

Photo of the day: Barnaby and I on our honeymoon in front of Bellagio (left, Jan 4th 2013) and us (right, July 2nd 2014) Literally 1 and a half years ago! From Mid freezing winter to mid boiling summer!

Day 78 – Las Vegas

(Barnaby’s post) Like the past two days, most of our time today has been spent driving! As Brooke mentioned, we spent the night last night at the Grand Canyon South Rim Village. We left at about 10.30am, and left for Hoover Dam. The drive was much like the other days driving… lots of long straight roads, with not much to see other than dusty desert and some pretty stunning mountains. As the driver, one thing that I love over here, is that the speed limit is 75 mph, or 121 kph! much faster than in NZ!

At about 3pm we stopped at Hoover Dam. For those of you who don’t know, Hoover dam is in colorado river, and is right on the border of Arizona and Nevada (you can stand on either side of the state border when on the dam). It was quite touristy, but really spectacular. We parked at the closest car park to the dam, it was a bit more expensive, but it was totally worth saving the longer walk. The temperature was a mild 43 celsius on the Dam, by far the hottest I have ever been in. It is not a nice temperature to be wearing contacts in! It was fairly windy, so we compared it to blowing a hair dryer on the hottest setting right at your face! We got some pretty amazing pictures, and we were all glad we had the chance to stop and see it!

We got to vegas at about 4.30 and checked into our hotel. We were all amazed at how nice the room is considering the price! We have one bedroom, a couch bed in the living room, and a separate kitchen! It is nice to be able to prepare our own meals and have a bit more room to move around!

After we checked in, we all went down for a swim. Brooke and Susannah sun-bathed while Logan and I went for a swim (they joined us a bit later on when the pool wasn’t as crowded). We then relaxed in the room for a bit and made some margaritas for us all before heading out for a walk down the strip. It took about 45 mins to walk down to caesars palace and the forum shoppes. At a 6km round trip, it doesn’t seem like too much, but the fact that it was about 35 degrees celsius at 10pm at night didn’t really help! We walked around the shops for a while and took in the sights. On the strip it was about as busy as the New York streets, which was quite surprising for a sunday night!

Photo of the day: Brookes photograph from the top of Hoover Dam.