After our relaxing stay in southern California we decided we
needed to take things up a notch and see the bright lights of Las Vegas. We headed off around lunch time after a long
and tearful farewell with Oscar and Felix.
As we entered Nevada we were greeted by mini Vegas. We were pretty excited that the Nevada
Welcome Centre was packed with casinos and over the top tacky goodness.
Once we entered the Las Vegas area we started at the very
beginning of the Strip and slowly made our way up in to the action, absorbing
all the excess and slight hint of sleaze.
We did a lap of the strip then headed back to New York New York where we
had decided to stay.
By the time we checked in and got ourselves settled it was
evening and we were ready to see the Vegas lights by night. We watched the Bellagio fountain display to
the soothing sounds of Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” and gambled a little
(although for an Asian, I’m not much of a gambler, more of an eater). That night we made the executive decision to
take on more nocturnal like sleep patterns as it was too hot to be out in the
Vegas sun, and it was more fun to be out at night.
After thoroughly embracing our new sleeping patterns we
awoke around 1pm and thought about what we wanted to do that day. We had been hearing good things about some
men, painted blue, who had formed a group.
Apparently they had a show and it was worth seeing. Marc organised some tickets for us and we had
part of our night planned. Unfortunately
we were not able to take photos in the theatre but let me assure you that the
Blue Man Group was amazing. After the
show we wandered around the Venetian Casino, enjoying the faux canals and
delightful shops. We gambled some more
(I should say Marc gambled and I watched on trying to figure out why I was the
only Asian among a sea of Asians who had no desire to throw money away) and
Marc did quite well at the poker table.
The next day while Marc slept, I headed out for a little
pampering. We then met for lunch and I
made Marc buy me gifts with his winnings from the previous night. We had a look around the opulent Bellagio, a
little overwhelmed by the excess and the crowds. As we were leaving the next day we had a quiet
night of buffet goodness before retiring to our room to lay on our California
king size bed, slowly falling into a deep food coma.
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| Inside the Bellagio |
Our last day in Las Vegas saw us head to Fremont Street, the
older, less glitzy but still gaudy, part of Vegas. It wasn’t as over the top during the day but
it was still fun to see.
Leaving Las Vegas we headed towards the Grand
Canyon. Just a few miles out of town we
realised that we were quickly approaching the Hoover Dam. This was a lovely surprise as I remembered
the scene in the delightful Matthew Perry movie, Fools Rush In, where Salma Hayek
gives birth. Marc was excited for the
role the Dam played in Transformers. You
can tell we really appreciated the significance of this engineering feat.
It was amazing to see the magnitude of the structure and how
forward thinking the people were at the time the Dam was constructed. But really, what really caught out attention
was how low the water levels were. You
could clearly see the water mark and how much it had dropped. A lot of the US, especially the west is
currently suffering a drought and it was incredibly evident here.
