Vegas Baby!

We made the 6 and a half hour drive south through the desert to Las Vegas. The drive was pretty spectacular, especially when we drove through Arizona the Grand Canyon State. Unfortunately we did not have time to see the Canyon, but the scenery from the road was impressive. Lots of mountains, plains, desert and Cacti. We arrived in Vegas at 6.30 pm and it was 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees C). It's quite a sight as you drive in, especially on the strip. It's not quite the size of a New York or San Francisco but it's still huge, especially considering that it's pretty much just huge Hotels and Casinos. One minute you are in the desert, the next you are in a whole new world of lights and attractions. We stayed at the New York, New York Hotel and Casino right on the strip opposite the famous MGM Grand. We spent our first night looking round the casino we were staying in, Ruth had a bit of a flutter and ended up a dollar up on the night. She was pleased as punch! We ate at midnight and had a few beers and rums to get into the Vegas spirit. The next day we went for an all you can eat buffet at the MGM. Crikey I've never seen as much variety and amount of food. We had breakfast, lunch and dessert roled into one. We were pretty full so spent the majority of the baking hot day in the hotel pool. Daytime is not the time to be outside in Vegas in the summer. I had a plan for the evening and a full schedule worked out taking in all the free shows and the big casinos. Growing up in Wombwell in Barnsley my pals and I had always jokingly named our local Town as Vegas when we were going for a drink on a Friday night. Well tonight we were doing Vegas for real, it felt a little surreal. We got the vegas spirit going early and headed up the strip. The plan was not going to be easy. We walked up the strip stopping at the different attractions but it was SOOO HOT!!! We were almost done in within an hour and had to frequently head into the casinos for the air conditioning. It was a hot wind which was worst than no wind. Our eyes were so dry but we soldiered on and saw some great shows. Fantastic fountain displays at the Belagio, Greek Gods at Ceaser's Palace, Volcano eruptions at Mirage and then we got to the big Treasure Island Show. Half naked Sirens fighting half naked Pirates (great). Unfortunately the show malfunctioned 5 minutes in so the crowd left a little disillusioned. It was my turn to have a flutter on the roulette and black jack. I ended up a dollar down so between us we broke even which I can imagine doesn't happen all that often in Vegas. It was a great experience but two nights was enough for us.
(Unfortunately no photos due to our camera breaking.)