Downtown

Wednesday it was a trip to old Downtown Las Vegas. Here are the Casinos of old, and the Casinos in such notable movies as the Godfather. They have covered area that has shops and casinos (doesn't that sound familiar!).











Femont street, a pedestrian waking area.

















Another picture of the area around Fremont street. We later went to the Bellagio for their buffet. What a magnificent feed!. Absolutely amazing! More variety and everything extremely well cooked! You name it, it was there. A must for any one visiting!










After dinner we went back to Fremont street to play a little blackjack. We found $2 tables at the Fitzgerald Casino. We played until 4am! Didn't win anything but had a great time and Rosemarie and Dolly got lots of free drinks. It appears that our Vegas vacation is complete! Today we're going back to the Hoover dam for a longer visit. We should have started out a little earlier but since we were out for most of the night we got an understandably late start!!

The Strip Pt 1

We spent the day walking the Strip in Las Vegas. Boy is there a lot to see! This is the lobby in the Venice Hotel. I couldn't believe how big it is. We walked through the hotel and associated shopping area and it is immense.








Inside they have canal that you can take Gondola rides in and lots of very high end shops. For example they have have a shop that sells antiques, not your average antiques but REAL antiques. Coins from Roman and Greek times (gold ones of course) set in beautiful modern jewelry settings. Bronze age artifacts and all sort of things. Prices up to $15,ooo!







The front (well, part of the front) of the Venice. The canal runs inside the hotel.












The Bellagio. We scoped out the buffet for tonight's dinner! Oh boy! You name it, it's there! They even have Ostrich on the grill!











A typical street scene on the strip. It is busy even after midnight. I guess no one sleeps here.











Of course we had to stop at various casinos to try our luck. I managed to win $10 at Ballys. Not bad for penny slots! Here is Dolly trying her luck. The man in the background just couldn't help but winning. That slot machine sounded like a pinball machine with all the money he was winning.









The Venice had this Umbrella motif throughout wherever it wasn't Venetian. It was really cool and quite creative. We all remarked on it several times. Today's plan is to try visit the remainder of the hotels and see some of the downtown area and some of the original casinos. We still have to plan our day trip to Utah!

Grand Canyon!

Off to the Grand Canyon this morning (well, yesterday to be exact!). We got up and made breakfast and sandwiches and off for the 278 mile trip through Arizona to the Grand Canyon! First was the Hoover Dam. An impressive sight, the road goes directly over the dam. You can see the new road they are building in the background. It is the bridge in the back!





A loooong drive with very different vistas to look at (at least for us Floridians!). Lots of desert scenes but more variety than you would expect. Lots of trees and rough terrain,
















The Grand Canyon is an unbelievable sight. Once again, pictures really don't convey how majestic it is. Amazing vistas. It was a little hazy but cleared up nicely. The park is nicely set up with long trails for those that want them but close up parking for people that just want to look. We had a little nature talk from a couple of the rangers and walked a little way around the rim. Took lots of pictures and oohed and aahhed a lot!











A shot just overlooking the canyon. The far wall is 10 miles away.









Looking down at the Colorado river. It is in the middle of the picture waaay down there!















We jumped for joy being there! It was a little chilly so Dolly had to buy a sweatshirt.













We also managed to see Elk several times. We also saw deer crossing the highway.













We ate dinner here in this town. It is just outside the park boundary











We reached Las Vegas at about 11 pm that night. A very long day but well worth it! We all thought it would be a nice vacation to spend several days at the park and do some hiking and trips down to the bottom of the canyon. More information available here http://www.nps.gov/grca/index.htm

We're Here!

After a looong 6 hours in the air we finally made it to Las Vegas. Picked up the rental car got to

the resort about 630pm. A short drive >10 minutes from the airport. The resort is awesome! And just a short walk from the strip. we were all sort of tired after our flights etc and very hungry so we walked across the street to Planet Hollywood. what an amazing place! The inside is awesome, shops, restaurants and a HUGE casino. The Miracle Mile has a fake sky that is just awesome. We had dinner and then back to crash, it was only 10pm here but our bodies said it was after 1 am!

Today

We leave in a mere few hours! Should be fun. Southwest to Norfolk, Va then to Las Vegas! Should be there by 330 our time!! Whoo-hoo!

Preparations

Well we're off again! Ro and Ernie will accompany us again. This time, as you can tell, it's a more mundane continental adventure. Las Vegas! We leave the 15th at a nice 12:320 pm from Jacksonville instead of 0 dark-thirty as usual.

We'll be staying here at the Marriott.

We plan to go the Grand Canyon