Viva Las Vegas

 Hi, welcome back, it's nice to see you again.

Neither Roger or I like flying so when we told the family and friends that we'd booked to go to Las Vegas they were gobsmacked!  I'd always wanted to go there but never imagined we'd actually do it.

We were staying in Vegas for 3 nights at The Luxor before picking up a hire car and going off on a road trip round Nevada and California.

Apart from gambling there's plenty to do in Vegas both by day and by night.

We walked miles the first day and both ended up with blisters but it was worth it. The insides of the hotels are as spectacular as the outsides and many have fantastic displays of art/bling

and the floral displays are just out of this world

You could take a gondola ride at The Venetian

but it's really at night when Vegas comes alive.

think Blackpool on steroids and you're half way there

There is every kind of restaurant you could ever want to eat in but we decided to give this one a miss, although we did see several people who would have qualified for the free food!

One of the best places to go for people watching at night is Fremont Street. It's too far away from The Strip to walk so we took a taxi. The main street is covered by a 1500 foot long 90 foot wide canopy which has a mind-blowing light show projected onto it. There's also a zip line that you can fly along for a totally different view.

Every night there are at least 2 live bands on

plus street entertainers. This native american was very popular with the ladies and we also watched a street magician who was much better than the one we saw on Britain's Got Talent the other night.

 It was my birthday while we were in Vegas and to celebrate we took a helicopter trip to the Grand Canyon. We were collected from the hotel at 6am in a stretch limo and driven to the heliport where we had front seats in the helicopter. I think we've both cured our fear of flying and we loved every second of it.

Our pilot was Kyle and he was so good that before we knew it we were hundreds of feet above the airport

He took us out over Hoover Dam

and for 45 minutes showed us spectacular views of the Colorado River and Grand Canyon

before landing on a plateau for a champagne breakfast.

Nevada is experiencing their worst drought for a long time. It hasn't rained for over 4 years and the river and reservoir are extremely low

The white on the banks is calcium deposits made by the waters and is the level that they should be at now.

Unfortunately it was all over too soon but we had a great view of Las Vegas on the way back

and even flew over our hotel before landing.

The 3 days in Vegas was soon over and it was time to go touring. If you're interested, come back tomorrow and I'll tell you more about our adventures then.

Bye for now