Further Adventures in Vegas

Given I have fallen so far behind with the blog I have decided to change the format slightly, so from hereon the blog will be by location not by date (this means that I don't have to remember what we did each day).


If you are interested Flashy and Lady P also have a blog, "cockailscanyonsandcalifornia.blogspot.com.au"


Myself, Flashy, Lady P and the NZer's went on the helicopter ride to the Grand Canyon which was quite the adventure.  Before being seated in the helicopter we had a safety briefing were and issued with life jackets, after embarkation and being strapped in we received our headsets with microphones attached so that we could talk to each other and the pilot. 


The flight to the GC took about 45 minutes and for somebody who had never been in a helicopter before was very interesting and exciting.  The country around Vegas is very desolate with very little signs of life or greenery.  We flew over the Hoover dam and Lake Mead and then a little way up the GC before landing at the bottom of the canyon.


During the flight the pilot was on constant lookout for other helicopters as they were all over the place.  When we landed in the GC there were two other choppers there from the same company and another three about a kilometer further up the canyon.  Did I mention the temperature.....I don't think so.....it was around 103 Fahrenheit (F) in Vegas each day that we were there.  You can do your own conversion to centigrade, but it was bloody hot.  It was 107F on the tarmac at the airport and 100+ on the ground in the GC.  The helicopter company had built a rudimentary shelter at the base of the canyon and it was there that we had champagne and a packed picnic supper before boarding the chopper for the return flight to Vegas. 


At one point we were flying at an altitude of 5,500 feet above sea level but we were only about 50 feet off the ground.  A lot of this area is on a high plateau.


The other great adventure (for the boys anyway) was a trip to machine gun Vegas (MGV).  For a large amount of money the kind folk at MGV let you fire all sorts of weapons.  We fired all sorts of pistols, rifles, sub machine guns finishing up with 40 rounds through a belt fed machine gun. 


 Being in Vegas of course we had to visit some casinos, so in no particular order we visited; Excalibur, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand, Venice, Paris, Wynn and Caesars's Palace.  These all have a theme of some sort but also huge gaming rooms and lots of restaurants and bars.  The Venice does it well with a canal with full size gondola's running through the middle of the shopping precinct.


Anyway, the reason that we were in Vegas was for Jo's 30th birthday.  On Thursday evening 13 of us congregated at the French bistro at Paris for Jo's birthday dinner.  By this stage Kathy and Mac (Andrew's in laws) had joined us from Florida, via the Ozarks.  As well as myself, Flashy, Lady P and the NZer's  we were joined by four of Jo's Kontiki friends from various parts of Aus.  The dinner was very tradition French bistro food with accompanying wines and was much enjoyed by all, food photos to follow........not!


As everybody was going their separate ways on Saturday we had a farewell dinner on Friday night at the Italian restaurant at NYNY.  Again good food and wine much enjoyed by all.