Jane is doing Vegas

Oh My Goodness!!  Nothing could prepare you for the excess of Las Vegas.  I have never seen so many neon lights in my life.  The hotel I am staying at is the Luxor - all Egyptian of course.  I am staying in the Pyramid part of the hotel on the 12th floor - it is a 230 metre walk from the lift to my room.  The rooms are around a central atrium so it is about 180 metres on four sides.  A lot of rooms, plus there is an East, West and North tower.  The lifts are in each corner and are really inclinators up the corners of the pyramid.  It is a weird feeling going up and then settling to level when the lift stops.  First and second day I hit the outlets for some last minute shopping - great bargains but I did have to restrain myself due to limited luggage capacity and only me to drag the suitcases.  I have taken a photo of all the Tassie Convey's luggage before they left San Diego - what a scream.

Thursday night I did the Neon Lights tour.  I thought it would be just a tour of the strip and looking at hotels but there was a lot more.  We went in to several hotels to view their "shows".  The fountain show in front of the Bellagio, the volcano eruption in front of the Mirage and the tacky scantily clad girls - oh! one token bloke in gondolas at the Rio.  We also visited downtown Las Vegas, which is the old Vegas.  We even saw a couple getting married in the drive through wedding chapel.  The old Vegas has a covered roof down the main street (Fremont Street) which has 12.5 million bulbs which every hour has an overhead show - tonight was Queen - We Will Rock You, We are the Champions and a bit more - music was really loud and the atmosphere was great.  It is more what I was expecting Las Vegas to look like.  Where I am staying is on The Strip which is about 12 massive hotels all themed - next door is The Excalibur which looks like a ridiculous Camelot type place, then there is the totally green coloured MGM Grand and so on.  Fantastic.

Viva Las Vegas!!!

Saturday was my trip to the Grand Canyon via helicopter.  Nothing can prepare you for the Grand Canyon.  People can tell you what it is like, you can see photos etc. but being there is something else!  There was a weight limit for the flight which I was well under when I left home, but I was a bit edgy hopping on the scales prior to boarding given the food we have eaten over the past weeks!!  All OK though.  I got to ride in the front seat of the helicopter on the way to the canyon.  Fantastic!  We flew strait towards escarpments and up and over.  The landscape is stupendous, awesome, mind blowing and every other superlative you could think of.  I also went on the Skywalk.  A glass bridge built out over the canyon where you can see straight through to the floor of the canyon.  They packed a drum full of snow (not while I was there) and emptied it out into the canyon and it took 14 seconds to hit the bottom.  Where the bridge is, it is about 2500 metres straight down.  We landed in the canyon first up in the helicpter and went on a boat ride on the Colorado river which has dropped 14 feet in the last 5 years - they are in drought here too!.  I buddied up with a young English guy, Simon, who had left his camera card at the hotel.  He took photos out the side window and we took photos of each other at scary points on the rim of the canyon.  It worked quite well for me as he helped me a bit with some of the rocky parts and I will download my photos for him.  Wait till you see some of the photos.  I have also bought a DVD of the helicopter ride.

Sunday is the Bettle Midler show live at the Colosseum, Caear's Palace - can't wait for that one and tomorrow night will be the Rat Pack Tribute (Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, Dean Martin and I always forget the last one) at the Plaza in Downtown Las Vegas.

The hotel has THOUSANDS of poker machines.  I don't think I can be bothered.  The hotel is so big it has 2 Starbucks shops inside and about 7 restaurants.

I am just about packed and it looks like it will be a close thing!!!  I am now looking forward to coming home and settling in to 6 Tiburtina and seeing you all including Sooty - I bought her a cute pink coat in Springfield!!!  That will be a laugh.

Signing off for now and see you all real soon! I arrive home at 0745 on Thursday 15 January - direct in to Brisbane thank goodness.  I hope I get my business upgrade - will check tomorrow.  Bye!!