welcome to fabulous las vegas! so, we are landing at las vegas mccarran airportand as we land we can see the strip from the air. the strip just in case you don’t know,is the main boulevard where all the big hotels are, such as the stratosphere tower, the circuscircus, the winn and encore, the venetian, paris, aria, the green one is the mgm grand,where we’re staying. we have arrived at las vegas. as you enterthe terminal you realize you are in vegas. there are slot machines everywhere. we take a taxi to the mgm grand. it is normallya rather pricey hotel, but during the weekdays it is very reasonable. the weekend, howeveris another story, so we’ll stay somewhere
else then. but for now let’s live it upand enjoy. las vegas hallways give me a headache we get a pretty good room. and of course everythingoutside is green because the hotel is grees. we have a nice tv and most importantly, hmminibar. and finally our restroom... hello everybody. we are at the mgm grand yay! electric shades. i know i get silly sometimes.good night. good morning las vegas. we go out to explore the strip a little bit.we take the bridge to the tropicana. and then
the new york, new york. and the monte carlo. we haven’t been here for a couple of yearsso some things have changed since the last time we visited sin city. there is this newcomplex called city centre with street art, restaurants, a shopping mall, and a coupleof new hotels such as the aria… quite nice, actually. this is the mall inside city centre. it isthe chinese new year so everything is decorated accordingly. we see something odd with the strip, helicoptersflying around. we don’t really know what
it is until we realize that there is no traffic.the strip has been closed by the police, as there was a horrible shooting the previousnight between two guys who left a hotel in their cars, which resulted in a fatal accidentwith a taxicab. talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time for the poor peoplein the cab. very sad. we, the tourists however are taking advantage of the situation, takingpictures, having the strip all to ourselves. at the paris hotel we take a taxi to downtown. here in the downtown area we visit the recentlyopened neon boneyard. it is a museum dedicated to las vegas history through the evolutionof its neon and other electric signs. our guide, a fellow named troy is really passionateabout his job, and the history of las vegas,
a city where old buildings are quickly replacedby shiny new ones. we lean about the evolution of signs from small ones designed for peoplearriving on horseback and how they evolved so they could be seen by people driving at60 miles per our on the highway. they built taller and shinier signs as times change andthe old hotels are demolished or renovated. fully recommend this tour. ... part of the museum building itself was originallythe lobby of the la concha hotel, transported to this location piece by piece. after the museum we walk a few blocks to fremontstreet. the walk itself is a little scary due to all the homeless people hanging around.
this large canopy above on fremont streetabove becomes a large screen at night displaying a great audiovisual show which is called thefremont street experience. many of the great old style vegas casinos are still here. letsgo inside the golden nugget. the golden nugget is one of the oldest casinosin the city. it was built in 1946. a section of the aquarium facing the swimming pool containsfull grown sharks. no kidding. we continue walking on fremont street untilwe reach the plaza, perhaps one of the most iconic hotels in old vegas. ok, time to goback. some of this neon signs are classic originals, which have been restored by theneon museum. last but not least try our luck at el cortez, which is probably the last casinothat still has slot machines that accept coins.
ok, we are leaving las vegas, like in themovie the first stop in our road trip is hoover dam. on the way we pass by boulder city andthe lake mead recreational area. as we arrive, first we walk on the mike o’callaghan-pattillman memorial bridge, yeah that's a mouthful also known as the hoover dam bypass, to geta commanding view of the huge concrete structure that creates lake mead, also known as hooverdam. the bridge opened in 2010 and was built to bypass the old section of the highway,which went over the dam. this is also the border between the statesof nevada and arizona, and the pacific and mountain time zones. it has the widest concretearch in the western hemisphere and it is the second highest in the united states. nextwe proceed to visit the dam itself.
hoover dam was considered and engineeringmarvel, and the largest dam in the world at the time of its construction in the 1930’s.96 workers lost their lives during the construction but contrary to urban legend, none of themis buried in the concrete. it is also famous for the art deco design of its four towers,spillways, and power plant. as we walk back and forth, we encounter this small monumentthat marks the border between nevada and arizona. 1 pm, it's noon, it is 1 pm it is noon. there are also these illuminati looking statues,a monument dedicated to the triumph of scientific accomplishment. it is considered good luckto rub their feet, so if you believe in that, rub away, go right back to vegas and hit theroulette. we drive on top of the dam onto
the arizona side. wait, wait, wait, lets takea picture with the arizona sign. c’mon, people, lets move it along. finally. oh crap!we almost ran them over. we park to get this great view of the structure. and further up we get an even better view. ok, it is time to hit the road again. letscontinue towards the grand canyon. we continue due east as we immerse ourselvesinto the heart of native american land the hualapai, the havasupai, and further downthe hopi and navajo. a quarter of arizona is american indian reservations, did you knowthat? we stop for a scenic view of the colorado river and buy some native american jewelry.
we take route 93 and then interstate 40 forthe long drive towards the south rim of the grand canyon. it was our original intentionto take historic route 66 but it is getting late. we are driving through the desert towardsthe grand canyon. i made a small navigational error, not navigation, time error. and weare going to arrive there right at sunset. i didn't take into account that the grandcanyon was in central, i mean mountain time and las vegas is in pacific time, so thereyou go. the sight of the red butte in the distancetells us we are almost there. it is getting dark as we arrive to the grandcanyon national park. we do get to see some
wildlife on the way. we are practically racing against time toreach the south rim before sunset. and we finally make it to the bright angel lodge. the first view of this wonder of the worldis at sunset is truly breathtaking. coming up on our next episode we explore thesouth rim of the grand canyon and then drive on historic route 66, and finally of coursewe enjoy las vegas nevada. also check out our previous episode in whichwe enjoyed miami and its festivals.
No comments:
Post a Comment