Viva Las Vegas

We met up with Stuart & Jennifer in Las Vegas, pictured here in our hotel lobby.Gordon & Stuart with the most expensive drink of the holiday. The total cost for two margaritas and a bottle of water $60 !!!!!!!. The first and last, they stuck to beers after that.
We visited most hotels on the Strip. They all have a theme and are all beautifully decorated.





The Venetian
The Luxor

The Mandaley Bay Hotel

We stayed at the Wynn Las Vegas and overlooked the many pools on offer.

Meteor Crater, Arizona Snowbowl & Sunset Crater Volcano

Approximately 50,000 years ago, a pinpoint of light grew rapidly into a brilliant fireball. This was probably broken off from an asteroid during an collision between the planets, Mars and Jupiter half a billion years ago. In seconds, it passed through the earth's atmosphere with little loss of speed or force. A huge iron-nickel meteorite or cluster of meteorites, about 150 feet across and weighing several hundred thousand tons, struck the ground with an explosive force greater than twenty million tons of TNT. Traveling at supersonic speed, this impact generated powerful shock waves in the meteorite, the rock and the surrounding atmosphere. In the air, shock waves swept across the land destroying all in the meteor's path for a radius of several miles. Today you can visit the site and walk along the rim of the crater. It is big enough to hold 20 full sized football pitches.





The Arizona Snowbowl is a major ski centre in the winter months but during the summer you can take the scenic skyride up to 11,500ft where you can view the beautiful countryside, even the Grand Canyon. As we climbed the last winding path by foot you could feel the air get thiner and breathing became more difficult.




If you enlarge this photo you can see the small sign under the roof stating that this is the highest toilet in Arizona!!!!
Sunset Crater Volcano was born in a series of eruptions sometime between 1040 and 1100. Powerful explosions affected the lives of local people and changed the landscape and ecology of the area. Lava flows and cinders still look as fresh and rugged as the day they formed. But you'll find trees, wildflowers, and signs of wildlife – life returns.

The Grand Canyon

After the Hoover Dam you drive on this deserted road for about 4 hours until you reach the Grand Canyon (South Rim)

This seventy-foot tower is the highest point on the South Rim and offers stunning 360-degree views of the Painted Desert, the San Francisco Peaks, the Vermilion Cliffs and beyond.

The walls of the tower feature murals by Hopi artist Frank Kabotie and you can climb the stairs to the top for an outstanding view of the Canyon and the surrounding area.

Below is some of many views we had of the Canyon. These photos do not do justice to the amazing sights we saw.












After a long day at the Canyon Sarah enjoys teh hot tub at the hotel.
Eating out Al Fresco in Flagstaff, the nearest town to the Grand Canyon.

The Hoover Dam

We drove from Las Vegas Airport to The Hoover Dam on the way to the Grand Canyon. At the time of construction (1935), Hoover Dam was the largest in the world, a huge, curving wall of plain concrete 660 feet thick at the base and 726 feet high set between the vertical walls of Black Canyon. In 1955, the dam was selected as one of the Seven Modern Engineering Wonders in the USA by the American Society of Civil Engineers, and it is was later designated a National Historic Landmark. It is also known as Boulder Dam.


A new Bridge is being constructed over the Dam to ease the traffic jams.

This is Lake Mead in the background. It is on one side of the Dam with the Colorado River on the other side.
Sarah was confused as to which State she was in. To the left of the plaque she was is Nevada and to the right she was in Arizona.