Las Vegas

DW - after the longest day of our life (>30 hours, including 2 breakfasts, 3 lunches, 3 dinners), we arrived, jet lagged in Sin City... When in Vegas, you must travel in style, so we decided a stretch limo (meant for 15 people) was our safest (let's go with that) ride from the airport to our accommodation; Trump Iternational.

This palace is enormous and incredible, we'd be happy to spend days on end just in the room and motel...

Being St Patrick's Day we didn't want to miss the celebration so headed towards the strip to explore. Mayhem!!! Green drunk dudes everywhere and girls wearing as little as possible despite the chill. People singing, dancing in the street, and drinking out of the most enormous cups possible (American's don't do things in halves).

In the casinos themselves, I didn't realize how sex-centered they are... 'Pleasure Pits' in every casino, with skimpy dancers and dealers... You can understand why this place is so popular for groups of guys... Free drinks with gambling just adds to the appeal.

After a 10 hour sleep we today hit the DFOs - slightly dissapinting, we were expecting 70% discounts but most were 20-50% off. Still some good bargains.

LW - Last night (18th) we went to the "Peepshow" at planet hollywood staring Holly Madison (Hef's ex). Awesome show - very funny and I've seen enough of the female upper body to last me a life time!!!

After the night we enjoyed the most awesome milk shake ever (cookies and cream biscuits, chocolate fudge, cream, cookies and cream ice cream and the list goes on!!) delicious and 100% fat free!

19th- again still a bit jet lagged we woke at 11am and ventured out to the "Palms" for breakfast (eggs, hash browns, waffles yummy!). I found my game - craps- and settled in for what seemed like hours playing a game that to this day we still don't really understand! I swear there is 1000 rules but nether the less it is awesome fun. To top the morning off we both got a photo with one of the playboy bunnies (she was an Aussie).

After all that time we walked away even but not soon after at the "Rio" casino we called in for a toilet stop and Davo lost it all!

DW - 21/03 4:30am... Sitting at airport waiting to board the 6:05am plane to Cancun via Miami. We had a reasonably big night, hitting the hay at about midnight so feeling pretty shady with red-eyes through the razoo (alarm went off at 2:45).

Yesterday we visited the Grand Canyon, which was a cold but incredible experience. The tour guide was like a Mexican version of Grievo on steroids! He loved the sound of his own voice so would not stop talking the whole way there and back (about 3 hours each way from Vegas). From talking about the Native American, Geronimo, to giving financial advice about buying real estate in Vegas... If you can recall that momemnt in Forest Gump where Bubba takes Forest through all the different ways to cook shrimp (fried shrimp, boiled shrimp etc), that's what this guy did with everything he talked about!!! Good times!

Despite Bubba, the Grand Canyon is incredible - we visited the West Side of the canyon, including Eagle Point and Guano Point (Guana means bat-droppings - it's what they used to mine there to use for explosives and make-up). Guano Point was the highlight with a walking track leading to what they called an ant-hill, where we climbed to the top and got a 360 degree view of the canyon, brilliant. After visiting the above, we then had lunch at an old-school dude-ranch... Real authentic, we talked to a cowboy who worked there about his pistol (he used to be a stunt-man in Hollywood) which he's had for decades... We were also fascinated by his teeth (or lack thereof).

On the way back from the canyon, we stopped in at Hoover Dam which surprised me (DW) as to its' pure size!!! The dam is man-made and supplies 90% of water to Las Vegas (and other places I think). It's currently at the lowest water levels and is expected to dry-up in the next 40 years, scary stuff for Vegas residents. Beside the main part of the dam is a new bridge that is incredible (as far as bridges go). Massive is the only way to describe.

Once we got home from the day-trip we hit Caesars Palace to eat some Italian and try our luck on Craps and BlackJack. Nothing needs to be said except we got many free drinks (the Vegas system is flawless... Free drinks whilst gambling is genius) and Loz made a lot of people happy with her craps shooting (not so much luck for us though).

All in all, Vegas is a truly unique place that we would visit again if in the area...