We stepped off the plane in Vegas and into the terminal to be greeted by the flashing lights of slot machines in the arrivals lounge. We arrived at our hotel, Treasure Island, shortly after. I had to wait in line almost 30 minutes to check in, but the room is great and we are very happy with the hotel. We have a view of the mountains and part of the strip from our room.
We had lunch at Kahunaville, which was a terrible idea in hindsight, then hit the casino floor for a while.
We also got half-price tickets to Mystere, the Cirque du Soleil performance at our hotel. Although Nik has seen a few of their shows, it was the first time I had seen one - and I was absolutely blown away.
When one is awake at 5:50am in Vegas, it is usually because a night of decadence is drawing to a close. Unfortunately, this was not the case with us. We awoke early on Thursday morning in order to make our 6:30am shuttle for our Grand Canyon tour. We had booked the tour online through The Grand Canyon Tour Company, which set us back roughly $85 each. This included breakfast snacks at the departure point and a hot buffet lunch at The Grand Depot Cafe.
To get to the Canyon, we crossed over to Arizona from Nevada. The trip over to the Canyon's south rim included a couple of stops: the first, Hoover Dam - an impressive structure, made all the more so when you think about the fact that well over 100 men died in its construction.
Then it was on to Kingman for a quick rest stop and Williams for lunch. Williams is a small town built alongside Route 66, and is also home to the Grand Canyon Railway.
We noticed on the drive in to Arizona that there was increasingly more snow on the ground, and by the time we got to Williams everything was covered in it. In fact, it was a bit touch and go with the bus at one point (we thought we were going to be stuck); but with some salt and a shovel we were on our way.
Once inside the Grand Canyon National Park, we stopped at two points. Firstly, Mather Point:
Secondly, Bright Angel Lodge (which we weren't sure we would be able to get to because of the snow, but we made it in the end):
The photos probably illustrate the sheer size and the awe the canyon inspires better than anything I could write; but even then, they do not do it justice. We left the park just as the sun was going down, and managed to spy some wild deer. We slept for most of the drive back, waking up only as we passed back through the security checkpoint at Hoover Dam and then again as the Vegas lights glittered into view.
We were beat by the time we were dropped off at our hotel (around 9:30pm), but we wandered around the strip in search of food. We tried Caesar's Palace, but most places were closing the kitchens and switching to bar service.
We wound up at a shoddy-looking casino called O'Sheas, where we had some equally shoddy pizza. Nik then tried his hand at the roulette table, but without much luck.
Nik will write about our Friday antics as soon as he recovers from his food hangover (the buffet at Treasure Island is lethal).
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