(Brace yourself for a long read!)

We were destined to be in the US again for Christmas because the flights home at this time of year are way too expensive, so we decided rather than spending it on our own in our apartment we should do something a bit more exciting. We chose Las Vegas as our destination, somewhere different and somewhere we would never go to if it wasn’t for the fact we were only an hour flight away.

We booked ourselves a room at the Wynn, a 5 star, 5 diamond hotel on the Strip and flight with US Airways. And got ourselves geared up to experience the madness that is… Vegas, baby!

Our journey started at 7:30am on Sunday 23rd December, well it was supposed to start then. We left our apartment at 7:25am and dragged our suitcases to the front of our complex to wait for the taxi. When I say wait I mean wait, 20 minutes after they were meant to pick us up they still hadn’t arrived! Jasper ran back the apartment to get the number for the taxi firm and rushed back to check if they had arrived yet, surprise, surprise they hadn’t! So Jasper whipped out his mobile to chase them up and dialed the number, only instead of ringing a computerised voice informed him that in fact even though a couple of weeks ago he had $80 worth of calling credit, that has now expired and he can no longer make or receive calls, what the hell is that all about! So I got out my UK mobile and we called the taxi firm, apparently they picked up someone else outside our complex, well that’s just bloody marvelous. They sent another taxi, which arrived 5 minutes later, so we chucked our bags in the boot and headed for San Jose airport, almost half an hour late! We arrived at the airport and queued up at the US Airways check in desk along with an entire basketball team and tens of other holiday travelers. We checked our bags in and queued at security, there was a distinct smell of sweaty feet in the air as we waited once again. We got to our gate and waited for our plane, boarded on time and both felt pretty excited about finally getting to Vegas.

We taxied to the runway, the engines revved…( this is normally the point at which I grab Jaspers hand and practice my childbirth grip as I get thrown back in my seat and we take off into the skies, however a concerning familiar thing happened) the engines stopped revving! I knew straight away what the captain was going to announce, there was a warning light on, just like my horrific first flight back in 2004. We taxied back to the gate so an engineer could check it out, I hoped it was something as simple as the Alicante flight, like the boot wasn’t quite shut, but no it was an engine problem, as you may have guessed by now I am not the calmest of aircraft travelers and you can imagine the scenarios running through my head! Five minutes went by before the captain announced that the engineers had fixed the problem and after a top up of fuel we would be on our way. A top up of fuel!!! We had only driven a couple of hundred yards, how on earth could we have used up so much fuel?! Again I imagined us running out of fuel half way to Vegas and having to ditch the plane in the middle of Yosemite, the passengers who survived trying to drag themselves from the wreckage, limbs hanging of, thankful to be alive, until suddenly a family of bears descends upon them and curtains!! I realise I should be a bit more rational, but you can’t tell me you wouldn’t think the same thing!! Ok, maybe I need help, valium anyone?!

Eventually we got back to the runway, I attempted to crush Jasper hand and we were off up to 28,000 feet. The captain informed us that we were cleared to take the fast route to Vegas as we had headed off 40 minutes late, so we would be arriving on time. Surely if there is a faster route, we should bloody well be taking that anyway! About 2 minutes after the captain announced that we had reached 28,000 feet, he then told us we were about to make our descent in to Las Vegas airport, if only all flights could be that fast, maybe there is a fast route back the UK, where it doesn’t take 11 long tedious petrifying hours!

I crushed Jaspers hand again and lost all ability to hear for 10 minutes, we had landed in Vegas at 11am.

After collecting our bags and grabbing a well needed Starbucks we shuttled off to the rental car building and picked up our shiny new SUV! We decided that we should probably step in to one once whilst we here in the states. It was ridiculous, it was no bigger in the front than our VW Beetle! Ok if we had brought some of the basketball team from our flight with us they would have been comfy in the back with the extra 15 inches of leg room, but that was no use to me in the front! The only saving grace of the car was the auxillary input in the radio, we could finally listen to decent music in the car, thank God for iPods!! Ok perhaps that’s taking it too far, Steve Jobs is good, but he’s not that good!

We drove off to our hotel and decided we should drive down the Strip so we could see how mad it really was, and trust me if you ever go to Vegas expect it to be bonkers!

After 30 minutes and having moved only 10ft we decided that perhaps taking the scenic route was a bad choice.

We eventually got to the hotel, parked the car and dragged our bags to the lift so we could check in. Stepping out of the lift was just a taste of what was to come in the days ahead. There were hundreds of people milling around, drinks and cigarettes in hand, looking dazed and confused. I assumed their confused expressions were related to their gambling losses, but having spent a few days there I relaise now they probably just couldn’t find their way out and had decided that they would probably be stranded in the Wynn for the rest of their lives so they may as well have a drink and a fag, anything to try and reduce their life span would be a good thing.

The check in desks were on the same floor as the casino and about 10 restaurants a couple of theatres and a shopping mall full of Cartier, Dior, Chanel and Rolex stores. You could barely see across the casino it was that vast.

We followed the signs, suitcases in tow and finally found the check in desks. We queued again and eventually checked ourselves in, we asked for a room on the Strip side of the hotel se we could have a good view, the guy said that was fine but the highest he could get us was the sixth floor, well I was quite happy with that, after all I am not sure I have gone any higher than the sixth floor in a building before! We headed back to the lifts, got out of the sixth floor and entered our room. Firstly we were impressed the hall was huge and the bathroom looked fab, we wandered further in and there was the huge king size bed, a sofa, a desk, a chest of drawers and a dining table for two, then I looked up and there was the amazing floor to ceiling, wall to wall window with our view of… a wall. Ok not just a wall, in the gaps between the buildings behind we could see mountains in the distance, but our room was in fact at the back of the hotel overlooking a multi-storey car park, a building site and the wall to the theater. Brilliant!

We decided it didn’t really matter, as we would be seeing plenty of the Strip anyway. We put down our bags and decided to wander over to the Fashion Show Mall opposite our hotel, we checked out the shops and grabbed a Starbucks, I bought some fab new Skechers and we headed back to our room. Its funny how knackered you can get just from taking a one hour flight. We had already planned to head off on a trip the following day so wanted to get an early night, we decided to order room service and chill out in our room. I ordered a chicken and pesto pannini and Jasper order the create your own pizza, although technically I think it was pizza with everything!

Thirty minutes later there was a knock on the door, room service had arrived, not just a tray of food, but a whole flipping table was wheeled in with silverware and glasses of water, salt and pepper, a bottle of ketchup, a bowl of chili flakes and parmesan for Jasper pizza, it was mad! We sat down at the table and munched through our dinner, it was lovely, just what we fancied. We watched a bit of TV, then set the alarm for 6am and snuggled up in our huge bed.

The alarm went off and we slowly woke ourselves up and got out of bed, I opened the curtains with the click of a button and we realised the sun was almost up. We quickly got ourselves together, grabbed our cameras and headed off to the car. It’s quite bizarre wandering through a Las Vegas casino at 6.30am, there are a few hard core stragglers still at the tables and the odd nut job who thinks its a good idea to get up early for the slots, but other than that it is all quite quiet and civilized. We headed to the car park roof and suddenly realised how bloody cold it is that early in the morning, got in the car turned on the heated seats and headed off to the grand canyon.

The journey was pretty long but we saw some cool sights on the way. The deserts and mountains, the random hillbilly trailer towns and when we got a little closer a bit of snow.

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The first white Christmas eve I can ever remember seeing!

After about 4 hours of driving we were only 46 miles away from one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen.

Thanks McDonalds!

So about 40 minutes later we arrived at the entrance to Grand Canyon National Park.

We drove to the first view point, which was apparently quite popular, as we had to wait about 10 minutes for a parking space. Mind you once we finally parked and walked over to see the view it was well worth it.

The Grand Canyon quite simply is stunning!

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We drove to each of the view points and took quite a few pics, below are just a few from the whole day. Including our stop at the Hoover Dam on the way back to Las Vegas.

We got back to our hotel at about 11pm on Christmas eve and headed straight to bed.Christmas morning I woke up at about 6am excited to speak to my family and see if they liked their presents. I waited about half an hour before I jumped on the bed and woke Jasper up, not sure he was overly impressed, but I gave him a present to make it up to him.We got up and called my parents at about 7:30am on skype and chatted for about half an hour, everyone opened their presents whilst we were online, which was great. I think everyone liked what they got and it was great that they waited until we were all online for them to open them.Once we’d spoken to my family, we called the Potts’ and chatted to them for over an hour, they really liked their hamper and it seemed like we definitely got the right one for them, as they had divided everything out in the morning, so they all had bits they liked. When the family calls were over we decided to order room service for brunch and spend the whole day chilling out in our room. We ordered enough food to feed an army, room service arrived and wheeled in a table with everything laid out. We ate, and watched tv and laid in bed all day long, it was fab. We popped down to the Casino floor in the evening and grabbed a coffee, but were too stuffed to eat anything. Then we headed back to our room and chilled out some more, what a perfect Christmas day.On boxing day we got up at about 10am and decided to drive to the outlet stores by the airport, it was boxing day after all, so it’s traditional to go shopping! We both managed to find some really nice Skechers, which were a bargain. Jasper bought two pairs of Levi’s for £15 each too! Got to love American prices.After shopping for a bit we decided to go to check out some of the other hotels and grab some lunch. We went to the Luxor first, it looks fab from the outside, a huge pyramid.

Inside however was pretty horrendous, it didn’t have any natural light inside because all the rooms are on the outside, so the main casino and shops were just dark and stank of cigarettes. We were very glad we hadn’t decided to stay there. We decided not to hang around for food there and headed on to Paris. We walked through the shops and checked out some food places, Jasper had read an article somewhere about a good burger place, so we decided to grab some lunch. Paris was much smarter than the Luxor, but still not as plush as the Wynn. Jasper had a lamb burger with feta cheese, olives and avocado. I had a classic American burger with cheese and mushrooms, we shared some fries and some potato skins with sour cream and we had a shake each too. I was really impressed, the food was yummy and all that only came to $45. We walked through Paris to the Plazzo next door and then across to the Bellagio, by now it was about 4pm so we thought we could catch the water show and then sunset.

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Quite impressive really, well choreographed and quite nice that they set it to Christmas music.After that we headed back to the Wynn and went up to our room, neither of us felt hungry enough for dinner so we had a look at a few of the shops in our hotel, saw some awful jewellery. For some reason Americans seem to think that the more you spend the bigger the item should be, which means taste goes out the window!On Thursday we had to get our car back to the rental place by 11am, so we checked out of the hotel and headed off at about 10am. We dropped off the car and got the shuttle to the airport. You can’t check in more than 4 hours before your flight and our flight wasn’t until 4pm so we grabbed a coffee and waited for an hour or so, the airport had free wi-fi so I chatted to Ian for a bit on skype and then read some of my text book, I have an assignment due in next week, so need to get some final reading in before writing my essay.We were finally able to check in and went through security to the departure gates. We got on our plane along with a convict and a dead body and arrived back in San Jose at 6pm.It felt good to be home.

Love Fi

xxx

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 29th, 2007 at 8:25 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.