Grand Canyon

I was woken today at 5am by a phone call. My thoughts went something like this:

That's a phone

That must be next door

That's my phone

Who's calling me?

Oh no what's wrong at home?

I better get up and answer it.

Turns out it was the tour company confirming my 6am pickup. Well thanks for the wakeup call but I had planned to get up 15 minutes later!

I got on to the bus across the road and (as in my Disney trip) was taken to a terminal to process my ticket and then get on another bus. Along the way the driver was hard selling the other tours and upgrades you could do. This went pretty quickly and soon we were on our way.

Two full buses headed out to the West Rim. Mine was full and I ended up sitting next to a lady from some Northern state who was pretty chatty.

Our first stop was at the Hoover Dam. Because of September 11 there's now a police check before you get there, were a cop gets on your bus (or looks through your car) to make sure you're not sneaking in a terrorist. Just before the dam they are building a bypass so fewer travellers will need to be checked. Having just spent a month working on a major road project I found myself more interested in the huge bridges they are building than I might otherwise have been.

There was a brief photo stop there and then it was full speed to the Canyon. At least it was full speed half of the way. Once we got closer it became an unmade and very bumpy road. The host was apologetic and also very knowlegedable and made the trip out enjoyable. I gave him a good tip at the end of the day. I think it was a good tip.

The first stop at the rim was the Eagle Point. The view was amazing. The canyon just stretches out seemingly forever. It really is breathtaking. I snapped a lot of pictures today (over 300) and I filter out the best ones when I get home.

The main attraction at this point was the rock formation that looked like an eagle, but now it's the Skywalk. 4,000 feet above the Colorado River below you walk out onto a horseshoe-shaped glassed platform suspending out over the cliff face.

The view straight down is not that scary. The platform feels really strong. It's not however that well protected and if you wanted to make a final splash there's nothing to stop you which surprised me. As with all great heights the fear of falling does take hold as you walk among the cliff faces.

Lunch was at Guapo Point (which is probably misspelt). Not sure what it was (other than the piece of Chicken and the Corn Cob) but it was nice enough. I was starving after a very light breakfast much earlier in the day.

The views from this point were even better stretching in three directions. It also allowed me to snap some photographs featuring the helicopter tours. The helicopters helped put the towering cliff walls into scale (and made them look as huge as they were).

The bus back left at 2:45 plus the twenty minutes delay waiting for some stragglers to make their way back to the bus. I read most of the way and half paid attention to the DVD the driver screened "National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation".

I got back to my hotel about 6 and made my way straight over to the Star Trek exhibit. It was interesting to see some of the real props and costumes, but I felt like I knew all the 'trivia' and information on the displays already. I did one of the rides, the Borg Expeirence 4-D which was pretty good.

After dinner I jumped on to write this up, and now plan to head back to the hotel to pack and get some sleep. It's a 4am start tomorrow due to the stupid 3 hour before policy the airlines have. Next stop New York

Las Vegas

The first thing you notice when you arrive in the Las Vegas terminal is the slot machines in the departure lounge. Just in case you want to gamble a little bit more before your plane takes off I guess?

The second thing you notice is how hot it is! I thought LA was hot but that was just warm in comparison. This is Broome-like in it's heat. I was building up a sweat just sitting in the shade waiting for my shuttle bus to come.

The Las Vegas strips stands out as the only tall buildings surrounded by houses, retail, no noticable industrial, and then flat dry land out towards mountains that seem to be in all directions.

My hotel is okay. The check-in desk is in the middle of the casino which I found surprising. It's not a fancy room but it's pretty big for just little old me. Being on the first floor (yes this is one of the few US buildings I've been to yet that has a first floor that is not the ground level) I have a view of a few casinos.

Outside there's just so many people around, as you would expect from Vegas and staying in the middle of the Strip. Every casino looks the same when you walk in the door and I haven't laid any money down yet.

There's also a few malls, most of which have these cool fake sky blue ceilings with clouds painted on them. I thought they were moving through some trick of lights or projection, but they don't. When you walk you see them in your peripheral vision and they just appear to be moving.

I went out last night and saw "Phantom the Vegas Experience". It's a cut down version of the Lloyd-Webber Phantom of the Opera (down to 95 minutes) but it has all the songs and was pretty well done. The cast were good. The staging was well done, and so were the special effects which included a crashing chandelier and fireworks (a bit too bright for my tired eyes). I kept being thrown by changes to the lyrics from the movie version that I have the soundtrack of (and have listened to a lot) but I generally enjoyed the show.

Then tired I went back to my room and ended up watching Kill Bill Volume 2 on the TV. It was the first time I'd seen it again since it was on at the movies. (When will the special edition DVD of those two movies ever come out!) Speaking of "at the movies" I was thinking of seeing Grindhouse today but there's no movie theatres in the yellow pages. There must be some around!

I was concerned I wouldn't be able to sleep due to noise and light but I was still pretty tired from the Disney trip and the early rise to catch my plane.

I took the bus up and down the strip and out to the outlet mall. Picked up some new shorts for aerobics here and took the change to use an internet outlet.

Tonight I'm going to check out a few of the other hotels and get along to the Star Trek Experience museum. I won't have a long night because I've got an all-day trip out to the Grand Canyon tomorrow leaving at 6am and then the next day I'm getting picked up at 5am to go back to the airport.

At this rate I'm going to sleep all the way to New York!