Viva Las Vegas!!!

If you haven’t been to Las Vegas before, it really is what you imagine: tacky, tacky, tacky! Flashing neon coloured lights, ringing of slot machines and massive billboards showing near naked men and women, but that is what it’s famous for and I enjoyed our time there.

Staying in a posh hotel (not a tent!) for five glorious days in Vegas, we were in luxury! The swimming pool and hot tub provided us with total relaxation.

My favourite spot was right outside the Bellagio fountains after 6pm, watching the 1,000 musical fountains dance along the water. It sent shivers up my spine it was so magical.



The casinos were so busy. Every once in a while you’d hear screams and turn around to see what the commotion was and of course people were jumping up and down delighted with their winnings. Unfortunately there was no jumping up or down for us as we did not win a cent!

On our last day in Vegas we were relaxing by the pool when two employees from the hotel came over to Tom and I and asked if we would be interested in going to see the Phantom of the Opera – free of charge! Of course we leapt at the chance and enjoyed our view from the eight row from the front. A guest who had already purchased the tickets had to leave unexpectedly and we were the lucky two who got the tickets – the luck of the Irish?

Hoover Dam

Think of your worst fear and then knowing you are about to experience it – how does it make you feel? Scared? Yes….!

I am terrified of driving over bridges. You might think that it's not really a fear, or that your deepest fear is worse than mine, but knowing that I had to drive over the Hoover Dam gave me a very deep gnawing knot in my stomach. I was afraid it would collapse and that I would drown!

After leaving Grand Canyon we drove 147 miles to Hoover Dam. The traffic queue went for miles, but when we turned the last corner the waiting was forgiven as we saw the massive dam before us - it was so beautiful.

The sun was blazing; it was about 35 degrees Celsius. After we’d gotten out of the car and taken some photos, I was very glad to get back into it and back to my air con!



Then the knots in my stomach started up again, moving upwards towards my throat as I approached the dam. Tom decided to get some closer photos and jumped out of the car leaving me all by myself to cross the dam with my fear bubbling up!!

I started thinking… what’s the big deal with bridges and dams? What are the chances of them actually collapsing while you are on them? How many accidents have you ever heard of where bridges collapse?

This got me through it - I did it! - I crossed it all by myself! It was a big personal achievement for me and one that I know I will have to look back to when I cross even bigger bridges on our journey in the future.

The Grand Canyon

Normally when someone tells me that something I have yet to see is impressive it will turn out to be a bit of an anti-climax. This is not the case with the Grand Canyon.

Before we set up camp we decided to check it out at Mather Point on the South Rim. I did my best to avoid looking at it as we parked our car and walked up to the viewing point. Only when we reached the edge did I look up to see if it lived up to the hype.

I wasn’t prepared for the breathtaking view before my eyes. No amount of words could describe the vastness of the canyon or the sense of awe you feel when you first see it.




In all we spent three nights camping in Mather Campground at the top of the South Rim, where we were kept company by huge moose munching on the trees!



Over the three days we did two hikes down into the canyon, the first was the South Kaibab trail and was only 1.5 miles down. When hiking down the canyon you have to allow twice as much time to go down as you do to come back up.

On the way back up we probably went faster than we should have, which resulted in me being buckled by the time we got back up. After a few hours of recovery in the tent, a tasty cheeseburger each set us up for our next hike.

The next day we got up at 5am to take the Blue Angel trail. This time we went all the way down to the 3 mile resthouse. Even though we hiked twice as far as the day before and had to dodge mule rides coming down as we made our way back up, we paced ourselves a lot better and both felt fairly fresh when we got back to the rim.

We left the Grand Canyon wanting to go back, with dreams of doing a four day hike down to the bottom and back!