USA road trip, Post 1: Arrival in Vegas

On July 1st, Delle, Ben and I flew from Bellingham to Las Vegas for the start of our 3500+km USA road trip. Over the course of the next 12 days, we would see four states (Nevada, California, Arizona and Utah), four national parks (Death Valley, Yosemite, Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon), and three cities (Las Vegas, San Francisco and Los Angeles). Stay tuned - it's going to take me a while to blog all that!!

Here's a photo Delle took of Las Vegas from the air as we flew in (the row of tall buildings is the Strip)...



We arrived in Vegas after 7pm, and it was after 9pm by the time we'd taken two shuttle buses to the rental car depot and chosen our car... a cute, bright blue PT Cruiser that you'll see in upcoming blog entries. Once that was sorted, we drove north up the Strip towards our first destination: the Bellagio. Delle's reaction to the lights and spectacle of the Strip was pretty similar to what ours had been a year earlier... nothing makes your jaw drop like your first visit to Vegas!!

We had decided to celebrate the start of our trip by having dinner at the Bellagio buffet, apparently the best casino buffet in Vegas. And we weren't disappointed! For about $30 each, it was a magnificent feast. Each of the buffet's multiple sections were the size of any other normal buffet... there were sections devoted to sushi, seafood, roasts, salads, pizza, etc... not to mention dessert!

We were too busy stuffing our faces to take any photos during our main course (first, second, and possibly third servings), but by dessert we'd slowed down enough to document this experience...















How we really felt...



Afterwards, we checked out the current theme in the Bellagio Conservatory and Botanical Gardens...

(Delle's photo)

Found the chocolate fountain that Ben and I had missed last year...



...And then watched the musical fountains in front of the Bellagio. The song this time (they cycle through multiple songs every day) was All That Jazz. Our vantage point was not as good as last year (this time we were on the Bellagio side of the lake rather than the Las Vegas Boulevard side), but it was breathtaking nonetheless. Here are some photos and a video...

Turn the volume down for this video - there's a lot of background noise!

After that, we headed further north up the Strip to our hotel for the night: the Stratosphere. That's the well-known building in the Las Vegas skyline that has rides hanging off the 113th floor. Yes, you heard me right: Rides. Hanging off. 113th floor!!

Because each casino wants to entice people to stay there and spend all their money gambling, accommodation in Vegas is incredibly cheap. Our room at the Stratosphere cost $56 for all three of us - and that includes taxes and the third person surplus! For non-gamblers like ourselves, Vegas is a very economical place to holiday!! (It's also cheap to fly to and has lots of interesting things to see for free.)

After settling into our room (which was in a building connected to the tower, not the tower itself), we headed up to the top of the Stratosphere to check out the view. It was after midnight by this time, but that's when Vegas is most alive!!

Here are some of Ben's photos of the Strip from the top (I stayed on the enclosed floor just below this - but went up to the open air observation deck the next morning and discovered it wasn't as scary as I'd thought it would be!)...





The next morning, we went back up the tower around 10am, and there was hardly anyone to be seen! The view was quite different too...











Here are two of the rides - people uncomfortable with heights may wish to skip this section!! In addition to these two rides, there's also a Giant Drop-like one, and one where you attach yourself to a vertical wire and go zinging all the way down to ground level - on the outside of the tower!









Now, I'm sure you're all wondering whether we went on any of the rides. Well, there was never any question of me going on them - I don't even like leaning over balcony railings. However, we did kind of choose the Stratosphere over the Excalibur (a similarly-priced accommodation option) due to the possibility of Ben and Delle trying out a ride or two.

But when we went up the tower the night before, they were "too tired" and "too full from dinner".

And when we went back up the tower in the morning, they "couldn't be bothered" because the rides looked "TOO BORING"!!!

(Also, the rides cost money and they said they would have done it if it were free. But the main reason was that the rides were "too boring". Oh, and "too slow".)

Now, of course I am highly sceptical about this - my reason for not going on the rides was that they looked so NOT boring that my fear would likely reach lethal levels. But you can make up your own mind.



After a few more hours in Vegas - buying a $10 US sim card, an audio cable, and some road trip snacks - we set off for our next destination: Death Valley National Park.

Check back here soon to see if we survived Death Valley!

Canada Day

On Canada Day (July 1st, a public holiday), we had brunch at Doug and Loretta's home in Surrey with some of the local crew. Delle, Ben and I only had a few hours there before we needed to head for the border to start our 12-day USA road trip (blog posts coming soon!).

Here are a few photos...

Vancouver Island: Victoria

On Saturday, June 26th, after staying the night with Mel in Parksville, Delle and I headed back down to the bottom of Vancouver Island to explore the capital of British Columbia: Victoria. This was my first time to Victoria (Ben still hasn't been), and it was just gorgeous!

We parked at the harbour and spent the day exploring the nearby streets and inner harbour area on foot.





Another way to explore the city...





The famous Fairmont Empress Hotel faces the harbour - you can see it on the left in the first photo below. Having high tea at the Empress is one of the most popular activities for tourists in Victoria!





In a courtyard at the Empress...



Views of the harbour and the Parliament building from the Empress...





Fabulous vines... the main reason I loved Victoria so much was that it is so similar to England!





Inside the Empress...







The high tea room...







The restaurant next to the high tea room - we ordered lunch here and ate it on the verandah outside the high tea room...









Back outside the Empress...





Heading towards Parliament...

The British Columbia flag...

Looking back at the Empress...





We happened to arrive outside Parliament just as a free tour of the inside was about to start, so we joined the tour and ended up learning a lot of interesting things! Here's our excellent tour guide beside the BC coat of arms...



The underside of a First Nations (i.e. indigenous) canoe - carved by a Parliamentarian I think!



Various photos of the inside of Parliament...









Where the big decisions get made...



A window designed for the Queen's Golden Jubilee...





A window for Queen Victoria, and two amusing anecdotes about it:

1) It was put in Parliament's basement at some point when renovations were being done, and everyone forgot about it. They found it over 60 years later... and popped it in here even though it doesn't fit quite right!

2) Compare this old version of the coat of arms with the one in the photo above. In the old one, the BC sun is above the Union Jack. Since "the sun will never set on the British Empire", the English didn't like that very much, so BC changed it. That's Canadians for you - always so accommodating!



Back outside - Parliament's front lawn and horse-drawn carriages in the adjacent streets...







Various harbour sights...











At this point my camera battery ran out. The rest of the day was pleasantly whiled away with the help of a bookshop, gelato, and a mall. Then we drove up to Swartz Bay and took the 9pm ferry home. What a beautiful city Victoria is - I'm completely smitten!