We have to be at the pick-up point under our humungous hotel by 4:50am. Mum and I are in different rooms so it's going to be fun coordinating this! My alarm goes off at 4:00am. I slowly wake up and push the button to lift the blinds... it's still dark. I force myself out of bed to go for a shower and get dressed. Oh, is Mum up? I call her and she's ready. Lucky! With only five minutes before we have to be at the pick-up point, we rush to underneath the hotel and ask for some directions from the porter. The directions aren't that great but we've finally made it, although we're a little puffed, late, and not entirely sure if we've missed the van. Dry mouths, bottle of water from the nearby vending machine, and cold morning air. Maybe shorts and thongs weren't the right decision? The van arrives.
Along the way to the airport, we pick up a family. They're from Perth! We all arrive at the airport and wait for the driver to open the van door to avoid any lawsuits of anyone falling out... serious. We sit in the waiting room and one-by-one they call us up to be weighed on some electronic scales. Amongst the talking we hear more Australian accents... this time from Melbourne and Brisbane! The Aussie dollar is doing well, obviously. It's still cold. We all enter a mini cinema to watch a helicopter safety video. Then, after a long wait of about forty-five minutes, it is time to go! We're not sure how long it will take to get there but we jump in the van with enthusiasm. It reverses from the car bay, drives alongside the building to its end, turns right, goes through a mini traffic light, and then we're on the tarmac. It was so early and dark when we arrived that I had no idea how close we were to the airport!
The morning sun is gently flooding the airport as we arrive at the helicopters. The driver opens the door and we start to pile out. He stops us and asks who pre-ordered the DVD. Ummm, that would be us. Everyone has to wait inside the van until we've had our action shots. He starts recording video of the helicopters and then pans around to us, motioning us to start action. We smile. He waves his hands upward to encourage more action. We wave and smile. How embarrassing! We're done. Everyone else joins us and we split into two groups, one for each helicopter. Our pilot looks at his sheet and tells each person in the group where to sit. Mum and I are first to board and we score the front seats! I think we got front seats because she's small, just like a bottle of arsenic, she tells me. Awesome birthday treat!
The flight over is spectacular. The sun is appearing over the horizon, there is hardly a cloud in the sky, and the land formation is incredible and vast. The pilot points out Lake Las Vegas, where Celine Dion and David Copperfield's extravagant homes are located and also the airstrip where the Thelma & Louise scene was filmed.
There seems to be so much more water than we expected. We thought this area was going to be like a desert. Next is the Hoover Dam. Then the almighty Grand Canyon appears. Wow, it is ridiculously wide and spectacular. We fly down into the Canyon and move toward a cliff face to get a closer view before ascending to the top. What an amazing experience this is!
After a while we reach a flat area where we can see dwellings. We have reached our destination: part of the Mormon trail. The helicopter lands and we're greeted by a couple of cowboys and a horse-drawn wagon. We jump in the wagon and the driver signals for the horses to start pulling. They take us to the Grand Canyon Ranch (Diamond Bar Ranch) and it hits me that we're now in Arizona. It's still freezing cold so I can't wait to go inside to warm up. Wait... the wagon is stopping just inside the entrance of the property. They stop in the shade of all places. I'm shivering! A cowboy with a guitar tells us a story about the old West. Two other cowboys on horses with flags, one confederate, the other yankee, take it in turns to ride around waving the flag as they go while the singing cowboy with the guitar sings the appropriate song. They show us a display of how they muster and catch cattle while the singing cowboy belts out another tune. We're regaled with another song, some more history, and yet another song. This is wonderful entertainment and education but I'm really cold and hungry.On the way from the wagon to the residence, we notice a small rock cabin with photos of the original pioneers who settled in this place. The land is so rough and rocks, trees, and cactus are just everywhere that I cannot imagine the amount of effort it would take to reach this place by wagon and settle. A child was born in this cabin. I also can't imagine back far enough to understand how the Indians did it. Amazing.
We continue inside the residence, have a home-cooked breakfast, listen to more songs by the singing cowboy, grab a jacket, and then head out for our wagon ride. Some of the others took a horse ride but we're happy to just sit and enjoy the ride. We're shown plants known as Indian Tea, which Indians would drink and stay awake for days. Apparently, it's an amphetamine. Then we come across some buffalo and our guide says they're here just for us. Hoping for a response in the negative, I innocently ask, "to eat?" He laughs and says, "no, we breed them here for you to see. We look after them." phew! We're very lucky, as a baby buffalo was born only two weeks earlier.
The wagon brings us back to the ranch and we spend some time looking around the teepees, buildings, and wagons. After not too long, the cowboys herd us back into the wagon and take us to the helicopters. They were so friendly. We couldn't have asked for a better day to experience such a wonder of the world.
Tonight we have tickets to see Cirque du Soleil's O, one of their flagship shows involving water. We go to the Bellagio Hotel early in the afternoon to make sure we know where to come tonight. We don't want to be late or catch a wrong bus! There are amazing displays of flowers: a cornucopia of vegetables, a talking tree, a horse made from sticks, and, my favourite, the apple made of roses. I ask the security lady if the roses are real and she says, "yes, they are definitely fresh." The lobby is gushing with beautiful flowers!
We continue to Caesar's Palace and stop for a bite to eat. Mum orders a corned beef sandwich and comes away with half a cow between two slices of bread. That's quite a sandwich! This hotel is extravagant with its statues, oar boat, and Colosseum-like shop fronts.
After a little nap, the time has come to see O. I booked these tickets months ago and I'm really excited! We can't take any photos of the show but I am allowed to take a photo of the ceiling in the theatre. It is quite stunning. The show is brilliantly executed. The water is sometimes there and sometimes not due to a moving floor. Timing it correctly is paramount so that the divers dive into water. The moving floor in the water rises just above the water level to form a dry floor and lowers into the water when people need to dive. It is incredible. I must say that I found the story line less cohesive than their other shows but the acrobatics and inclusion of the water pool/stage was distracting enough and beyond compare.
It has been such a big day and we should probably go back to the hotel for a good night's sleep. However, the driver who brought us home from the airport mentioned the 'old Las Vegas' and said we must see it. He said it is where the casinos originally started. The helicopter pilot had also mentioned that the old Las Vegas has the longest public screen in the world. I thought it was all a bit odd but then I thought of TV shows that contain images of Las Vegas and those images are not what I have seen along the strip. Where are they?
The TV shows always contain the casino with 4 Queens, the neon cowboy on a horse, and so on. So after the show, Mum and I and jump on a bus and head downtown to Fremont Street. To our surprise, there is a whole other world here! It is almost like a different city. Some screams overhead catch our attention and we look up to find four people zipping along a flying fox underneath the domed screen. Incredible! It is like a huge shopping mall lined with casinos, shops, restaurants, buskers, and quite a few freaky things and people. It's obvious that it isn't a modern area but it certainly has a very busy vibe about it.Along the half-hour bus ride back to the strip, we listen to the comical bus driver. He has rehearsed very well, especially when he announces "move back, move back..." There are loud speakers inside and outside the bus so he is telling the people waiting at the bus stop to move back as we arrive. We go past all of the bail bonds businesses, wedding chapels, and more hotels. What a day!
Pics of the day
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