Nevada In Review

We kind of whimped out on poor Nevada.  While our home was in Black Canyon City, we found it easy to jaunt over in our Jeep to Las Vegas for a few days and then travel on to the Grand Canyon before heading back to our home.  We would have loved to fit in other areas like Lake Tahoe, but they just wouldn't make it into our route this year.  We'd been to Las Vegas with the girls when they were too young to remember and honestly thought that a few days to chill at a cool pool sounded dreamy.  Of course on our way, we had to stop at the Hoover Dam lookout.

The bridge offering the spectacular view is just downstream from the dam and crosses over the Colorado River, linking Nevada with Arizona.  At 840 feet above the river, it is the nation's 2nd highest bridge (hence the reason only three of us made the walk out!)

Vegas is a remarkable place, though like New Orleans, we had to be intentional about making it "family friendly".  There are things we love & things we hate.  For one, you just can't avoid the constant "ding-ding-ding" sound of slot machines which quickly gets annoying.  At the end of our trip, Jim found it humorous to say he spent a weekend in Vegas without a sip of alcohol or a single penny spent on gambling:)

Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate with our "mindlessly lounging by the pool" plans, so we made it our goal to find family-friendly, free things to do.  Gawking at the enormous, gorgeous hotels alone filled much of our time.

Our favorite was the Bellagio with magnificent indoor botanical gardens filled with the scent of spring & the sound of live classical musical performances.  

And the Bellagio's lobby held this magnificent ceiling with 2,000 hand blown glass flowers.

In front of the hotel were fabulous water shows, choreographed to lights & music.

The $2.7 billion Wynn Resort wasn't so shabby itself...

Parasols gently move up & down over the lounge which also offers lovely views of the waterfall.

We loved these gigantic flower balls hanging from the indoor trees

We eyed the 150' Statue of Liberty & 300' Brooklyn Bridge at New York, New York...

Set to music, the Mirage's volcano erupted hourly with shooting flames and smoke effects.

Of course we took advantage of lots of great food, too.  Among our favorites were a visit to an all-you-can-eat buffet (a MUST in Vegas!) and a sweet shoppe inside the Bellagio...

The "Opera"...chocolate ganache with coffee butter cream & espresso syrup and the "Rose Macaroon"... rose infused cream & fresh raspberries sandwiched by to raspberry macaroons and topped with a sugared rose pedal- almost too beautiful to eat!

Our favorite activity though, was attending the Cirque de Soleil "O" performance.  The acrobats, synchronized swimmers, divers & characters performed on, in & above the 1.5 million gallon pool of water.  And the platform beneath the water was invisibly ever changing, so sometimes the performers seemed to be "walking" on water while the next moment they would be diving into it from the rafters.  Impossible to describe how cool it was! 

By the end of our 3 days here we were more than ready to move on.  And what better place than in the beautiful, serene nature setting of the Grand Canyon... just what we were craving after the craziness of the city!