Grand Canyon Day!

Another early start for us to do our flight over the Grand Canyon. This tour was the carrot for Peter to come to Las Vegas as he wasn't keen to come here.We are picked up from our hotel in a very swish tour bus complete with free water in a cooler between our seats. After a half hour drive we arrive at the heliport to go on our flight. The first thing we have to do is to get weighed as there is a limit for the helicopter. Thankfully we are all ok to go. With all the food we have been eating it was a relief.

We walk out onto the tarmac and have our photo taken by the helicopter before we get on. We are introduced to our pilot Mike "Mad Dog" Davis who is a real hoot when he starts his commentary. He was very knowledgeable about how the Grand Canyon was formed. I am not going to go into all the detail as it was so much but needless to say it was very good. Mad Dog had some fabulous music playing throughout the trip which really suited every aspect of the flight. Peter said he reminded him of Oddball from Kelly's Heroes (for those old enough to know the movie).

There are no words to describe how we felt when we came over the rise and the full view of the Grand Canyon came into view. It is absolutely gob smacking!!! It is everything you see in movies or on tv and that was one thing Mad Dog said before we began, take as many photos as you want but really there are thousands of photos of the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon on the internet, just sit back and enjoy the view. And for the most part that is what we did.

 

As we came round to where we landed it was a fabulous view. We landed on the West Rim and had our champagne breakfast and talked to Mad Dog about the area and what he has seen change in the time the flights have been coming in.

We took off and went back to the heliport and then back to our hotel. What a fabulous morning it was just spectacular and so worth every cent we paid. If anyone would like to see the whole experience we have it on dvd which we will be very eager to watch when we get home.

After lunch we went in search of an ATM which didn't charge like a wounded bull like the ones in the casino. We made our way across the road and found what we were looking for. The boys left Cheryl and I to wander around and I have got my days mixed up as this was the day I bought my Las Vegas Pandora not yesterday! See after 7 1/2 weeks the days all start to blend together. After a walk around it was back to our rooms and for me some blogging before our afternoon outing.

A late afternoon trip to old Las Vegas was next on our days agenda. We caught a taxi there and our first impressions weren't great. We started our visit with a couple of drinks at an Irish pub and watching the passing parade. We walked through the strip and wow what a difference a couple of decades have made to Vegas. Old Town las vegas felt a little bit seedy and not so pleasant as we walked through, nothing like the newer strip where were staying. It was something to see for sure but we didn't stay long.

We went back to our end of town and had dinner at P F Changs which was a lovely Chinese restaurant and then took some last night photos before finishing our packing ready to go to Hawaii the next day.