Ladies In Las Vegas - March, 2000

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This was our first trip to Las Vegas, indeed our first trip to the US of A! In March 2000 we paid a millenium visit to Sin City. We arrived over Vegas at night and the view of the lights sparkling in the desert was amazing. After enduring immigration we piled into a stretch limo heading for our hotel, the Luxor. www.luxor.com .The driver took us down the strip on a little sightseeing tour, we couldn't believe we had arrived after planning it for so long. Then we rolled into the Luxor and our jaws fell open! What an amazing place! The decor is spectacular, over the top of course, but that is what Vegas is all about. The rooms were huge, even the lift was different, going sideways! I don't think we will ever get the sound of the slot machines out of our heads.

We set off the next day to explore the strip, it didn't look very far, wrong!! We must have walked miles and had to keep popping into a casino to cool off. From then on we took a taxi or monorail, much better. I can't imagine what it must be like in the summer.

What were our favourite hotels? Sue liked the Bellagio, www.bellagio.com . which was next door, Sandra liked the Venetian, www.venetian.com .Sonia liked the Paris, (Sandra drooled over the chandeliers!) www.harrahs.com and I liked Caesar's Palace best, www.harrahs.com but they were all a hoot. We went to Treasure Island and sang "Rule Brittania" as the British ship was sunk in the battle, sang "O Solo Mio" with the gondaliers at the Venetian, and ascended the Eiffel Tower to much screaming and wailing from Sonia.

We ate enormous breakfasts, which should have lasted us all day, but were tiny compared to what our American cousins packed away and then we ate huge evening meals as well! One evening we visited the downtown area to see the Fremont experience light show, visited the Golden Nugget and actually had a gambling lesson.

One much anticipated trip was a flight over the Grand Canyon. Each day we waited for the right weather to arrive. No such luck. The day before we were coming home it was "do or die" time. So up we went in this tiny plane where they arrange passengers by size! The weather was appalling, wind, rain and thunder! Sick bags were pointed out to us and I could here Sonia behind me saying to Sandra "Don't look down, keep looking at the horizon". Hello!! What have we come here to do? Well, even though the visibility was poor, the views were to die for, (and we thought we might!). It's like nowhere else on earth.

It was an unforgettable experience all around. Our accents got lots of comments, although most thought we were Austrailian! One taxi driver harranged us about how arrogant the English were, saying only they would call their country "Great Britain"! We said we would be coming back one day (and we did, but that's another story).

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