Las Vegas

A late update this week. We are chasing our tails after a long weekend in Vegas which ended with a very late night driving back from Calgary on Monday.

The trip was a Christmas present to Jim and I must say, that when I booked it in November I didn't really realise quite what a great time of year I had picked.

When we left Canada, it was just above freezing with the last of the snow still on the ground and a two and a half hour flight later, we were in Nevada and it was +26c! After the long Albertan winter, it was just what we needed!

This was the first time either of us had been to Vegas and we were pretty blown away! From the incredible architecture of the high rise buildings on The Strip to seeing people walking down the street with alcohol (we've lived in Canada too long!) and the incredible positive atmosphere which started as soon as we got on the plane.

Amongst the highlights of the weekend, we took a helicopter trip over the Hoover Dam to the Grand Canyon, landing in the canyon for a champagne picnic. Pretty expensive, but well worth it, especially when we flew over the queues of traffic driving up to the dam!

We also went to see Cirque De Soleil's Zumanity, which was good fun. Several audience members were pulled on stage to get involved in various adult themed sketches, most of which had the audience cheering and laughing, but we found out on the flight home that one of the girls who had been pulled on stage had fallen out with her boyfriend as a result of her involvement and was later seen in the foyer of her hotel with her cases! Oh dear!

We stayed at the MGM Grand, it was pot luck as I didn't know what I was booking, but it was a good choice.

It has an astonishing 5000 rooms and we were upgraded to one of the newer rooms in the West Wing with a great king-size bed and a modern bathroom which was partly open to the sleeping area.

The only flights we have taken since we arrived have been to the UK and back so it was such a novelty to fly short-haul and not arrive with jet lag. Now all we've got to do is work out if we can fit another weekend in before we leave, it seems rude not to! More photos of the weekend here