You know what happens when a morning person on East Coast time goes to Vegas? They’re up to watch the sunrise over the Strip.
Every. Single. Morning. 🙂
While Mike slept, I read a book. By the time he woke up and got moving, I was ready for a nap. Needless to say, I don’t think we left our hotel room until about 10:00AM. Mostly I think that the last 2 days of constant walking, long/late hours and desert heat was catching up with us. We decided to take it easy in our room until Siefried & Roy’s Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat opened at 10:00AM.
I took this picture out of sheer amusement. We were walking to the exhibit on the walkway that runs alongside the pool. There were approximately 6-8 guys sitting in a group with a big white board in from of them. Guess what they were doing?
If you guessed fantasy football draft, you’d be correct. Just kind of funny to see it going on….
Anyway, when you walk into the exhibit, the first thing you see is 2 large pools. Upon further notice, you realize that there are dolphins swimming around inside.
I took about 100 pictures of the dolphins swimming. It seriously was one of the coolest things we saw IN Vegas. It was very peaceful in the pool area and the dolphins were amazing to watch. I think the trainers probably have the best jobs in all of Vegas.
We believe one of the dolphins was separated from the others because it was a pregnant female (above). The 2 dolphins (below) in the other pool seemed a little agitated to be separated from her and kept swimming to the barrier between the pools to see her. 🙁
One thing that was kind of amusing was how the dolphins followed the trainers around. They literally followed them around the pool like little puppies. 🙂
We would have stayed much longer but the majority of the viewing area was in the full sun and at 10:00AM, it was approximately 432 degrees outside. 😉
Next up was the Secret Garden portion of the exhibit. This is where they keep some of the animals on display that are part of Siegfried & Roy’s personal collection. While it was very interesting to see, I would have been a little disappointed in the overall exhibit if we hadn’t seen the dolphins too. Most of the animals were dead asleep, hiding in the shade (smart little buggers) and hard to actually see. Even more disappointing was the fact that we never saw the little baby white tiger that they were advertising all over the hotel. Oh well.
The white lions (white, not albino) were by far the most interesting to see. I think they may have been the most interesting because they were right out in the open, you could see them on 3 sides and one actually MOVED while we were watching! 🙂
I thought this white tiger was pretty cute. Sleeping with it’s belly exposed, front legs wrapped around a tree. 🙂
More white tigers…
Sleeping in the shade…
…and chilling on tree branches.
Mike…wilting in the heat.
Self-portrait with the white tigers (there is another one hiding the grass, in the bottom right corner, beside my head):
After this, we headed to the buffet in our hotel and filled ourselves with some yummy brunch.
Next up: Sunset on the Strip!
[LONGEST POST EVER – PHOTO OVERLOAD WARNING!]
After leaving Hoover Dam, we headed out for the Grand Canyon.
We stopped briefly in Williams, Arizona for a quick bathroom break and to pick up our boxed lunches.
The restaurant we stopped at was actually on Route 66 and the driver gave us the history of the road. Which, we already knew half of thanks to Disney’s CARS. haha
After the quick stop, we were back on the bus to eat and drive the last leg to the South Rim.
Our first stop was the Bright Angel Lodge where we were able to walk along the rim trail.
This was our view!
There was canyon as far as you could see!
Video!
We made time to pose for some pictures, of course!
We then walked over here…
…to get these shots!
We went back to the trail and found a shaddy spot to sit and look over the canyon.
We watched the animals running around but were careful not to approach them. We’d been warned that approaching or feeding the animals could result in a $500 fine!
A very nice woman asked us to take her picture in exchange for taking a picture of the two of us. I was pretty happy with what she took!
We got back on the bus and drove down the road to Mather Point.
We immediately headed right to the edge of the canyon for pictures. It was a bit of a hike from the parking lot but it was worth every huff and puff! The views were more stunning than at Bright Angel!
VIDEO!
This was our next stop!
Self-portrait time!
Seriously? Can you believe this view?!?!
At the top of the stairs, heading down to the observation point!
Hi Mike!
Holy Awesome View, Batman!
More self-portrait action!
Notice Mike desperately trying to avoid being near the railing!
We went here, next.
While we were there, we noticed these crazy people at the next stone formation down the trail.
NOT AN AUTHORIZED TOURIST STOP! CLIMBING DOWN A ROCK WALL! STANDING ON A ROCK FORMATION WITHOUT RAILINGS! CRAZINESS!!!
CRAZINESS, I SAY!
It is a beautiful view, isn’t it?
Hi Amanda!
That’s where we just came from.
Mike holding onto the railing for dear life.
Hello, gorgeous!
Hello, Colorado River!
Mike avoiding the edge, again.
And one last shot…aren’t I mean for making him go right to the railing? 🙂
After this we headed back to the Visitor Center in search of water. Well, Mike was in search of water. I was in search of air conditioning. 🙂
I found the A/C while he went off in search of water…and I got some neat pictures while I was there.
….and, back at the bus. Nothing better than water, A/C and a nice cushy seat after traipsing around the Grand Canyon in the heat of the summer!
Our next stop was to go back to Williams, Az for dinner at Wild West Junction. 🙂
We had an old west-style barbecue dinner including chicken, baked beans and biscuits all served on tin plates and drinks served in tin cups.
We ate outside under a white tent in the courtyard.
And nearby 2 gentlemen played on a stage…singing country songs and periodically stopping for pictures.
It was totally cheesy but dinner was good. We probably would have enjoyed it more if we didn’t have a 4 hour drive back to Vegas ahead of us.
An after-dinner self-portrait!
Nothing overly exciting happened on the ride back to Vegas. We watched videos on the TVs on the bus, listened to our iPods, I read and napped. Fun was had by all. 🙂
One item of interested was that we drove back over Hoover Dam in the dark. It was all lit up and looked really cool. Unfortunately, the camera’s flash was reflecting off of the bus windows and because it was dark and we were moving, I couldn’t get a shot in focus with the flash off.
I did take video of us approaching and crossing the dam. Enjoy!!! (Cheesy elevator music complements of the driver!)
Next up….Siegfried & Roy’s Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat!
Prior to leaving for Vegas, I purchased tickets for us to take a Gray Line tour of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Mike was very iffy about going so I was nervous it was a big waste of money. Thankfully, it turned out to be a fun day.
A bus picked us up from our hotel at 6:30am and took us to the Gray Line headquarters off the Strip. From there, we were signed in, asked to select our choices for our boxed lunches and loaded up on buses to head to the Grand Canyon.
Waiting on the bus…
…sitting next to the entrance to UNLV…
…ready to get the show on the road.
The first stop on our tour was at an observation point over the Hoover Dam. The Hoover Dam was only an hour from Vegas and turned out to be far more interesting than I had previously expected. Next time we go to Vegas, we’d be very likely to go back for a tour of the Dam.
Approaching the dam. I only have one picture of this side as I didn’t realize that we wouldn’t see it again and that I was only going to have this opportunity to get a shot.
Starting over the bridge…still in Nevada:
Crossing over into Arizona:
Nevada is in the Pacific time zone and Arizona is in the Mountain time zone. As a result, Arizona is normally an hour behind Nevada. Most of Arizona does not observe daylight savings time therefore during the summer months, Arizona time would be the same as Nevada time. Cool, huh? 🙂
New bridge and highway they’re building:
After 9/11, the government shut down all access to the road that crosses over the Hoover Dam. As time went by and security measures were put into place, the road was eventually opened to passenger vehicle traffic as well as tour buses with empty under-vehicle storage space (tour buses like we were on).
Before driving on the Dam, we were routed through a security checkpoint. At that point, Federal agents checked the storage area of the bus while another agent boarded the bus to give us the evil eye. Didn’t really phase Mike or I as we’ve been through worse crossing into Canada. 🙂
As a result of the new restrictions, all tractor trailer traffic and commercial vehicles containing bags in the storage compartments are having to be re-routed to another highway. This highway results in traffic having to go an hour out of the way to by-pass Hoover Dam. As you can imagine, this is a major inconvenience. As a result, a new highway and bridge are being built.
The driver told us this bridge is going to have more concrete reinforcements than any bridge in the world. It’s pretty impressive!
At the observation point!
It was very impressive…much more impressive than the pictures convey.
Mike took video:
I took a self-portrait…
(Lots of squinty self-portraits as you can’t escape the sun in Vegas!)
…then a self-portrait of both of us before we got back on the bus.
One last parting shot….
…and the next stop is the GRAND CANYON!!!!!
Sunrise at Haleakala
Maui, Hawaii
July 2004