I should probably first say that our short time in Vegas so far has been fairly enjoyable. While many of you know that Barb and I have travelled a few times with Peter and Liz, the chance to travel with Dad has been far more rare. Before we had left thew Vancouver airport we had commented on the fact the Dad and Peter and I had actually never gone on a vacation together. This is mostly a result of Peter having moved out of the house before I was very old so this is a very unique trip on that fact alone.

The temperature here has been sunny and pretty hot (in the low 30′s) and the SPF 45 has been used every time that we go outside. I forgot to bring my hat from home before we left and on Thursday evening I spent some time finding a suitable hat here that I wanted to wear. When I say wanted to wear, I mean finding something that wasn’t too touristy as pretty much and hat that seemed to be sold had some kind of Las Vegas or hotel insignia on it. In the end I picked up a Las Vegas hat fr $5 that was a neutral enough colour. Walking around in the sun for the past two days has shown that getting this hat was a good idea. Having black hair always means that you have to pay attention to the sun.

We’ve spent most last few days walking around “the strip” and checking out a few of the hotels in our area. If you’ve never been the Vegas, it’s quite unique in that the hotels are humongous and each occupy their own city block. As a result, walking around most of the larger hotels can occupy a few hours of your time (especially if you decide to have some lunch or dinner there). I’ve found that walking around at night is preferable for several reasons. Of course, it is much cooler in the evening but I primarily prefer the evenings because the hotels are all lit up and the colour of the lights are much more dramatic at night. In contract, the same hotels seem much more subdued in the sunshine and appear far less dramatic. And Las Vegas, if nothing else, is all about appearances.

Experiencing Fremont Street

One of the interesting places to go to in Las Vegas is the downtown area – commonly referred to as Fremont Street. Fremont Street has a number of outdoor attractions like street performers and musicians and of course the display of lights from the casinos that line Fremont. Perhaps the most popular attraction on Fremont street is called the Fremont Street Experience. Several blocks of Fremont is covered with a dome which onto which there is videos played during the night. When they start playing these videos over your head (which is spans several blocks), the lights from the casinos and other businesses shut down their outside lights – maximizing the effect of the videos overhead. It’s quite an amazing thing to see and it’s one of the must-see things to do when visiting Vegas.

So back to the story about the submachine gun. So you’re probably wondering what possessed us to want to go out and shoot guns. Well this was all my idea as I had actually seen this done on a travel show a few months ago. The guy had visited some other place in the states and had gone to a gun range to fire of a few rounds with several types of guns. After seeing this and then seeing several billboard ads for the Gun Store in Las Vegas I decided to make a point of getting out there are firing a machine gun for the first time in my life.

All I can say is that it was quite a thrill and I’m really glad that we went there. There’s just a real adrenalin rush from firing off a gun and the machine gun just was all the better. The gun that I chose to use was a 9mm Uzi and while you are shooting, there’s a spray of empty bullet shells falling at your feet and strong smell of gunpowder in your nose. It’s a very sensory-filled experience.

Without a doubt, I would strongly recommend that you try this out the next time that you have the opportunity. It’s something that you won’t forget any time soon.

Seeing Vegas From the Top

Last night we went out for Dad’s birthday and we had arranged to go our for show at the same time. We chose to get a dinner/show package and were entertained by a number of Vegas impersonators doing their best Michael Jackson, Rod Stewart, Christina Aguilera, Tim McGraw and of course, Elvis (what would a Vegas impersonation act be without an Elvis impersonator)? I should point out that the word impersonator seems to have fallen out of favour as the correct term that now is used is tribute artist. I guess impersonator didn’t convey the correct artistic content or something like that. Nonetheless, the show was reasonably entertaining and it looked like each of us had our preference of favourite (and worst) artist. The whole evening didn’t cost us a fortune and in the end we felt that we got our money’s worth.

After the show and as part of the package that we bought it included tickets to go up the tower of the Stratosphere hotel (where we had our dinner and the show). The top of the Stratosphere offered unmatched views of the Vegas skyline which was definitely worth the long wait for the elevator.

Our last day in Vegas was today and I am writing most of this on the flight home to Vancouver. We spent most of the day today on a road trip out to Hoover Dam and spent the remaining hours before our flight in a mall near the airport. All in all, the trip to Las Vegas with Dad has turned out pretty well and I’m really glad that we decided to do this together. It really hard to say if we will ever get another opportunity to do something like this with Dad so even though it was a relatively short vacation it was time well spent.

It’s quite possible that this will be my last travel post on the road until we embark on our Excellent African Adventure later this year. Barb has talked about a possible road trip with her mother some time in the summer but this will not be including me. So worst case, I’ll be posting some updates before we leave for Africa.

Until then …

Baden

Our African trip is now going to be in three different sections. Our first part is in and around the Cape Town, South Africa area. The safari component of the trip will occur in several locations in northern Tanzania including the Serengeti National Park and the Ngorongoro Crater. Our final leg of our African trip is going to be a more relaxing locale that will allow us to unwind for a few days before flying home. I’ll get into more details about this final spot a little later.

As of today, most of the bookings are complete for our African trip with a few small exceptions. In all likelihood, the final details will all be completed in a few weeks. Only 5 more months to go.

Baden

The travel plans include Peter and Liz and for the first time in recordable history, my Dad will be going with us on a vacation. This part is fairly important as the reason why we are going to Vegas in the first place is to celebrate my father’s birthday. I won’t say what birthday he’s celebrating but suffice to say that both Peter and I agree that we’d both be doing pretty good to get to Dad’s age and still be travelling around on planes.

As far as Vegas goes, I have only been there once on business over two years ago but only really got to spend two evenings out sightseeing. The most significant memory from that trip was how cold it was and we were wearing our coats every time that we were outside. Just about everyone who’s ever gone to Vegas almost always tells about how excruciatingly hot it always is and that walking on the street in the middle of the day will cause certain heat stroke. Of course, those stories are usually of people going to Vegas in the summer time and for me it was December so I guess that probably makes all of the difference.

I’m going to make a somewhat surprising confession and say that I really don’t care much for Las Vegas. I know that I’m far in the minority on this one seeing how most people who have gone to Vegas (and it seems like just about everyone has) almost universally raves about their trips. I’ll get into some of the details of my perspectives on Vegas once I’m down there later on this week.

Baden