Grand Canyon!

Hello all!

Alright, back with the last of the Las Vegas entry.

Now boys and girls, see what too much drinking does to you? You think the carpet is comfier than the bed. LOL!

Got picked up around 630am from the hotel to the tour centre. Collected our stickers and grabbed the complimentary breakfast.

Picture time with the very nice wall.

Boarded another duper cool bus with a duper cool guide, Gene and then it was the long drive to the Grand Canyon. Desert wasteland everywhere. But we did pass by a few cities that were at most a block long. LOL!

Presenting, the Hoover Dam! Cue Transformers. I remembered that bridge being something really impt but can't rmb any of it now. Something about a Christmas present?

20 mins photostop and shopping. Snapped like crazy and quickly went to buy souvenirs.

A lone lizard and some cows on the run. Tonnes and tonnes of Joshua Trees. Did you know the more stems they have the older they are?

The duper cool comfy bus on the left. We had to switch over to the other older one on the right because we were going on some dirt road and couldn't ruin the $250,000 bus. The orange entrance ticket which was our meal voucher, shuttle bus ticket and certificate voucher as well. The Grand Canyon West Rim station where all the shuttle buses, private planes and helicopters were.

We signed up for the helicopter and boat ride so up and away we go. They had to measure how heavy we weighed before seating us. Balance the copter out. The liftng off was damn cool. You felt like you were flying!

The helicopter took us to the bottom of the Grand Canyon on the Colorado River where we proceeded for the boat ride. Look at how red and murky the water is. Wouldn't wanna go Whitewater Rafting down this river. Hahaha.

So hot so hot! 40DC! Believe it or not. Hahahahaha.

Rocks and Water. More red rocks.

And then we flew all the way up the Grand Canyon again back to the station.

Boarded the shuttle bus towards the first stop- The Grand Canyon Skywalk or Eagle's Point. Can you see the eagle figure naturally carved into the canyon walls on the bottom left picture?

The Grand Canyon Skywalk opened on March 28, 2007 and rest 4000 feet above the Colorado River. It took 2.5 years and $30 million worth of hard work and engineering to build it. This structure weighs an astonishing 1.571 million pounds, and was built to withstand an excess of 71 million pounds in weight on top of it.

We weren't allowed to bring any belongings onto the skywalk so we stored them in a locker. And to protect the glass bridge, we had to wear a pair of pokka dotty slip ons. I brought them home. =D

The photographer made me and my sister do that weird stance. Some cartoon action hero. LOL!

Once again, I did not take that photo. Hahaha. It came in a CD with a package we bought.

Stupid me left my shades at the giftshop. Dang. Las Vegas without shades equals death for the eyes.

2nd stop, Guano Point. Guano actually means bird, seal or bat poo. Haha. I forgot why they called it that already. The bus guide said if you climbed to the top of that pointy hill in the bottom right picture, you can see a full unblocked 360 degree view of the Grand Canyon. But it was a long long walk and I was wearing flip flops so nope.

There were 3 places that we could use our meal voucher at but we settled for the cafe at Guano Point where they served traditional Native Indian Hualapai food.

We rushed back to the station after that for last minute souvenir shopping and back onto the old bus to transfer back onto the duper cool bus to bring us back to Vegas.

Bighorn Sheep on the drive back. Sunday evening traffic. Very bad. We were supposed to be back in Vegas by 630pm according to the itinerary but because of the jam, we got back only at 8pm. Lucky we didn't schedule any shows and such.

And the Grand Canyon Skywalk package that we bought at the gift shop. US$75:
1) 4 blown up pictures with frames/ablums

2) All the pictures that we took saved on a USB
3) T-Shirt + Cap
4) Free Certificates
5) Memories of a lifetime

Overall, Las Vegas is one hell of an exciting city that I won't mind visiting again in the not too distant future. But I don't think I would stay there. Too complicated and not a very good place to raise a family etc.

Alright, it's 1134am. Time to brush my teeth, scrub my face, put on some body cream to ease the sunburn and off to lalala land! Bye!