Vacation Dates: 25th - 30th April 2008
Route:
We drove from Harrisburg to Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington DC. From here we flew to Cincinnati and took the connecting flight to Las Vegas.
From Vegas we drove to the Grand Canyon - South Rim - US - 93 S, I - 40, AZ - 64 N. Its a close to 5 hours drive from Las Vegas to the South Rim of Grand Canyon.
While coming back we drove back from Grand Canyon to Las Vegas and flew to Atlanta. From Atlanta we flew to Washington DC and then drove back home.
PART I - What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas..
This trip is special because it was a surprise gift from my dear husband for our anniversary. One year gone by, time flies. Well I got to know about the trip on Wednesday and we were to leave on Friday. It was around 12:45pm in the afternoon that we started from Harrisburg, driving towards DC. The drive is about 2 1/2 hours but due to the traffic in DC we finally reached the airport at around 4:00pm. Our flight was at 5:20pm so we were on time. Once we parked our car in the long term parking lot we headed to the airport and straight away went to Mc Donald's. Both were hungry so had a cheeseburger and a hot fudge sundae. I must say that the hot fudge sundae at Mc Donald's is delicious. At about 5:00pm we found out that our flight was delayed due to some technical snag. God why does this always happen to me, whenever I am traveling flights get delayed - Murphy's law. Finally our boarding call came just before six. We were flying by delta who serve roasted peanuts during the flight along with drinks. I also had some sandwiches with me incase we felt hungry which we normally do when we are traveling. I have noticed that I do eat more when traveling. By 7:30pm we were at the Cincinnati Airport. The first thing I noticed at the airport was this popcorn shop I quickly bought some cheesy popcorn. Our flight was at 9:30pm so we thought of having our dinner here as it would be 11:30pm (Pacific time zone) when we reach Vegas. We had Mexican food (chicken taco and quesadilla) at ...... The flight was in time and we reached Vegas at 11:30pm. The view of the Vegas strip from the flight was awesome. 
I had never seen anything like that. It seemed as if somebody had scattered diamonds, emeralds and rubys everywhere. The Vegas airport was impressive in its own style. We started getting birthday wishes calls as it was my hubby's birthday. Once our luggage arrived (it took ages to come) we bought the bus tickets to take us to the hotel we were staying at. From the airport itself there are these bus services which go from one end of the Vegas strip to the other and they cover all the hotels. Its very convenient and quite cheap as well, just about $8 per person. We had booked at the Vegas Clubs and hotels. Its at a fantastic location just next to the Fremont Street. The room was nice and cozy. I could see the lights of Vegas from the room. We just went to the Fremont street to roam around and enjoy the lights. All the hotels and casinos were dazzling with lights. There were these girls giving out free Mardi Gras beads at every casino. We took a walk at then when we were tired we decided to have some chicken sandwich. We called it a day and went back to hotel as we had a long day ahead the next day.
We woke up around 8 and were ready by 9 in the morning. There are not many eating joints at the Fremont street other than Dunkin donuts, Krispy creme and Mc Donald's. There is a mall very nearby which has a food court but it wasn't open at that time. We had chicken biscuits, iced coffee and donuts for breakfast and headed for the Transportation department near Ogden street. They have these double Decker buses called 'Deuce' which runs between the two ends of the famous Vegas strip. In two dollars you can go to any point. But incase you want to use it throughout the day then it would be better to buy the all day $5 pass. It was my first time in a double Decker bus, so I decided to sit in the driverless upper deck. We had planned we would start from the end point of the Vegas strip that is Mandalay Bay and make our way to the start which is near Wynn. Mandalay Bay is a casino with a tropical theme with a beach, pool, and aquarium of its own. There is a tram which connects it to its cousins 'The Luxor' and 'The Excalibur'. Luxor has the Egyptian theme with pyramids and sphinx.
I liked Luxor a lot specially the huge Sphinx at the entrance and the light emitting pyramid. The Excalibur has an impressive exterior with the colorful castle. It was here that we were contacted with these people offering us tickets to some of the famous Vegas shows at subsidized rates if we attended there time-sharing presentation. We thought it was a good bargain and accepted the offer. We bought two tickets for the Cirque de Soleil show called KA for $80 in trade for 4 hours of our precious time. Well I would suggest people to take this deal only if they are staying in Vegas for more than a day else they may find it difficult to cover all the casinos in one day. But we did manage to do that, kudos to us. We went for this presentation around 1:30pm and returned back only at 4:30pm. We were to redeem our tickets at MGM so we made our way towards MGM. 
On the way we saw the New York New York hotel. They have the skyscrapers of new York including the empire state building and the famous Brooklyn bridge.We then went to the MGM grand. Oh it was one of my favorites, specially the lions show there. I had never seen anything like that. The lioness was in full mood playing with the ball all over, though the lion was lazy bum sitting at one place. We got our tickets for the show here and made our way to Bellagio. On our way we saw the M&M's World, the Harley Davidson Cafe among others. Actually the entire strip is lined up with hotels and casinos but some of them are worth seeing. Bellagio is one of them. Remember Oceans Eleven, yes its the same Bellagio Casino. 
The inside of the Bellagio is beautifully done up with flowers and umbrellas. There are animals and birds all made from flowers which add color to its interiors. Bellagio is also famous for its fountain show which is held every night starting at 8:00pm in every 15 minute intervals. Just opposite Bellagio is Paris in Vegas hotel with is impressive replica of the Eiffel tower. Since our show was at 7:00pm we hurried back to MGM to take our seats. We did make one stop in between at the Monte Carlo hotel.
The show was amazing with its grand sets, lighting, choreography, stunts. Its was absolutely fabulous. I hadn't seen anything like that before. The dome theatre itself was so huge with such intricate structures inside. The usherers were all dressed up in costumes. It was so grand. We don't really have shows like this in India. KA was a drama that told the story of a brother and sister, how they get separated and united at the end. The time wasted in the time-sharing presentation had been compensated. All big casinos have different shows which are generally of 90 minute duration. One can book tickets for them online.
Next we were in time for the fountain show in Bellagio. 
It was a delight. I have seen the fountain show in Brindawan gardens in Mysore, India, which are more colorful. But the fountains at Bellagio had their own charm. They synchronized so well with each beat of the music. the cool breeze blowing through the hair added romance all around. We next went to see the Caesar's palace. The Roman landscapes, statues are beautiful inside. In one part they have painted the ceiling which appears like the sky. Its gives the impression like its always day in that part of the hotel. We had a yummy cake piece from Cheesecake factory here and then had our dinner at Panda Express to save time. Another Hotel not to be missed is the Venetian, Vega's own Venice. Its probably famous for its Gondola ride and the Venetian frescos and paintings. It too has the painted sky at one place. The Palazzo hotel is connected to Venetian. Another beautiful hotel near Venetian is the Wynn. All the trees inside are lit up with lights. The are decorated with ornate umbrellas hung upside down. Never thought umbrellas could be used in this fashion. There are other hotels like Circus Circus, the Stratosphere. They have bungee jumping and other activities at the top of the Stratosphere tower. However that area near Stratosphere is not very safe to be at during the night. We were dead tired by 12:30pm.
But I would suggest that one should start at Wynn, see all the casinos like Venetian, Bellagio and then make there way towards the other casinos at the other end of the Strip and then come back to the Bellagio are as the night dawns.
After seeing Wynn we decided to go back to Fremont and so boarded the deuce back. We walked by the Fremont street but we missed the light show here. The Fremont street is famous for the Fremont Street Experience which is a pedestrian mall covered with a canopy. They display neon light show on the canopy in the night till midnight. We retired for the day as we had a long drive scheduled up for the next day.
PART II - Natural Wonder of the World - The Grand Canyon
We took a deuce too the Vegas airport as we had rented a car from there. We started our journey around 11:00pm. I would not say the drive was the best of all. the entire route has desert lands on both sides with absolutely no vegetation. We stopped by at the Nevada Visitor center to get some information. The Hoover dam could be seen from there. Our next stop was the man-made wonder the Hoover dam. 
We walked along the dam and took some pictures. As we hadn't had our breakfast we wanted to grab some snack. We had some ice-cream at the dam cafe and bought roasted spicy peanuts for the trip and resumed our journey. We then made a stop at one of the gas stations. The area had a Mc Donald's and we had our burgers here. There is absolutely nothing on the way till Williams next. We were advised to make a stop at Williams and have our lunch. We chose to have the Chinese buffet at the House of Chan. The food was good and we had our full. On the way we were bothered by the driving of a group of bikers. These elderly seemed to be riding at a snail pace. Soon we reached the south rim entrance around 5:30pm in the evening and made our way towards the Bright Angel Lodge. The south rim is at about 7000 feet above sea level. The sunset was forecasted to be at 6:53pm and we had approximately one hour to walk till Hopi point which is considered to be the best sunset point. they have shuttle bused that run in three different routes. One can take the blue shuttle from the first point called Mather point till the Bright angel and from here take the red shuttle to the Hopi point. The distance to be covered was about 2.3 miles with stopovers at the Trailview overlook, Marikopa point and the Powell's point. We bought some coffee and macadamia nut ice-cream started walking along the Rim trail. 
We reached well before sunset time and sat down at a comfortable spot on the rocks. The sun took its sweet time to go down filling the sky with warm color tones. It gave the photographers a chance to capture it through their lens. It became cold and everyone headed to the line for the buses which would take us back to the Bright angel Lodge. Our turn came and we reached back at the lodge. We had made our booking at the Knights Inn in Williams so we started our way back. Williams is a small town about one hour away from Grand Canyon south rim. We had our dinner at one of the restaurants in Williams and headed back to our inn.
Next morning we got up early and started to get ready for the day. We drove to the canyon after packing some snacks for our hiking that we were to do at the canyon. We went straight to the Bright Angel lodge again and decided to take the Bright Angel Trail. 
The trail is 3 miles long which takes you down into the canyon. We covered only half the distance because of the shortage of time. The trail is easy going down but as usual coming up is tiring. The trail goes through two large holes in the canyon rocks. At half way milestone there is a resthouse with water and restroom facilities. One should carry water with themselves as there are seasons when there is no water on the way. We had some cookies and chips and headed back up. We visited the Kolb's Studio and bought a book as a souvenir and of course did not forget to stamp it as a reminder that we were there. Next we were at the Lookout studio where everyone goes to take a picturesque snap with the grand canyon in the background. We drove to the Mather point to see the view from there and also visited the visitor center. We had our flight from Vegas at 10:55pm the same night so we started our drive back to Vegas around 3 in the afternoon. If we had time we would have stopped at the discovery center near the south rim. We drove making a couple of stops on the way. We had planned to go to the skywalk at the north rim which is very near to Vegas but time did not permit us to do so. One could also visit the Kaibab lake and the Lake Meade on the way from Grand Canyon to Las Vegas. Once we were at the Vegas airport rental return, we dropped our car and took the shuttle to the airport. We had enough time to have dinner. Surprisingly, in contrast to the lavishly done up Vegas airport, there aren't any good eating outlets there. We picked up Wolfgang as our choice and had a chicken sandwich in pesto sauce and a three cheese pizza. Both the sandwich and the pizza was delicious. The pesto sauce was yummy and the hot pizza was too good. Time had come to say good bye to the sin city when we got our boarding call. In a little more than three hours we were in Atlanta from where we flew to Washington DC. My husband was running a fever and had to drive under those conditions. We reached home around 11:30 am on Tuesday 30th April bringing a dream to an end. But the important thing is it made a dream come true - I got the chance to see the bright city of Vegas and the grandest canyons in the world.
