Las Vegas Nights

  Las Vegas, Nevada
Saturday, February 10, 2007

We went to the Monte Carlo's buffet to eat breakfast, even though we woke up early Vegas time (we were 3 hours ahead), they were people sitting in the casino playing and drinking.
We decided over breakfast to go to Red Rock Canyon.  It was a toss up between that and the Hoover Dam, but we thought we saw Red Rock canyon in the National Geographic Traveler magazine we got a day before we left, so we figured it must be a sign.
We took the Red Rock Canyon express guided tour on a small coach which lasts for four hours ($60 per person, hotel to hotel), we booked with the Monte Carlo's consigner.
Our tour was supposed to start around noon, and we had a few hours to kill, so we figured we'll walk in the opposite direction which we did the night before.

We stopped at the Bellagio, and found out it had a beautiful display for the Chinese new year, even the Chinese tourists were impressed by it. 



When walking through we noticed something strange, no kids.  This is a trend we noticed in Las Vegas, it is not kids friendly.  Even though they tried several years ago to become a family oriented town, it didn't stick and now they don't even try. Even the minimum bets in the Bellagio were high.



By the time we finished looking around we had to start heading back for our tour.  Our guide, Gary, was very knowledgeable about the history of the area and the wildlife; we were two couples who took the tour (four people) which made it a lot nicer, more pleasant and personal.  Red Rock canyon is amazing; the landscapes are beautiful, and picturesque.  It was suppose to rain on Sunday, but Gary told us that it hadn't rained in Vegas in six years, and it's not going to rain tomorrow either.
We came back four hours later very happy and satisfied; we recommend this excursion whole heatedly.
If you have a car, you can go there  by yourself.  The canyon is but a few mintues out of Las Vegas and they charge a few bucks per car load.  There is a 13 mile trail around the canyon you can drive.

 

We ate dinner at the Monte Carlo's Dragon Noodle, one of the good restaurants and not "Vegas priced", and went to see the Bellagio's water show which was much shorter then we expected but still very cool.

We continued to Caesar's Palace, another good looking hotel, and walked around / people watched for about two hours (there is a lot to see).   Since the NBA all star game was  in town, we got to see a few players walking around, which was cool.

 

Afterwards we went up on the "Eiffel Tower" in the Paris hotel ($9 per person), to see the strip from up high.  The view was excellent on such a clear night and we got some great pictures.  At that time of the night the Bellagio water show is every 15 minutes, so we got to see it from 11 floors up.  We weren't very impressed with the hotel itself from some reason.



We miss our daughter.