Our Vacation to Las Vegas

Vacation was wonderful. It was great to get away and for Dawn and I to spend some time together. We stayed in our timeshare which was about 4 miles from the Las Vegas strip. This was the first time that we have not stayed on the strip and because we had rented a car, it was no big deal at all. We had already decided to do some sight seeing and exploring around while we were visiting this time. Our first day there we spent some time walking around the place where we were staying and checked out the new Southpoint Casino which was next door. It was an OK place but nothing like the newer casinos on the strip. The restaurants were great. We actually ate most of our meals there. We did the timeshare update and while they tried really hard, we decided we did not need to purchase additional points this time. We needed to pay off some of our most recent purchases (the huge playstructure) before spending any more money!

On our second day we spent most of our time revisiting some of our favorite places on the strip such as the Bellagio and the Venetian. These places are incredible. The architecture and decor is absolutely spectacular.  If you get a chance, at least check out the Fountains at the Bellagio. The fountain show is amazing and it is just as beautiful each time you see it.

Below are a few pictures from our first sight seeing trip to Red Rock Canyon. We did a little climbing on the rocks and smaller canyons while we enjoyed the scenery and the very pleasant weather. The temperatures were in the mid 80's during the day and in the 60's at night. The last couple of times we have been in Vegas it was H.O.T. as in 115 degrees hot so this was very different for us. We have decided that our future visits will be in April from now on!

On our next adventure, we went to the Valley of Fire State Park. It was beautiful and the landscapes were breathtaking.  We saw our first petroglyphs and got a little more adventurous with our rock climbing. A few pictures for your viewing pleasure are below.

The next day of travels took us to Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Dawn was really interested in seeing the famous "London Bridge". I'd never heard of it (no surprise here!) but was up for the trip. After we arrived, I thought to myself, we drove two and a half hours just for this. I must admit I was hoping there would be more to see since it was a long ride! Leave it to Dawn, she had read up on what to do while visiting LHC so it ended up being a great day trip.  We saw the bridge, took a tour of the lake, visited Copper Canyon and its surroundings via a small chartered boat. Captian Kenny was a great tour guide and shared a lot of interesting stuff about the area. We spent a couple of hours on the water between the mountains of California and Arizona and again the views were just incredible.  A few pictures below just so you have an idea. I took over 300 pictures with my camera and over a 100 with my cell phone so it was difficult trying to pick only a few to share.

On the way back, we went to Lake Mead and drove over the new Arch Bridge over the Hoover Dam. We didn't do the dam tour (haha) this time as we did that the last time we visited the area!  Regardless of how many times you see the Hoover Dam, if you are like me you are amazed each time you see it. W.O.W. just an enormous landmark. Lake Mead is much prettier from a distance in my opinion. We put our toes in the water so we could say we did but that is about all we did while we were there. It was getting late and we were tired from all of the driving / riding! More pictures for you to enjoy....

Well that is a brief summary of the fun we had while we were out west. We had a really good time and are looking forward to taking Mason when he is older. We hope he will enjoy traveling as much as we do. We are also looking forward to many more vacations for years to come.

Until next time......