The reward trip...

was awesome. Since this was my 3rd trip to Vegas you would think I would have stopped walking around in awe with my mouth open, but it was still so exciting to be there. The travel day was tiring, since it started on Sunday afternoon with a drive to Detroit. We stayed at the Crown Plaza right beside the Detroit Metro airport and had a Park 'n Fly package so we could leave our car there while we were away. It also included a shuttle to and from the airport. On Monday we were up at 4:15 and got to the airport shortly after 5:00. Our flight was at 7:00 and was probably the smoothest flight we have ever had. That was good since it was the first time my husband had agreed to fly since our anniversary trip was cancelled after September 11th. We purchased breakfast - a nice plate with fruit, cheese and crackers for me and a snack box for Mike. We landed at 8:00am in Vegas (11:00 EST) and were able to check in to our room at the MGM Grand right at the airport. Our room would not be ready until noon but we arranged to leave our bags, have them delivered to our room and catch a shuttle to the hotel, arriving on the strip shortly after 9:00am (noon EST).

The MGM is near the south end of the strip so we decided to walk up the strip to see some of the hotels that had been built since our last trip in 1998. By the time we walked to the Mirage it had taken almost 3 hours. We stopped there to pick up the tickets I had ordered for Love - the Cirque du Soleil show that was all done to Beatles music. We were going to the 7:00 show that night. We decided to take the monorail back to the MGM since our room was ready and had a nap for a couple of hours. We had a late lunch at Wolfgang Puck's - a great panini with turkey and avocado and a side salad. We did some more touring of the hotels near ours and then headed back up the strip to see the show at the Mirage. IT WAS FABULOUS!! You can't even begin to describe Cirque to someone who has not seen a show. It was loud, colourful, surprising, busy, confusing, funny, graceful and fun. The music was terrific and each act went perfectly with the song it depicted. I saw Saltimbanco last month and thought it was great. Love was 10 times better. My husband loved it and is still talking about the show.

After we got back to the MGM we walked to New York, New York and had a soft pretzel and a fat free smoothie for dinner since we just wanted something quick before bed. We finally ended the day at 11:30pm (2:30 EST) which at our age is a long 21 1/2 hour day.

In the morning we went to the breakfast buffet at the hotel. They made omelets to order and I had mine made with Egg Beaters, tomatoes, onion, green peppers and spinach. Actually, I had two. I also had tomato juice so that I knew I had gotten in my veggies for the day and had melon as well. We had Tuesday set aside to spend at the pool and sightseeing. We got to the pool around 9:30 and spent the morning there at the lazy river. We decided not to get inner tubes and we walked and swam the river 5 times that morning for exercise. It had probably been close to 20 years since I had been swimming and I had forgotten how much I loved playing in the water. We had so much fun that morning at the pool.

We spent the afternoon on the strip again, checking out the big hotels and casinos. We also saw the fountains at the Bellagio in the afternoon as they were doing a test on them. Wow, they were beautiful and the music was lovely. It was a very graceful show. We saw the lions at the MGM and the tigers at the Mirage. We had dinner at the Flamingo, skipping lunch as we had a big breakfast. The dinner buffet was great, as I stuck to shellfish and sushi, two of my favourites. The crab legs were piled 2 feet high. I also tried a crayfish, which was disappointing because you eat it like lobster, basically just the tail. Only problem is that the tail is only 1/2 inch long. Too much work for me. We walked through the flamingo garden after dinner and them took a stroll to the Paris.

We were comped there to a ride up the Eiffel Tower and since we thought it would be a nice way to end our evening, we decided to go up. How romantic, the Eiffel Tower at night! OMG! Who knew that as you got older you would acquire fears you never had before. It was the most frightening thing we have ever done. I was the last one on the elevator, which meant I was right up against the doors. The glass doors. The elevator is in the centre of the structure and as you are going up you realize you are just suspended there, the frame being quite a distance from you. I had to put my hand on the outer frame of the door as we went up because I thought I was going to fall. The elevator ride was the worst part for me but the worst part for Mike was still to come. When we got off the elevator we realized that we were just on a platform, way up in the air, with only a heavy screening between you and space. That was when Mike got nervous. Mike just stayed in one one spot with his back against the wall while I took a couple of pictures. We got on the next elevator and went back down. On the ride back I was at the back of the elevator, with my back against a railing and I felt much safer. Once we were back on the ground we looked at each other and laughed. We both just about crapped ourselves. How romantic was that! We walked back to our hotel still trying to figure out what just happened.

We got up at 4:15am on Wednesday to take a trip to the Grand Canyon. A bus picked us up at 5:55am and took us to their terminal where we got on our tour bus. We were given a continental breakfast consisting of a honey bun, orange juice and an apple. I had 1/2 the honey bun and both apples, and a banana I had brought with me. The drive to the Grand Canyon was about 5 hours. We watched a movie about the canyon before our 1st rest stop in Kingman, Arizona and then watched the Mask of Zorro until lunch. The movies really made the trip go faster. We stopped in Tusayan, Arizona, just outside the grand Canyon National Park, for a buffet lunch and then went into the park.

Wow, pictures just don't do it justice. It is bigger than you could ever imagine. All the pictures of the canyon are beautiful but you can't see the depth or breadth of it until you are there. The height was also a little scary for me because it just drops right off but the sight was worth the fear.
We stopped at two different areas of the canyon and had about 45 minutes at each stop. You can rent cabins there and you can also go down the canyon on mules but both require a reservation one year in advance. The weather was cooler at the canyon, probably about 25 or 26C where it was 40C each day in Vegas. Our driver said that that is the average daytime temp there and that it is usually breezy, which it was when we were there.

Our return trip was smooth, another 5 hours and another 2 movies, Fools Rush In and the Blue Collar Comedy Tour. We arrived back at the MGM at 9:00pm and grabbed a grilled chicken sandwich and some chili for dinner at the food court.

Thursday was our last day so we spent it sightseeing, gambling (and losing) and going to a new TV show screening at the CBS screening room at the MGM. We saw a new show called the Big Bang Theory and it was quite funny. It was about a couple of science geeks who are roommates and who have no social skills when it comes to females. We had the buffet for breakfast, smoothies for lunch, and went to Wolfgang Puck's again for dinner but we were disappointed this time because we had a rude condescending server. That was too bad because it was our last meal there and that usually really sticks with you.

We picked up our bags from the bellman and caught our shuttle back to the airport at 8:30pm for our 11:00pm (2:00am EST) flight back to Detroit, arriving at 6:00am EST. This fight was also good and came in 20 minutes early. Thankfully, Mike got about 2.5 hours sleep since we still had to drive home. We got the shuttle back to the car and decided to leave for home right away, rather than eat breakfast and wait for rush hour to end. It was a good decision, the traffic was pretty light, as we were driving away from Detroit, and not to it. With a quick stop at Duty Free, we crossed the bridge to Sarnia and stopped for breakfast before arriving home at about 9:30am. We then slept until around 12:30. vacation is over. We had a great trip and would do it again in a heartbeat. Now back to real life.