Vegas Trip Report - Part 2 - THE GRAND CANYON

The Grand Canyon is just that. Grand.

We started out on our journey at about 7:00am on Monday morning.  I knew it was going to be quite a lengthy drive, about 4.5 hours so I wanted to get an early start.  Luckily, we still hadn't adjusted to PST so it was really like 11:00am for us!!

We got there just before noon (had to make a couple of pit stops).

Got the car parked and headed to the Visitor Center.  Forecast high was 59F. About 15C.  Not bad, but not scorching either.  It was kind of windy as well.  DW asks "Do we need sunscreen?"  NAH!

Once we got our bearings, we headed to the Rim Trail.  I can't fully describe the feeling of seeing that first glimpse of the canyon.  It's AMAZING!!  I had dreamed of this moment for ages and it was finally here.

The pictures just don't do it justice

Still some snow on the ground in the canyon







The Rim Trail stretches 12 miles along the south rim.  Awesome vistas the entire way.  We walked most of it, nearly 10 miles.  Quite a distance but it was relatively flat.  The first few miles took a while to walk because I was stopping at every turn to take pictures.

Spectacular vistas at every turn!

Shadows starting to creep into the canyon.








As you can see from the pictures, there wasn't a cloud in the sky.  Hmmm maybe sunscreen wasn't such a bad idea after all.

Wow, I look so excited to be there.  I brought the GPS to grab a few virtual caches while here.  And oh, there's a cloud. I was mistaken.

We attempted to hike down into the canyon.  This is the Bright Angel Trail.  We hiked to the first tunnel (just left of centre, 2/10 mile from the rim).  It was kind of muddy, but not bad.  The further down we got, the icier it got.  A couple of hikers coming back up the trail told us that they had to put on their crampons, so we decided to turn back.

We even had a wildlife encounter!
I think these are caribou.  They couldn't have cared less that we were even there.

There were four all together.  We also saw 4 or 5 deer back at the bus depot later in the afternoon, but I was too exhausted to dig out my camera to take a picture.

My attempt at a panoramic pic.  Not bad, but not great.

Well, I guess there were a few clouds, but not enough to shade us.  We both got terrible sunburns.  My forehead was the worst.  It was so bad it actually blistered. Then it peeled. Then it peeled again. 

We did not think it was very warm at all. And the breeze was quite chilly.  Maybe it's due to the elevation? I mean we are well over a mile closer to the sun than we're used to...

Well, I look a bit more pleased in this pic.  DW was very nervous about me falling to my death, but I was careful.  

Apparently (and surprisingly...) very few people fall into the canyon.  Between 1990 and 2002, 13 people died from falling into the canyon.

Far more people die in the canyon from hiking and being unprepared.

There was a poster that I read that told the story of Boston Marathon finisher, Margaret Bradley, who died in the canyon.  She and her companion set out on July 9, 2004 for a 27-mile run. They had only two water bottles, some fruit, and three protein bars. 

While her companion made it out of the canyon, she was found dead, two days later. Sad.

We had a great afternoon at Grand Canyon.  We headed back to Vegas around 6pm.  I wish we had stayed around for the sunset, but I was a little bit nervous about driving all the way back to Vegas in the dark, and as I said, we still hadn't adjusted to PST, so it was already 10pm to us.  

The drive back was only about 4 hours (no pit stops).  The sky was pretty dark until we got about 50 miles from Vegas.  Then we could see the 'glow'.  Vegas is surrounded by mountains. When we just outside of the city, there was an incline that we had to drive up. Just as we came to the crest of the ridge, Vegas came into view and what a sight it was. Six hundred square miles of lights as far as the eye can see.  Wish I had thought to take a picture.

Made it back to the hotel without taking a wrong turn. Crashed into bed. Hard.

Vegas Trip Report - Part 2 - THE FOOD

Let me just start by saying that if the portion sizes in Vegas are any indication of what it's like in the rest of the US, it's not a wonder they are the fattest people in the developed world...  Don't get me wrong, the food was great, and there was a lot of it, but we just couldn't eat three meals a day. Most of the time, if we ate a big meal, that was the ONLY meal we ate.

Anyway, when we arrived, I wasn't in the mood to eat much of anything.  I'm not sure if I caught a bug or ate something I shouldn't have, but I the first thing I did when we got to our hotel, was vomit.  Then I went to bed.  Slept for 3 hours, then felt fine.  I've come to the realization that it's just not a vacation until I hurl.  Same thing happened in Disney. I don't remember what I ate (or if I ate) on that first day.

Sunday morning, we stumbled upon Jean Phillipe Patisserie.  It was the first of many stops I would make at JP in the coming week for coffee, gelato and these:

When I die and get to heaven, there had better be lots of these because it's all I'm going to eat.  I didn't try the sugar but did try the nutella. It didn't hold a flame to the dulce de leche.  Mmm mmm mmm TASTY!!!  I wonder if they deliver to Canada???

Sunday for lunch we stopped at a little deli called Greenberg's Deli in the New York, New York hotel.

They even had a sandwich named after the kids:

But, I went with the Italian Stallion, which was served with chips and a pickle:

DW went with the Beef 'n' cheddar  which was HUGE. Seriously, it could have fed both of us:

I mean c'mon, look at the size of that thing!!!

I don't remember what we ate for supper that night.  Probably nothing. There's no pictures, so it was obviously not memorable.

Monday we ate granola bars and drank water at the Grand Canyon. Stopped at Wendy's in Tusayan, AZ.

Tuesday probably was the best day, food wise.  I had borrowed a travel guide from a co-worker. In it there was a recommendation to eat at a place called Hash house a go go. It was a bit of a drive away from the strip and I was not real comfortable driving in Vegas at that point but we thought we would give it a try.  Getting there was actually pretty easy.  Once we sat down, we immediately knew that this was going to be quite the experience.  My jaw literally dropped when I saw some of the dishes that we coming to the tables.  There was so much to choose from but I ended up ordering this:

I forget what it was called exactly, Detroit House Hash or something like that.

It was the first time I had ever been served a meal in a cast iron frying pan. DW got a Farm Scramble with onion, swiss, bacon and avacado.  Needless to say, neither of us managed to clean our plates/frying pans.

This place was so cool, I bought the T-shirt.  We'll revisit this place later on in the post.  I want to try the french toast...

We ate an early supper at Rainforest Cafe at MGM.  DW was meeting up with a cousin she hadn't seen in about 25 years.  I had nachos which were smothered with a process cheese type goo.  They were just OK. DW ate the fish and chips. Shocking!  It's usually that or a quesadilla. We had a great dinner and chat.  Felt like I had known them my whole life. 

Wednesday was our trip to Death Valley.  Breakfast was courtesy of my good friend JP...

I had already eaten the brioche :)

We managed to sustain ourselves on a box of Fibre 1 bars and a flat of H20 for most of the day.  Dinner that night was at PF Chang's.

 Kung Pao Chicken. Spicy!!

Don't remember what this was called.  Almond Chicken, maybe?

It was quite a nice place. first time We had ever eaten there.  I'd describe it as a Chinese version of East Side Mario's.  It wasn't terribly expensive. We had tried to get a table on Saturday (or maybe it was Sunday?) night which was a total lost cause.  Wednesday nights are visibly less busy.  Glad I was able to try this place out.

Thursday we ate at Olive Garden.  This place is always on our list of places to go whenever we get to the US.  So delicious.  Brought two bottles of their Italian salad dressing back.  It never even dawned on me that I wouldn't be able to bring them in my carry on and that I'd have to put them in my checked luggage.  They made it home safely.

Friday, we made a return trip to HHAGG.  I had been dreaming of the French toast all week. Couldn't wait to get back.  Well as it turns out DW and I had a little bit of a misunderstanding. I thought we were going to go eat first and then go hiking in Red Rock Canyon.  She thought we were doing the opposite.  Turns out her plan made more sense.  So by the time we made it back into Vegas it was 1 pm.  Luckily they were still serving breakfast. And lunch.  Long story, short, I ended up getting this:

Mashed taters + biscuit + meatloaf + gravy of some sort + fried onions = TASTY!

Looking back, I wish I had got the French Toast like I had planned. I mean, it was good, but I'm not a real big fan of mashed potatoes.  I basically just wanted the meatloaf.  DW got a One Pound stuffed Burger with mushrooms and Swiss. It was huge! Even I couldn't get my mouth around it. She ended up taking one of the patties out of the burger completely.

Unfortunately, she forgot to tell them to cook it 'well done' and it was a touch too pink for her on the inside.  No big deal, she just ate the outside of the burger.

Even Man v. Food loves this place!

The second time back at HHAGG was a little bit less amazing, possibly because we knew what to expect.

That's it for the culinary highlights of the trip. Oh, on Saturday we ate supper at Wolfgang Puck Express in  the airport in Vegas. It was actually quite good. Big portions for the price. We had a 'personal' pizza and salad. Forgot to take pics.

Didn't gain a single pound.

Yay me!

Vegas Report - Post #1

Well, it's been almost 2 weeks since we returned from Las Vegas.  It was an amazing experience!  I think I have finally recovered, LOL!

Over the next few posts, I'll review each days activities and post a few pics. 

Today, I'll just briefly mention the hotel we stayed at, Vdara.  It was beautiful.  I posted a review on Trip Advisor Here

It seems like a very high percentage of the people visiting Vegas are smokers. Or maybe smokers tend to gather there because it's one of the only places that still allow smoking in public places?  The casino hotels still allow smoking, which keeps smokers in the casinos (which is kind of the point I guess) but I couldn't stand staying in them for any more than about 30 minutes. And of course all of the hotels are designed to make you walk through the large, smoke-filled casino in order to get anywhere, like the hotel lobby or hhe theatre entrances.  At any rate I was so glad that we stayed in a non smoking hotel. It was a welcome relief at the end of the day.  It smelled wonderful.

 Taken by DW while stopped at a red light. Heading somewhere. Outlet malls perhaps...

Kitchenette

Dining area

 Bathroom

 Sitting area. the blinds were remote controlled. Awesome!

AKA the comfiest bed ever. And huge! Hardly saw DW all week ;)

Next report: The FOOD!