Vegas Baby....

After watching the movie 21 on the plane on the way over, we were pretty excited about getting to Las Vegas. We flew from Colorado Springs to LAX and met up with R who looked surprisingly fresh after a long night of travel and no sleep...we were together again and the holiday was just about to begin. Let us not forget, we still had the GP from my course with us but only for the first two nights.
What hits you straight away when you get to Vegas is that they are REALLY keen for you to gamble, lining the corridors and rooms as you pass through the airport to get your luggage are lots of sparkling noisy slot/pokie machines...
We made it to our hotel, the Sahara...and everything I had read on Trip Advisor was true...it was a shit hole...the actual casino wasn't too bad, at least the air-con was running nice and cool and it wasn't too seedy...the hallways had nice new carpet...promising...the Surf and Turf (menu item that all hotels seemed to photograph to tempt you to have their buffet) looked like road-kill..not a good sign...and the room itself...grim....lets just say nasty 70's beige featured a lot...but the beds were clean and comfortable, and lets face it, you don't go to Vegas to spend all your holiday in your shonky hotel room.Above: View from shonky hotel room at night...

We headed out into the heat to see the sights...
The Sahara is down one end of "The Strip" which means your either walk a long way in the hot hot sun or you brave the public transport. We did the later and chose to ride in style on the Mono Rail, which is a train type of thing that cruises the length of the strip, stopping at about 6 different locations. One of the stops was our hotel...handy. We got a week long pass and rode the monorail a lot which saved us from dying in the hot desert heat.
The week was spent cruising about the place..highlights included finding one of my all time favourite shops "Anthropologie"..the most gorgeous clothes and homewares...I spent a good few hours in there and got a couple of things...
We LOVED Caesars Palace (hotel/casino and shops). Each hotel has a theme The Luxor..Egyptian with a Sphinx and pyramid, Caesars Palace with the Trevi Fountain and cobbled streets of Rome, The Venetian, with a canals of Venice (but much cleaner!!), The Paris...with a Eiffel Tower (surprise)..it was magical. The scale of the place can't be described, you just have to go there and take a look.
Me and the canals at the Venetian...
and me in front of the Eiffel Tower...the lake in front is where the Bellagio does it's water fountain show every half hour...fantastic at night.

We enjoyed a Mystere, a Cirque du Soleil show...the strength and grace of the performers...it was really quite magical, even R enjoyed it and he was a tad sceptical...
The shopping was great for R, he got a lot of summer threads and some clothes for work. I have to say I thought a lot of the woman's clothes were pretty skanky...not much practical clothing...didn't really buy much though found a pair of Camper (favourite brand) sandals for work at an outlet shop so very pleased about that!!

We ate some great food...we went to Planet Hollywood's Spice Market Buffet..all you can eat from a HUGE selection...Asian, Mexican, Seafood, Italian, American etc etc...plus desserts...it was fab. We even tried King Crab legs like they catch on The Deadlist Catch...pretty disappointing...We also went to The Paris Buffet for brunch one day which was a great extravaganza of gluttony.
Did we win at the casinos?? Well, Las Vegas did not bleed us dry...we won a wee bit of cash, I would say we left about $80 in profit...not bad for the worlds tightest gamblers...

I wasn't sad to leave Vegas, it was a great destination and I think everyone should go...just for the mere spectacle...but it is hot, crowded and there is always something to see...so it is a tiring place to visit...roll on LA for the next part of our holiday....

The first installment

Yay...made it back from the great USA on Sunday...we had a marvellous time...it has all gone by in a flash and now seems like a distant memory.
Will tell you a wee bit about it...over the next few days...
Firstly...the flight over to LA was horrible...not rough or bumpy...but hot and cramped and I was a sick as a dog. I got wedged in the middle of two people...the man on the isle was very smelly...why do they let sweaty, smelly feral people in public places...plus he was a mega whinger...he complained about everything and invaded my personal space with his greasy pillow...not sure why, but I was sick...yucky vomit sick for the second half of the flight, so was very glad to arrive in LAX. We had been warned that the customs people were mean...I was pale, clammy and clutching two paper sick bags in the queue just in case the fish dinner made another appearance...the man I encountered on the customs/immigration desk was just lovey...in fact all the people we came across at the airport were very helpful and friendly.
The next flight was only 2 hours to Denver...Denver airport was massive...you had to catch a train to get your luggage...and of course our luggage was missing in action. Never mind...we headed for our hotel in the free shuttle...the hotel was flash...lets not forget the first 10 days of my trip were with my work partner, a slightly eccentric hairy armpitted female GP...and we shared a room...(not ripping off the tax payer...doing our bit for the health budget). We were due to meet our friend Mark, who was flying in from the UK but he decided to spend the night in Colorado Springs which turned out to be a wise decision...driving on the other side of the road at night in an unfamiliar place after a 14 hour flight would have been a bit mad.
We encountered our first American meal...Mexican...what fab food, but we learned that American food comes in HUGE portions and cheese features in large amounts...
After a good nights sleep we met up with Mark who managed to reach us in his fancy rental with the help of one of those speaking GPS systems who you could set to talking in a "sexy" voice...it was fun to play with and a great help to help us make our way to Manitou Springs and The Two Sisters Inn......a very quaint B&B...photos included...I loved this place...very shabby chic...I got my own room (pictured above)...and they even make their own lemonade from the carbonated springs (thus the name Manitou Springs)...there are 7 springs there...all with different supposed special powers...the lemonade we had was from the spring that has Lithium in it...great mood enhancer...


We spent the next few days exploring the local area on foot and via rental car (thanks Mark)...we even went on the famous Cog Railway which took us up to 14,000 feet...the trip up the hill was fun but by the time we came down the boredom had set in and the site of a huge stag with velvet coated antlers glowing in the setting sun saved the trip from being a tad mind numbing.
A highlight of our pre course stay was a visit to The Garden of the Gods which was an amazing park which had these massive cliffs and rock formations, the rock was red and had great texture...you could walk or drive around...we walked about for about an hour...the sun was hot but it was dry heat and we were so slathered in sun screen we were happy.

From Manitou Springs we traveled the short distance to Colorado Springs and the Cheyenne Mountain Resort...wow, this place was flash!! It has a huge aquatic centre, a lake, golf course, many tennis courts (indoors and outdoors), a day spa, shops, a coupe of restaurants and bars...and it was just beautiful set on the side of the Rockies....
The course itself was hard work, long days, lots of thinking, speaking, presenting, and challenging ideas but it was fantastic. The people were fun, Doctors, Nurses, Professors, Psychologists, Psychiatrists...quite an intimidating bunch but what a great group. We had a lot of laughs and I really feel like we made huge progress on our project, which is all about improving the physical health of people using mental health services. One afternoon we all packed up and headed toward Canon City (which has a extraordinary amount of prisons...interesting fact), and went white water rafting on the Arkansas River...what a fantastic adventure...it was wild, fun and invigorating...here is a photo of some of us in our boat (click on photo to enlarge)...tune in next time for the next riveting installment!!