Adventure Tours

Thanks to paradisefoundtours.com you can see the Grand Canyon South Rim in style and comfort for $129.00 US. Join us on the most popular tour from Las Vegas, to visit, the South Rim Grand Canyon National Park. This fun filled, same day round trip bus tour is the best of it's kind.

Don't just travel. Travel well, travel in style, in our comfortable new Deluxe Touring Coaches with on board RESTROOMS, LARGE CUSTOM WINDOWS, CLIMATE CONTROLLED AIR CONDITIONED, RECLINING SEATS, REMOVABLE ARM RESTS, INDIVIDUAL FOOT RESTS, VCR MONITORS for documentary movies and such, and more leg room than most airline coach seating. We leave nothing to chance when it comes to your safety and comfort.

Our driver/guides are the cream of the crop; they will entertain and inform you as you travel to the Grand Canyon. They are true professionals who love what they do. From the time we pick you up at your Las Vegas hotel to the time we return you, our service, commitment and value is like no other.

Our tour begins with a drive from Las Vegas to Hoover Dam. We will cross over the dam to the Arizona side for a brief photo opportunity. Make sure you bring your camera for shots of the Dam, Lake Mead, and the Colorado River. As we continue on check out fortification hill (built to protect the dam during world war two). Travel through the habitat of the big horn sheep, Black Canyon. Learn about the Pioneer Indian Wars, early Spanish Conquistadors, the Missionaries, Mountain Men, Explorers and Settlers.

Our next stop is a stretch and smoke stop in Kingman, Arizona. Pick up a snack, beverage, or a souvenir. From Kingman you will travel to Williams, Arizona. Home to the Grand Canyon Railway a National Register of Historic Places. In addition to having Lunch, which is included, you will have time at the gift shop or to browse the railway museum or depot.

After lunch we will take you inside the Grand Canyon National Park stopping at the new state of the art visitor center (offering information on all aspects of the grand Canyon), Mather Point (the deepest part of the canyon), Yavapai Point (the widest part of the canyon), and Bright Angel Point (the most panoramic). Additional free time to browse Bright Angel Lodge, it's gift shops, museum, and snack shop. This is the hub of activities at the Grand Canyon Historic Village district area. You are a short walk to Hopi House, the Indian art museum and gift shop. All our stops provide time for exploring and photographing.

On our return trip to Las Vegas we will again make a rest, stretch and snack and smoke stop in Kingman before traveling to and across Hoover Dam, arriving in Las Vegas at about 8:45 PM.

Tour Pick Up: Approximately 6:30 AM - Your exact pick up time and location will be provided at the time of booking or via e-mail.

Tour Length: Return to Las Vegas at about 8:45 PM - Approx 14 hours (hotel to hotel).

WAKE UP CALL: Please provide us with your room number when you call us to reconfirm after you arrive in Las Vegas.

Tour Features:
The following is a list of features that this tour includes.

Free hotel pickup and drop off
Deluxe Motor Coaches equipped with Restrooms, VCR's, deluxe seating, Air Conditioned, Large Custom Windows and more
Professional Driver/ Guide
Lunch at the Grand Canyon Railway
Hoover Dam Photo Stop (Stretch the legs)
Guided Grand Canyon Rim Tour with stops at the deepest, widest and most panoramic view points
Grand Canyon Visitor Center stop and time to browse, shop and take photos at each stop
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Tour Length: 14 Hours: From Hotel Pickup to Hotel Drop off
Transportation: Motorcoach
Days Available: Daily
Departure Times: 6:30 AM
Child Price (12 and under): $129.99 US
Hotel Pickup: Complimentary pick-up service available from most Las Vegas hotels. Please advise pick-up hotel at time of booking.
Additional Details: Return to Las Vegas at about 8:45 PM.
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Your guaranteed all-inclusive price
is $129.99 US per adult!
no taxes and no additional fees or surcharges.

Click here to reserve now!

Paradise Found Tours maintains a website for The Grand Canyon at http://www.paradisefoundtours.com. The site provides information for Grand Canyon tours, special news, fees and other pertinent information.

Other valuable resources

Valuable Links:
Grand Canyon Tours
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Grand Canyon

In the past, I've stayed at Mandalay Bay and the Mirage. I was a little leery of the Flamingo. I shouldn't have been. It an older property, and not as nice as the others, but is still fine -- and much cheaper. The rooms are reasonably large, the beds are comfortable, there's a good sized closet and a good sized safe, and the location is ideal. It also has a very nice pool. On the down side, it's somewhat worn around the edges; I wouldn't want to walk barefoot on the carpeting in the room. The restaurants are nothing special, and the casino is just fair, but it's easy enough to leave the hotel for food and gambling. I checked in at the airport, and tried the $20 trick. Either it worked, or I live right. I got a strip view room on the 22nd floor (22104). Directly facing me was Caesars Palace, to the right was The Mirage, and to the left was Bellagio and its lake. In the distance was The Rio Hotel, as well as a beautiful mountain backdrop. Look down and you could see Las Vegas Boulevard. Perfect!

Wynn Las Vegas. I didn't stay at the Wynn, just visited. There have already been a number of detailed reviews. I'll just say that it's not revolutionary; it didn't blow me away. However, it's probably the nicest hotel on the strip, incrementally better that the others. On opening day, I got to walk through several of the restaurants, and the night club La Bite, as well as the shops and casino. I visited three other times, and eaten there twice. I also purchased some ridiculously overpriced but delicious chocolates at one of their shops. I like the airy feeling of the hotel, the casino is open and easy to navigate, I must be one of the few who liked Le Reve, and my initial impression of the restaurants is that they're top notch (although I have a lot more eating to do before I'll know for sure). When I stay there in September, I'll see what the rooms and pool are like.

Food ---- This trip was solo, so I ate most of my meals alone. It takes a little getting used to, but Las Vegas is an especially comfortable place for singles. I'd feel comfortable eating by myself even at most of the top dining spots. Sometimes a table for one is a good choice; sometimes there's a bar which serves the complete menu.

Delmonico Steakhouse. One of the high end steak houses, it's located in the Venetian. I ate dinner at the bar, where a full menu is available. Overall the meal was very good: very good foie gras; an excellent bone-in rib eye steak with three sauces (béarnaise, A-OK [like a fancy version of A-1], and a third sauce that I liked but can't remember anything about); bananas Foster ice cream pie that was good but not to die for. A number of wines are available by the glass.

Okada. Here comes a long winded review. This Japanese restaurant and sushi bar is in Wynn Las Vegas. I got there at opening time the first night it opened (April 28). No tables were available, but I snagged what turned out to be a prime spot at the sushi bar. I've eaten sushi for over thirty years, and have tried many of the top spots in Vegas. Okada has the potential to be the best. The quality of their sushi is top notch, and the prices aren't too bad. In fact, some prices are below those at places like Shintaro or Hyakumi. In particular, they had o-toro at $8/piece. When I last went, Shintaro charged $25/piece, and Hyakumi charged about the same. Other memorable items: uni/sea urchin (very firm and fresh); unagi/eel (not just warm, but ever so slightly crisp); tamago/egg (not one of my favorite types of sushi, but quite good here); o-toro/tuna belly sashimi (great flavor and texture, melt-in-your-mouth); hamachi/yellowtail (very rich and flavorful); awabi?/abalone (two pieces, each with a different flavoring); ama-ebi/raw shrimp (great flavor, but they don't serve the heads as tempura). The sushi chefs were also excellent. Somehow or other, the man who appeared to be head chef recognized me. He had been a sushi chef at Shintaro before moving to Okada, and knew me from there. However, there was one major flaw. When I was seated, I was informed by the waitress that I must order each piece of sushi from her. The sushi chefs were apologetic, but confirmed this rule. This was a disaster in the making. Not only does it tend to spoil the interaction between customer and chef, but it slowed orders down to a crawl. Fortunately, after a couple of painful rounds of ordering, the chefs saw what was happening and ignored the rule. After that, I had a great time. I'm sending a letter to Wynn Las Vegas urging them to change the rule.

Hyakumi. Located in Caesars Palace. Prior to Okada, it was my favorite sushi bar in Las Vegas. As good as ever. Order ama-ebi/raw shrimp, and as a bonus they prepare the shrimp heads as tempura. It sounds weird, but it's delicious. They also had ankimo - kind of a pate made out of monkfish liver. Also delicious! Ankimo isn't always available, and I don't know if it's on the menu; just ask for it.

Shibuya. MGM Grand. Japanese restaurant and sushi bar. Looks nice, but the sushi bar gets a failing grade because you must order from the waiter (see my comments on Okada). At least partially due to that, the atmosphere is sterile, even though the sushi is good. It might be better to get a table at this restaurant.

Michael Mina. At the Bellagio, this restaurant emphasizes seafood, but has other good choices as well. I ate at the bar; it's a pretty friendly spot if you're eating by yourself, and a full menu is available. I tried the seasonal tasting menu (pricey at a bit over $100) and the accompanying wine pairings (pricier still at $80 or $85). Picasso is better, and no more expensive, but I still enjoyed myself. The meal included hamachi tartare; lobster salad; (third course that I can't remember); kobe beef, foie gras and lobster mashed potatoes; trio of desserts, including an improbable but excellent sasparilla float. Excellent meal.

Bouchon. I had breakfast here. It's more formal than most breakfast spots, but is very bright and cheerful - a good place for a leisurely meal. French Toast Bouchon style is like sweet bread pudding, with apples. I had heard wonderful things about it, and was a bit disappointed. It was good, but not memorable. However, given the nice atmosphere, I'd be inclined to return and try something else.

Wynn Buffet for Breakfast. I'm not a big fan of buffets, but was curious. I tried out the breakfast buffet the day Wynn opened. The restaurant is pretty, and tables are spaced nicely apart. Service was friendly; coffee came quickly. There's a varied selection of food. What I tried was good, including: muffin; some sort of smoked fish; two Chinese dishes that I had never heard of before (one with beef, the other I forget); a type of link sausage. The omelet station looked good, there was a lot of fruit and pastries available, as well as Mexican dishes. All in all, pretty good. I haven't eaten at any of the other top buffets, and thus can't offer any comparisons.

Aloha Kitchen. This is a couple of miles off the strip, not too far from UNLV. There are a couple of other locations as well. It caters to the large local Hawaiian community. A typical meal is the mix plate, consisting of a large amount of white rice, a scoop of macaroni salad, and one or more items such as kalua pork, chicken katsu, and pork lau lau. Spam is also a mainstay (spam sushi!), or try the loco moco (bed of rice, hamburger patty, fried egg, and a big ladle of brown gravy). Health food lovers need not apply. Their food is cheap and filling. I like it a lot.

Carnegie Deli. At The Mirage. The new kid on the block, it's a branch of a New York deli. It should have stayed in New York. Their sandwiches consist of two regular size pieces of rye bread, with what must be a pound of deli inside. Large bamboo skewers hold everything together. If that's not big enough, you can order the Woody Allen, which combines corned beef and roast beef for an even bigger sandwich. You don't pick up the sandwich, you lift off the bread and use a fork. Sounds good so far, but the corned beef was only fair; same for the pastrami. At breakfast, I tried the matzobrei, pancake style. It was just an omelet with a little matzo thrown in - very disappointing. Their menu doesn't even mention sour cream as an option – you have to ask for it.

Rosemary's. This is way off the strip - perhaps a 20 or 25 minute ride. After hearing so many good things about it, I had to give it a try. Well…it was worth it. To save money, order from the prix fixe menu (available only at lunch). It includes an appetizer, main course, and dessert, for $20. A la carte is much more expensive. I had Hugo's Texas BBQ Shrimp and Maytag Bleu Cheese Cole Slaw (sounds weird, tastes great), grilled mahi mahi, and goat cheese cheesecake. The food is served in large portions and is very rich. Oh yes, this is another place where I ate at the bar, and felt quite comfortable.

Lotus of Siam. Lotus of Siam has a reputation as an excellent Thai restaurant. It deserves its reputation. There are numerous reviews out on the Internet. My observations: (1) reviewers warn against the buffet, which is standard Chinese. From what I saw, I'll second that view. Order interesting Thai food from the menu. (2) I had Nam Kao Tod (minced sour sausage mixed with green onion, fresh chili, ginger, peanut, and lots of crispy rice); charbroiled catfish; sticky rice with mango. It was a lot of food, and everything was very good. (3) The address is on Sahara Avenue. However, that's the BACK of the restaurant. Don't run away in horror; instead, drive around to the other side. It turns out to be a shopping mall, with the entrance to Lotus of Siam.

China Grill. At Mandalay Bay. There are two things of note here. First is the size of their salads. I ordered Peking Duck Caesar Salad; my companion ordered plain Caesar Salad. The waiter warned us that the salads were very large, and that one was more than enough for two people. When we told him that we were ordering no main course, just the salad for dinner, he paused and then said that might be OK. The pause should have warned us. These salads are obscenely large. They're served on dinner plates, piled so high that it's impossible to transfer some to your plate without causing a landslide (saladslide?) that ends on the table. I'm a big eater, and finished less than half…but it was very good. The second item of note is the bathrooms. Think translucent glass, music and LCD monitors - in the stalls.

Jean-Philippe Petisserie. This was opened as part of Bellagio's new Spa Tower expansion. Their pastries are wonderful - both beautiful and delicious. I can vouch for the cheesecake in white chocolate, Chocobana (chocolate mousse, caramelized bananas, dark chocolate cremeux, hazelnut dough), Opera (chocolate ganache, coffee butter cream, almond biscuit, espresso syrup), and the Pecan Tart (pecan caramel, espresso cream, pecan buttercream, hazelnut dough). The gelato was good, but not in the same league as the pastries.

Activities ---------- Hiking. I love to walk and take day hikes, but am not a dyed-in-the-wool hiker. At the end of the day, I want to go back to an air-conditioned hotel room. I also have no sense of direction whatsoever, and can get lost in an elevator with two sets of doors. Having said that, hiking is one of the highlights of my Vegas trips. Go to Red Rock Canyon, about 30 - 45 minutes west of Las Vegas. It's beautiful, and there are trails for all skill and fitness levels. I highly recommend a guide name Neil Sobelson, sole proprietor of Hike This! His web site is http://www.hikethislasvegas.com/. He specializes in customized hikes. That's right, for just you, or the two of you, or your group of friends. He'll ask about your interests and physical condition, and will tailor a hike to meet your needs. I've gone with Neil twice for hiking, and once for rock scrambling (see below), and have always had a great time. Warning: it can get HOT; hiking in the sun when it's even 80 degrees can be brutal. March and April are usually good; May can be hot, so hike early in the morning. In any case, make sure to take tons of water. For a half day hike, take a minimum of two quarts of water, or more if it's hot.

Rock Climbing. You know, with ropes and harnesses and all that good stuff. This was my second time doing rock climbing. My first time was an introduction with no more than 30 minutes actual climbing time. This would be a full day, with hours of climbing. Rock climbing is strenuous, scary, and incredibly exciting - and this from someone who was afraid of heights not too long ago. I highly recommend it, but make sure to get a good instructor. I used American Alpine Institute (http://aai.cc/). My instructor was Jason Martin. He was very good, spending lots of time on basics and on safety. He also put me through the wringer, which is what I wanted. I was able to complete some climbs, but not others; by the time I cried uncle, my arms were trembling so much I had trouble controlling them. I got to find out just how much I could do. I can't wait to go back. A note about trembling arms: this is an indication I was dong things all wrong; “use your legs, not your arms”. I've heard from more than one person that women, who have less upper body strength than men, usually learn faster than men – presumably because they have less opportunity to do things the wrong way.

Rock Scrambling. This is half way between hiking and rock climbing. It involves climbing over and around rocks/boulders that are anywhere from a foot tall to ten or more feet tall. No ropes, just arms and legs. My guide was Neil Sobelson of Hike This! (see hiking, above). Again, Neil is highly recommended. This doesn't take too much skill, mostly just good balance and a lot of care. However, it does take good leg strength and lots of stamina. This was my first time, and I think I'm hooked.

Kayaking. Boulder City Outfitters (http://www.bouldercityoutfitters.com/) offers a guided kayak tour of the Colorado River in Black Canyon, below Hoover Dam. The government limits kayak permits to 30 people per day, with no motorboats allowed on weekends. It's beautiful, great fun, and beginners are welcome. However, be warned that it's a very strenuous trip. Yes, it's downstream, but it still requires continuous paddling for eleven miles, it takes most of the day, and there may be a headwind.

Walking The Strip. I love to walk The Strip. There's a different feeling at different times of day. To me, it seems that the porn slappers were a little less aggressive than last year – or maybe I've just gotten used to them.

Shows ----- Penn & Teller. If you've ever seen them on TV, you know what to expect. Nonetheless, good fun. Arrive early, and you'll be invited to get up on the stage and examine a couple of large boxes they use in their show.

We Will Rock You. The music is good, but the dialog ranges from annoying to downright embarrassing. If you can mentally filter out everything but the songs, you'll do fine. I couldn't.

Ka. This is one of the Cirque de Soleil shows. I'm not sure if this was good. I say “not sure” because I was exhausted from rock climbing that day, and repeatedly fell asleep. I even dreamt, combining rock climbing with the show. Talk about bizarre dreams! However, I liked most of the parts of the show that I saw. It was just a little bit too dreamlike for someone in my sleepy condition. The stage moves, not just up and down, but it rotates, and tilts all the way to vertical. I don't want to give away anything, but the final scene is dramatic.

Le Reve. The new show at Wynn Las Vegas. It's water based, with a circular stage so that all seats are center. I've seen mixed reviews, but it was my favorite show. Yes, it's similar to Cirque shows, but it's very well done, and the theater feels intimate.

George Carlin. He's back from rehab, and ready to offend everyone. I liked him a lot, but be prepared for very caustic humor.

Nighttime --------- The Bar at Times Square. Located in New York New York, this is one of those dueling piano type of bars. It might have been the first in Vegas, although now they're all over the place. It's loud, crowded, commercial, and corny – and a lot of fun! If you get there before 8pm, there's no cover charge. Get there later, and you not only pay, but may have to wait in line.

Gambling -------- I'm not much of a gambler, but I decided to try craps this trip. I knew the theory, but not the practice. My observations: Many casinos offer free craps lessons. If you know the theory, it isn't really necessary to take a class, but I found it made me feel more comfortable. The dealers were invariably friendly, and glad to offer help to newbies. There are a million kinds of bets, but it's very easy if you start with the simplest bet (basically, that the shooter will win). That bet also has a small enough house percentage that you'll probably be able to play awhile before losing all of your money. Craps is fun - especially because I won big. Well, given my bet size, big means enough for a nice dinner, but it sure beats losing. Uh-oh, I think I'm hooked. This could get expensive next time! I checked out many of the larger hotels on The Strip. Table minimums are usually around $10. Sometimes you can find $5 minimums, and sometimes $15 is the lowest. Wynn Las Vegas had one $10 minimum table on opening day. The Flamingo sometimes had $5 tables, but sometimes $10 was the minimum. I've read that there are lower minimums in some of the smaller places, like Casino Royale, but didn't check them out.

Paradise Found Tours maintains a website for Las Vegas at http://www.paradisefoundtours.com. The site provides information for Las Vegas tours, special news, fees and other pertinent information.

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Valuable Links:
Fun Grand Canyon Tours
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Starting off with a T-time of +150 days, the departure date for our June 18 trip finally arrived. My husband, Mario, and I were out of the house and on our way to pick up our traveling companions by 4:30 a.m. Maureen and Dale were ready to go and … I’ll spare you the yada-yada-yada of the flight portion of our trip, which to sum it up was smooth and uneventful.

I had booked an intermediate car with Dollar, and was planning on using an upgrade coupon for a full-size. These coupons are based on availability, and we were disappointed to find that there wasn’t a single full-size car on the lot. I asked the attendant if there was anything else she could offer us, and she indicated a mini-van. The four of us looked at each other but didn’t need to talk about it – we were not going to take a mini-van unless we had absolutely no other choice. The attendant indicated that we could wait for some more cars to come out of the garage from being cleaned and washed, and see if a full-size came out. A lone Chrysler 300 Touring/Limited sat in the luxury aisle. I pulled a $20 out of my wallet, and asked if it was available. The attendant broke into a big, toothy smile, took the $20 and said “help yourself”. Which we did, and after Mario and Dale spent 5 minutes in the office adding Dale onto our contract as a second driver, off we went. Luxury class car rental $204.35 for 9 days (plus $20 “tip”)

Our first 3 nights were to be at the Rio (or so I hoped).

Let me explain. Dale received an offer from Rio/Harrah’s for $79 for that Saturday night, with Sunday and Monday nights free. Maureen and Dale had never stayed at the Rio, and were thrilled with the chance to stay there, especially since we’d often told them how great the rooms were. Mario and I have been receiving offers from the Rio for 4 or 5 years now – whereas this was the first offer Dale and Maureen have ever received from Rio/Harrah’s. Admittedly, the two of us don’t give the Rio much play, and we have often wondered how we’ve merited free room offers, but we weren’t about to question anyone about it. I know well enough that these offers are always intended only for the person they have been mailed to, but I thought we had nothing to lose by calling and trying to book under Dale’s offer code. I figured we’d be receiving a similar offer anyway, and somehow ours was just late coming to us. I was just going to plead ignorance when the clerk called me an idiot or even worse, anticipating her caustic reply when she told me that the offer I quoted her was not meant for me. Usually, if you receive a mailed offer from the Rio, you will also find your offer listed on their website when you login and check under “My Offers”. I kept checking right up until the week before we left, and all I got was one offer for Harrah’s Laughlin. Nothing from the Rio.

I called a Rio reservations clerk, gave her the rate code, and she put me on hold. When she came back on the line she confirmed our reservation under the $79/free/free rate. I was more than surprised it had worked, and I had visions of trying to check-in at the Rio and being told there had been a mistake and being turned away or, alternatively, being charged more than we’ve ever had to spend on a hotel room before.

I might as well fess up right now: we’re … um … frugal, and paying full-price for a 3-night stay at the Rio was more $$ than we were willing to spend. We did come up with a back-up plan, though. The 4 Queen’s sent us a 2-nights free offer, and out of caution I booked the Sunday/Monday portion of our trip at the 4Q’s. That way, if the Rio reservation didn’t pan out, then that would only leave Mario and me sleeping in the car for the Saturday night.

Okay, so now we’re at the Rio’s front desk, and I’m holding my breath the entire time the desk clerk is tick-tick-ticking away on her computer. She confirms our rate of $79/free/free and assigns us a room in the Ipanema Tower. Even as we walk away from the front desk I am expecting someone to call me back and say there seems to be a problem. But it didn’t happen.

I’d read a post that the Ipanema rooms had been renovated fairly recently, and that the rooms in the Masquerade Tower were beginning to show some wear, so I was pleased that we would be staying in that tower. Maureen and Dale were assigned a room in the Masquerade Tower.

I thought the Ipanema room was smaller than the Masquerade Tower rooms. And I didn’t like it nearly as well. Pretty picky all of a sudden, wasn’t I? – this person who only moments before had been crossing her fingers and toes, hoping against hope that she would even be staying at the Rio? Mario just sighed, and rolled his eyes when I called the front desk and asked for a room change to the Masquerade Tower. They informed me that they were not doing any more room changes that afternoon, but we could move in the morning if we wanted. I was pretty sure that the idea of this was that by the time morning came most people just couldn’t be bothered to move. The next morning I called the front desk again, explaining that we were traveling with friends, and would greatly appreciate having a room in the same tower as they were in. I believe I heard Mario sighing again as we dragged our suitcases through the casino towards our new room in the Masquerade Tower. We were assigned a room on the 16th floor with a great view of the Rio pool. I was happy. Mario was just glad to be staying at the Rio.

Over the next few days, we spent a couple hours each afternoon at the pool. That first day the music was cranked, full-blast rap and what seemed to be a variety of rhythmic jungle beat music – boom, boom, boom. I don’t really mind the music itself, but truthfully, it was being played so loud that even though we were sitting on lounge chairs only inches away from each other, we had to shout to make ourselves heard. The next two days, though, the music was more mainstream and was set at a reasonable volume, so I have to assume that the first day was not the norm. The Rio pool area itself is great, with several pools, lots of greenery and plenty of lounge chairs. This is a pool area that is definitely dominated by beautiful 20-somethings. The women were showing a lot of skin and the men were displaying a lot of muscle. The 4 of us were out of our element (we are in our late 40’s), but it made for some very interesting people-watching each afternoon. It seemed to me that many people’s activities at the pool were going to have a big impact on what they would be doing later that night, if you catch my drift.

One morning we had breakfast at the Rio buffet, using this coupon, which is good until the end of August, I believe:

http://www.harrahs.com/our_casinos/rlv/exhilaration/offer5.html

I’d recommend the Rio buffet for breakfast at least. I’ve never had lunch or dinner there, though. The selection was great, and the food was very good!

We played slots at the Rio off and on throughout our stay, but lost more than we won. I like the slots in the Carnival Court best, because that’s where the best variety of penny or multi-denominational slots are. Unfortunately, especially in the evening, this area of the casino is extremely noisy – and I stress, extremely noisy – and it definitely impacted on our playing time there.

On Sunday morning we drove out to Green Valley Ranch, intending to have breakfast at the buffet there (using our ACG coupons) and then spend a few hours in the casino. When we arrived, we realized it was Father’s Day, the price of the Sunday buffet had been pumped up for the occasion, and we saw that our ACG coupons weren’t good on Sundays. We didn’t want to spend a lot of money on breakfast, so we hopped back in the car and went to the Café at Sunset Station for a cheap but excellent breakfast.

We then played the slots for an hour or so, with no significant wins or losses. After that, we made a quick trip to Walmart, which is across the street from Sunset Station, so that we could stock up the fridge in our rooms with bottled water and Diet Pepsi.

That afternoon Mario and I attended a LVT Meet at the Monte Carlo Brew Pub. We were pleased to see Frank (the LVT Webmaster) and Dusty once again, and to make the acquaintance of BugsySiegel, dmeeks9 and TrawnaJack. It never fails to amaze me how these Meets, which bring strangers together, would, to someone looking in from the outside, believe it to be a gathering of good friends. It’s a wonderful way to meet people who share our love of Las Vegas, and it’s great fun to be able to put a face to a LVT Board name!

What a long walk it is now through the Bellagio’s new tower to get to the tram for the Monte Carlo. I doubt it actually saves you any steps if you are coming in through Bellagio from the Strip. We stopped at the Conservatory on our way back and Mario took some pictures. The display was beautiful, but not as inspired as I’ve seen it on other occasions. Someone needs to come up with some fresh new ideas, I think.

Maureen and their 3 children had surprised Dale with a Father’s Day gift of a helicopter tour to the Grand Canyon. Dale has often mentioned over the past several years how much he wanted to do this, so he was absolutely thrilled. The cost was around $300 CAD per person for about a 4-hour trip, which included a picnic lunch in the canyon. A limo picked them up at 9:00 on Monday morning. When they returned around 1:30 they were positively glowing – they said it was spectacular - an experience of a lifetime.

That night we had dinner at the Monterey Room in the Gold Coast. No Vegas trip is ever complete for us without having the $9.95 Texas T-Bone Steak Special. The price has gone up a bit in the past few years, but it’s worth every cent. You will need to bring a big appetite to get through this dinner.

Each trip we like to check out a casino we’ve never been to before, so we decided to take a drive out to the SunCoast after dinner. Not realizing that the map I’d brought along had become quite outdated, we had some trouble finding the SunCoast. First, we drove several miles past the turn we should have taken, and then when we got back on track we ended up taking more wrong turns, and went on quite the tour of the area. Eventually we made it there, more by fluke than anything else.

The SunCoast is a nice but rather small casino. Mario and I settled down at a Twilight Zone slot machine, and managed to turn $20 into around $180. We have a rule that we cash out once we’ve tripled our money, or if we hit a nice jackpot, we play it down to the nearest $20 and cash it out. Then we will put another $20 in and see how that goes. It seems to work well for us, at the very least keeping us within our gambling budget for the day.

We decided to call home before we went back to our hotel, and our son told us that our basement had flooded on the day we left Calgary. We’d had some torrential rains in June, but since we live on a hill, we had never been concerned about water damage to our home before. Apparently, we only had a few inches of water coming in, which had actually seeped up from the sump and through some cracks in the basement floor. At least it was clean rainwater and not a sewer back-up.

On Tuesday we moved to the MGM for 3 days. We’d booked under an email special that I saw mentioned on the Deals forum of LasVegasTalk - $59/night weekdays for slot club members, which, among other things, including a $35 dining credit at any of the MGM-owned restaurants, buffet or eateries. Maureen & Dale didn’t actually belong to the slot club, but they joined online and then booked the room.

Once we’d dropped our suitcases off in our respective rooms, we threw on our bathing suits and met Maureen and Dale downstairs for some pool time. Maureen commented on how huge the rooms were – even bigger than the Rio rooms. What?? Our room was more or less a standard hotel room, certainly not anywhere near the size of a Rio room. She described the huge bathroom, with not only a tub but a separate glass shower; a nice living room area, a fridge, a bar, etc. etc. Somehow, without asking for one, or even realizing it, they had been given a suite! Very nice!

To access the MGM pool you have to walk through the Studio Walk, which is the MGM’s shopping mall. I’d read several negative comments about how far away the pool area is from the room elevators, but truthfully I didn’t think it was that bad – just a 3 or 4-minute walk. The pool area is very large, set amongst an abundance of palm trees, flowers and shrubs. There are several pools and a lazy river. Inner tubes are available for around $15 a day, but you really don’t need one to float along the lazy river. The lazy river was great – we loved it!

Later that afternoon we drove out to Texas Station, where we’d planned to do a little gambling, and then have dinner and a movie. First stop was at the Fatburger in the food court for one of their fantastic chocolate shakes – I don’t even want to guess how many calories those things are, but then again if you have one of them when you’re on vacation, the calorie count is zero. Or so I’ve heard.

While we sucked back our shakes, Mario and I had some good luck on a slot machine called Password. We played this machine for quite some time, and cashed a few nice little jackpots out of it, to the tune of close to $200.

We had planned on having dinner at the Texas Station’s buffet using our ACG coupons, but the line-ups were long, and the four of us didn’t really feel like waiting in a line-up, especially seeing as we were not all that hungry – a buffet was probably more than we needed that night, anyway. In January of this year, Mario and I had met up with Grenadier (from the LVT Board) and his wife, Henny, who are Texas Station regulars. I recalled Grenadier mentioning at that time that the clam chowder served at the Texas Star Oyster Bar was excellent. That seemed like a good idea for a lighter meal, and as we passed by, we saw that there were plenty of tables available. All four of us ordered a bowl of clam chowder which, indeed, was delicious, and far more filling than we had anticipated. I loved the thin crisp parmesan bread wafers they served with the soup! Maureen & Dale had ordered a side dish of calamari to share, which they said was very good. Mario and I ordered a side dish of hot chicken fingers. More like chicken fists – they were absolutely huge, and served dripping with hot sauce. The soup had pretty well filled me up, and I could only get through ½ a piece of chicken, but it was excellent, simply excellent. We will return there next trip, without a doubt.

After dinner each couple went their own way to gamble for a few hours, and we met at the theatres for the 10:00 showing of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Mario thought it was pretty good, and Maureen, Dale and I sheepishly admitted to sleeping through most of it. The story line was just so unbelievable; I couldn’t get interested in it. And that’s my excuse, and I’m sticking with it. Maureen and Dale said they were just plain tired.

Since we had that $35 MGM dining credit, we decided to try the buffet for breakfast on Wednesday morning. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t anything special, either. I’m glad it didn’t cost us anything.

Maureen and Dale planned on seeing the Titanic Exhibit (which Dale raved about afterwards!) over at the Tropicana that morning, so Mario and I hopped in the car and drove over to Green Valley Ranch to play some slots. For some reason, we always seem to do fairly well at GVR, and this morning was no exception. After a couple hours, we left about $80 up. Fiesta Henderson then fairly quickly relieved us of that $80.

We had planned on meeting Maureen and Dale at the pool that afternoon, but by the time we got back to the hotel, the weather had deteriorated, it had rained, and there was still lightning and thunder in the air. The pool was closed.

Since we had tickets for We Will Rock You (purchased at ½ price online with Goldstar Events - http://www.goldstarevents.com) that night, we decided we should find a place to eat not too far from the Paris Hotel.

Maureen and Dale hadn’t ridden the monorail yet, so we decided to take it from the MGM all the way to the Sahara, and then back to Bally’s. Then we would walk over to the Barbary Coast and have supper at the Victorian Room.

Mario and I hadn’t eaten at the Victorian Room in years, but we remembered it as a great place for a casual meal, with good prices. Once we were seated, I was surprised to see that the tables had tablecloths on them, and this was not the casual café I had remembered. I did think as we approached the restaurant that it was odd there wasn’t a line-up at the door, like there always used to be. And the menu – well, an open-faced turkey sandwich was $14; a burger was $10. Yikes. I wasn’t very hungry, and all I wanted was something light and simple, like a chef’s salad or a taco salad. The waiter informed me there were no salads available at dinner time. Give me a freakin’ break. I grudgingly settled on a bowl of clam chowder soup. Maureen and Mario each had the turkey sandwich, and Dale had an open-faced hot roast beef sandwich. The waiter got a little snotty when I ordered only soup.

There weren’t that many people in the restaurant, and it took 45 minutes to get our meal, during which time we were virtually ignored by our waiter. Coffee and/or water refills would have been appreciated, and we had to stop a passing waitress for refills. My soup should have been served much hotter than it was, and the meals were mediocre. A definite “will not eat there again” experience.

We then walked over to the Paris Hotel and picked up our We Will Rock You tickets at the box office. Mario and I went over to Bally’s for a while, and lost some money on their slots. I don’t think we’ve ever won a cent at Bally’s.

Our seats for We Will Rock You were in the Radio Ga Ga section, about ¾ of the way from the top of the theatre, off to the right of the stage. The theatre is fairly small, and I don’t really think there are any bad seats. We Will Rock You is a fun show – the music and dancing was very good, and there is a bit of a campy feel to the show. Lots of humour, and even some sad parts. There were some young kids sitting in front of us, and I thought there was some dialogue that wasn’t appropriate for their ears – but I guess it depends on what you expose your kids to ordinarily (probably nothing they haven’t heard in the schoolyard anyway, I guess).

I stopped and bought my eldest son a Queen t-shirt to add to his collection of rock memorabilia, and then we strolled over to the Bellagio to watch a couple fountain shows. I can’t remember the name of the first show we saw, but the second one was Viva Las Vegas. It doesn’t get more appropriate than that.

We walked back to the MGM and said goodnight to Maureen and Dale. We played some slots for a couple hours, and had a bit of luck on a Matchgame slot. It was around 1:30 by that time, and both of us were hungry. By rights we probably should have just gone to bed, but we were on holidays, dammit. We could do whatever we wanted to do. We got a table at the Studio Café, which was extremely busy even at that time of night. I ordered some type of Chinese chicken salad, which was excellent, and Mario had a clubhouse sandwich, which he enjoyed. We sat for quite a while afterward, chatting, and by about 3:00 we were more than ready to drag ourselves through the casino and up to bed.

On Thursday morning we hopped in the car and headed to the Grand Lux Café at the Venetian for breakfast. This is my favorite place for breakfast in Las Vegas. We all chose the small buffet they offer, rather than ordering from the menu. The buffet includes an omelet bar, fresh fruits, yogurt, excellent breads, muffins and pastries, and all the other usual breakfast items. I believe the price is around $13 per person.

After breakfast we drove out to the Valley of Fire. It was a hot day, and the car gauge showing the outside temperature read upwards of 115 degrees at times. Las Vegas Norm had kindly given me some pointers as to what sights not to miss, and we stopped at each one he had recommended along the way.


Atlatl Rock

There were many petroglyphs on the rocks, and it would have been interesting to know what stories these prehistoric Indian rock writings told. There was a natural arch in one area that offered a great photo opportunity, and we stopped to take some pictures of each other.

A little further on we came to an area called the Mouse’s Tank, which is a natural basin in the rock where rainfall collects and can remain for several months. Intriguing, seeing as this is such an arid environment. We thought we would take the short walk to see what it was all about. Bad idea. The sand we were walking through was so fine that it was like red icing sugar, and it made walking rather more difficult, not to mention that Dale, Maureen and I were wearing sandals. Hot, hot, hot toes! That “short” walk took at least 20 minutes or more, back and forth each way, and we Canadians from the Great White North don’t tolerate heat all that well. We had thought to bring our bottles of water with us, but since we’d read that it was a short walk, we thought we’d only be gone no more than 15 or 20 minutes total. Our tongues were practically dragging on the ground by the time we got back to the car. All further sightseeing at the Valley of Fire that day was done from the comfort of our air conditioned vehicle.

On the way back to town we stopped at Overton Beach Marina on Lake Mead. We bought some very much appreciated cold drinks, and relaxed for a little while as we took in the view from a picnic bench.

The plan was to stop one more time, at Lake Las Vegas, before heading home to the MGM, but somehow, somewhere, we took a wrong turn, and missed it entirely, so we ended up back in Las Vegas.

I understand that the San Remo Hotel and Casino has been bought out by Hooters. It must be happening soon, because it looked like some of the signs have already been removed from the front of the property. I don’t know how many times I’ve read that the $5.95 Prime Rib Dinner is well worth the money, and I wanted to go there once before the hotel went through its conversion.

Dale, Mario and I ordered the Prime Rib special, and Maureen ordered a Monte Cristo sandwich. Maureen regretted her choice, because the sandwich was apparently deep fried and tasted rather nastily like fish. If it had been me, I would have complained and sent the sandwich back, but I don’t think Maureen likes to do that, so she ate as much as she could, and left the rest. Our prime rib dinners were good, and well worth the $5.95 price tag.

That night, Maureen and Dale had “2 for 1” tickets for Folies Bergeres, which they’d won on the free spin in front of the Tropicana. This worked out great for them, as one of the things they wanted to do this trip was see one of the traditional-types of Vegas shows. That really didn’t interest us, and Mario and I decided to head over to the Bar at Times Square in NYNY for an evening of Dueling Pianos. I wanted to get there early enough for a table, which are at a premium, so we were there by 7:30, with the entertainment scheduled to start at 8:00. Some basketball final was on TV, and many people in the bar were glued to the game. Of course – it HAD to go into overtime, and Dueling Pianos didn’t start until shortly after the game ended, at 9:00. Just a note here – the drink prices, as if they’re not bad enough already ($6.50 for a rum & coke), go up when Dueling Pianos starts, but that night even though the show started an hour late, the drink prices went up right on time nonetheless. I believe my second rum & coke cost close to $8.00.

Anyway, even over-priced drinks won’t keep me away from Dueling Pianos, and we had a great time that night. The camaraderie, laughter and good fun we enjoy in that bar cannot be beat. We stayed through two sets, and left shortly after the first pair of entertainers came back for their second set.

Mario told me, on the walk back to the MGM, that when I’d left the bar at one point in search of a ladies washroom, a woman who had been acting quite strangely moved over to sit in my chair at our cozy little table for two. She had drawn our attention earlier because she had walked into the bar with a guy, but she crossed over to the side of the bar with tables by herself, and sat down at a table of women she apparently didn’t know. The other women seemed rather surprised, but this strange woman didn’t acknowledge them in any way – she stared straight ahead and didn’t say a word. When the music was playing and absolutely everyone in the bar was singing at the tops of their lungs, this woman continued to stare straight ahead – totally unaffected by the music. When one of the entertainers encouraged all the women in the bar to get up out of their seats and sing, we all did, yet she sat there like she was made out of stone. In any event, when she moved into my chair and tried to engage Mario in a conversation, Mario told her that his wife would be back in a minute or two, and the chair wasn’t available. She stared at him for a minute and then got up and sat back in the chair she was in earlier. It would seem that perhaps she was a hooker, but her methods were very strange – there were at least 50 young, single drunk guys on the other side of the bar who would probably have enjoyed her attention.

Friday morning was check-out day. I tried to do the video check-out but the $35 food credit had not been applied to our bill, so we had to go down to the front desk to check-out. The desk clerk got the bill straightened out, eventually, and off we went to the Orleans for breakfast.

The Courtyard Café has some great early morning specials, but we arrived too late for those. You can always depend on a good meal at this restaurant, at a reasonable price. We were not disappointed, and after breakfast we arranged to meet Maureen and Dale at 10:00. We had fun playing several slot machines, Turkey Shoot being one of our favorites, but left the Orleans that morning lighter in the wallet.

I like to shop: Maureen LOVES to shop. The men dropped us off at the Fashion Show Mall, and they walked over to the Wynn Hotel to spend a few hours there.

When we met back up with the men again later, Maureen said she hadn’t even made it out of Macy’s yet, and here I’d sailed through several stores and was ready to leave. Maureen needed more shopping time, so we scheduled that in for the next day.

We were spending the next 2 nights at the Golden Nugget, so we hopped in the car and headed for downtown. We had reserved the GN under a $79/night weekend special, which included several good coupons. Check-in was quick and we were assigned rooms in the south tower. Maureen and Dale wanted to relax for a few hours at the pool, but the two of us elected to wander around Fremont Street for a while. We walked up and down Fremont Street, and then settled in at Las Vegas Club to play some slots. Let’s just say it would have been significantly cheaper to go to the pool.

We spent the evening at Texas Station, and this time we did have the buffet for dinner. The line-ups were bad again, which apparently was because there was only one person on the till that night and lots of people were paying by credit card, which slowed progress down a lot. By the time we were almost to the front of the line, another till opened that was only taking payment by cash, and we got through in no time after that. It must be a favorite buffet for the locals, as there sure were a lot of families in line, and SO many kids.

Dale is a “rib guy” – he just loves ribs, and he raved about them at Texas Station. I’ve never heard anyone say “mmmmmm” so many times during any one meal.

I found the abundance of unruly kids at this buffet very annoying. Their parents allowed them to run all over the place, yelling and fooling around, and taking food from the buffet without supervision. This resulted in spilled food on the counters and floors, and the mess around the ice cream machine was simply disgusting. Some parents need a serious kick in the a$$. We’ve eaten here several times before, and this was the first time we’d seen anything like this. Maybe Friday nights are a good time to stay away from there.

After the buffet fiasco it was time to play some more slots. We played Men in Black for an $80 profit, and then sat down at a slot machine that was called something like The Great Cheese Caper, which was fun, and paid us a couple small jackpots. We gave some money back on a few other slots over the next while, but managed to walk out of there in the black. At midnight we met back up with our traveling companions, and drove back downtown. Mario and I walked over to the Plaza (now that it’s virtually stink-free, thanks to new carpeting), and spent a few hours playing a slot machine we’d discovered at Green Valley Ranch – the theme was something about magicians. We did pretty good on that slot, but gave some of our winnings back on some other slots we played afterwards.

By around 2:00 we were ready to call it a night, and I remember remarking how relatively cool it was outside that night.

We met Maureen and Dale the next morning for breakfast at the Carson Street Café. This restaurant is consistently good, and today was no exception. We used one of our coupons we’d been issued at check-in, which was good for up to 4 people for $3 off each of our meals.

After dropping Maureen off at the Fashion Show Mall to continue her shopping experience, Dale, Mario and I drove over to the Imperial Palace to take part in their 11:00 Texas Hold’em lessons. The table was full, and we had an entertaining dealer doing the teaching. Most of us were fairly familiar with the game already, and we had a great time playing just for fun over the next half hour or so. After that, a table was opened for anyone from the lessons that wanted to play for real, and most of us moved over to join in. A few other stragglers showed up, and the table was full. I’d apparently picked up a horseshoe when I sat down at this table, because for the next 10 or 15 hands or so, I raked in the great majority of the pots. Then I started getting dealt mostly garbage, and for the rest of our time at the table I rarely stayed in past the flop. The horseshoe moved over to Dale, and he won some very nice pots over the next hour or so. Mario couldn’t get a hand if his life depended on it, and when he did manage to pull something even half-decent, he never got the cards he needed to win a hand. The players at the table were a happy and fun bunch, and we greatly enjoyed our time in the poker room. $30 profit for me; $46 for Dale; Mario lost $50.

Once we’d picked Maureen up from the mall, it was pool time once again for her and Dale. Mario and I begged off, and we met up with them later for dinner at the Golden Nugget buffet. We had 2 for 1 coupons, so we figured we might as well use them. The buffet was good enough, but I don’t know that I’d bother to go there again.

We’ve been to enough buffets (do ya think???) that we know not to over-indulge at them. It’s tempting to try everything that looks good and stuff yourself to the point of being uncomfortable. But it’s so not worth it.

Maureen and I hadn’t seen the Wynn Hotel yet, so that was the plan for our last night in Las Vegas. Yes, readers (or … maybe … reader, if even one of you is still with me?), there is an end in sight.

We parked at the Fashion Show Mall and walked across the street. Maureen and Dale had some things they wanted to see first on that end of the Strip, so after we arranged to meet at the car at midnight, they went off towards TI.

Thankfully, a walkover to the Wynn is in the final stages of being built, so soon there will be no need to cross over at street level.

The pond and waterfall in front of the main entrance to the Wynn is very nice. Inside the casino there is small garden area, where they hang different colors and sizes of fresh flower “balls” from the trees.

We played slots the rest of the evening at the Wynn, and accumulated more than 500 points on our slot card. Once you have 500 points on the blank slot card you are given initially, you can then go sign up for their slot club. You are awarded 2 free buffets at that time, which must be used within the next couple of days.

Once we got back downtown for the night, Mario and I spent a couple hours roaming in and out of the various casinos on Fremont Street. We were getting a little peckish, and decided to stop in at the Carson Street Café for a late night snack. We settled on nachos. They sucked – which is probably a good thing, seeing as by rights we really didn’t need to be eating just before going to bed anyway. The type of cheese they used to melt on the nachos was too moist and it made the chips mucky and limp. Yuck.

Sunday morning. The day we dreaded. Reality was looming. Our hope that 9 days in Vegas would be long enough for us was not to be. It was still not long enough. Not by a long shot.

We packed up our suitcases, checked-out of the Golden Nugget, and found a gas station to fill up the car in anticipation of returning it to the Dollar lot.

Since we had to use those two free buffets at the Wynn, or lose them, we offered one to Maureen and Dale, and off we went to experience the Wynn Buffet. We were worried that the line-ups might be bad on a Sunday morning at 9:00, but they weren’t.

The dining area is beautiful, light and airy. And if I had to sum up the food at this buffet in one word, it would be - wow!

Someone had mentioned to me the night before that the crab legs on this buffet were – and he held his hands out 2-feet apart from each other. I had laughed at his exaggeration. This morning, as I was wandering around the buffet checking out the selection, I actually saw someone with a full plateful of 2-foot long crab legs.

All four of us wished we had been hungrier that morning, because there were so many great-looking dishes that we would have liked to sample. One bakery item that really sticks out in my memory is the small cinnamon buns – absolutely wonderful – light and moist and perfect. Even the bacon was somehow better than regular bacon – it was cooked very well, but it wasn’t all curled up and greasy – each piece was straight as a poker and had a light hickory flavor. The orange and grapefruit juice was served by a chef at the buffet itself – because it was fresh squeezed the chef needed to keep stirring it to keep the pulp from settling.

We spent some time just enjoying the ambiance of the dining area, leisurely sipping our coffees, and reflecting on the past 8 days that we’d spent together.

As we walked back to the car, we decided to leave the Strip and spend our few remaining hours in Las Vegas at Terribles. Initially, when we had begun to plan this trip, we had booked Terribles through Vegas.com for the week-night portion of our stay. The pool area was remarkably nice, the rooms were decent, if not fancy, and the nightly rate was $34. Somehow it seemed fitting that we should spend at least some time at Terribles, since our plans had changed quite a bit since those initial planning stages.

Much too soon, it was time to leave for the airport. Our diabolical plan that one of us would win a huge jackpot just before we left, so that we could extend our stay at the very last moment, never came to fruition. It was a very sad and sorry-looking group of travelers that handed off the car keys to the Dollar lot attendant that day.

Well, that’s what I did on my vacation this year. I give you credit if you actually read through this long dissertation. You must be very much in need of a Vegas fix. I hope I provided that for you, and thank you for sticking with me through this.

Paradise Found Tours maintains a website for Las Vegas at http://www.paradisefoundtours.com. The site provides information for Las Vegas tours, special news, fees and other pertinent information.

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Hot! Hot! Hot! That pretty much sums up the trip. The weather was beastly hot...100 in the shade but I shouldn't complain being that MN might not see summer this year. On this trip, I'm meeting a friend of mine in Vegas and it has only taken us 10 years of planning to actually make it happen. Also, this is my second trip this year to my favorite city.

Flight out (7:30am)from the Humphrey terminal on Sun Country airlines was a breeze and it was nice that they gave out free hot breakfast sandwiches on the flight. Remember those days? Watched Ocean's 11 on my portable DVD player on the way out. Actually the guy sitting next to me enjoyed it too. Arrived at McCarron at 8:30am and it was smooth sailing from the time I got my bags to the time I picked up my rental car from Dollar. I rented an SUV that put me back about $238 for the week. Met up with my friend (DK) and we started our adventure.

HOTELS: We both checked into our hotels. I stayed at the Aladdin and she stayed at Sam's Town. I got a great nightly rate of $49 and her nightly rate at Sam's was $39. Can't beat it. I did the ol slip a $20 to the check-in guy, flashed the pearlie whites and asked for a strip view. I got a strip view all right but right below me was a view of the roof top of the casino only to find out later that at night, an orange light from the roof shines into my glass window making it hard to see the city lights. However for $49 a night, I can't complain and actually, the large bathroom with the huge soaking tub made up for the lack of view. Nice room overall! Sam's Town is a really nice hotel off the strip on Boulder Highway. DK's room was normal size and very clean. Nice decor too. I think what impressed me the most about Sam's is the fabulous staff that works there. Very polite, fun, and helpful! I did not find that to be the same at the Aladdin. Actually, complete opposite. An example is that during my stay, I couldn't get my club card to work around the second day so I walked over to the club desk and reported the fact. This woman lectured me on the topic of demagnatizing and how I need to keep it away from my room key and cell phone. Thank you for the info.....NOW BACK OFF! I told her that I simply wanted her to demagnatize the card and I would be on my way. She just kept lecturing and her demeanor was less than civil. My players card did not work the rest of the trip and I made sure to keep it separate from everything else. I just let it go. No comps for me.

RESTAURANTS: DK and I hit a couple buffets while in Vegas. The World Carnival at the RIO and the one at Sam's Town. Sam's Town was by far the better buffet which really surprised me because years past, I would have voted the one at the RIO to be the best but they have changed their setup and alot of the food was dried out and cold. We also ate at Samba's at the Mirage which is a brazilian all you can eat steakhouse. I was not impressed with this place at all. I've eaten at a similar place in New York City called Churrascaria Plataforma and there is just no comparison. Pretty disappointing in fact. I absolutely LOVED Chin Chin a Chinese Cafe which is located at New York New York. The pork potstickers were huge and so tasty. I also had the chicken fried rice and General Tso's Chicken and I can't say enough about them! YUMMY!!! DK and I tried to get a In-N-Out burger during our stay but holy smokes....around 1:00pm or so, the line both outside and inside was a block long. I've had them before and they are wonderful. Maybe next trip I'll be successful. We had lunch at the Top of the World restaurant at the Stratosphere and this was absolutely wonderful! Of course the views were spectacular and the food was pleasantly tasteful and reasonably priced because it was lunch. I've been there at night as well and that is equally if not better but you certainly pay for the night views and menu items. The day we went, the winds were gusting at around 30 to 40 miles and so they closed the rides down. We noticed little sand storms developing way out in the distance too which was something to see.

GAMBLING: I'm normally a very lucky person. In past trips, I've won pots as low as $450 and as high as $1,000 but this trip was a total bust. Which is just fine. I just enjoy the entertainment of the machines. I have to tell you, we gambled at every casino there except for Mandalay Bay, MGM & TI. I think my luckiest spots were at The Orleans, Westward HO, Bally's and Sunset Station. I played mostly nickel machines this trip which is so not like me. I usually play dollar slots. My favorite nickel slots in Vegas are Frank Sinatra, Twighlight Zone, Gilligan's Island, and Monthy Pythons Holy Grail. I took out $100 from a penny Twighlight Zone machine at Barbary Coast. I was shocked and so were the 2 other players on either side of me. I must have hit 6 bonus rounds one right after another and picked the right doors etc.... DK is strictly a BJ player and we had a good time playing the tables. She did really well at Sam's! Hopefully she will share her experiences on this board. Had a great time gambling downtown! The 15th marked Vegas's 100th Birthday so they had a huge party downtown. Bands, cake, etc.....it was super crowded (more so than normal) but it was a fun. Bottom line: I started out with $1,800 and came back with $700. I guess that is not too bad but usually I can come home even + whatever pot I had won.

ENTERTAINMENT: I booked myself a helicopter night flight while in vegas and it was ok. It costs me $60 for a free shuttle pickup at my hotel and a 12 minute flight around the strip. I sat in the back and on the right side of the heli which did not give me a good view of the strip. But it was fine. I met some great people. Two gals from Britain who at that point of their trip had done everything from horseback riding in the Grand Canyon to Bungee Jumping at Circus Circus. They were having a blast! DK and I saw Danny Gans. Very entertaining. We actually were moved up to the front row seats because there were 2 no-shows and they don't like having empty seats in the front. Lucky us! Danny does a hilarious Jeff Foxworthy and Johnny Carson skit. I've heard negative reviews on him but I thought he was great! Last trip in January, I saw "O" and Celine Dion. Both were fabulous and I highly recommend "O"!!!!

HOTEL REVIEWS: As mentioned earlier, we hit nearly every hotel in Vegas. My favorite hotels to gamble at because of either atmosphere or great drink service are: The Westin (drink service), Venetian (fun people and great free bands), Sunset Station (great all around), Golden Nugget (great all around), RIO (hot waiter guys), Sam's Town (fun BJ w/ 70's disco music)and The Orleans. There are others but those stood out on this trip. Worse and would not visit again: Bourbon Street, Slots of Fun, Stratosphere, Ellis Island and The Plaza. Of course my all time favorite hotels that i love to just hang out at are: NY NY, Mandalay Bay, Mirage, Bellagio, etc.....they are just so grand but not to gamble. Green Valley Ranch...beautiful area but tight on the slots. Did not get a chance to visit Wynn. Next trip for sure. Up to this point and of all my trips to Vegas the past years, my favorite hotel room in Vegas has been at the RIO. Oversized rooms with floor to ceiling windows and if you get one that faces the strip and the pool, it is great!

MISC: I've learned a few things this trip.
1. Never keep your players card(s) next to your cell phone or room key and if you do, play dumb and tell them that you had it in your back pocket the whole time and don't know why it demagnatized. Or just tell them that you lost it. Also, Bally's seem to offer the best comps. Played there about 4 hours total and earned $40 in comps. I stayed there in January and ended up earning $85 in comps and they paid for all my meals.
2. Never to go to Vegas during the hot months unless of course you love the desert heat. I prefer the months of March and October.
3. Regarding the Aladdin, with Plantet Hollywood now the owners, the arabian nights theme will be no more and the hotel/casino will have a hollywood theme thruout. I'm not sure what they are going to do with the Desert Pasage shopping mall but it sounds like it will all be gone by the fall of 2006. This might be a good time to grab as much Aladdin named memorabilia as possible.
4. Valet! Valet! Valet!
5. Visit some of the casino's off the strip if you can. They are loved by the locals and seem to be alot looser in slots. Also, drink service is better.
6. Make sure you have a good battery in your car before you park it at the airport for the entire week. Actually, I know this can't be helped but when I arrived back to MN (the Humphrey airport) around 12:30am...I discovered a dead battery and had to wait one and half hours for a jump. Got home to bed around 3:00am. Reality had set in that the vacation was over!!!!!

Paradise Found Tours maintains a website for Las Vegas at http://www.paradisefoundtours.com. The site provides information for Las Vegas tours, special news, fees and other pertinent information.

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Myself and two friends hiked down into the Grand Canyon. This was my first hike down and did not expect the comfortable stay we had at Phantom Ranch. It was great to sit outside and have the fast moving creek run through and put you to sleep at night.

There are cottages for couples and bunkrooms for single genders. We were in the female cottage with 10 beds, an inside bathroom, and a hot shower (HEAVEN!!). Very clean, pillow, blankets, clean sheets, towels for each person and toilet paper were included.

When we arrived, we went to the Canteen to order fresh lemonades. The Canteen closes to get ready for dinner. Dinner was served at 6:30pm and consisted of all-you-can-eat beef stew, corn bread, salad, tea, and chocolate cake. I'm not a meat-eater, and I didn't know I could have ordered a vegetarian dish, so I just had the salad, cornbread, and tea. The salad was very fresh and one of the best salads I had. At night, the Canteen reopens 8pm to serve beers.

There is also a ranger talk we attended. It was about 45 minutes to 1 hour. The ranger was very informative and entertaining.

There is fresh spring water available to fill bladders and bottles before the hike up and a pay phone available.

The next morning, they do two breakfasts. A 5 am and a 7 am (I think). We wanted to get a good start so our reservation was for 5 am breakfast. At 4:30am wake-up call for those attending the 5am breakfast. And that's a staff member going to each cottage to those scheduled and letting them know breakfast will be ready in 30 minutes. Breakfast was pancakes, bacon, eggs, orange juice, peaches, and tea or coffee. They gave us a sack lunch to take with us, which consisted of apple juice, a large bagel with cream cheese/jam, a small beef summer sausage, a package of peanuts, a package of raisins, an apple, pretzels, cookies, and powder electrolyte.

For $87, this was a good deal. If you are the adventurous type or enjoy being out in nature, this is the place to stay.

Paradise Found Tours maintains a website for The Grand Canyon at http://www.paradisefoundtours.com. The site provides information for Grand Canyon tours, special news, fees and other pertinent information.

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Just returned from our family trip to Vegas and the Grand Canyon. Took the Grand Canyon Railway trip through AAA and loved it ! Grand Canyon Railway hotel was much nicer than I thought (after reading some reviews). The room was plenty big enough for the 4 of us. The food, on the other hand, had alot to be desired at Max & Thelma's. The dinner buffet was horrible but breakfast was much better. The train ride was great (with entertainment on the way) and once at the canyon, you just couldn't believe your eyes. Words cannot describe the beauty of this National Park. We had some sun the first day which casted amazing shadows on the peaks. The second day we had rain and hail and COLD! But that's the nature of the park, I guess. We took the shuttle bus all around to see the points of interest and ventured out a bit on our own to see the sun rise. We stayed at Maswick lodge which again, was much better than I had expected (since I believe it's the lowest priced accommodations). We had a view out into the woods and at night you could hear the elk walking around and snorting outside !!! We had a prepaid buffett lunch at the Maswick and after that we didn't eat there again. It was lousy. If you don't have much time, I would highly recommend the Railway Trip. You get all the highlights in a short amount of time and it's alot of fun.

Bottom line - Grand Canyon National Park is beautiful; a natural wonder and a must see for everyone.

Paradise Found Tours maintains a website for The Grand Canyon at http://www.paradisefoundtours.com. The site provides information for Grand Canyon tours, special news, fees and other pertinent information.

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Visited the North Rim in late September 2004. Although there were a reasonable number of other visitors it didn't feel at all crowded and seemed so tranquil. I believe the views from the North rim points are just as good as the south and no jostling at photo points to take snaps.

The North Rim Lodge hotel looked very nice, we sat on some large wooden chairs out front, enjoyed an iced lemonade and were rewarded by witnessing a landslide on the other side of the canyon and the clouds of dust that headed skywards afterwards. Not very many people can lay claim to seeing something like that! Also inside the lodge is a bronze life size statue of a donkey called "Brighty" and a nice story that goes with it.
We also enjoyed the drive in to the North Rim and on the way out headed off to visit several of the other viewpoints which I would recommend.

Also worth a mention is, when you leave the North Rim there is a gasoline station and garage with a food store and restaurant (at the junction with the main highway I think) - they sell what tasted liked home made cookies - one of these is enough for dinner! They were fantastic, specially recommend the chocolate cookie, with mallow topping then a chocolate cream over - best cookies ever!!!

Paradise Found Tours maintains a website for The Grand Canyon at http://www.paradisefoundtours.com. The site provides information for Grand Canyon tours, special news, fees and other pertinent information.

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We visited the Grand Canyon with another family during the 4th of July weekend. We were worried about the crowds but found entrance into the park went very smooth. Definitely remember to bring cash! The cash only lane to buy a park pass is much faster and shorter than the credit card line.

The Canyon was awe inspiring. Our kids (ages 14 - 7) were completely fascinated. Even in July, the weather wasn't too hot, about 85 degress F. The park staff, from the bus drivers to the park rangers to the restaurant staff were extremely friendly and helpful. Be sure to vist both the rim west of Grand Canyon Village as well as the more popular east side. The Rim Trail is very easy to navigate and the Shuttle Buses run every 15 minutes during the summertime. We will be back to further explore this amazing and beautiful place.

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Just pent 3 nights at Yavapai 06 May, and couldn't really fault it. The room was spotlessly clean, and the service was great. Only ate at the coffee shop once - it was quite adequate.
Ate most meals at Bright Angel, where the food was good and reasonably priced.
I would highly recommend doing the Xanterra tours if you are staying there. We did 2 tours for US$35 per person - 2 hour Desert View bus tour, then a 4 hour Hermits Rest tour. Both are excellent, and the drivers are full of all sorts on facts about the Grand Canyon. (Just book at hotel tour desk.) It is certainly easier than driving and trying to find a parking space!

I had never been to the Grand Canyon before, and it is true - you cannot put into words what it is really like. I would definitely recommend staying at Yavapai for its location - it is far enough away from the rim to be quiet, but close enough to walk. Much better than staying outside the park itself, in my opinion.
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