Las Vegas

During Nov 27-29, I attended another Gartner conference, Application Architecture and Development and Integration Summit in Las Vegas, NV.

The conference was hosted in Caesar's Palace, one of the most luxurious casinos on the strip. And this is by far, the most fancy hotel that I've ever been to. It's not just the architectural details and how beautifully it was built, it's huge! The room I paid for was not available when I arrived, so the hotel upgraded me to a bigger suite with Jack and Jill bathrooms. It had a nice view of the hotel's fountain and swimming pools, the south side of the strip and the mountain view from afar.

The neighboring hotel, Bellagio, is another luxurious casino. The time when I visited, they were setting up the great hall for Christmas.

The very last day of my staying, I booked a bus tour to the Grand Canyon, one of the places in my "to-go" list. Initially, I booked the trip to South Rim where most of people visit. South Rim is where the Grand Canyon national park is, it has the most spectacular view of the Canyon. Unfortunately, it was a very cold month for that area, it started snowing just before my trip. I was lucky that I didn't book the trip one day ahead. A lot people who did had to stay in the sound rim overnight due to the big snow fall and 6-inch ice on the road.  When I was told of that, I was given the choice of either going back to hotel (who would do that !) or going to West Rim. West Rim is a relatively newly developed area. Although it's much closer to LV comparing to South Rim, the trip goes into Indian territory, so everyone has to pay for about $40 of "entry fee", in addition to the cost of the trip itself. Even though, people usually see a lot of Grand Canyon pictures from South Rim, very few from the West. So lucky you !


The first stop, Hoover Dam. In order to avoid terrorist attach, a new bridge has been build to by-pass the dam. It gives you a helicopter view of the area. No complains. 

Most of the areas is flatten out with gravel and small bushes everywhere. I guess it must be very different from Ottawa where the landscape of the summer and winter are so drastically different, but here, almost the same,I guess...

 

After about 4 hours, we finally arrived in Grant Canyon. People had to take shuttle buses among 3 destinations in the tourist areas. The most popular place has a balcony, called Sky-walk. The name came from the see through glass put into the balcony as the floor. Similar to the CN tower, when you walk on it, it's like in the sky. To be honest, I was a bit nervous when I heard this. During the line-up to the Sky-walk, I felt it's like lining up for the roller coaster ride, exciting but nervous. When you actually walk on it, it's not too bad, great view from all angels except for you not being allowed to bring any image or video recording devices, such as my D700. It was a ridiculous price to purchase their "photographers" work. I decided to walk away. 

The Grand Caynon is spectacular! I will definitely come back again.

Thanks for reading. The End !