Monday 26 May, Las Vegas

Helicopter Flight1
Flew over Bolder City, the Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, to land at the base of the Grand Canyon (at the Hualapai Indian Reservation),
At the Grand canyon landing we had a picnic meal which included 2 glasses of ‘Champagne’ (In fact it was quite adequate sparkling wine made in the Méthode Champagnoise – not quite ‘Bolly’ though!)
On the return journey, we flew over a familiar sight – unsold and or incomplete residential developments. This time it was ‘Lakeview Properties’, a scam by developers in the 50’s promising superb lakeview properties. Buyers failed to be convinced once they visited the site as the land was at best over 8 miles from Lake Mead and on top of a northwest sloping mesa, without any sight of the formidable water feature over yonder dam!
The credit crunch has taken its toll on people, businesses and entire towns with many such unfinished sites and dispossessed families, some of whom were living in at least 3 of our ‘premier’ hotels!


The Strip
When you see the Sphinx at 9am, and you’re in Mountain Time, you have to think twice about how much alcohol you had the night before! However. That’s the sight which greets you as you walk past the Luxor, our first option hotel (we wanted to be further up ‘the strip’ and away from the airport), which is why we chose the pantomime hotel (formerly (formally?) the Aladdin), the Planet Hollywood Hotel.
I won’t bore you with the details here, suffice to say I walked the entire strip in two hits and was not convinced! It seems that all manner of excess, falsehood and fancy are shipped in, paraded or purloined and spat out the next day, in time for the fresh recruits to this alternative reality TV town. In fact, it is what Hollywood could have been (with more money). For instance, the hotel opposite us was being built for approximately $7.5Bn – that’s BILLIONS!!
Tried to work out which was the tackiest. Jury still out on that one. However, the cleanest water was in the treasure island ‘sea’ (complete with pirate ship!). The ‘sky ride’ at stratosphere was closed for seasonal (pre-?) servicing, and the gaudiest was probably the Bellagio or the Trump tower (complete with ‘gold’ windows!). Circus-Circus runs it a close second though!

Memorial Day Lunch (More Champagne) (this time the real deal!)
Our Hotel held a Memorial Day lunch/dinner special - $3.50 gave us a free glass of Champagne, and unlimited refills!). We only got round to lunch at 3pm and the lunch ran until 5pm and we had another helicopter flight booked for 6pm so we had to be quick!
7 glasses (each, well, 7 for me and 5 for my co-pilot!), we stumbled towards McCarron Executive Terminal for our evening trip over the ‘Strip’! Thankfully neither of us was going to be driving, but we did sit up front with the pilot (who had passed his flight certificate, after 3 attempts, only 2 days earlier!
The champagne dulled our sense of danger and foreboding.

Helicopter Flight 2
Flew over the strip during a potted history of Las Vegas.
The flight commenced with yet more champagne (of the M-C variety), land-side, of course, and canapés (all as a result of our booking the Grand Celebration Tour AND the ‘Strip’ trip!).


City Facts
Established in 1905, Las Vegas officially became a city in 1911.
At the close of the 21st century, Las Vegas was the most populous American city founded in the 20th century.
As the 28th most populous city in the United States, Las Vegas is one of the most populous cities in the American West.
Las Vegas means "The Meadows", and was named by Spaniards in the Antonio Armijo party.
Gambling was legalized on March 19, 1931.
on December 26, 1946, Bugsy Siegel's Flamingo Hotel opened on what would soon morph from the Las Vegas Boulevard to ‘The Strip’
Champagne consumed: 13 glasses, hic!