I was woken up at 5am by a phone call from a Raleigh number. I let it go to voicemail then, but at 8am, found it was a lady calling from the Register of Deeds office to let me know that we could not get our marriage license because there was information left off of the form we signed the day of the wedding. WHAT? I'm telling you, there is nothing easy in my life! Crisis adverted and we ordered room service! Breakfast in bed!
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| Riding on the Maverick shuttle |
3 stops later, we arrived at Maverick, read the safety instructions and got weighed and then we were split up into different groups for our HELICOPTER RIDE!!!!! OVER THE GRAND CANYON!!!!
Oh yes! The ride was about 30-45 minutes long on the way in. I was really impressed by the smoothness of the ride. I thought we'd be jerked around and that my stomach just wouldn't be able to take it, but it really wasn't bad at all. We all had headsets so we could hear the pilot and each other (and the background soundtrack). We were going about 100 miles an hour, if not more, and it sure didn't feel like it! Much smoother than a normal airplane flight, but maybe our pilot was just that good!
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| Ready for take-off |
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| Hoover Dam |
Doesn't do it justice, but shows more than the photos, I think!
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| With our helicopter in the Canyon |
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| Kevin being goofy and acting like he was falling over. Can't take him anywhere. |
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| Snack Time! |
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| In the Grand Canyon! |
We stopped about 10 minutes in to our ride back to fuel up at the lone fueling station and were able to get out again and take some photos. Then it was back in the air and we circled the strip before landing back at Maverick's Offices.
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| Fueling Station |
What an adventure!
If you ever get the chance to do this, jump at it! I was a little upset at myself after booking the tickets because I wanted to see the south rim of the Canyon. It's supposed to have the best colors and the most spectacular views. And it's possible with Maverick, but not in a helicopter...you have to fly by plane and then get into the Canyon by shuttle. That just didn't seem as fun. All-in-all, based on the time our trip took, it was the best bang for our buck! And we can now say that not only have we seen the Grand Canyon, we've landed in it, walked in it, and taken off from it's floor! So cool!
Once we were back on the strip, we took the Maverick shuttle back to our hotel...and then decided to be adventurous and we stayed on the shuttle until the last stop, so we'd be further down the strip and wouldn't have to walk...sharp minds here folks! So, we got off at the Mandarin Hotel and proceeded to walk towards New York-New York, where we rode the roller coaster on top. WHAT? What were we thinking?? I wasn't that scared until we were strapped in and then I didn't want to do it anymore! I'm not opposed to roller coasters, but this one, we both agreed, was a little bit more rickety than ones we've ridden in the past. My head was banging on the back of the seat the entire time. So, that's all I could concentrate on!
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| Yes, we rode that crazy thing! |
When we finally got out of there, we decided it was well past lunch time and we stopped at a Subway for a bite to eat and then sat on a bench at the back of the MGM Grand, in the shade, to eat. Subway hit the spot...except, in Vegas, prepare to pay double what you pay at home. Ridiculous and we didn't even get chips or a drink! After lunch, we were tired, so we decided to ride the monorail from the MGM Grand to the Stratosphere. Two good things came out of that...#1 we were able to see the inside of MGM, that we probably wouldn't have seen otherwise...#2 we were able to sit and relax for a bit. It had to have been at least 80 degrees that day and we were tired and pooped! Once we got to the stratosphere stop on the monorail, we decided we didn't want to walk all the way over there, so we sat at the monorail station for a little bit before we rode all the way back! :) We're so fun!
Our treat for that strenuous activity came in the form of Pinkberry!!!
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| So excited about Pinkberry! |
I've been dying to try Pinkberry for awhile now and I got my chance right on the Vegas strip, outside of the Mandarin Hotel! We ate and then made our way over to Planet Hollywood to check out the indoor thunderstorm...except we had just missed it. So, we walked across the street to our hotel, the Bellagio, and made it just in time to catch the entire water show! Spectacular!
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| Watching the water show! |
We went inside, intending to go back to the room and rest a bit, and found an area of fall decorations we had missed before. A little greenhouse/flower garden of sorts. So, we walked through that...found the pool area and admired how nice it was...tried to sneak into the little wedding chapel (that was booked)...and finally made it up to the room to crash!
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| Inside the Bellagio |
After lounging for awhile and then showering and getting ready, we made our way over to the Paris hotel for their dinner buffet-Le Village Buffet. Where we proceeded to stuff ourselves! Then, we walked outside and hopped on a Deuce bus to go down to Fremont Street. The bus ride was long and many people kept shoving themselves on. It was not fun. We actually got off the bus early so we could stop in and see The Golden Nugget Hotel. It's definitely old Vegas and more glamorous than the newer hotels on the new strip. When we left there, we walked over to Fremont Street and basically just had fun people watching. They were filming for CSI, so there were many people gathered around. Kevin said he saw someone dressed like a zombie, but I couldn't see that much. There was a band playing. There were showgirls in the costumes taking pictures with random people, etc. We walked up and down a few times and then caught a bus back. My eyes had started burning and hurting and I was ready to go to bed!
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| All dressed up for dinner at Paris and Fremont! |
More pictures on facebook here.
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