The Hoover Dam, Route 66 and The Grand Canyon

After 2 nights in Las Vegas we were kind of glad to take a break from the craziness & head for Arizona & the Grand Canyon.
Along the 500km (ish) journey there isn't that much of interest to see. The Hoover Dam is raved about so much by Americans & it was on the way, so we figured it couldn't hurt to take a peak. Unfortunately the weather on the out lap was overcast, windy & cold. We did manage to have a better look on the way back.
To be honest, it wasn't worthy of all the hype. Having said that, you can't actually see the dam wall front on. You be the judge.

More impressive than the dam is the bridge they're building just down stream.
The background is that the shortest path to Northern Arizona from Las Vegas is across the Hoover Dam. Heavy vehicles aren't allowed on the dam & instead have to take a 250km divert to the south to cross the Colorado River & get back onto Hwy 40. So the Yanks thought a bridge would be a good idea.
The problem is the bridge. Its being built way above the Colorado river & quite a way above the dam. Those in the engineering game would recognise that its quite an engineering feat.

Lake Mead

This is the whole point of the Dam. Lake Mead is the result of blocking the Colorado River. It even has a marina & I saw a paddle steamer heading off for a cruise. It's big, but I'm guessing it pales into insignificance against the "Great Lakes".
The locals are as concerned about the lack of water in their dams as much as most of the Australian Capital cities. Check out the tide mark.

Route 66 - Hackberry

Route 66 used to run from Chicago to Las Angeles & was the main connection between the East & West of the USA. Now much of it has been replaced by multi-lane freeways, but some sections are still preserved. We travelled along to section between Kingman & Seligman Arizona. Apparently its the longest section of the original road still in tact.
Again I couldn't see what all the hype was about, but there were a couple of weird little spots stuck in the 50s & 60s. This shot is of a roadside gas station at Hackberry.

Seligman

Here's the Eastern end of Route 66. Seligman is a very weird place. We were there in the off season & the whole place was shut! Not one diner or gas station was open???? Despite that, it was worth taking a few shots.

The Grand Canyon

After the long & fairly boring drive along Route 66 & then North to the Grand Canyon National Park, we finally made it. It was a little before dusk & caught an opportunity to have a bit of a look around before it got dark.
This photo is from Travel View Point just near the South Rim village where we were staying. We were caught a bit by surprise by how cold it was. The snow around the place gave us a bit of an idea, but we hadn't expected the wind to be so nasty. It was a bit of a shock after some quite pleasant weather in Las Vegas the day before and Calgary the week before we left.

Las Vegas - The Strip

Today we wandered The Strip. Each of the hotel/casino has its' own theme/gimmick and an amazing contrast between night & day.

The Stratosphere Tower.

The Stratosphere tower sits at the Northern end of the strip & towers way above everything around it. At the top there's a totally uninterrupted view of the city & the surrounding mountains.

The Stratosphere also has a couple of terrifying rides at the top. The one above is probably the nuttiest of them. It's basically a big see-saw with the green thing pictured sliding back & fourth along it. Seems simple, but the green thing kind of gets tipped of the edge & stops suddenly before it falls right off the tower.

There's another one (below) that spins you over the edge of the tower facing the ground. Again, completely not fun, just terrifying.

Needless to say, we just went up & enjoyed the view.

The Venetian

The most northern "interesting" hotel on the strip is the Venetian.
The designer of this hotel has gone to a lot of trouble to try to copy the main tourist circuit of Venice. I'd have to say they did a pretty good job too. The main difference is the Vegas version doesn't smell, the water is crystal clear & NO PIGEONS.
I think I prefer the Vegas version.

Inside the Venetian is almost as interesting as outside. They've gone to a lot of trouble to re-create the narrow streets & little walk bridges like the Venice, Italy. That includes canals running all through the building. There are heaps of shops & restaurants (like in Venice) and they've gone to great length to replicate St Mark's Square (below) minus the pigeons. This photo isn't a great one, but you get the gist. They've even painted the sky on the ceiling to make you think you're outside.

The Mirage

For the Mirage, the gimmick is the Volcano out front. It looks like a waterfall in this photo, but at night they have a gas fired eruption every 15 minutes. We didn't see it because we just didn't get the opportunity, but I've seen it on the net.
Oh, & apparently they have dolphins inside the hotel complex.

Caeser's Palace

Caesar's Palace is huge! It doesn't seem to have a gimmick other than the hotel itself. You can do Rome without leaving North America. The following pics will show you some of the classic Rome tourist attractions.

The Colosseum.

The Colosseum is just one part of Caesar's Palace & is where they host their shows. (Kind of appropriate I guess).

The Pantheon

Supposedly the Pantheon is the most impressive architectural monument left by the Roman Empire. Something about biggest self supporting dome in the ancient world.
The Las Vegas version is quite a bit smaller than the real McCoy. There is a piss weak version of the Spanish steps behind it as well.

The Trevey Fountain

The copy of the Trevey Fountain is a pretty good replica. You can only tell that it's not the real one because it's clean!

The Bellagio

The Bellagio is one of the more famous of the hotel/casinos on the strip. Its certainly the classiest & most expensive.
We actually went to see one of the Circ de Soleil shows, "O" in the Bellagio. Shows aren't really my thing, but this one was awesome! Those who have seen a Circ show before would know they're very acrobatic. This one was compounded with a pool for a stage adding diving to the spectacle.
They have some major hardware below the stage that brings a series of porous platforms up to the surface at times, making for a dry stage (or part there of at times). The system of cranes in the ceiling for the sets are equally as impressive.

The Bellagio also has a decent Japanese Garden, although I'm not sure why.

The Bellagio is probably best known for it's night time fountain shows. The photos don't do it justice of course, but they still came out nicely.

Paris Las Vegas

I don't think I have to explain the name.

Paris Las Vegas even has it's own Arc de Triomphe complete with roundabout. It doesn't have the multi-laned mad traffic accident magnet that the Parisian version has, but it's still a roundabout.

All the hotels in Vegas have some kind of array of lights that make them look more interesting at night. Paris Las Vegas is no exception.

New York-New York

This is the hotel we stayed in the first couple of nights we were in Vegas. It was very nice & reasonably priced. We had a view across to the MGM Grand & Excalibur. The roller coaster was annoying until about 11pm, but that wasn't an issue by the time we went to bed.
Oh, and the roller coaster was pretty exciting. It runs pretty much around the perimeter of the hotel.

MGM Grand

The MGM Grand is one of the newer Casinos. To be honest it wasn't that impressive during the day.
Their gimmick is the lion habitat. It's not very interesting really. They have a couple of lions in a big glass enclosure that lay around doing nothing (they're big cats after all). They have rotate different lions every day.

The MGM was much more interesting at night time. This is what we looked at straight across from our hotel window. (Slightly different angle, but you get the drift).

Excalibur.

Excalibur is one of the wackiest looking of the Casinos, but one of the better ones to find something decent to eat (that wasn't some variation of burger & fries) at a reasonable price.

The Luxor

They went all out when they designed the Luxor. That black pyramid is effectively hollow. The walls aren't just a skin either. The hotel rooms actually rise up the skin of the structure & the black glass you can see in this shot makes up the windows for the rooms. I couldn't get a decent shot of the inside to illustrate the concept but you can see what I mean from the picture on the Hotel's website. It's a very impressive engineering exercise.

This is my favourite shot from Las Vegas. It was very difficult to take as it was at night (so I had to use a tripod) and I was hard up against the exit doors for the Mono-rail. It was worth it.
You'll notice a couple of things in this shot. The two lines of light coming off the Sphinx's shoulders are actually the outline of the black pyramid in the previous shot. The beam of light that appears to be coming out of the Sphinx's head in fact comes from the apex of the pyramid & can be seen from pretty much anywhere in Vegas.

Las Vegas

Kerri has this week off work as part of her 6 week rotation. I've taken a week off work as well with a public holiday mixed in. Today, with the new camera packed, we were on an afternoon flight to Vegas.
We're going to spend two nights in Las Vegas, then two at the Grand Canyon South Rim, then another Two nights in Las Vegas again. With the short days it was well and truly dark by the time we arrived. This is the view of Excalibur from our room in the New York - New York Casino & Hotel.

Execute Plan B

On Monday, Dale & I set of for Sunshine nice & early to hopefully take advantage of some fresh snow before the crowds trashed it.
We turned off the Trans-Canada with a relentless line of traffic around 8.15 & crawled all the way to the Sunshine car park. Usually at that time its a clear run straight to the first couple of rows of the car park. We made the decision to turn around & head back to Calgary. The Lake Louise experience was still fresh in our minds & we weren't about to go through that again.
The back-up plan was to go to the Canada Olympic Park (on the outskirts of Calgary) & just have a play. When we arrived, there were next to nobody there & we had the place pretty much to ourselves. The park has 3 short runs of varying degrees of difficulty, & 2 terrain parks. One of the main runs was quite steep but not beyond us. Fortunately it was steep enough to scare off most of the idiots & we had it to ourselves. We speared off that run straight into one of the terrain parks.
The big kids terrain park was a bit daunting for us, but the "progressive" terrain park was spot on. It has a mini half pipe, a couple of rails & a couple of little jumps (pictured is Dale on one). We gave the rails a miss, but had a play in the 1/2 pipe (we were crap at it) & practiced our jumping techniques.
At the end of the day, we had a bit of fun & didn't have to battle the crowds & ice in the mountains.

Learning how to use the new camera

I've been trying to get my head around how to use my new camera. It's a big step up from the point-&-shoot compact camera's that I've been using. There are so many extra settings & variables to try to understand. The camera came with a DVD to help & a CD with some tips for editing the photos. It's starting to come to me, but there will need to be a bunch of experimenting before I'm comfortable.
I'm hoping to have it sorted out by the time we get to Las Vegas & the Grand Canyon in 2 weeks.

Frozen Lake Louise

After a couple of great days Snowboarding on Xmas Eve & Xmas day (at Lake Louise & Sunshine respectively), we all had a rest on Boxing day knowing the crowds would be out of control. So today we figured it would be a bit better (we were so wrong) and headed to Lake Louise nice & early. I had promised Kerri some personal snowboarding lessons & hung out on the learner's slope with her for the morning.
Just before lunch, Kerri needed a rest & I managed to sneak one run in. It was terrible! I waited in the lift line for about 10 mins & the run down was icy & busy with idiots. We met up with Shane & Dale who had had enough as well. We all cashed in our tickets (half day refund), had lunch & headed home.

Kerri & I thought we would go & see what Lake Louise looked like in Winter, frozen over. (see pic). It's no where near as interesting as it is during summer. Notice the Fairmount insignia on the Ice Castle below.

The Fairmount has a way of fleecing you for money at any time of year.This one makes a good shot, but it not something I'll be jumping out of my skin to do.
Thanks to its position & altitude, it always seems to be cold Lake Louise. The last thing I want to do is ride around in a two horse open sleigh.....
Poor Santa. I know he only works one day a year, but it's a tough gig.

My First White Christmas

This is the gang I spent my first white Xmas with. Unfortunately Kerri had to work (nursing's a tough gig), so the last thing I was going to do, was mope around the house by myself.
What better way to spend Xmas than to head for the mountains & go snowboarding for the day? My fellow orphans from left to right; Shane (West Oz), Canne (Nova Scotia), Todd (Alberta) & Dale (West Oz). We all have our reasons for being orphans at Xmas, but none of us were complaining one little bit. It even snowed for us.
All of us except Dale had been to Lake Louise the day before as well. We had two great days with a heap or fresh snow around. I tagged along with Todd most of the time. He's been skiing for as long as he can remember & it forced me to do a few things outside my comfort zone. This was good because I improved so much over the last couple of days. I even conquered a couple of Black Diamond runs for the first time.
In all, not a bad way to spend Xmas. It was just a shame Kerri had to work.

Elbow River

Today we got sick of sitting around the apartment & decided to go for a walk to the Elbow river (a few blocks away).
Most of the waterways are frozen over now. The lakes & rivers in the mountains have been frozen for a while. The last few weeks, even the rivers & streams around Calgary have been frozen over (or at least partially). It's pretty cool really. You can see the city buildings in the background.

During our wander along Elbow River, I spotted some movement up river. An animal scurried from the island in centre of shot into the gap in the ice. I'm not sure whether it was an otter or a beaver (I think it was a beaver or otter) but it was cool to see so close to the centre of the city. I was way too slow to take a photo of whatever it was.

New Toy

I never would have thought to buy a DSLR camera back in Australia. Canada has that kind of scenery & wildlife that makes you want to get out & see the world & then, take photos of it. I decided that, as good as Kerri's camera is, it was time to upgrade. I'm sure we'll get plenty of use out of the new toy over the next two years and beyond.

The camera comes with a 18-55 zoom lens, but I also bought the 70-300 because I thought it would come in handy for shooting animals that are too dangerous to get close to. Waterton National park down near the Montana border is literally crawling with animals & we're going to be spending lots of time down there next Summer. I'm seriously considering a wide angle lens as well, although they're quite expensive. It would be nice to have because the awesome scenery in North America is, more often than not, very difficult to frame with a standard camera. I can see the uses for it back home & in NZ as well.

Sunshine Village

Friday was an EDO (Earned Day Off, as they like to call it at Jacobs) & it was my first opportunity to head up to the Ski fields when you take advantage of  shorter lift lines & less chopping up of the runs. Shane had the day off as well, so it was on. Kira came along with us as well. Kira's the daughter of a guy that Shane & I have both worked with back in Oz & Shane is still quite friendly with them (they live over here now as well). It was Kira's first time snowboarding.

We reached Sunshine right on 8.30 and headed up to the village in the gondola nice & early. The photo above is what they call Sunshine Village. It's at the top of the gondola, but is the hub for most of the lifts.

It's always an advantage to get to the ski fields early. The runs haven't been chopped up & the lift lines are shorter. This applies in Oz & NZ as well.
We left Kira with the instructors & hit the mountain when there were next to no marks on the groomed runs & there lifts were clear. It was awesome! We had the place to ourselves & had an absolute belter of a day. The only downside was the minus 20 something temperatures. It was a small price to pay. Sunshine Village scored over 1/2 metre of snow last week & it showed. Notice the snow on the trees behind me in this photo. It was much better than when we were there last weekend.

This was the sight that greeted us when we headed up the first chair lift for the day. There was so much snow! And the day was as clear as I've seen it since we arrived in Canada. Beats the hell out of sitting at the office!
There are a couple of runs high up to the left of shot that were groomed in parts, but still had 30cm of powder. Having learned to snowboard on ice & chopped up runs in Oz & NZ, I had no concept of how to deal with it (and still don't). Apparently you have to change the way you balance & steer. I came of second best. I was traveling pretty fast, went to turn & dug the nose of the board into the powder. I must have tumbled about 6 times before I stopped. It rattled my confidence for a bit & I've got a sore neck & shoulders to show for it. It won't stop me going back & having another go!

This is what happens when 57cm of fresh snow falls in a matter of 3 days. Needless to say the outdoor tables weren't getting much use.

The mountain over to the left of picture is Goats Eye, where he wrecked his beloved snowboard on a rock & I'm lucky not to have done the same to mine. The lesson learnt, is not to get too excited when a run opens for the first time for the season.

Hot Chocolate with a Dash

My cousin, Mark, put me onto this one when we were in New Zealand snowboarding last year. It's a standard hot chocolate with a hearty dash of Brandy. Sounds odd, but it's really quite nice & gives you a warm feeling inside. Just the tonic when it's pushing -20 outside & your core temperature is low because you've been out snowboarding in it all morning. It's become a bit of a lunch time tradition for us.
Normally one at lunch is sufficient, but Shane ended up having about 4 on Friday after he destroyed his board. Can't blame him really.

Car Turds

The Canadian winter sees vast herds of cars gather at shopping centre car parks during the day, huddling together to stay warm. Just before night fall they all move off to their dens across the city leaving unmistakable evidence of their presence..... CAR TURDS!
So the true story is that snowfall brings dangerous roads & even more dangerous drivers. The city councils seem to think it's a good idea to plough the roads (fair enough) & then spread sand/grit & salt on them to increase grip. The result is, the cars pick up the slushy mix of snow & grit with their tyres & deposit it under the wheel arches. Typically these deposits fall of when they get too big & fall off. It seems to be that shopping centre car parks are the most popular place. I guess the heat of the engine bay melts the snow & it simply slips off.
Thanks to my mate Jim M. for alerting me to the phenomenon & the terminology.