Las Vegas is a truly remarkable and wonderful place, but if you are not careful it will chew you up and spit you out unless you treat it with the respect it demands.

Our arrival here and time here were not quite as we had planned, so for this story we need to go back in time.

Half way back to Orlando and it was early morning which is normally the time we contact people at home if we are going to. Today was different though in that David felt a need to contact his Mum, why is something that is really only important to them, but this was how it was. When he did the result was an unhappy one, David’s Nan had been in hospital after breaking her hip and after several weeks of complications she had sadly passed away.

For the next two days it is easiest to say that the loss of Little Nan had crippled the trip and we were planning our return home as soon as we could get to Florida and book a flight. This was the second Grandparent lost while on the trip, one of which was expected but one that was not but either way it was hard hitting from so far away.

The next few days brought a lot of contact with our families and friends back home who were so so supportive and encouraging, and wanted us to consider not going home and carrying on with the trip as David’s Little Nan loved the blogs and the pictures of the trip and would not have wanted us to stop doing it. After some very painful and long decisions we decided not to go home, partly because we had promised ourselves something before we left and that was only to do things that made a difference and right now going home would not do that. So instead we decided to do something unique like no one else could do, which would make it special for Little Nan.

David’s Nan loved sunsets as much as anyone could. As we were on the east coast that was no good for a sunset on the day of the funeral, so we changed the plans, booked a flight and shipped out to the west coast to ensure we had one. Now the choice of destination being Las Vegas you may think odd but when you read ‘Little Nan’s’ day you will get why we did this as all the details are where they deserve to be and that is in ‘Little Nans Day‘. So for now it would make more sense if you read that and come back to this point which we have clearly marked for your to return easily.

Return Here.

The Luxor is the hotel we had booked in to and is an Egyptian themed hotel both inside and out, the outside because it is built I the shape of a pyramid and has a sphinx over the front door and drop off road which makes it almost as big as the real ones! Inside are statues and waterfalls resembling the ancient Egypt and the inner is just as much of a Pyramid as the outer. This makes it interesting when we travelled to our room as the lift tilts slightly and goes on an angle up the sloping walls. In the room the wall, roof and window all slope also and everything is again decorated in Egyptian theme.

The Casino in the heart of the hotel is open 24 hours and was never quiet in the whole time we were in the hotel and we saw it at all hours. The day after ‘Little Nans Day’ We went to the very North end of the strip to visit the Stratosphere tower, this was the original Las Vegas starting point where everything including the ‘Little White Chapel’ was, we did go see the chapel and NO is the answer to the question that just entered some of your heads so get it back out!

Shocking as it may seem you can see from the pictures that the options to get married here include a drive in wedding, which means exactly that. We saw a couple drive up to the window like they were at a Mcdonalds drive thru, read the generic papers handed to them, sign and return the papers and have a Polaroid taken while they were still in the car. The engine never stopped running the whole time and they were gone as quick as they came!
We took a look around a few shops and some of the other hotels which are replicas of things like the Eiffel tower, Greek temples, a palace, etc etc. In the afternoon we spent some time around the pool which is one of the strangest set ups we have ever seen and to be honest is indescribable really. We didn’t do much other than chill out and swim a bit, but as it got back to the evening we were drawn back to the fountains at the Bellagio in order to see more superb displays from the fountain. This time it felt very peaceful and definitely the right place to be for ‘Little Nans day’. The Bellagio inside was very impressive and also had one of the biggest shopping streets we had seen, yes you did read that right the hotels here each have shopping streets built on one or more levels inside the hotel. If you think how can that be, well it took us 20 minutes sometimes to go the most direct route to the front door of the hotel!!

Later into the night back at our own hotel the Luxor we had a meal in the buffet with free vouchers we had got, the buffet was like the best restaurant you have ever been in. This was because it was every restaurant you have ever been in, any type of food you can think of was in this place and it was all perfectly cooked and or prepared.

Having tried almost everything on the Buffet we left rather stuffed but very happy with our choice of place to eat. Luckily we were only going to be sitting down at the slot machines or the roulette table, Carina has not done these before so a crash course was given and off we went. We had fun with the small amount of chips we had and ended up $4 better off but no chips left that are high enough for the table limit. So we retired happy in the knowledge we had had fun but that was enough and the money was safe, so off to our room we trotted at some ridiculous hour for our last comfortable night in the hotel before our second road trip was to begin.

This is one on the list to come back and do in style with a large amount of cash!