Day 33 Las Vegas. 10:00 am and the shuttle bus arrived at our hotel transferring us to Boulder City Airport 30 minutes away for our helicopter flight over the Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon. Dozens of helicopters at the airport taking people from all over the world on the 1 hr and 10 minute flight. Found a coupon in one of the many discount coupon books lying around everywhere in LV, offering a $100 discount on the trip. Great value as it seemed everyone else had taken up the offer with streams of people egressing from the many shuttle buses.
Had the 10 minute safety briefing video and waited for around an hour till we were called by our pilot for the flight. 2 other couples - Spanish and German shared our flight today. Boarded the helicopter after strapping on our life vests. Tony scored a rear window seat, with Nikita in the middle. 5 minutes into the flight and we were flying over the Hoover Dam about 1000 feet below spotting the car park from where we stopped 4 weeks earlier for a good panoramic viewpoint. Carried on for another 25 minutes heading east with Western Movies themed music playing over our headsets, interrupted occasionally by the pilot's flight commentaries followed by Spanish and German narration. Visions of cowboys and Indians were had, riding their horses decades ago in the harsh desert as they navigated the unforgiving terrain in the searing heat looking for non-exist ant water. A great number would have perished, left to the vultures to dispose of.
Great views of Lake Mead were offered below which was approximately 100 below normal levels due to low inflows. The West Rim of Grand Canyon was finally reached and it looked just as spectacular as when we visited the South Rim at the start of our traveling adventures offering a dazzling display of colours aided by the cloudless day. The Colorado River was seen at the bottom, a dirty red/brown colour with 1 raft spotted. Definitely no good for drinking that water! The chopper banked to the left around 5 minutes into the canyon and headed back out returning to the airport.
Returned to our hotel for another swim and headed back to The Strip collecting tickets for the show by David Copperfield - the world's greatest illusionist. An unbelievable performance in which he levitated and made people disappear and then reappear elsewhere! Concluded the night by touring several hotels at the south end of The Strip before returning to the hotel and turning in for the night.