More in Vegas!

Tuesday Schedule in Vegas

I need to backtrack a little and tell about a problem that came up on Saturday.  Don discovered that he didn't bring all of his medicine.  He started trying to figure out what to do.  He decided to call Ricki and ask her to go to our house and pick up the medicine and then UPS it overnight to our hotel.  THANKS GOODNESS FOR RICKI!!  She keeps Abby when we are gone and solves a lot of problems for us.  He was to receive the package Tuesday morning.

I had a mission first thing. I needed to walk to the discount ticket office to pick up 6 tickets for Viva Elvis. Paula, Raymon, Susan and Shaun were going with us. Got them and headed back. Don stayed in room for medicine delivery. No medicine yet.  Then I walked to get us sandwiches for lunch.  No medicine yet.  Checked at the office, not yet.  Then had to walk to Avia Hotel's ticket counter that opened at noon to pick up real tickets for show that night.  Got back and he had gotten the package and all was good!!  I had walked a couple of miles by this time.

Our plan for today was to head to Red Rock Canyon, west of Vegas.  We met Paula and Raymond on the west side of town and they rode with us.  We drove to the visitor's center.  It was an outstanding one. 

This is Mojave Mac, the "Spokestortoise" for all the wild desert tortoises, a threatened species in the Mojave Dessert. 

Beautiful red mountains and views

The Canyon has a 12 miles scenic drive and lots of pull outs and hikes.  We made our first stop to hike and look for several geocaches. 

We headed out looking for a particular cache and took a few wrong turns and it took longer than we had expected.  When we did find the location we couldn't find the cache.  Bummer!!  By this time it was already late so we had to hustle to the car and make the drive through the canyon so we could get back to clean up and get to the Elvis show.

We made it and had a great time at the show.  We had Balcony seats but right in the front. Great seats!

Wednesday Schedule

We were heading to Valley of Fire with Paula and Raymond and started out about 9:00.  Valley of Fire was about 60 miles to the north and east of Vegas.  We found about 10 geocaches during the drive and hikes today.

As we drove into the Valley the beautiful red mountains rose up in front of us. An amazing site & the wild flowers were in full bloom.

We took several hikes to hunt caches and passed by numerous petroglyphs along the way. It was a little windy but the temperature was perfect for hikes, probably in the 70's.

The drive was long but the scenery was beautiful

Thursday Schedule

After two days in the car, Raymond was ready to get back to the casinos.  Paula took him to down to Fremont street for the day and met us at the hotel. We were driving towards Las Vegas Lake area and then Hoover Dam to see the new bridge. 

 Our climb up the hill to walk on the bridge at Hoover Dam

 Bridge Facts

 View of the old road across the Dam

Walk on the new bridge

 View of the new bridge

Girl's Lunch with Don

We had a great week in Vegas visiting with Paula and Raymond. 

What happened in Vegas? I'm telling!

We had a great time!!

Our purpose for going to Las Vegas was to attend the wedding of Susan and Shaun Rutter.  Susan is Paula's daughter (Don's sister).  They live in Las Vegas.

Since we could get a timeshare there we thought it would be fun to go to the wedding and then enjoy a week visiting with Paula and Raymond.

We arrive on Friday afternoon (4/22) with a 3 hour delay at the OKC airport because St. Louis had a tornado at their airport.  Very short drive to our timeshare the Marriot Grand Chateau.

 

 It was only a block east of the strip across from Planet Hollywood. 

This was the view from the front door of the timeshare.The round building is advertising the show that we went to see on Tuesday night "Cirque Du Soleil"  Viva Elvis at the Aria Resort. It was the story of his life and was a Great Show!!

Friday evening Paula & Raymond with their family(Jered's, Tina's & Buffy's) came down to walk the strip and do a little gambling. Traffic down Las Vegas Blvd was a nightmare. We finally found ways around it.

We walked to the Ballagio and watched the water show.  Across the street was Paris.  Don, Paula and I walked back to the room. Jered took Lani and the kids home for the night and the rest went and did a little gambling.

Saturday evening was the wedding. During the day we helped Paula with some errands for the wedding, bought a gift for the wedding couple and then made it to Rainbow Gardens for the wedding that evening. 

Shaun & Susan's Wedding

 Paula putting the finishing touches on the table assignments

 Raymond and his daughter Tina

 Don and his sister, Paula

Don, Paula, Lani, Jered (Paula's son) & Raymond

 Raymond's nephew with wife and Tina's husband and Tina

Paula & Jered 

 (Jered's wife) Lani and Ella the flower girl

Ella

Ceremony

 Mother of the Bride

 Guest filling up the chairs

 Jered and Ella

 Roses for the Bride and Groom

 Buffy and Jason

 Minister and the Groom

 Dad and the Bride

 Prayer for the Bride and Groom

Mr. and Mrs. Shaun Rutter

Reception

 They had an open bar, buffet dinner and a dance.

 Jason, Tina (Raymond's daughter), Paula and Raymond

 Ella, Owen, Lani, Paula and Jered

 First dance

The Happy Couple

Sunday schedule - Don and I got up and worked out and then met the family(about twenty of them) at the casino where Paula and Raymond was staying for the buffet brunch. Way way too much food but it was good!!!

The casino had a huge aquarium with a mermaid in it and was connected to a huge Pro Bass Store. 

 Monday schedule

Have you ever seen Pawn Stars on the History channel?  I love to watch it.  We went to the Pawn shop on Monday.  It is towards the downtown area of Las Vegas and it is a little store.  Raymond and several others wanted to see it.  I felt like I was on TV.  We had to stand in line for about 15 minutes but that gave us time to take pictures. 

 I didn't notice the no pictures sign when I took the picture. 

 We didn't see any of the stars of the show. I wanted to see Chumly.

Some highlight pictures of the afternoon 

Continued in next blog, going to bed.  Good night