Bright Light City…

We arrived in Las Vegas just in time to see the Christmas decorations hanging up in the  MASSIVE vestibule of our hotel, MGM Grand.  The hotels are, in lots of ways, very difficult to describe really; they are just SO enormous and so opulent that  it’s easy to forget when wandering around their vast corridors, cavernous casinos, numerous restaurants, cafes, theatres (plural), zoos, shopping malls (yes, malls.. plural), streets, rail stations, pools, gardens, canals, fun fairs, and stuff that I’ve no doubt yet to encounter, that one hasn’t actually left the building.  Think BIG… then think B-I-G-G-E-R! 

  After checking in and ‘wow’ing at the size of the place, the number of floors, lifts, wings and the size of the rooms and all the neon lights and everything else, our first port of call was the Rain Forest Cafe (inside the hotel) where I spotted these fantastic bar stools as I queued up for our place and the girls all shopped around in the Rain Forest Cafe shop.  Well… why not?

After dinner we ventured out briefly onto The Strip (Las Vegas Boulevard), and ‘OMG’ed a bit more at the lights and the sights of Sin City. The night sky was perfectly black and provided the ideal backdrop to the living display of affluence and over-indulgence.  I’d been to Vegas once previously, just over three years ago on business (oh yes! I was working!!) and I didn’t get to see much of it so I was always keen to return as a visitor.  Linda had been several times before but for Sarah and Katie it was the smack in the face they’d been told to expect.  They found it all a bit overpowering at first and were much happier when we retired for the evening back to the hotel. Sarah loved the room and LOVED the view out of the windows with all the lights and the occasional streak of a helicopter whizzing by.  So much so, that she and Katie decided to pull up their chairs, turn off the lights and let it all soak in!  They even slept with the curtains drawn so that  they could see it all at first light.

Next morning they had a bit of a lie in and a Starbucks breakfast before exploring the MGM while Linda and I headed downtown to take care of the official business… Getting our wedding licence!!

It was quite an experience really!  Outside of the courthouse Linda saw yet another sign about her destiny.  The street that the courthouse is on corners at LEWIS and on the subject of corners, there were many very strange people hanging around!  Bums, ticket touts, limousine touts, hotel touts, touting touts and it took a while for it to sink in that, of course, we were outside of the courthouse.  Doh!  Anyway.. inside also had some very interesting types trying to get licences but it was well worth the comedy value as we listened to them argue their case and we read some of the interesting rules signage about their right to refuse marriage licences to anyone who appeared to be too intoxicated.  We’d already registered online and taken care of the ‘business’ side so our appointment only took a few minutes and the lady who looked after us couldn’t have been any nicer!     So… that was it!  We had our licence, we were in the right place, at the right time, with the correct paperwork and we were now allowed to go ahead and get married… How very exciting!

When we got back to the hotel at lunchtime Sarah and Katie had covered quite a lot of ground in and around the hotel and even up the strip.  After their sleep and in the daylight they’d relaxed and then they got really excited about being in Vegas.  They dragged us to see the Lion Enclosure which is, of course, inside the hotel!

The MGM has a 5,300 square foot glass enclosure housing several lions that allow one to view the beasts in a "natural" environment complete with trees, waterfalls, rocks, etc.   As well as the walls being glass there is a glass walkway which allowed us to see these stunning animals from above, below, and all around us.  Needless to say, the glass walkway leads through to another retail opportunity!  There were two babies being entertained by their keepers and one of them chewed away quite happily on the guy’s fingers and thumbs! We think that this guy has the best job in the world.  These young cubs are also available to have one’s photograph taken with, and LOTS of Japanese people did exactly that. 

As always with our holidays we like to spring the odd surprise on the Girls.  This was no exception.  For our second evening out we suggested going up the strip to see Ceasars Palace.  Inside they have, amongst a million other things, a Planet Hollywood restaurant and we’d booked a table.. for six people!

As we waited for our table time we stood and watched a display of one of the many fabulous animated statues and just as it finished, we bumped into Auntie Janet and Uncle Eamonn.    Linda’s sister Janet and her partner Eamonn live in Alberta Canada and they’d decided to take a holiday around California, Arizona, and Nevada.  They just jumped in the truck, popped over the border and drove down… like you do… in three days!  It was really lovely to catch up with them both and especially so for Sarah and Katie as they had no idea that they would be there with us for the wedding. We only found out ourselves at Christmas time :-)

Our Wedding!

We’d had a great night with Janet and Eamonn and then we woke up on our big day.  Starbucks breakfasts fetched by me from one of their four (or five) cafes in our hotel went down very well and we set about the business of getting ready.  All three of my ladies looked amazing and Katie was bursting with pride!  Not because we were getting married. Oh no… because she finally got to wear her new boots! 

It was a lovely sunny morning and the excitement of getting ready was fantastic.   Our limousine was booked and confirmed and we stepped out into the January sunshine and watched eagerly as limo after limo turned up.  Ours was about 400 feet long in brilliant white.  The driver was charming and made the trip very special for us all as we cruised up the strip and through downtown Las Vegas towards the chapel.  Along the way we had the opportunity to see many more of the hotels, casinos, attractions, tattoo shops, ‘check’ cashing offices, massage parlours, tattoo shops, strip clubs and also some tattoo shops.

We drove right by the Las Vegas Hilton where The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll used to ply his trade and we had a really great view up at the Stratosphere tower which looked impressive and imposing against the clear blue sky and which I’d been crazy (and possibly a little under the influence…  I know, I know.. and I am ashamed!),  enough to ascend and ride on the lunatic fairground rides on top of the 1000 foot tower when I’d been over there previously… working. (I was!!) 

We arrived at the Graceland Wedding Chapel in plenty of time and enjoyed the pictures of the famous people who’d also been married there. Jon Bon Jovi, Roger Glover, Billy Ray Cyrus, Jay Leno and The Thompson Twins.   The chapel is very sweet inside and the ceremony was entertaining and just what we wanted.  Emotional, fun, official, relaxed, just right!  Did I mention fun? and entertaining?   Oh yes..  Elvis was in the building!! 

He walked Linda down the isle, he sang to us and he made us all smile madly as we said “I do” and tried not to cry.  It was of course a very special moment for us and precious to have Sarah and Katie there with us looking all grown up!   It was  just what Linda and I had always promised each other that we would do when we got married.  Right from when we met we’d said that we would only ever get married in Vegas… by Elvis…. and so we did!

 

 

After the wedding ceremony we set off in the limousine  feeling quite relieved and very pleased with ourselves.   We headed for the magnificent Venetian hotel.A stroll around St. Mark’s Square, a lovely Italian lunch and then a romantic gondola ride on the canals of Venice which are, of course, inside the hotel.

Our Gondolier was a fabulous raconteur and a beautiful singer.  He serenaded us all the way and his magnificent tenor timbres made it all very special indeed.

We were even treated to a beautiful sunset over the mountains as we returned to the MGM to change for the evening.   Great day so far!

We spent the evening at the second most famous street in Las Vegas, Freemont Street.

In the heart of the downtown area Freemont Street is home to some of the original and most famous casinos and hotels.  The street itself is covered by what is arguably the largest TV screen in the world; The Space Frame. 12 million LED ‘modules’ capable of 16 million colour combinations, eight robotic mirrors, 180 strobes, per block.  Oh yes, and a 550,000 watt pa system.  There are people whizzing down the street over your head on zip wires, bands playing and people dressed up as every imaginable character from Elvis (of course) to Darth Vadar.

 

 

 

 

As we strolled around, walking off that evening’s visit to Tony Roma’s rib joint, we were treated to some of the shows where the entire screen works as one and the sound system belts out hourly themes including The Doors and Queen.  Stiff neck?  Nope!  It really is quite amazing and it’s no wonder that it attracts around 20 million visitors every year.

The following day we took in some more of the sunshine, some more of the strip, the hotels and the incredible architecture.  The new 17 million square feet City Centre hotel complex.  The Miracle Mile and Planet Hollywood with Paris in the background (oh yes… the Paris hotel has it’s own Eiffel Tower, Champs Elysees, Arc De Triomph, etc.   Ceasars Palace… 

I could go on… 

We asked Sarah and Katie what they really wanted to do on their last day.  They wanted to see Madam Tussauds.  They had a chat with Brad and Angelina 

 

 

 

 

Eva finally got to meet the subject of her lust

Katie got a few tips from Jon Bon Jovi  

and Linda and Sarah took care of business in the Oval Office. 

It was a fantastic exhibition and the settings and scenes were so detailed and so clever.  We spent hours in there and I could go on all day with who we saw :-)  After a stunning lunch with Janet and Eamonn inside Ceasars Palace it was time to say goodbye as they set off on their way back north.  This was very sad but it had been so nice to spend a bit of time with them.  We called into a couple of more retail outlets including Toby Keith’s ‘I Love This Bar and Grill’ then, knackered, we took the monorail back to the MGM Grand. 

We had one more surprise planned for our lovely girls before we had to drop them off at the airport the next morning and let them travel back alone from one side of the world to the other (God!!  It was awful and we felt like we’d abandoned them!!  Of course they had a great time travelling back without us and it was valuable experience for them… anyway, more of that later).

We had tickets to see David Copperfield that night and it was a truly fitting way to end the second chapter our holiday.  All I can say is that it really was…  magic!!