Las Vegas at Night

This is the view of Las Vegas that I had from my room at the Bellagio Hotel, which is now my favorite hotel! :)

Bellagio's Hotel in Las Vegas has this beautiful fountain, which is choreographed to music. This fountain is rated as one of the 10 best fountains in the world, so I figured it would qualify as scenic. The fountain "danced" to different songs every 15 minutes from 3:00 PM to midnight while I was there in May, 2009. My daughter and I watched the fountain about 12 times from our room, tuning to the channel of the TV that piped the fountains music into the room.

I asked the Bellagio staff for a great room for photography, and they gave me this room, which looked out on to the Hotel Paris Paris (with it's version of the Eiffel Tower) perfectly framed by the fountain. Bally's is to the left of the fountain, and Planet Hollywood is to the right of Paris Paris.

Sometimes it is worth it to upgrade your room, especially if you are a photographer.

Click on the image to see it larger.

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This is also my contribution for the 'meme' Scenic Sunday. (I was entry 45 of 81)
This is my contribution to the 'meme' Outdoor Wednesday. (I was entry 19 of 117)
















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Misty Morning post with another covered bridge photo from Cedarburg



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My 1st Scenic Sunday post Elves Chasm, Grand Canyon, USA

Rafting, Day 1, Part 1 - Just getting there

Rafting Day 1 started on Tuesday, May 19, 2009 at 5:00 in the AM. (In Arizona, there is a 5:00 in the AM as well as the PM.) At 5:45 AM our rafting group was meeting in the lobby of the Las Vegas Desert Rose Resort. I didn't sleep well, and had gotten up at 4ish to check some item in my luggage. Then I either slept through or never received my first wake-up call. The second one at 5:15 AM got me going, but I felt rushed, confused and late (a fairly normal, everyday occurrence). (Waking up in a strange place is disorienting - things aren't where they usually are - like the bed. This is hard for a non-morning person who tries to execute morning on autopilot.) We got dressed and tried to get our luggage to the lobby - conveniently one building down and across a parking lot.
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Miranda woke content and happy, but she wasn't able to carry much more then one bag and a teddy bear. I had split the luggage the night before into 2 rafting duffel bags with the clothing and items we would need for rafting; the camera bag I would be taking on the rafting trip; and the 3 pieces of luggage that we would be paying the Desert Rose Resort to store while we were rafting. Without the hotel luggage cart (you know, the luggage thingy), and with no time to go find one, we carried and dragged the luggage in mini relay stretches to the lobby. I left three liters of Coke Cola in my hotel, planning to run back and get them. By the time the three pieces of luggage that were being stored at the resort had been processed, and the rafting luggage was loaded on the bus, the leader felt there was no time for me to run back to the room. Those three liters of soda became part of a long list of items lost and left behind at various points on the trip, but they were the only items I knew I was leaving behind at the moment I left them. (Someday I might blog just on the lost and left behind items - so many little stories!)
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At 5:45 (again, AM!), or at least before 6:00 (AM) the bus with our group of 28 and our luggage pulled out of the hotel lobby and we headed for the smaller Las Vegas airport - the airport for prop planes and puddle jumpers. (Canyon kamikazes?) Luggage handling is different at this airport. The luggage isn't X-rayed, but the luggage is carefully weighed, and then you are told to step on the scale. The airport personnel (or a computer) balances all the weight and assigns people to seats so they (hopefully) balance on each side of the aisle of the small plane. Our group of 28 people (plus luggage) were all weighed and then split across four flights. Another group used 2 planes, so we had to wait for our flight from among six planes which were leaving one at a time. The business in the gift shop boomed while we waited.
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When our flight was called, I carried Miranda's and my luggage outside to the airplane, and we climbed aboard. All the seats are window seats. Each seat has headphones - big ones, to block out the noise.
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The ride in the prop plane took more then an hour to go about 250 miles from Las Vegas to the landing strip near Lee's Ferry, Arizona. We flew over Lake Mead, and along the Grand Canyon, and I had fun taking pictures of the landscape below us. (Unfortunately, I was on the left side of the plane, and the Grand Canyon was out the window on the right side of the plane.)
(I wanted to cross the aisle to see the view out the right side and take pictures, but I didn't dare, as it might cause our carefully balanced plane to tip and crash.) The end part of the plane ride, was bumpy as the plane flew basically at the height of the canyon walls.

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The landing strip was across the highway from the Marble Canyon Trading Post, the restaurant where we had our last meal. (last meal before rafting, I mean.) (OK, our breakfast) The view was pretty, but I was groggy and too anxious to look around. Miranda and I did last minute shopping. (Again, business boomed as I bought a dry bag for my camera, coke cola for the raft trip, and post cards.) (More to lug, Ugh.)
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I took a (partial) group picture where everyone seemed a bit tired.
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Wilderness River Adventures then loaded our group and luggage into a bus for the ride to Lee's ferry, several miles down the road. Miranda and I were trying to write a set of post cards to send to the boys to replace a set of post cards Miranda had written earlier to send and then had lost in Las Vegas. I was in a "woke too early in the morning" haze, trying to view scenery, take pictures and write post cards, while balancing soda and my camera on my lap. The scenery passing by was amazing - like something out of a road runner cartoon.
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We arrived at the spot where the Colorado River meets a parking lot - Lee's Ferry, although it is hard to find using map quest. This was the point where we met our raft. That will hopefully be in another blog. (Chapter?)


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Grand Vacation

It is now the closing days before my 10 year old daughter and I leave on our "vacation of a lifetime". On Monday, we leave fly to Las Vegas, and on Wednesday, at 5:45 in the AM (morning, early...) we meet our group to fly to the Grand Canyon, and take a motorized raft 180 miles down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon for 7 days and nights.
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For seven days and nights it will be no buildings, no non-battery electricity, no running water (other then the river), and only campfires and flashlights and stars for light once the sun goes down. I don't think I have slept in a tent for even 3 consecutive days in the last two decades, much less camping so completely roughing it.
But then again, with out my wonderful bed, soft sheets (think Egyptian cotton), and four pillows, I am not sure I am going to be able to sleep at all anyway, so whatever.
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Why am I going? What possessed me to sign up for this?
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I love the IDEA of going down the Grand Canyon on a raft, especially since seeing some spectacular TV footage about 5 years ago on Grand Canyon rafting. My husband Carl knew this, and was always supportive - (Go ahead, Jeanne, you go....) When a group from my church announced a raft trip, I smiled at the thought of going, inquired a bit, and let the trip fill up without me.
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After all, I couldn't really leave my husband to get 4 children off to school while I traipsed around the wilderness in Arizona for over a week. Then, someone canceled. I still couldn't really go, my youngest would really miss me the entire time I was gone. Then there was another cancellation. I called Carl and said - I should take Miranda...

I have two children who are up for adventures, and two who are not. Miranda is always up for an adventure. She wants to travel, camp out, see polar bears in the wild (um, COLD...), to go to China and the city that has water for roads (Venice), and she wanted to see the grand canyon.
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Every year since the boys were in first grade, they have gone to camp Rokilio, the local Cub Scout Camp, (2 hours North) for a 3 night camp out, graduating in 6th grade to a 6 night camp out with the boy scouts in some remote camp (4 hours North) that I have never seen. Carl always takes vacation and goes with the boys, primarily so that my oldest son Tom can participate.
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Miranda's girl scout experiences, although fun, have been limited to one night overnights at the Betty Brinn Children's museum or similar, and culminated in a 2 night overnight at Camp Jellystone. (Very cool, but no lake, beach, boats, archery, or BB guns.)
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She loves going to the visitors night at Camp Rokilio, and has done so at least five times in the last seven years, to see Daddy and the boys. As she got older, we would stay for the campfires, even though it meant that I drove sleeping children home for 2 hours on country highways in the boondocks at midnight, after the campfire was over at 11:00 or so.
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So the idea of taking Miranda wasn't so far fetched, and evolved...
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By the time the boys had reached 4th grade, they have camped out a minimum of 12 days at Camp Rokilio alone, not counting other boy scout overnights. Miranda has had 3-4 nights of overnight camping other then in the backyard. This could almost even up the tally.

She might still not get to do archery or BB guns, but a helicopter trip might be a substitute. (After going 180 miles, they helicopter you out to the airport for a bumpy ride back to Las Vegas.)
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And the best part of the plan was that the group we would be traveling down the Grand Canyon with would be composed of people we knew on sight from church, (like the pastor and his wife, wonderful people) .
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I am of course excited about the scenery, the photographic possibilities, and I want to see the stars at night! But now I can't back out, and it really will be camping, and I am getting nervous. Pray for me! I guess it is a good idea that I am going with a group from church. Prayer will be part of the experience. (As will getting up early. Did I mention we start at 5:45 in the AM?)
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Oh, because I have never been to Las Vegas, on both sides of the trip we are staying in some pretty cool hotels. I wanted to go rafting with the church group, and now I am taking my daughter to sin city, Las Vegas. I took a Beth Moore Bible Study once, on Daniel. From God's magnificence (the Grand Canyon) to Babylon.
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Well if you hung in this far through the blog, I hope I kept you amused. Wish me well, and look for photos...


This is camping like I never want to do. Carl and the 3 boys have earned their polar bear awards. They camp in the snow for fun. Miranda has camped in the backyard in snow for fun.
I do not plan on camping in the snow.


If you enjoyed this post you might also like:

Grand Canyon intro

GC Getting There

GC Lees Ferry

GC Navajo Bridge

Grand Canyon Ruins

GC Running Rapids

GC River View

Elves Chasm