Vegas, baby!

For Brian's big 3-0 birthday, I surprised him with our first trip to Las Vegas. He had no idea where we were going. We left first thing on Saturday morning, and had a layover in Atlanta. At that point, he still didn't know where we were going, since I checked us in online and only gave him his first boarding pass. Finally in Atlanta I walked him to the gate and he saw that Vegas was our destination. I think he was a little disappointed, because I had led him to believe we were going someplace tropical, but nonetheless he was excited to go to LV.

Here we are on the plane- destination unknown.

Just after arriving in our hotel, the MGM Grand.

The view from our room on the 28th floor. You can see the Tropicana, Excalibur and Luxor.

My co-worker Jennifer recommended we have dinner in the Italian restaurant in the New York New York. It was a fabulous meal!

Sunday I had planned a special trip for Brian. It was a helicopter ride and tour of the Grand Canyon, including landing at the base of the Canyon for a champagne lunch.

On board the helicopter. We were in the front with me between Brian and our pilot.

After landing in the Canyon, while lunch was being set out.

Brian with our helicopter and the other. We were the only 12 people in that part of the Canyon.

Our picnic lunch with our helicopter mates.

Our personal helicopter.

We brought our coats with us, because it was supposed to be 45 in the canyon, but it was sunny and approximately 70 degrees.

On board, for the trip back. On the way to the Canyon, our pilot had classical music playing while he gave us toury information. We flew over Lake Meade, the Hoover Dam, the Colorado River, etc. On the return flight, he had the fun soundtrack playing, which included songs from Top Gun, Sweet Home Alabama, Hotel California, Lenny Kravitz's Fly, and a bunch of others.

We made a pit stop for gas at the top of the Canyon. We got to climb out while the propeller was whirring around and had to stand back a certain distance while we got fueled up.

I have tons of videos which I'll load up in the next post. Overall, if anyone has the option to see the Grand Canyon via helicopter tour Brian and I give it two enthusiastic thumbs up. It ranks as one of the coolest experiences of my life. Riding the helicopter alone was awesome, but adding to it the scenery and then landing and lunch, it was phenomenal. The company we used is called Papillion Helicopters. Honestly, FANTASTIC.

We got back on Sunday in time to watch the Superbowl, which was fun to be in Vegas for. People were shrieking left and right. The MGM Grand is also where the UFC Champion match was fought on Saturday night, so we saw lots of UFC people (including some who rode in the plane with us from Philly). We also saw Criss Angel and Cirque du Soleil's show "Believe," which was cool.

We were both shocked at how many little children were there with their parents. In my opinion, it is not family friendly at all. Every casino was filled with cigarette and cigar smoke. It was actually so bad that Brian's and my eyes got irritated and bloodshot from the smoke. Blech. We also weren't so fond of the almost naked young women dancing on platforms in the casinos. I can't count how many times we mentioned to the other "imagine her parents." It is sad to see that. Finally the public drunkenness is funny to a point, but after a while it's rather tragic to see. One guy was literally slithering across the lobby of MGM the morning we left. He couldn't stand up at all and he couldn't even crawl on all fours. Also on Sunday morning we had to go up to get our coats for the Grand Canyon trip and got on the elevator with a young couple. They were in their own little world and I had to actually ask them which floor they were going to, since they hasn't pushed a button. When the doors opened on their floor, the girl walked into the foyer and exclaimed, "Why is it so bright? Oh my God, is it morning?" It was 10:00am. She had no clue.