September 11-16, 2017 Surprise Vegas Trip: (153 Photos)

 

153. This year Sandra and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary and low and behold she surprised me with a last minute trip to Las Vegas! Sandra had been there last summer with her mom, but this would be my first trip to Sin City. Timing couldn't be better with cold wet fall weather taking over St. John's!

 

 

 

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151.  We arrived late in Vegas and headed to our hotel, the Stratosphere. The hotel deal was decent, but after a couple days in town we decided that for our next trip we'd book a hotel centre strip. The Strat is too far away to go anywhere on foot and the neighborhood is super sketchy.

 

 

 

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149.   Thursday morning we got up and took the Strip Downtown Express city bus (the SDX) and stopped at the centre strip before heading to the North Premium Outlets.

 

 

 

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146.  After we shopped and dropped our bags back at our hotel we hopped back on the bus to tour the centre strip.

 

 

 

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144.   Paris Paris is absolutely beautiful inside with an amazing cobblestone walkway connecting Paris to Bally's

 

 

 

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136.   After supper we headed down to Fremont Street to see the sights and to hit up Bingo at The Plaza Hotel & Casino.

 

 

 

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133.  The old Casinos on Fremont Street are absolutely beautiful to see in person, even more amazing at night!

 

 

 

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127.  You really never know what your going to see on the street!

 

 

 

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121.  Wednesday morning we headed back to the centre strip to continue our tour taking in the four story M&M store which was pretty neat!

 

 

 

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113.   There is just so much to see and do on the strip, everywhere you look there is something interesting to see.

 

 

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95.   The MGM Grand is absolutely massive in all respects. The hotel is one of the largest in the world with over 5000 rooms, and the casino floor is over 170,000 square feet!

 

 

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92.  Thursday morning we were up early to meet our tour bus for one of my favourite adventures on this trip - Hoover Dam!

 

 

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90. Our first stop was the Mike O'Callaghan/Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge which has an awesome view of Hoover Dam.

 

 

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85.  The first view of the Dam in person is pretty dam surreal!

 

 

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79.  Leaving the Bridge lookout the tour bus took us over the Dam to the Arizona side before returning to the visitors centre. 

 

 

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72.  After bus ride across the dam we did the official Hoover Dam Tour. Unfortunately that day the elevators were out of order so we couldn't do the hardhat tour to the base of the structure.

 

 

71.  The viewing platform at the visitors center offers an impressive view of the structure.

 

 

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61.   Next our tour guide took us on a walking tour across the dam. Convection air currents create quite a strong breeze up the face of the structure!

 

 

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48.   On the way back to town our bus gave us a quick tour of Boulder which was the town created by construction workers building the dam, which for many years was known as Boulder Dam. Our last stop was at the Omelette House where we enjoyed and awesome (and included) lunch.

 

 

47.   When we got back to the hotel we decided to go up the Stratosphere Tower for a unique view of the city.

 

 

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43.   That evening we headed back to centre strip and checked out Cesar's Palace, the Forums Shops at Cesar's, the Bellagio and the Bellagio Fountain Show.

 

 

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32.   The Forums Shops at Cesar's is definitely the fanciest shopping mall I've ever been in!

 

 

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25.  The strip at night is really outstanding.

 

 

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18.   Friday morning we had another great breakfast at Denny's then hopped on the SDX to the South Vegas Premium Outlets.

 

 

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14.   That evening we headed back to Fremont Street for another game of Bingo and to check out the sights & sounds!

 

 

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9.   This time I tried out the electronic Bingo machines which are awesome. The machine does all the work so I could enjoy complimentary Beer!

 

 

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7.  There was a lot of awesomeness on Fremont Street Friday night with 3 separate rock bands playing on 3 separate stages and loads of entertainers on every circle.

 

 

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1.  Before we knew it our time in Vegas came to an end. We spent most of Saturday at the Strat awaiting our shuttle to the airport to begin our journey home. It was an awesome trip, we didn't see a fraction of the sights and sounds so we cant wait to go back again.

 

Cheers, MIKE

 

 

Copyright © 2011 Michael Smith