We had such a good time, no children, no time constraints (apart from two days where we went on tours), no dieting - making up for it now though - and just able to enjoy each other's company for 6 days.
Las Vegas is phenomenal. To say that it's gaudy and tacky is not fair, it's beautiful and spectacular, the hotels and casinos are amazing, the food is tremendous, the weather was fabulous (averaging 102oF), customer service is brilliant and you are made to feel so welcome and wanted.
We did two day tours - one to the Grand Canyon which was just breathtaking and one to Hoover Dam which appealed to Mr H's architectural side of his nature. I liked the fact that at the Hoover Dam you can stand in two states at once, Nevada and Arizona, as the midline of the Dam is the state line between them.
We stayed at the Bellagio hotel which was spectacular, you can see where they easily spent $1billion. We upgraded our bedroom for a suite for a nominal amount which was money well spent as we had the most spectacular view of the fountains outside the front of the hotel through a huge picture window. We laughed about the fact that the bathroom was the size of our bedroom back home and the separate toilet/bidet was the size of our entire bathroom back home! Everything about the Bellagio is sumptuous, the decoration inside and out, the polished marble floors that shine, the designer shops in the boutique walk, the restaurants. The fountains are amazing, anyone who is visiting Las Vegas must see these perform (which they do on a daily basis) as the way they get the water in time to the music is brilliant. On the Friday night we saw one of the Cirque de Soleil shows which is resident at the Bellagio, "O" (clever use of the French word "eau"), which is performed in a massive theatre on a huge floating stage which can be both flat and solid and deep and pool like at the same time. Absolutely amazing, I wish we had had enough time to see one of their other shows in Vegas - at last count, I think there's about six running at different venues.
We also went to see La Cage at the Riviera on the Saturday night and to say that these "drag queens" are (ahem) better than the celebrities they are portraying, is doing them a dis-service. The way they look like their counterparts and capture every little nuance of them is amazing. We were also due to see Cher at Caesar's Palace on the Sunday night which we were both very excited about, but she cancelled the show with 10 minutes to go til performance time! Fortunately it was a spur of the month decision to buy tickets so it wasn't as bad as if we'd bought them back home and it was a reason for our visit - that would have been worse. Still, there's nothing like a bit of Diva behaviour to put a dampner on your evening!
Flying out was ok, flights were on time and it was lovely to be picked up by a limo at the airport and driven to our hotel. However we were delayed en route home in Chicago and had to stay overnight, catching a very early flight through to Washington DC and then back home to Heathrow. So whereas we were due to be home the following Tuesday morning we only got home that night. The only one of the children we saw was daughter #1 who was very excited to see us home, even more excited upon receiving her new clobber from Abercrombie & Fitch (spoilt!). The following morning, the kisses and cuddles we got from the other three made up for the delay in returning home a hundred-fold. Son #2 has been exceptionally clingy to both myself and Mr H since our return, I think he's a bit worried we're going to leave him again - albeit in the more than capable hands of his grandparents.
I loved Vegas, I want to go again and soon.
A couple of pictures then, one of Mr H on the "Easy Rider" Harley at the Harley Davidson Cafe and one of the two of us outside our new home (not really, it's a tipi at a stop off point on our Grand Canyon tour).
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