Las Vegas/Grand Canyon - Part 2

Day 2 - Las Vegas

Continuing the journey from Part 1, Day 2 saw us driving through Tucson and Phoenix, all the way to Las Vegas. And it was perfect timing - it was getting darker and we could see the Las Vegas skyline all lit up. Other than a minor glitch of taking a wrong turn, we landed up on Las Vegas Blvd - The “Strip”, and suddenly it was as if the carnival was in town ! There were lights all over the place, with families and kids all out on the streets.

My wife, who stayed back home with our 4 month old son, had called ahead and reserved rooms for us at the “Circus Circus” casino/hotel. She just said that you cannot miss it and boy, was she right !

After checking in, we decided to take a stroll down the “Strip” and I must say, that it felt as if the whole city of Las Vegas had also decided to do the same. Every little thing was lit up with lights, even the good ol McDonald’s was blinking. My sister couldn’t help it and blurted out “If we stay here any longer, they are going to put lights on us as well!”

The “Strip” is lined up with casinos on both sides, that have their own unique attractions. There is a laundry list of exotic named casinos, with their own themed shows on the Strip itself for people to enjoy. So if you are not a gambler or a fan of losing money at the casinos, sight-seeing also is a wonderful way to soak in the Las Vegas experience, among other things.

Here are some shots on the “Strip”.

The Palazzo

Venetian

Bellagio

At the Bellagio water front, you don’t want to miss the water fountain show, synched up with classical music. I did get some pictures, but they do not do enough justice to the actual experience.

After a long walk up and down the “Strip”, we were pretty tired out by the time we made it back to our hotel rooms. But Las Vegas was too big for a single night ! So we decided to stay for one more day.

Day 3 - Las Vegas

The next morning, we explored the “Circus Circus” casino itself and checked out the amusement park inside the casino.

In the evening, we headed out to Fremont St. - the home to Viva Vision, the biggest big screen on the planet. More than 12 million lights in the Viva Vision canopy and 550,000 watts of concert quality sound pumped to speakers throughout the venue produce an incredible array of eye-popping imagery and heart pounding music. The giant LED screen towers 90-feet above a pedestrian mall lined with unique retail shopping kiosks and two permanent performance stages.

They have a LED show on the canopy overhead on the hour, accompanied with some amazing music.

I am glad, we decided to stay back at Las Vegas. It would have been a shame not to see Fremont St., after having driven over 1000 miles to come here. All in all, it was definitely an entertaining couple of days, not to mention the 24$ that my sister won at the slot machines. Of course, I would have loved to stay back to make some more !

Las Vegas/Grand Canyon - Part 1

The Grand Canyon has been on my list of “must-see” places for quite a while and it so happened that with my mom and sister visiting, it was a perfect opportunity to make a road trip from Austin to Las Vegas and check out the Grand Canyon on the way back. So we set off from home early Saturday morning, with a road map and a trunk full of water bottles, juice, snacks, couple of pillows and other essentials. (I am glad I listened to my wife, when we decided to buy a minivan ;-)). The plan was to drive to Las Vegas and check out Grand Canyon, with a pit-stop en-route in Tucson.

Day 1: El Paso - Tucson

Day 1 was all driving and some more driving all the way to Tucson, AZ. We stopped for lunch at El Paso and decided to check out a Mexican restaurant on the side of the highway. Not a bad choice for pretty decent food !

The landscape was definitely stark and dry, as one would expect on the border and this is first time I had seen so many dust storm caution signs on the highway. I was just glad we were not caught in the middle of one of them.

The drive through Texas was the longest part of this leg. Once we crossed into New Mexico, it was just a matter of hours before we entered Arizona for our stay over in Tucson.

Caught a glimpse of the snow on the mountains.

We arrived at Tucson in the evening for a well-deserved rest stop for the night.

Day 2 - Pima Air and Space Museum - Tucson

The next day, we visited the Pima Air and Space Museum, before we hit the road to Las Vegas. We took a tram tour that covered almost 180 exhibits out of more than 280 airplanes on site. It was a very impressive collection of every kind of aircraft one can imagine. They had the “Blackbird”, one of my favorites sitting inside the hangar, the MIGs on the grounds and so many helicopters, too difficult to keep track of. Here are just few of the planes that caught my attention !

This was a thoroughly enjoyable museum to spend time in. We set off from Tucson towards Las Vegas. More on that in the next post - Part 2.

Happy Diwali

say cheese

One of the more “fashionable” dolphins at SeaWorld, San Antonio..

Spring is here

Just one of the flowers from our garden…

It is one of those days…

It is pouring cats and dogs out there - reminds me of our picnic to the park, couple of weeks back with the sun playing hide and seek behind the clouds. I miss the sun !

Interesting read : India Attracts Universities From the U.S. - New York Times

On todays’ reading list, I found this article on how India’s hunger for higher education is attracting foreign universities to its shores.

Here is the article :
India Attracts Universities From the U.S. - New York Times

Some interesting lines :
Among Indians ages 18 to 24, only 7 percent enter a university, according to the National Knowledge Commission, which advises the prime minister’s office on higher education. To roughly double that percentage — effectively bringing it up to par with the rest of Asia — the commission recommends the creation of 1,500 colleges and universities over the next several years. India’s public universities are often woefully underfinanced and strike-prone.

Holi hai !

Happy Holi ! Our Holi celebration this year was a drive to Barsanadham to meet up with friends and join in the holi revelries…

Austin freezes over

Well, this was my first ice storm since I moved to Austin and things definitely came to a halt. Here’s a picture of the biggest icicle I could find out of my window !

Check out some more pictures at my Flickr page

Alaska mosaic

I found a cool Mosaic Maker tool, that makes a mosaic of one’s Flickr photostream. Here is a mosaic of some of my Alaska pictures. Enjoy !

1. Heaven and Earth, 2. Matanushka Glacier, 3. rear view, 4. Trans-Alaska oil pipeline, 5. got water ?, 6. where is everybody?, 7. bottled water, 8. End of the Alaska Highway, 9. PIG, 10. Visit the North Pole, 11. is this the north pole ?, 12. Santa Claus House, 13. Kartik & Steve, 14. Sara & Steve, 15. Alaska Range in Denali, 16. Denali National Park, 17. wildlife viewing in Denali, 18. Denali National Park, 19. Denali National Park, 20. In Denali, 21. more mountains, 22. Alaska Range, 23. shuttle bus, 24. View from the banks of Teklanika River, 25. Teklanika River, 26. Teklanika River, 27. Teklanika River, 28. Alaska Range, 29. inside the bus, 30. the “intrepid” travellers, 31. the dry tundra, 32. fox in the wild, 33. don’t leave me behind !, 34. full bus, 35. 7 Gables Inn, 36. University of Alaska Museum