Once we left the wilderness, Las Vegas seemed like a foreign land. We started out with a day on the strip as we waited for our friends Caren and Mike to arrive from Florida. We decided on Caesars Palace, Treasure Island and the Venetian to spend our time at. All 3 were gorgeous hotels and so huge. It seemed like we walked for miles and we enjoyed the sights. We decided on brunch at Treasure Island to eat. It was good, but ouch. Now we knew what to expect for prices on the strip. We did a bit of gambling, but unfortunately the big jackpots eluded us. The next day we met up with Caren & Mike. We headed off for drinks and dinner at a French restaurant right there at the Paris and close to the theatre for our show later that night. The meal was definitely a bit pricey but oh so good. Next it was off to the show. We all really enjoyed the show and agreed that the choice of Jersey Boys was a great one. It told a great story and had some fantastic music. We left with a whole new appreciation for Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. The following day the four of us decided to cross the boulevard over to the New York New York and hit the Irish Pub for lunch. I was the driver behind this because I just had to try the highly recommended Chicken Pot Pie. It was so worth the trip. We all enjoyed our lunches and our drinks before heading back to our campsite for more cocktails. Then, to hit someplace a bit different on our final night together, we headed off to the old Vegas and enjoyed the Fremont Experience complete with all sorts of characters, lots of old style gambling casinos, cheap beer, some great live music and a fantastic light show. As we headed home for the night, we said our goodbyes to Caren and Mike, promising to meet up again sometime next year. The following morning we headed off for our 35 minute drive over to Boulder City. That visit was a lot of fun and we had a chance to relax a bit as well. We spent our first day, Claudia’s birthday, by taking a trip out on Lake Mead aboard the Desert Princess, a paddle wheeler where we enjoyed a 90 minute narrated tour of a very small portion of this huge lake but that also made its way over to the Hoover Dam for some great views. Our next day took us over to the dam for a great tour of both the dam as well as the power plant deep below. It really was a great tour except that I found out I have a mild case of claustrophobia. You really become very small in that deep, closed in environment. On our final day in Boulder City we took Stella out with us for a 4 mile hike along the Historic Railroad Trail. This trail used to run a railroad that was used to transport materials and people to and from the dam as it was being constructed. It was an excellent trail complete with old railroad tunnels cut through the mountains and we had beautiful weather to enjoy it. Next, we headed off and arrived back in the wilderness, this time in Jacob Lake, Arizona. We found out along the way that the motor home is quite capable of climbing some pretty steep inclines as we ended up at an altitude of about 5,000 feet higher than when we left. The elevation of our campground was at 7,500 feet. We were staying at the closest RV Park to the north rim of Grand Canyon but that still left us an hour’s drive to get there. We only had 2 days so we didn’t waste any time and headed out for the hour long drive to the north rim on that first day. Unfortunately it was quite overcast but the next day’s forecast didn’t promise to be any better. We made it to the visitor center and took a hike out to Bright Angel Point in order to look across to the south rim of the canyon about 8 miles away. As expected, the view wasn’t that great across the canyon due to the weather but the hike was fun. The hike was less than a mile round trip. The paths were narrow and the drops were steep and the views from the trail were outstanding. Next we headed off for a 20 mile drive up to Cape Royal and Point Imperial, two of the best viewing areas of the north rim. Just as we headed out however, we decided that the weather just wasn’t good enough and that our best bet was to go back to the campground and return the next day. That turned out to be a really good call. That drive back to the campground took us through blizzard-like conditions with snow accumulating on everything around us and didn’t stop until just before we got back to the campground. The next day turned out to be beautiful with partly sunny skies and temps near 70 degrees. We returned to the rim and enjoyed a spectacular day with great views from many vistas, including from Cape Royal and the highest viewing point on the entire north rim, Point Imperial at 8,803 feet. We couldn’t have asked for a better ending to our visit.
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