I'll probably write more about my trip to Toronto tomorrow, but in the meantime here's an annotated map of our trip in Google Maps.
I usually make these for geocaches, but since I didn't take a whole lot of pictures I did one of our entire trip (plus 2 geocaches, just because I can). The map includes some landmarks, places we went, and even the geocoded pictures from the trip.
Plaza
Originally uploaded by heidigoseek.
Just trying to get the last of my Vegas pictures up on Flickr. My last day was mostly pretty stressful, but after the stress subsided we made it to Downtown Las Vegas to visit the Fremont Street Experience. We did this on the way to the airport, however, and I didn't actually get to experience the experience. We just barely missed the first light show and I didn't want to be late boarding the plane so we didn't see the next.
Hopefully next time though! Downtown was pretty interesting though, it's all Old School Vegas. It's nothing like being on The Strip at all.
My overall experience with Vegas was pretty positive. I would definitely visit again. I guess I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the city. I don't know what I was expecting but it exceeded my expectations.
The one thing I would do differently next time is probably rent a car. Sort of accidentally I found out the renting cars is actually not that bad if you do it from the airport. Since I will likely be staying with my dad again then it'll be easier to get around and I wouldn't have to rely so much on my dad's work schedule to visit places I would want to go. Also parking is totally free in Vegas...I'm still excited about that! We're going to Toronto for a few days starting Sunday and we're paying $30/day for parking, that's just a lot of money just to park your car!
Hoover Dam Panorama
Originally uploaded by heidigoseek.
We didn't do much more than go to Hoover Dam today. It was a pretty short trip too, we didn't go on the tour or anything so we didn't even walk over to the Welcome Center.
Hoover Dam looks impressive, but it seems more impressive in photos than it does in person. I'm sure I would've been more impressed with the history of how the dam was built than anything. It was a lot shorter across than I expected, although it is pretty tall up. Considering the dam was built over 80 years ago, it is a pretty decent engineering feat.
What I didn't expect is the amount of people all over the place. It seemed cars and people share the road on top of the dam. No buses or trucks are allowed over on the dam, but it's probably a good thing because you have to watch out for people walking out in front of your car.
The picture is a vertical panorama that I cropped because I had a lot of the concrete barrier on the bottom. Ever since yesterday I started messing around with panoramas, they're actually pretty fun to take so you might see more of them from my pictures.
Tomorrow is my last day in Vegas and then I head home with what may be very little sleep in the evening.
Red Rock Canyon
Originally uploaded by heidigoseek.
Today we went to Red Rock Canyon and that was about it. Both my dad and I are pretty tired, although him more so than I am since he's working the weird hours. I think he made some comment that we look like a pair of old folks walking around like we do. Red Rock Canyon was an amazing sight though. I can tell you that this, I have never seen anything quite like this in my lfie, since I grew up in the cornfields of Ohio. No mountain ranges in sight where I'm from.
I had hoped to find some geocaches here, and there were quite a few, but none seemed to be any closer than .2 miles walk. I decided that since my back is still a little sore I didn't want to walk that far on rocky ground to try and get one. Plus my dad was in no mood for hiking either.
Now I actually have to attempt some homework or reading. It's been hard for me to get anything done because I seem to start to crash this time of the day.
Tomorrow we're actually heading off to Hoover Dam and then I get to decide what to do on Wednesday. I'd probably like to head back into Vegas again and do something before I leave.
The Mirage
Originally uploaded by heidigoseek.
I'm in Vegas! I came to visit my dad who has been living here for about a year. I even got a few pictures I took around the city uploaded on Flickr. The one in this blog post is of the Mirage, where my dad is currently working. He actually just started his new job there last night when my flight came in so I didn't actually get to see him until this morning.
The flight to Vegas was pretty uneventful, but I did think of a few things that I had wanted to tweet but didn't want to pay for internet while I was waiting. One thing was how airports and flying give me anxiety. This is only the second round trip flight I've ever take in my life. I would much rather take a slow boat to China than fly there. My anxiety from airports comes mostly from picking Alex up or dropping him off all the time. Ironically when I drop him off for his flights I'm fighting what seems like a million cars doing the same thing, but this time there was maybe 3 cars including ours outside the terminal. Figures.
The other annoying thing was that Google Gears doesn't seem to be working all the time with my Google Reader. I had wanted to go through some feeds in the airport and on the plane. In the airport the browser kept redirecting me to buy internet and on the plane it would catch for a second and then send me to a network error page. I had plenty of other things to occupy my time with though.
Once at the airport I had to catch a taxi to my dad's house, as I mentioned, he started his job last night so I didn't get to see him until this morning. I threw the taxi driver off guard when I gave him an actual address in North Las Vegas instead of one of the typical hotel/casinos. He asked me if I knew where it was, I said, "no but I have GPS." I had already loaded my dad's address in my device before I left. He said I was his first GPSer. That dang thing really does come in handy...and I think I had him impressed enough to want to go buy one himself. My dad used to be in real estate so he had one of those house key locks hanging on the front door for me...I guess those things come in handy too.
Today he just took me around some of the different casinos. I actually like Las Vegas a lot more than I thought I would. I'm not really into the casino thing, but with the amount of shows and other things to do, it's actually a pretty cool place. Sadly the thing that impressed me the most is free parking. This is sad because there are a lot of really impressive things in Vegas and I choose parking. I guess I need to get out more.
