We have spent quite a lot of time by the pool, had a lot of lie-ins and generally are kicking back :). We did get some bad news though! The pool is being closed for two days!!!!
We went to the ‘star spangled spectacular on the 4th July, which is very similar to our music in the parks but on a much larger scale! Katie (who we have introduced before) forwarded emails for this event and as she has so very kindly lent us her car, we thought lets do it! So I hopped on-line and got our tickets and we headed out to Summerlin, which is 30 minutes to our North-West.
It was a very well organised event (couldn’t help but make notes!). We parked at a huge Casino (JW Marriott) and then were transported by bus to the venue, which happened to be a golf course. We picked ourselves a spot in the shade, and settled in for the evening.
We met this lovely lady in her 80’s who had been to NZ and was part of a group for international friendship. They are hosting the NZ people here is Las Vegas in September. She was such an amazing lady to talk to, she has travelled extensively, cruised extensively and had lots of things for us to do in LV. We loved meeting her and would love to catch up with her again. Unfortunately, her daughter was dying in Los Angeles and she was flying out there the next day. I want to have as much spunk as this woman (Lois) does, when I am 80! She told us that her and her husband (who died 5yrs ago) would gate crash weddings in LV Chapels, offer to be witnesses and that they had only been chucked out once! So, if we can, we will try and catch up with her before our time in LV comes to and end.
The concert was with the Philharmonic Orchestra, and was pretty good. There was of course the National Anthem, along with music from Westside Story, Raiders of the lost ark, Les Mis, Rocky and a variety of other stuff. It finished with a wonderful fireworks display before we caught the bus back to our car and headed home.
On Friday we headed out to Green Valley Ranch (our local) for a music evening. We had a couple of drinks, soaked up the atmosphere but retired early as it was just so hot! We need to explore here next week, as we haven’t had the chance yet.
Saturday found us heading out to the summer theatre at Spring Mountain Ranch for ‘She Loves Me’ – a musical based on ‘you’ve got mail’. We had to go past Red Rock Canyon to get there, so we left early to explore this Canyon. It is a 13 mile one-way drive through the park. You can stop at several places and go hiking, take in a photo opportunity or look for the turtles!
We unfortunately had our first rain! Rain, thunder and lightening meant that we only we able to complete one short walk! The drive was pretty cool and we did get a few photos! Without the sun in the Canyon the colours were a bit muted, but still fabulous. I did wonder how our outdoor concert would go?!?
I am pleased to tell you it was fine. We did have some issues trying to get tickets! We tried to buy them before we left but, on-line ticket sales cease the day before – no where on the www did it tell you this!! So we thought we would just get them at the gate …. uuuummmmm no! Our pre-paid debit card wasn’t accepted!! The gate team in the end just let us in, since we had come such a long way to visit. The deal was that we just had to put our cash in the collection when it came round (we didn’t have enough cash to buy tickets!!). We now need to make an on-line donation, as we needed our cash to buy dinner! Anyway, it was torture for Colin but I loved it. The show, the location, the atmosphere was fabulous – think I am going to miss my ‘out with the girls date nights” !!
Today we have been to the National Atomic Testing Museum. It was a lot of science, a lot of history of how it was developed and why. Without the bombing of Japan in WWII and the Cold War would this even have a place in history? They no longer do the testing above ground, but the scared earth from the underground testing leaves you wondering about the pro and cons of this. Overall, it was a bit scary! Let’s just be kind to each other 🙂
We are having a lightning storm tonight and rain predicted. Hoping that it passes through quick as we are heading to the Grand Canyon tomorrow, so will have a full report on that later in the week.
Maytheroadriseuptomeetyou ... 