Scott and Monique's Big Adventure

Christmas in Las Vegas 09

2010-01-14T10:09:00.002+13:00

Hi everybody.

Yes i have been neglecting the blog again sorry. Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and New year. Now THIS IS THE 1ST OF 14 ENRTIES about our recent trip to Las Vegas, that is in capitals because last time I did a mammoth set of entries a few people only noticed the first 4.

Anyway we opened all our presents on Christmas eve night as we had to get up at 4 am to be at the airport at 5am Christmas morning for our 7am flight. Our flight to Las Vegas went via Salt Lake City, so we can say we had a white christmas this year too because we had to get off the plane on the tar mac and walk through the snow to get into the terminal. We arrived in Vegas at about 11.30 and pretty hungry as domestic flights don't serve food.

This trip was all about doing the things we missed out on last time oh and enjoying some sunshine because we had forgotten what that was. We stayed at Caesars Palace, we wanted to be in a more central location on the strip this time. For some unknown reason we have no photos of caesars itself I'm unsure how we quite managed that. Anyway it was really nice, we had an over 100m walk from the elevators in our tower to our room but hey we had to walk off all that xmas food anyway. Part of Caesars is the Forum Shops (which we missed last time somehow?) which was really cool gave us a lot more food options than just the restaurants in the casino too and shopping.

Vegas was a lot busier than I thought it would be at this time of the year, but then again most of the people were asian or indian so maybe they don't celebrate xmas anyway. But we were really surprised at how many people were there with small kids, you would walk throught the casinos and there were these poor kids sitting up against the walls and in the corners playing on there nintendo ds's while there parents gambled it was really sad.

Christmas Day we arrived and went and picked up our Ka tickets (Cirque du Soliel) from the MGM then we jumped on the monorail (which is expensive but rather handy and goes the whole length of the strip pretty much which we didn't realise last time) and went down to Stratosphere so scott could do all the rollercoasters at the top of the tower. We went to the buffet at caesars for tea and ate far too much the desserts were amazing there was a chocolate fountain.

Boxing Day we went out to the outlet mall and did some shopping (along with everyone else), and had a wander along the strip. We did a bus tour out to Hoover Dam on the sunday which was really cool more about that later. Sunday night we went to Cirque du Soliel's Ka it was really cool very different to the other cirque's I've seen a bit more masculine perhaps (there is kung fu) the stage was pretty amazing it tilted up 90 degrees and spun around and moved forward and back.

The next day we did the winddancer tour with Maverick helicopters to the Grand canyon, it cost a bit but it was well worth it. The tour was in 3 legs the first took us over lake las vegas, lake mead and the hoover dam to the grand canyon where we landed at the bottom and got out and had champagne and pastries and a wander around. The next leg Scott and I were in the front seats and we went through the canyon abit and out of it and to a refueling station now although this was the shortest leg I think it was the best to be in the front as it had all the sweepy corners and stuff where the other legs were pretty straight. The final leg took us back to Vegas and over the strip. It was absolutely amazing well worth it and it was both of ours first time in a helicopter which was cool.

On the tuesday we had a last wander down the strip before heading out to the airport 3 hours early as the tv was making a big deal of all the extra security precautions, but they had extra queues open so it wasn't too bad at all.

We had an absolutely fabulous time, if anyone is considering going to vegas do it is is awesome even if you don't gamble.

Just a reminder this is the first entry of 14, please check them all out, you may have to click on some of teh ones on the side to bring some of them up.

Oh and the first picture is the gingerbread house we made before christmas it was really yum too.

catch ya later

love Monique and Scott

Stratosphere

2010-01-14T10:02:00.002+13:00

This is one of the 3 rollercoasters at the top of the Stratosphere tower that scott did on xmas day. And yes it is hanging over the edge, it opens up and spins around. I just went up to the top of the tower and took photos. It was quite funny everyone else on the ride we screaming there hearts out except for scott and teh guy sitting next to him who looked like they were having a good old chat. The stratosphere is quite a long way down the strip away from the rest of the casinos so the area is a little dingy. It was quite cool though when we went into the casino it was daylight and by the time we got our tickets and lined up it was dark so we got to see all the lights it was an amazing view.

Only in vegas

2010-01-14T10:00:00.001+13:00

We joked about finding a costume rental place and renting a white dress and a tux just to wind everyone up, but i just had a photo with the sign instead.

MGM

2010-01-14T09:55:00.002+13:00

This was taken at the concierge of the MGM when we went to pick up our tickets for Cirque du Soliel. This was our first stop after we had checked in at our hotel, thought we would get that job out of the way, but everyone obviously thought the same thing we had to line up for ages.

There weren't really as many christmas decorations around as I thought there would be. They had some giant mirrored presents at the Belagio but when I saw them I didn't have the camera (I had swapped bags after one of our tours) and when I went back the next day to take a photo of them they had gone.

the strip

2010-01-14T09:53:00.001+13:00

This is us out side new york new York. A trip to vegas isn't complete with out a photo of the strip at night.

Rainforest cafe MGM

2010-01-14T09:48:00.002+13:00

This photo hasn't turned out that well but this restaurant was really cool. It was all done like a rainforest and there were robot animals in amongst it that roared etc every now and again. It looked like it was raining around the bar and we were seated next to a waterfall. They had an awesome dessert on the menu that was a volcano made of chocolate cake and icecream but it was huge and we were too full.

Hoover Dam

2010-01-14T09:41:00.002+13:00

No don't jump puki! We had quite a bit of time to walk around after our tour of the powerstaion (which is explained more in the following entry got my order up the wally). The state border in the middle of the dam isn't as obvious as I thought it would be. They are currently constructing a massive bridge across the gorge for a new highway which is quite impressive I think it will probably overshadow the dam when it is completed. Hot tip: The cafe at the dam is aweful and super expensive.

Hoover Dam part 2

2010-01-14T09:34:00.003+13:00

This is us at Hoover Dam. We did a bus tour from Vegas which included a tour of the power station. As there were only 6 people including us in our tour group we left early and got to see a lot more than you usually do on the same tour. The driver took us over to the Arizona side to look at the dam from that side which meant we got to drive over it and also got to see the massive overflow tunnels. Down inside the powerstation we went quite a way below ground and some of teh walls were wet which was a little disconcerting. We only got the basic tour, I think scott would have really enjoyed the extended tour had we known about it beforehand. The little bits that stick up on the dam at either end are toilets they have big Art Deco brass doors to get inside and then it is institutional green tiles and what i imagine is the original decor, on entering you think it is going to be all flash but then no. It was really awesome anyway and a gorgeous sunny day as you can see.

Palazzo

2010-01-14T09:30:00.002+13:00

This is me at the palazzo shops next to the Venetian. The Christmas decorations were amazing behind scott the photographer were people on stilts dressed in white and silver meant to be an ice king and queen I think, there was a huge queue to have photos with them, so I chose the flowers instead.

Grand Canyon

2010-01-14T09:22:00.002+13:00

This is us in the helicopter on our way to the Grand Canyon. The microphones were voice activated so if you said anything everyone in the helicopter could hear you (7 passengers plus the pilot) The pilot had a really good playlist on his ipod that we could hear through the headphones. It was really appropriate, mostly 70's stuff, as we took off it was "magic carpet ride" and as we came over the rim of the canyon it was that music they always play with footage of the moonlanding (bam bam bambam) hope that made sense. Anyway I kept wanting to sing cause it was good music and then I would realise no don't do that everyone will hear of course I realised after we got off the helicopter I could have just bent the mike out of the way and relaxed.

Grand Canyon Part 2

2010-01-14T09:20:00.002+13:00

Here is Scott in the Canyon. The size of it is just insane! When we were flying in to the canyon we went past the skybridge the little glass bottomed viewing deck on the side, it looked like a pimple. We got a much better view.

Grand canyon Part 3

2010-01-14T09:14:00.003+13:00

This is me at the canyon. As I was drugged up on travel sick medication I didn't get to enjoy the champagne when we landed in the canyon itself which was a bit stink. Actually I only had 1 day not on travel sick stuff entire time we were there, needless to say very tired. I didn't jump in the pilots seat for the photo as another girl did and got told off.

Grand Canyon part 4

2010-01-14T09:09:00.002+13:00

Hi This is us at the Grand Canyon, photo taken by the pilot. He must really get sick of taking everyones photos all day long. He was really nice.

Last Night

2010-01-14T09:02:00.002+13:00

This was our last night in Vegas, this was taken at the Trevi cafe in the Forum Shops and yes it is actually inside. Had really good traditional italian pizza.

Well thats all for now.
Catch ya later

love Monique and Scott

Europe 2009

2009-09-04T09:09:00.000+12:00

30/7/09
hi everyone
Yes i know you haven't heard from us for a while, but it's hardly worth writing a blog entry when we haven't done anything exciting, I don't think you want to read about "yeah went to work todday it was pretty quiet etc."

We are currrently on a train to Amsterdam from Paris doing about 300km the scenery is a bit of a blur as it goes past. We spent the last 2 days in Paris. Our first day we went to a neighborhood called St Germain it's full of styley shops and restaurants and cafe's. Yesterday we went to Versaille, it was gorgeous we went through the palace then wandered around the gardens and had a picnic. The gardens were so big the actually had a mini electric bus and you could hire golf carts! Unfortunately none of the fountains (and there were alot of them) were going which was a bit of a shame About 2ish our little leggies had had enough and we headed back into town. The food has been amazing, we have been making the most of the cheese which is sooo cheap and sooo good. In Vancouver you can't get nice camenbert for under $12 and I got a fantastic one here for E1.83 and there were cheaper ones than that. It's crazy.
Our flight over stopped in Montreal so we got to stretch our legs for about an hour then get back on the plane. The lady sitting in front of me on the 2nd leg of the journey had 1 dog in the cargo hold and another little one in a bag at her feet. Her and the guy sitting next to her were flirting like crazy and got pretty drunk and were talking really loud so I didn't get any sleep on the way over. They both disappeared of to the loo's one part of it and we thought hello ello, but they were back pretty soon they must have been too big a queue for them to join the mile high club.

2/9/09
We arrive in Amsterdam and caught a tram to our hotel. Our hotel is lovely really recomend it to anyone going to amsterdam, it's the Best Western Apollo Museum Hotel. It's an old building on the outside but the inside is all new and flash, and it's in a great location virtually next to the Rijks Museum. Anyway we went to Amsterdam to catch up with Claire and Mark who are living there and Louise and Adam who are living in Bristol. On saturday we rented bikes and biked everywhere (I don't care if I don't see a bike for a very long time!) had a picnic lunch, Checked out the sex museum and then went and checked out the Gay pride parade that came down one of the canals. The boys then went to watch the rugby and us girls went and did a bit of shopping. Then we went to an awesome turkish restaurant for dinner then biked some more. Went into town and checked out the red light district. Hot tip #1 check out the red light district on a weekend night then again on a monday morning the quality of hookers is somewhat different. I didn't realise the the majority of the red light district is on little back alleys it's so famous I always assumed they were main streets. Sunday morning we went and had pancakes for breakfast oh my god they were amazing! They were giant and had lots of toppings on them Scott and Igot a cheese, bacon and onion and a apple and bacon and shared ooh sooo yum! We took the bikes back and then Louise and Adam had to get back to the airport, and we just chilled at Claire and Marks and had some "cake". Monday the others were back at work so Scott and I had a bit of a wander around before heading out to the airport.

We arrived at the Euro Airport which services Basel Swizerland, Mulhouse France and Freiburg Germany. We were staying in Weil Am Rhein (Germany) which is on the other side of the river from Basel basically. We went for a walk to find something for dinner and managed to find a pub the guy didn't speak much english he just said "do you like pork?" and we said yes and he brought us 2 huge plates of pork schnitzel and chips. The next day we went to The Vitra design museum (which is why we came here + we got a cheap flight from amsterdam) I didn't realise they just have temporary exhibitions but it was really cool anyway, I bought a little mini Panton chair. The museum didn't take as long as I thought so we caught a bus to Basel. We literally walked out of the museum and jumped on a public transit bus in germany and got off in switzerland without our passports it was so bizarre. We wandered around Basel and did a bit of shopping. We decided we may as well have dinner over here as there is nothing around the hotel, we thought oh there were lots of restaurants along the river bank that would be nice, not so nice was the fact that the mains started at 45 swiss francs (which is conveniently on par with the canadian dollar). So we decided to grab something and have a picnic on the river bank instead. The river bank had stairs down to the waters edge then a concrete ledge/seat that stuck out over the water. So we sat there having our picnic and a beer with our feet splashing in the water listening to a band that was playing on this floating stage in the middle of the river it was awesome.

Then we headed to Freiburg where our friend that were getting married Scott and Katinka live. Their apartment is so awesome it's like a little 3 storey house on top of an apartment building. They live in a real eco friendly neighbourhood so they have solar panels on the roof. They have a little lawn they have to mow a big deck on the ground floor as well as balconies off both building. It had floor to ceiling windows and exposed beams it felt like a good ol kiwi bach I loved it. We spent a few days in Freiburg then we headed to Lipperstreute for the wedding. We got to experience the incredible speed of the Autobahn in a old VW van that had bee converted into a campervan yeah the fastest we got was 80km. The wedding was lovely and the rain held out till after the ceremony and photos which was brilliant. They had made a little translation print out for us kiwis so we could understand what was going on which was cool. The table we were sitting at was really great most people spoke english we had some rather interesting conversations with a couple he was dutch she was german and they now live in amsterdam but have lived everywhere. He was such a hardcase we asked him what he did for a living and he replied very straight faced "we do porn, yeah my wife and I make videos" what do you say in response to that? Turns out he was just having us on he is a pilot for KLM (royal dutch airlines).

On the Sunday we headed back to Freiburg it was a bit of a slow trip Katinka was feeling a little worse for wear. On the Monday we trained back to Paris arrived about 5ish so had a bit of a wander along the Champ Elysee. We found a French steakhouse called Hippopotammus, the desserts was amazing it was a selection of like 5 mini versions of desserts off the menu. We should have just got one and shared but we weren't sure how big they were scott's were all chocolate things mousse, brownie etc and mine was a mix creme brulee, crepe rice pudding and one called a flotante which was runny custard with a meringue floating in it. oh it was sooo yum!!!
The next day we flew back to Vancouver. Hot tip#2 Fly into paris don't fly out. The Charles du Gaul airport is so badly organised we got there 3 hours before like good people and we needed that time. There were 2 air canada flights going out within an hour of each other and then the conveyer belt that takes the bags out the back to be sorted broke down so they couldn't check any more people in till it was fixed mean time some people did the self check in. So by the time we got to the front there were no seats together and they told us just to talk to passengers to see if we could swap but of course we had couple next to us so we were sitting behind each other for the whole flight. The flight Montreal to Paris was 5.5 hours but going the other way it was 8! Then we got delayed for 2 hours in Montreal because there was a thunderstorm so the groundcrew were inside. Needless to say we were very glad to get home by the end of it.

This is the first of 16 entries the rest will just describe the photo. The first photo is us at Versaille.

Catch you guys later.

love Monique and Scott

Latin Quater Paris

2009-09-04T09:07:00.001+12:00

This was the latin quater its full of little bars and restaurants and of course tourists. Cheap food though.

the girls

2009-09-04T09:06:00.001+12:00

Claire, Monique and Louise enjoying a cold drink. I mistakenly wore a skirt then we decided to rent bikes!

the boys

2009-09-04T09:04:00.001+12:00

Scott, Adam and Mark having an ice tea. We biked to a brewery in a windmill and it was closed.

Picnic in a park

2009-09-04T09:03:00.001+12:00

We stopped biking around to have a picnic in a park before heading to the sex museum. Enlightneing is all i will say

Vondel park amsterdam

2009-09-04T09:02:00.001+12:00

Us in Vondel park in Amsterdam

Vitra design museum

2009-09-04T09:00:00.001+12:00

Vitra design museum in Weil am Rhein, the buildings are just as famous as the exhibitions it has.

Basel switzerland

2009-09-04T08:59:00.000+12:00

Us in Basel on the bridge over the rhein

picnic on the rhein

2009-09-04T08:57:00.001+12:00

Scott enjoying his beer with his feet in the rhein

kiwi bach

2009-09-04T08:56:00.000+12:00

this is scott and katinkas penthouse apartment it was so cool!

Bridal car

2009-09-04T08:54:00.001+12:00

This was the bridal car and how we got to lippersteute, me and the scotts were crammed in the back with all the rental plates and food etc and katinka was in the front with her dad. it was an interesting trip.