At the Thomas' in Tucson & further North
After having spent a nice relaxing time in Vancouver we then headed south to San Francisco arriving there by mid afternoon. It was a 2 hour stopover before catching our flight to Tucson finally touching down by 8.30pm.
It was great to see our mates Dave & Geri after a couple of years & as usual we were soon into a conversation that would continue into the night. After all these years of us talking about visiting them in Tucson we had finally made it to visit their beautiful home, & what a spectacular house it is very spacious & open plan with lovely views back into Tucson from their foothills location.
As well as having loads of space to prepare food & cook, the kitchen also had a view out to the rear of the house to the surrounding rugged mountains that stretch around the perimeter of greater Tucson & a view over the inground pool & front garden down to downtown Tucson a truelly sensational aspect.
We managed to fit in a couple of walks over the next few days so we saw at close range just how all the housing blends in with the surrounding countryside with most of the houses painted in a light chocolate brown or beige. Most houses are on an acre of land so no one is that close to their neighbour so plenty of privacy abounds.
We also visited the local shopping complex " La Encantada " where we discovered AJ's, a very laviously appointed super market with the most beautiful displays in their fruit & vege, deli, meat & liquor areas, much much better than back home, makes Coles & Safeway look really 2nd rate, but no doubt you pay for the priveledge. The most amazing setup was the Costco store which is like the size of Bunnings in Australia but with every conceivable thing available - you name it they have it.
Dave & Geri had planned a 3 day trip away so we headed to Sedona which is in the north of Arizona & turned out to be an area full of amazing mountains that surrounded the whole area.
Unfortunately by the late afternoon the weather had changed & a heavy mist blocked our view of these rock beauties.
We headed further north through Flagstaff but by then the scenery was completely covered by a thick white blanket of snow while the trees groaned under the weight of the white carpet. It continued to fall as we arrived at the south rim of the Grand Canyon & by now the temperature was at minus 3 deg C so it was time to rug up as the wind had also picked up in strength.
Geri said that this was the best that she had ever seen the Canyon from this side because normally there is a lot of dust that tends to give a hazy appearance to the Canyon. We took some really lovely pics of the area before heading onto Zions National Park.
As we arrived late in the afternoon we decided to return next morning to take full advantage of this sensational spectacle. In the morning the temperature was still hovering near the minus 3 deg C so we made sure that we were well rugged up. On arrival at the park we were totally over awed by the size of these truelly spectacular mountains surrounding you like sentinels guarding the park, some of them rising more than 400 metres straight up making one feel very insignificent, nature certainly is amazing.
We walked through this amazing wonderland for the best part of an hour taking in this breathtaking panorama before heading onto St.George near the Utah & Nevada border & then onto our ultimate destination LAS VEGAS.
We arrived by 2.00pm & while we waited for our room to be prepared we walked down the main strip of Vegas taking in all the glitz & glamour of this most amazing metropolis. Some of the buildings are exact replicas of the originals like the Eiffel Tower, Empire State, Chrysler Building, Venice plus the Temple of Luxor & the Pyramid to name just a few.
We finally got our room but not before an upgrade from a room to a suite of 1500 sq.ft for an extra US$50.00 each, so that meant that we paid US$300.00 each for our night in Vegas ( normally US$900.00 ) what the heck we decided to shout ourselves one night of total luxury.
The suite had 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a large lounge area that included a nice bar & chairs, all very opulent.
We had booked tickets to see the production of Cirque du Soleil " KA "which had been given rave reviews by the critics. The audatorium had taken more than 15 months to transform the old setup into this new sound stage which in itself was a remarkable piece of engineering.
The main stage was a revolving platform that could move from the horizontal to vertical attached to a huge hydraulic ram which in itself was supported by massive columns, the total weight of this was an impressive 46000 kgs which we were told was as heavy as a Boeing 767 fully laden so you can imagine what a sight this was. The show turned out to be the most spectacular live show that we had ever seen.
Dave & Geri were stunned by the overall immensity of the production, it was certainly the most daring choreography ever attempted on stage as all dancers were attached to cables operated by riggers so they had to be precise with the operation of the cables to land the dancers back on the rotating platform-simply brilliant.
After the show we all enjoyed a lovely Dinner over at the Mandalay Bay Resort in their " Raffles Restaurant " before returning to our suite to take in as much of the atmosphere as we could before our departure next morning. We had breakfast in the MGM before Dave & Geri dropped us off at the airport to catch our flight to Salt Lake City to visit Jerry & Carol Allen. We will catch up next from Salt Lake.
It was great to see our mates Dave & Geri after a couple of years & as usual we were soon into a conversation that would continue into the night. After all these years of us talking about visiting them in Tucson we had finally made it to visit their beautiful home, & what a spectacular house it is very spacious & open plan with lovely views back into Tucson from their foothills location.
As well as having loads of space to prepare food & cook, the kitchen also had a view out to the rear of the house to the surrounding rugged mountains that stretch around the perimeter of greater Tucson & a view over the inground pool & front garden down to downtown Tucson a truelly sensational aspect.
We managed to fit in a couple of walks over the next few days so we saw at close range just how all the housing blends in with the surrounding countryside with most of the houses painted in a light chocolate brown or beige. Most houses are on an acre of land so no one is that close to their neighbour so plenty of privacy abounds.
We also visited the local shopping complex " La Encantada " where we discovered AJ's, a very laviously appointed super market with the most beautiful displays in their fruit & vege, deli, meat & liquor areas, much much better than back home, makes Coles & Safeway look really 2nd rate, but no doubt you pay for the priveledge. The most amazing setup was the Costco store which is like the size of Bunnings in Australia but with every conceivable thing available - you name it they have it.
Dave & Geri had planned a 3 day trip away so we headed to Sedona which is in the north of Arizona & turned out to be an area full of amazing mountains that surrounded the whole area.
Unfortunately by the late afternoon the weather had changed & a heavy mist blocked our view of these rock beauties.
We headed further north through Flagstaff but by then the scenery was completely covered by a thick white blanket of snow while the trees groaned under the weight of the white carpet. It continued to fall as we arrived at the south rim of the Grand Canyon & by now the temperature was at minus 3 deg C so it was time to rug up as the wind had also picked up in strength.
Geri said that this was the best that she had ever seen the Canyon from this side because normally there is a lot of dust that tends to give a hazy appearance to the Canyon. We took some really lovely pics of the area before heading onto Zions National Park.
As we arrived late in the afternoon we decided to return next morning to take full advantage of this sensational spectacle. In the morning the temperature was still hovering near the minus 3 deg C so we made sure that we were well rugged up. On arrival at the park we were totally over awed by the size of these truelly spectacular mountains surrounding you like sentinels guarding the park, some of them rising more than 400 metres straight up making one feel very insignificent, nature certainly is amazing.
We walked through this amazing wonderland for the best part of an hour taking in this breathtaking panorama before heading onto St.George near the Utah & Nevada border & then onto our ultimate destination LAS VEGAS.
We arrived by 2.00pm & while we waited for our room to be prepared we walked down the main strip of Vegas taking in all the glitz & glamour of this most amazing metropolis. Some of the buildings are exact replicas of the originals like the Eiffel Tower, Empire State, Chrysler Building, Venice plus the Temple of Luxor & the Pyramid to name just a few.
We finally got our room but not before an upgrade from a room to a suite of 1500 sq.ft for an extra US$50.00 each, so that meant that we paid US$300.00 each for our night in Vegas ( normally US$900.00 ) what the heck we decided to shout ourselves one night of total luxury.
The suite had 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a large lounge area that included a nice bar & chairs, all very opulent.
We had booked tickets to see the production of Cirque du Soleil " KA "which had been given rave reviews by the critics. The audatorium had taken more than 15 months to transform the old setup into this new sound stage which in itself was a remarkable piece of engineering.
The main stage was a revolving platform that could move from the horizontal to vertical attached to a huge hydraulic ram which in itself was supported by massive columns, the total weight of this was an impressive 46000 kgs which we were told was as heavy as a Boeing 767 fully laden so you can imagine what a sight this was. The show turned out to be the most spectacular live show that we had ever seen.
Dave & Geri were stunned by the overall immensity of the production, it was certainly the most daring choreography ever attempted on stage as all dancers were attached to cables operated by riggers so they had to be precise with the operation of the cables to land the dancers back on the rotating platform-simply brilliant.
After the show we all enjoyed a lovely Dinner over at the Mandalay Bay Resort in their " Raffles Restaurant " before returning to our suite to take in as much of the atmosphere as we could before our departure next morning. We had breakfast in the MGM before Dave & Geri dropped us off at the airport to catch our flight to Salt Lake City to visit Jerry & Carol Allen. We will catch up next from Salt Lake.
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