Nevada - November 2013

I am back from 9 days in Las Vegas, Nevada and while recovering from jet leg I am putting my thoughts together about this adventure. I will be posting my thoughts & photos describing Las Vegas, Cirque Week, Hoover Dam, and the Valley of Fire in separate posts. For now here's a quick look at what I did and where I was.

The reason for my trip was Cirque Week 2013 - celebrating 20 years of Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas. Every afternoon there was an event that Cirque Week participants could attend. Each of the 8 shows planned something special for us. We could also purchase show tickets at a reduced rate for that week. I attended all 8 of the Cirque shows, most of the events, and I also attended Le Reve.

I stayed at Treasure Island. There are so many hotel options in Las Vegas ~ There are about 150,000 hotel room available!

Here's MUSAP in a creosote bush in the Valley of Fire. MUSAP hid in my suitcase for the first few days of the trip - perhaps sensory overload being in Las Vegas.

When visiting Las Vegas there is walking, walking, and more walking to get around!

This is my view of the Strip looking south from my hotel room window.

The fountains in from of the Bellagio - with a rainbow.

Here I am with Wellington. He is one of the dancers in the Michael Jackson ONE show. He helped us learn the choreography to Thriller for our afternoon event. Then we got to dance it one stage with the lights, music, and smoke effects.

These are the fire dancers from 'O'. They talked to us about how they learned fire dancing and how they prepare for their acts in 'O'.

 The weather was sunny and warm every day. I was happy I had tossed a bathing suit in my suitcase. Sitting by the pool was a nice change from the activity on the Strip.

I took 2 tours while I was on this adventure. The first was to the Hoover Dam. An engineering masterpiece that probably couldn't be replicated today with OSHA and EPA regulations!

My tour included a rafting trip at the base of the dam which gave us a view that most people never see.

On my final day in Las Vegas I took another tour - this time to The Valley of Fire. It was nice being away from the city and seeing some of the nature wonders of Nevada. I found myself missing green.

More posts coming with lots and lots of photos that will give you a sense of where I went and what I saw on this adventure!