I just realised the contradiction when if I had put California at the head of my post title coz Vegas is in Nevada! and Hoover Dam is in Colorado whereas Grand Canyon in Arizona.. whew, 3 states in a day!

aka the Fufu dam, courtesy of cheenglish supplied by our tour guide

When we were on the way back from Vegas the next day, it's really pretty when it's lit up but since the bus was crawling (bad jam), we didn't manage to get a decent picture outside.

The incredible heat from the desert sun

Grand Canyon trail- we chose the non fenced in one, being so adventurous - fatalities have occured from falls you know!

Rocks. And the many layers through the ages

I used some function on the camera to produce a warmer colour. I think it was the fluorescent effect

Missed!

Gotcha!

(i didn't find the Grand Canyon particularly interesting. Watch the IMAX though. Some amazing sweeping photography although I didn't get the storyline at all)

Family pic moment!

Voila- the wonders of photoshop- although there's that sliver of shadow on my right arm. Anyway, the easier solution, which we worked out later, is to put slow shutter speed and set flash as well. The only problem was getting people out of the way

This is how it's done, uh-huh



Night lights

All that glitters

The Venetian, I made my family trek all the way across town here but the gondolas were not operating by that time, it was around midnight. Neither was the Tussauds wax museum open. Ah well. At least there were some pictures to take.

Serene waters outside Venetian

The clock tower just before we boarded the bus back to our hotel

29 May, Tuesday

In the morning we were brought around to visit more extravagant hotels before going back to LA.

I wanted to show the irony of New York in Vegas =)

Supposedly artistic shot

We were informed that originally the entrance to MGM was the actual lion's mouth instead, puts a twist to the proverb 'into the lion's den' eh. It would've been so cool.. but oddly enough Americans are also superstitious to bad feng shui or bad luck to walk through the lion's mouth coz it signified money going in and never coming out. I suppose thats good for the proprietors right, but since they're losing customers they changed it to a more sedate lion statue. (oh a quick check on Wiki revealed they were losing Asian customers. Figured)

Mandalay Bay and Luxor on a lovely morning

Inside Luxor, also a lil shunned coz of it's dark interior, like being encased in a tomb. It's windows are all slanting at a certain angle coz of the pyramid shape. and the lifts ascend in that angle too, instead of rising vertically! Too bad we couldn't find a lift to get on.

Luxor so reminds me of Sunway Pyramid, albeit grander of course.

Outside Luxor

Ooh I love playing arounf with reflections. Showing off my rm25 sunglasses =) I realise when you buy something, instead of being satisfied with it you look around more for alternatives. Like for sis and I, we were looking around US for more sunnies, even though there is not much necessity for them, either to gloat 'hah! I bought them for cheaper' or muse 'hmm this is SOO cheap, should I get another one?' Sigh, the insatiable human wants. Speaking of, on the way back to LA, we stopped by yet another factory outlet with over 90 stores supposedly? I cant really remember, but again, the lack of time plagued us but I managed to get a Levi's cap for US$5 =)