Canadian Cousins!

We arrived into Toronto early Sunday morning.  We had arranged to stay the week with my cousin Sarah, her husband Michael and two boys Jonathan and Thomas.  Michael came to pick us up from the airport and drove the hour to their house.  We chilled out, napped, had coffee and doughnuts and then sat the whole afternoon in the garden catching up, whilst the sun was shining!  We had a lovely bbq in the evening and stayed up til the early hours in their basement bar - the "Holy Grail Pub"!

We were feeling a little worse for wear today so we chilled out indoors and in the afternoon chilled in the garden again.  Sarah cooked us a lovely beef stew and we all crashed out by midnight!

Whilst Michael and Sarah were at work Mart and I took a walk around the local area and went to the mall.  Michael managed to get home early so they went to play golf whilst Sarah took me out to dinner at the local sports bar with Jonathan and Thomas.  In the evening Sarah cut my hair (she is/was a hairdresser - she didn't just randomly cut my hair!) and we went down to the bar when the boys came back to play some darts, drink lots and smoke the shisha with some cherry flavoured tobacco!

Michael was the best at the smoke nose...

 So another late night meant another lay in for us lazy travellers!  We must admit it has been lovely being a bit lazy!  When Sarah got in from work in the afternoon she took us to the local park.  Me and Mart had a walk around and sat in the park for a while before heading back early evening.  In the evening we went out for a nice meal with Sarah and Michael whilst the boys stayed at home with a babysitter.

Today we thought we had better see some of Canada so Mart and I got the double decker train into Toronto. 

We got on the city bus tour which took around 2 hours and showed us a lot of the city and gave us a lot of information.

 

We then got off at the pier and took a boat tour that took us around the islands just of the coast and gave us some great views looking back to the city.#

After stopping for lunch we went to the most famous landmark in Toronto - the CN Tower.  The CN Tower was once the tallest in the world but it currently holds the title as the 3rd tallest tower in the world.  So we decided to go up it to as high as we could go - and that was 147 floors high!

To put this is perspective the highest floor you can visit in the Empire State Building in New York is the 102nd floor.  Canary Wharf has 50 floors - it's practically 3 Canary Wharfs on top of each other!

Construction on the CN Tower began on February 6, 1973 and wrapped up about 40 months later in June 1976.

 

Lightning strikes the CN Tower an average of 75 times per year. Long copper strips run down the CN Tower to grounding rods buried below ground to prevent damage.

The CN Tower was built at an original cost of $63 million.

Don't look down!!

So of course we had to have a go on the glass floor...

When we had our feet firmly back on the ground we walked around the shops and then got the train back where we had another lovely cooked meal in.

The next day was an early start as we were all off to Niagra Falls.  Unfortunately over the week the weather had started lovely but by now it was cold, windy and very wet!  Not the best day to go Niagra but we had booked a hotel there and would be flying out of Toronto tomorrow.  So we got there in around 2 hours and went straight to the Maid of the Mist - the boat that takes you into the mist of the falls!

Although they give you rain covers it was so windy and wet that they didn't really do much and we all managed to get soaked through!

Thomas and Martin getting ready for the water...

This is what we were heading for - can you see the boat in the mist!?

So after a pretty funny drenching we tried to dry off over some lunch.  Sarah, Michael and the boys went back to the town to play some bowling whilst Mart and I went behind the falls.

So after we got even wetter we went back to the town to join the others in the bowling alley and had a few drinks.  We then went and found our hotel for the night, chilled for a bit then walked back to town to go to one of the restaurants that have views over the falls.  We ate in a lovely steak restaurant to finish off our trip in Canada.

Unfortunately the next day we had to leave so we said our goodbyes at Toronto airport and went onto our next stop - back to the USA, where my mum and dad were waiting to meet us in Boston!

Vegas Baby!

Today we were driving into Vegas!  When we arrived me and Mart checked into Caesars Palace, our home for the next 4 nights, and our luck was in as we managed to get an upgrade!  So we were on the 68th floor of the Forum Tower (although it was actually 18 storeys high), but it was a beautiful room - with a tv in the mirror of the bathroom(!) and some great views of the strip.

Ray and Sheila checked into the hotel over the road so we arranged to meet a few hours later after we had settled in our room and walked around the hotel for a while. 

We all went to Fremont in the evening which is the original starting point of Vegas - it had the first hotel - the Hotel Nevada in 1906, now the Golden Gate, it had the first gaming license and the first high-rise (the Fremont Hotel in 1956).  However by 1992 80% of the casino market was on 'the Strip'.  So to lure people back to Fremont the 'Fremont Street Experience' was created.  It cost $70 million to transform five city blocks into a covered walkway which shows laser light shows on the ceiling above you. 

It was well worth the investment as it was a very unique experience with plenty of entertainment and random dancing!

Ray and Sheila went and saw a show they had booked and me and Mart walked around the casinos, shops and entertainment venues.

The next day was my nieces 2nd birthday so we skyped home in the morning and whilst I was chatting Mart went to see if he could get tickets for a show tonight.  We then got the monorail from the Flamingo over the road to the MGM Grand where we picked up the tickets he had just booked.  We then walked around the Luxor, Excalibur, New York, Paris and lots of others, we stopped at the Belaggio to see the fountain show.

We met up with Ray and Sheila in the evening and got the monorail to the MGM again and went to see Ka - a cirque du soleil show.  It was amazing!  A really great show and would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes the cirque shows.

Afterwards we went for a buffet dinner and had a gamble in Caesars!

The next day we took the monorail the opposite way down to the Stratosphere where we went up to the 109th floor and had a go on 'insanity', the ride that hangs you over the edge of the building and spins you round!

The ride was pretty insane!

We then walked back towards the strip and went in Circus Cirucs and had a go on the craps table.  We then saw Treasure Island and met Ray and Sheila at the Venetian, we were going to have a go on the gondolas but when we saw what you actually got for your money it was definitely not worth it!

We went and walked around some of the shops and the centre at Caesars Palace where they have curved escalators!

In the evening we drove to the 51's stadium where we watched our first game of baseball and the beer was only $1!

Ray and Sheila left Vegas today so me and Mart had booked a trip of the Grand Canyon as they had been there before.  We were up very early as was being picked up at 6am for a 7am helicopter flight!

The ride to the Canyon took around 45 mins and went over Hoover Dam.  We then landed in the canyon on the west side where we got out, had a walk around and a champagne breakfast.



After around 40 mins we got back in the copter for the next flight.  I was in the front for this part (they swapped us around so everyone had a chance at sitting in the front).  We landed about 20 mins after to refuel so we all got out again.  We then took off again (and another seat change) and flew over the strip on our way back.

Fremont..

We transferred back to our hotel and had spent the afternoon at our pool where it was hot but really windy!

We walked around in the evening and we did some more gambling!

The next day we had to check out so we left our bags with the hotel and walked around the strip again.  We went to the Mall and then to Wynn which had some nice flower displays but that was it as it's not one of the theme hotels. 

We went to the Monte Carlo and had a go on the craps tables again.  We then got a taxi from our hotel to the airport to catch our evening flight.  Next stop CANADA!