Vegas Thanksgiving

This year for the Thanksgiving weekend we made the traditional pilgrimage to Las Vegas, where we took part in all the American holiday customs - gambling, drinking, rating the cocktail waitresses, SUV driving (not while drinking) and generally living life to excess.

The weekend was kicked off by staying in an extravagant hotel (the Wynn). Here we gave thanks for a TV in the bathroom and remotely controlled drapes.

Next we cruised the strip and were thankfull for all the moving sidewalks so that we wouldn't tire out between meals.

When it came time to see the 'O' show at the Belagio we were grateful for the internet and advanced ticket sales as the show was sold out. If we hadn't been able to get in I guess we would have had to go to the topless revue. I know that is the show Tracy was rooting for. The 'O' show was simply amazing.

Afterwards we managed to find the only $5 blackjack table on the strip (Treasure Island), but Vegas was not really very giving this holiday. Oh well, we were still thankful for the "free" drinks.

Of course, no Thanksgiving holiday is complete without eating excessive amounts of turkey and stuffing. We did it Vegas style at the Wynn buffet at 8am the next morning. Where else can you have a thanksgiving meal that starts off with bacon, eggs, french toast and prime rib before moving on to the sushi, seafood, pastries and dessert before digging into the turkey with all the fixings? And of course there was another round of dessert afterwards.

Lucky for us the economy car we requested from Hertz was not available so we were forced to roll our expanded bellies into a much larger Ford Escape SUV for the trek out to the Hoover Dam and on to the Big Ditch.

Things to be thankful for here were abundant ... plush seats and automatic transmission in our American automobile while we waited in traffic for a couple hours just to get to the Dam. On the Dam(n) tour we were thankful for deodorant and fast elevators as we shared our unique eleven dollar experience with 50 of our more or less overweight counterparts.

Our all American holiday continued on at the largest attraction of them all - the Grand Canyon. Whoever invented gore-tex and thermal underwear is really deserving of a big Thanks, with 15deg F temperatures over night and 20 mph winds as we started our hike into the Ditch before dawn. 19+ miles later we were glad not to be struggling out in deck shoes and tight jeans like most of the other miserable looking would-be hikers who were trying to make it back to the rim before dark.

That pretty much wrapped up our festive Thanksgiving holiday and as we made our way back on to the plane for our flight home we were thankful for living in a state where it is illegal to smoke in public places.

In October I had some close encounters with nature :) The raccoon and his friend came onto our deck and the hawk was outside my classroom door at school.