So, still recovering from the trip west to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon as my birthday trip, and I remembered I had shot a number of videos on my smartphone alongside using my Canon EOS Rebel T6 camera for more detailed shots.
Spend the last couple days uploading them to my YouTube channel (as the Blogger video upload never works for me) so let me see if I can share the videos I got from the trip:
Taken from the pedestrian bridge between Treasure Island Casino and the Pallazo above the famous Las Vegas Strip. The hotel I stayed at - Best Western Casino Royale Plus - is to the south of the Venetian you see with that canal filled with gondolas. Across the street they are building a new Hard Rock Casino... in the shape of a giant guitar. Further down the road at the curve is Caesar's Palace. When I turn the phone northward, you'll see Treasure Island's pirate sails and... I have no idea what that flying saucer is associated with.
The famous Bellagio Fountains. They don't constantly run shows - at least not at that time of day - so you kind of wait around for them to start something and grab the smartphone to record. Was halfway through "Uptown Funk" when I finally got the camera running.
That Thursday May 7th was dedicated to going out to the Grand Canyon, and once we got to the Hualapai tribe's west side of the canyon the tour guide started directing our attention to certain things... such as the Eagle Point rock formation.
So here's my selfie at Eagle Point. I do apologize for the ugly guy hogging the forefront.
The Hualapai consider the eagle formation sacred and part of their origin myth, of a great spirit god becoming a giant eagle to lift up the people from a deadly flood. That part of the park contains a number of other historic elements, I think I shared them on the previous blog article with the pictures.
I planned ahead for the selfie stick for several reasons: Above all, handling any risky over-the-cliff type shots to get a good idea of how steep and how deep the canyon walls go. And yeah, they deep.
Even with the selfie stick, the tribal security people still warned me I was too close. I guess they've had one too many selfie sticks go over... along with far too many people who get too close to the edge period. TEN FEET BACK, kiddos.
At the Guano Point rock formation, I found shade on one side of the hill, and took a long moment - long minutes - just sitting there admiring the view and awed by the peaceful environs. Away from cities, from traffic, from most noise (other than a tour helicopter flying by every 15 minutes)... It was incredible.
They have a tourist eatery at Guano Point where you can sit and eat/drink a lunch... and after walking 6100 steps - based on a walking app my workplace had us use last year for an exercise challenge - for about 5 miles or so... I really needed the sitdown.
The road taking us to the tribal land also crossed into the Mojave Desert, which is apparently the only place where Joshua Trees grow in the entire world. And NO, we were nowhere near THAT particular Joshua Tree (which sadly died in 2000: there is a tribute marker there now).
Still, I couldn't resist the temptation to belt out the chorus to "Where The Streets Have No Name."
I did get a video clip of the Hoover Dam as we swung by on our way back to Vegas, but part of me wonders if that violates any national security concerns.
On Friday, my big "Roam Around Vegas" day, I had gotten the e-bike rental and started scooting around to see about finding a local gift item I could get for my twin brother for our birthday. Along the way I spotted the Sphere, the latest glowy attraction along the Strip. There's not much else to it, during the daylight and at an angle where you can't see it in full. It had to be a more spectacular sight at night.
And that was it for videos I uploaded for the trip. About an hour after riding the e-bike circling to the Pinball Hall of Fame and the Famous Las Vegas Sign, I got into that accident en route to Omega Mart and that kind of ended most of my visit (there was a Friday night show of Cirque Du Soleil's Mystere I couldn't cancel, but you're not allowed to record the show and I couldn't video myself walking into the theater while handling crutches. I did get a few photos of the stage before the show started).
I may return to Las Vegas someday, if only to complete some of the things I missed doing. Maybe when they finish building the As ballpark and the Tampa Bay Rays have a road trip there, that could be a good excuse to go.
