Kimberley cattle, barra AND Vegas!!

We woke up on Friday morning to a message from Asha to say Kristoffer had been in a car accident (Friday night WA time), but was OK.  He and 3 mates were heading to Roebuck Roadhouse to register for a fishing (barra) comp...Broome vs Derby..... driving at night, just past the Curtin Detention Centre.  I know the road well and it is notorious for cattle crossing and cars hitting them with devastating consequences.  They had dimmed their lights for an oncoming vehicle and when they went back to high beam, 3 cattle were crossing in front of them and they unfortunately hit the last one.  The bull bar was knocked into the front tyre, which shredded it and they lost control of the car and ended up on the other side of the road. Kristoffer was in the front seat and grabbed the wheel as he thought his mate had been hurt as the car had no control, but it was because of the damage to the tyre.  He said it all happened so fast and he can't believe it didn't roll.  They were all so fortunate as no-one was hurt (the cow died though), but it shook them all up and the car has been written off.

  

So of course I cried!  I felt so far away from home and the boys, and even though Kristoffer lives 2500kms from us and there would have been nothing we could have done even if we were back in WA,  I felt a million miles away!!
Needless to say, they got back to Derby OK and were able to go on their fishing trip...and you all will be pleased to know Derby beat Broome!!

Kimberley sunset

Vegas is one place where most people I have spoken to, who have been there, would say you should probably go if given the opportunity, but only for a couple of days.  So we figured we would pop over there for our last Long Weekend and see what it's all about. 
I picked Stuart up from school on Friday and we wouldn't have wanted to have left much later as the traffic was horrendous. We parked at the long term parking and caught the shuttle bus to the airport.  All was good until we went through security.  I was wearing a tunic that had a zipper from shoulder to waist.  Apparently it caused a problem on the scanner, so I got pulled aside.  They wiped my hands and traces of "explosives" came up....glycerin from the moisturiser??? So more security came, they asked which bags were mine and as I went to get them, I was told very briskly not to touch them! Everything was then wiped down to check for more explosives and I then had to go into a room and 2 ladies had to pat me down...intimately....which was a very, very uncomfortable experience. I know it is all necessary and I should be happy they are so secure, but all because of a zipper??? I just hope I never have to go through that again.
So we arrived around 8pm Friday, and caught the shuttle bus to the Venetian where we were staying. Opulence personified!!

Our huge room (on the 28th floor) had views over Las Vegas and the Sierra Nevada in the distance.

Inside the Venetian there is of course the massive Casino which was constantly full...full of loud people, full of loud music, full of cigarette smoke!  Once you got away from that side of it, you were treated to madness of a different kind. 

Expensive shops throughout these grand buildings designed to look like you were in Venice on the canals!!!!

For $20 per person (and a tip) you could go on a gondola ride and get serenaded in Italian...we didn't!

This was INSIDE the building above the casino!

INSIDE the building ABOVE the casino!!

Dockers supporters in Vegas!

Then throughout the day, a short show would be performed by opera singers.....

We hired a car the next day and drove out to Lake Mead and Hoover Dam. Such a contrast from the extremes of Vegas to head out into the wide open spaces of Nevada. I was so happy to finally get to see my first "favourite" cactus.....I thought I would have to head down to Texas to see one...turns out all I needed to do was fly to Nevada!

Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the United States in maximum water capacity and is located on the Colorado River about 24 mi from the Strip southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada, in the states of Nevada and Arizona.  We stopped there for a look and Stu had a quick swim...adding to his collection of "States I have swum in!".

 and then we drove to Hoover Dam...a place we have seen in plenty of documentaries, so it was good to see it in person.

 We walked across the bridge,

  from Nevada...

to Arizona.....

It was amazing to see palm trees out in the desert amongst rocks!!

through the hills and their gorgeous colours....

before heading back into Vegas....

That night we went and saw the stage production Jersey Boys, which is the Frankie Valli story.  It was fantastic and for those of you who read my last post about taking photos of "basins"....the basins in the bathroom of the Paris Las Vegas Hotel were AMAZING, but unfortunately I couldn't get any photos as there were always women in there!!!  But we did get a shot of the Eiffel Tower!

There were people everywhere walking The Strip.  Street drinking is allowed and there are bars everywhere selling yard glasses that people walk around with on the street, there were sleazy men offering "free girls" for the night, lots of "brides to be", 'birthday people',  characters dressed up that if you took a photo of them, you would have to tip them, walking past shops and people offering you "free stuff", so you wouldn't want to make eye contact with them as they would almost pounce on you...it almost had a Bali feel to me of being hassled to "come in and buy." I really didn't enjoy being amongst it, but while you were walking you did get to see some speccy sights out the front of the hotels.

Sunday we spent wandering around the streets...it was pretty hot so we would venture into some of the hotels to check out their famous foyers....
The Palazzo..

Caesar's Palace...

The Wynn...

 The Flamingo Hotel...

It was awful seeing the poor birds in this environment, particularly the black swan ...

....I wanted to take it back to WA and set it free in the estuary....

and as for the Californian grey pelicans....they looked so sad.....

and deserved much better.....like our beautiful backyard.

That afternoon we met up with some Australians, Bob and Robyn Pearce, who are on exchange to Vancouver...they know our friends, Ric and Jen Gates from Australind (on exchange to Vancouver Island) and Sharon and Lindsay Smith, our NSW/Denver exchange friends....and were having a weekend in Vegas as well. It was fantastic to catch up with them and exchange stories and just to chat with other Australians.

That evening, Stu and I went to the Bellagio to see the performance of "O"...Cirque du Soleil.  It was truly unbelievable and I have since been told the best of Cirque du Soleil. Here is a youtube video...it was breathtaking!
"O" Cirque du Soliel
and here is the foyer of The Bellagio....

The Talking Tree

Ideas for flower displays for the wedding, Asha!!

The next day we wandered the streets again, before flying out, but were pretty keen to leave Vegas.  It was all I expected and we're glad we went, but would probably never go back again.  I would have liked to have spent more time out in the desert, which would have given us a much better perspective of Nevada.  But we did come across these signs at the airport which just about summed up the bizarreness of Las Vegas for us!!  Visit the library.....

then go and shoot something!!!

When we returned to Denver on Monday night, it was -2C and we caught the shuttle bus to the long term parking.  Unfortunately we had lost the parking ticket and after 20 mins at the ticket booth explaining this, with multiple language issues. "Name? Spell it." "Excuse me, excuse me? DOB...."excuse me, excuse me? "Address?"...."excuse me, excuse me?" "Telephone number" "excuse me, excuse me?" What kind of car is this?" ...."excuse me, excuse me?" Excuse me means "I DON'T UNDERSTAND!!!" and by the time we got out of there if we heard one more "excuse me" we would have rammed the boom gate down!!
Wednesday night we went back to the Pepsi Centre for the start of the new basketball season. It was great to be back there for basketball and we watched the Denver Nuggets beat the LA Lakers

...a great game made more interesting by the married couple sitting behind us who were having a full on domestic with lots of colourful language being shouted between them.  Needless to say "Chantelle",  "poker game", "I read your text messages" and "how many hoes do you love?" were the less offensive words being thrown around!!!
On Thursday, six of us went to the Brown Palace Hotel in Downtown Denver for High Tea, organised by one of the CITEL ladies.

I have never done anything like this before and it was really lovely....very expensive, but a treat!

Dorothy, Susan, Bruce, Jennifer, Sharon and Ian

and Denver turned on some glorious weather!