MARINA SOKOLOVA

The holidays were nice and quite. The gift I ordered for Jim arrived by post just in time. I was afraid it will be delayed in post. I bought him this beautiful notebook:

We visited Jim's parents around christmas and spend the rest of time at home. I played one of my christmas gifts, Tropico 3, for few days.

On New Year's night we eat finger food and drunk champagne, while watching fireworks on tv. Some of our neighbours had their own fireworks. I got hooked on Pinterest. I haven’t pinned anything myself yet. I just cant stop looking and looking at endless beautiful pictures. It kind of shows you the most popular pics on internet by topic. There so many great ideas and adorable things to see – makes me feel inspired.

Luxor hotel.

Ceiling:

Carpet on the floor:

Flamingo hotel.

The Wynn.

I have mixed feeling about the Wynn's buffet (champagne brunch one). Champagne refills are nice, but one hour in a queue to be seated is not worth it in my opinion. It is not like they don’t have free tables, they just prefer to have a queue. No, it is not the waiting like in Stratosphere, where they give you a pager and you go on observation deck or whatever – in Wynn you actually stand in the queue. The food is nice, but it is nice in a lot of places in Vegas. The price is equivalent to a few course meal with drink in many good places in Vegas (champagne and tax are not included in advertised price). This is the only place we encountered, where server doesn’t stop by your table smile and chat. Instead you stop them mid-run and they quickly talk to you over the shoulder. There is also quite a wait for refills. And I was told by a server that the entire big place has only one cappuccino machine and it is broken. This was also the only place we haven’t left tips. Jim, nice guy he is, wanted to, but I insisted : “1 hour waiting time. Really?”.

 

Fremont Street.

Fremont street is a street in downtown Las Vegas covered with a screen-like roof. This roof shows lovely free light and sound shows every hour in the evening. I think it was a lot of fun.

The Venetian.

Venetian is disappointing inside after it builds up your expectations with beautiful exteriors and entrance. It is just a dark dinky canal – nothing special comparing, for example, to Caesars.

More Vegas photos.

Landing:

Airplane we flew on:

Grand Canyon.

One of the days on our honeymoon we dedicated to the trip to the Grand Canyon, the southern rim, which they show on all the postcards and in the movies. There was 2 other couples with us in a minibus and 2 guides (1trainee). On a way there we made a stop at the Hoover Dam. When we arrived to the Grand Canyon, we were given a picnic which we eat seating on a rim and looking down. Then we went for a trek along the rim and after that we watched sunset seating on the rim again. Our guide, Alfonso, took beautiful photos of us with our camera.

 

Helicopter ride.

Next day after the wedding we went for the flight in a helicopter over Las Vegas Strip at night. I never flew in a helicopter before and felt almost like in James Bond movie. It was beautiful. We even got to see fountains of Bellagio coincidently. Fortunately I also got the best seat. During all of the flight the helicopter was tilting to the side I was seating on and I practically laid on the glass door. Hence, I could see a lot. The couple on the other side wasn’t so lucky though, they didn’t see much except dark sky. I think they even went to submit a complain after the flight. I was very lucky though and I was able to film it all. Unfortunately I cant share the video as I hoped, because, as it turned out, it is almost 2GB big. This means I will not be able to show you some beautiful free street shows either, as each 10 minutes of video from my camera weights 1.67GB.

Our wedding day in Las Vegas.

First we had a ceremony and a photo session at the place called Little Chapel of Flowers. It was great. Very beautiful place and very professional staff. They meet you at the limo, take you by the hand and guide through everything while entertaining you – very well organized. Then we went to the Welcome to Las Vegas Sign. Then we had a bit of champagne in our room at the Tropicana hotel, where we stayed. And after that, we went for diner to the Top of the World restaurant at the Stratosphere hotel, where we watched sunset. It has fabulous views – must see. After the diner we went to the observation deck and hanged out there for a little while, then went back home to the Tropicana hotel. It was such a magical day (and the entire trip as a whole), we thoroughly enjoyed it.