Las Vegas pictures

Here are a few pictures of my trip to Las Vegas: The mountains of Red Rock Canyon (about 1/2 hour west of Vegas), a rainbow on the Bellagio Fountains, picture of Tom Felton (who plays Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter films, and I was fortunate enough to get to meet, shake his hand and talk to him briefly! Very cool! :), a white and gold tiger at the Secret Garden zoo at the Mirage and a night shot of the city from above. (If you want to see more pictures: Red Rock Canyon pictures, Las Vegas strip pictures and pictures of the big cats and dolphins at the Secret Garden zoo).

A few recommendations:

• We found a better place to eat this year: Paris buffet has excellent food all day at reasonable prices ($18 lunch, $25 dinner). We even went back three times in a week!


• Another new recommendation I have is to go see the Bellagio fountains right when they start at 3pm and stand nearest to the hotel doors, looking out toward the street and into the sun to see a rainbow through the water! I've done this several times now and, at least in the fall, the sun is at the right spot to create a spectacular rainbow while the fountains play. They will always play 2 songs at 3pm as well- The Star-Spangled Banner and Time to Say Goodbye (Great opera singing by Bocelli). I also recommend seeing the fountains at night as well.


• Take a stroll through the Bellagio Conservatory- free and open 24 hours a day (closed when they are changing exhibits, though). Bellagio employs 140 horticulturalists to maintain their beautiful garden display that changes with the seasons.


• Take your camera with you past the front of Planet Hollywood to see the people acting as statues and to the Bellagio where they have started having people dress up in costumes. We saw an angel and demon and later Dorothy (in her ruby slippers) and the all green Wicked Witch of the West. This usually occurs evenings and possible more on the weekends, but is pretty random when and what you will see.

If you want more info on Vegas, see last year's post on my recommendations, feel free leave a comment.