Category Archives: Travels

The Nugget is my new favourite hotel

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We didn’t get to gamble in Vegas and I wanted to try my luck at Blackjack so we stopped in Reno on the way home.

And we booked a hotel that costed $25.  That’s right.  And it was the best valued hotel of our trip.  $25 for a 3.5 star hotel!  I loved it.  All it needed was free breakfast as part of that price.  Oh, and for those annoying smokers to go back to the smoking floor.

I loved it so much we ate our pho takeout in the hotel.  Actually we didn’t have a choice it was because all the restaurants were closing but I digress.

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Now if only Nicholas remembered to TAKE me to play Blackjack instead of leave me in the room he would have had better luck.  Serves him right.

Goldfield Ghostown

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During our road trip we saw our fair share of ghost towns.

And finally we decided to stop at one of them.

Welcome to Goldfield, Nevada.  Home to boarded up houses, a historical court house and a fiery fire engine.

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Founded in 1902, there were once about 30,000 people here during the goldrush and apparently a whole lot of tavern drinking.

And now it’s dead.

When in Vegas

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Apparently for Pokin, Vegas = buffets.

So instead of seeing all the shows we just went to the Bacchanal Buffet in Caesar’s Place in Vegas.

We were going back on the road again soon so we ended up eating at 10:45am.  It was a bit early for my best bear bud and I — especially since they started switching over to lunch foods already by 11:00, but I guess we got lunch for breakfast prices at least.  ($25.95 instead of $35.95)

Bacchanal Buffet is billed as the largest buffet in the world.  There are over 500+ dishes.  We got a quick tour.

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I loaded my plate up right away with lots of desserts.  YEAH.

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I guess it was too early for Nicholas so he couldn’t eat too much.

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Pokin didn’t do too poorly, she filled her plates.

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That was kind of fun.  I could have eaten more chocolate cake but I think it was way too much for my best bear bud and he felt a bit ill after.  Given that I weigh 186* and he only weighs 115* I weigh more and can out eat him too!

* if you ignore that one is grams and the other is pounds.  I’m dealing strictly with the numbers here.

 

Onwards to the Grand Canyon

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Goodbye Page, Arizona!  We turned our car westward and southwards and headed towards the Grand Canyon.

Originally we had planned to camp overnight at the Grand Canyon, but 22oF / -5oC forecasts and our recent cold experience at White Sands made us rethink that idea pretty quickly.

Both Pokin and Nick had been to the Grand Canyon and both of them were underwhelmed during their last experience.  But since I’d never been, they took me just so I could see it with my own eyes even if we weren’t going to camp.  We got in from the east entrance and drove westward along the Grand Canyon park road.

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I liked it.  I could see myself soaring over those canyons.

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We started at Dessert View, which was actually the nicest since you could see the river.  We then stopped at various other points that we could drive to along the way.

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By the time we got to the main Mather Point viewpoint I was already more interested in the wildlife and how they just didn’t give a hoot about the tourists gathered around.

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Well I’m glad we got  a taste of it.  We could have taken the mandatory shuttle bus to see the rest of the viewpoints, but Nicholas had the idea of going straight to Vegas instead.  Vegas yeah!  Let’s go!

Pokin at Antelope Canyon

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Pokin came back at 1:00pm and we met her at the gift shop.  She looked pretty frazzled.

“Place is nice, but my heart is pounding!”

The way the canyons work is that several groups have rights into the canyons.  They shuttle you in mostly open air trucks down a bumpy dirt road to the entrance.  Once there, you have a bit over an hour to take photos (after the transit time); less if you don’t do the photo tours.

Well the canyons are crowded!  And the light beam show is fleeting.  So her entire experience was what her guide Rob described as “speed shooting”.

Run in, don’t have time to set up, take some photos quickly, run to the next spot, take some photos, run back to the first spot.  Repeat until your hour is up and then go and delete all the photos with arms, legs, heads and people in it.

The place is cool, the pictures look neat but I’m sure glad my best bear bud and I skipped out on the experience!

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At least she got to go with a photographer friend she met earlier in the day.

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Not going to Antelope Canyon

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I mentioned we’d learned that the Antelope Canyon (which has an upper and lower section) isn’t publicly accessible.  It’s on Navajo land and in fact different families have rights to the different canyons.  You have to pay a permit fee, a guide fee, a licensing fee if you want to take photos and possibly sell them, and you have to sign up for a tour in order to go.

Well we didn’t know that, so Pokin spent a few hours on the phone calling up tour companies.  Most of them were already booked up, but eventually she found a tour with one spot left.  A two hour photography tour with Chief Tsosie of the hour Upper Canyon for $80 at the 10:30 time slot.   There was also a $43 regular non photography tour too.  Upper Canyon is famous for the beams of light that shine into the canyon at certain times, and as a result it’s crazy busy there.  Being crammed into small confined spaces with tonnes of other tourists seemed like the last thing my best bear bud wanted to do, so we wished Pokin good luck and headed towards lower canyon where there were rumours that you could go without a guide.

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Which turned out not to be true.

Well it’s true that you could go to lower canyon if you were a photographer.  With an SLR.  And a tripod.  No, your fancy Leica won’t work because they don’t accept mirrorless cameras.  So not surprisingly they didn’t accept our cell phone camera as sufficient equipment.  And unfortunately we missed the guided tour departure by about 5 minutes so seeing the Antelope Canyon just wasn’t happening.

Off to find something else to do!

Visiting Horseshoe Bend in Page Arizona

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Today we took a few hour detour to stay in a small town close to the Grand Canyon along the northern border of Arizona.  Along the way I got my first real exposure to the territory of the Navajo Indians.  They own some cool land!  They own a lot of land!

The purpose of our detour was to visit a couple landmarks – Horseshoe Bend and Antelope Canyon.  This is where spontaneous travel bit us a bit in the butt.  Only once we arrived did we learn that Antelope Canyon isn’t exactly open to public, and that you need a Navajo guide and you need to go on a tour to see the canyon.  And of course many of the best tours were already booked up.

Well at least Horseshoe Bend is free to access so we went there first.  It’s a short walk up and then down a sandy hill off the highway.

There it is!

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We got there just after sunset to see hordes of tourists lined up along the perimeter to snap photos.  Oh photographers.  I know one too well.

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Well I got a look at the bend.  It looked good.  I had my fill.  Unfortunately Pokin didn’t feel the same way so she dragged us all out of bed at 5:15am the next day to this.

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It was still so early I actually only woke up when a gust of cold sandy air hit me in the face.  You bet we were grumpy.

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Unlike yesterday night where there were over 100 people there, this morning there were only 4 people total.  And one bear.  I wonder why?  BECAUSE THE REST OF HUMANITY IS NOT CRAZY.  At least we got good front row seats.

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My best bear bud and I were good sports.  We stayed until the sun came up.

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Then we went back to the car to watch bunnies bounce around the hills till Pokin came back.  And of course since there were only two other insane people (also photographers, why am I not surprised???) out there, Pokin made friends with them while they were freezing outdoors with mittens, toques, jackets and tripods.  What a bunch.  Time for some hot cocoa for me back in the hotel!

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