Very few words needed today!

When looking around my scrapbooking desk, I found this :

The Grand Canyon tour by papillon helicopter

I loved visiting the Grand Canyon, boarding the helicopter was one of the most memorable days of my holiday. From the speed 140 knots to the  height that we flew at what takes in the car over 4 hours to get to the sky walk we flew past it in 20 minutes.
The view from the sky was incredible on the cloud free day. The soundtrack played through the headphones fitted the flight perfectly.
As we flew across the hoover dam, we were told that the water levels were at 35% capacity due to the draughts in California.  When looking at the water  I could see where the water was at one stage and where it is now due to the white walls which is caused by the water washing the dirt away from the walls of the Lake Mead and the Colorado river.

To see the canyon in person is beyond wonderful and to describe the sights is hard, because no matter how hard  anyone describes it you can not imagine the colors or the hidden depths of the canyons. The Canyon where we flew in was 35 miles wide. 

The Papillon flight pilot was lovely and answered every single question that was asked by the 5 other tourists in the helicopter.
I was lucky to sit in a window seat  whilst my dad had one of the middle seats in the row. The other tourists on board the flight were Australian and Spanish.  The pilot put on a Spanish tape after he explained pieces for the rest of the people onboard.

The company Pappilion provided transport to and from an airfield about 45 minutes away from the Luxor hotel that was included in the price of the flight.

I hope to go back to Las Vegas again in about  10 years time and I will  be going on this flight again when I go back.
I would recommend this to anyone that visits Las Vegas to go  on the tour with Pappilion at half the cost of the other tour operators  it's worth the 5 star score from me.

Viva las vegas!

After a long and very stressful 2 weeks I'm finally off to Las Vegas.
The trip to the airport and check in went really quickly as for the plane journey 10 hours without much leg room (and I'm short) and the middle seat of three.
Have to hand it to virgin staff they were lovely throughout the flight. Very friendly, helpful and up for a quick talk whenever they could.
The inflight programmes were very good and it just so happened the book I've been reading the last few months was one of the inflight movies. So of course I finished my book off and watched the movie. Every second of the movie had me enthralled. And I fell in love again with the main rodeo rider. The movie by the way was "the last ride".
The flight continued and I watched "Spy" which while I found Jason Statham to be hilarious the rest of the movie wasn't that good.
On the descent to Las Vegas airport the sights of the Grand Canyon were fenominal and I could see it out of both windows. The views definitely made up for the boredom on the flight.

Painting a room.... or 2!

This week I have been determined to paint my hallway and living room.
So far so good I'm the living room. As for the hallway I'm on the 4th coat of white paint still trying to cover up that dark dank magnolia!
We decided to paint it white to lighten up the thin corridor and add white accessories in time. It's definitely a lot brighter but until the carpets are down we won't be able to tell how much difference there will be ..... roll on Saturday.

Thorpe park

Out of all the theme parks and places I've visited over the last few months, I have to admit that thorpe park has by far been the best.

From the rides to the (although rather quiet) atmosphere from other visitors. Our day was perfect, we got to the park when it opened and managed to get on several bigger roller coasters without any queue's.

That was until there was a power cut although I'm glad I was waiting in the queue for a ride. I'm glad I was not on it.

Colossus has got to be one of the most mind boggling rides with all the corkscrews near the end making the day and ride one of my favourite roller coasters.

I won't give to much away but yes definitely worth the money and yes I will be going back to thorpe park unlike Chessington, fun was had by all the family!

Saying goodbye.....

Saying good bye to loved ones is never easy. In my case last night I had to say goodbye to my 13 yr old lab cross springer.
When you wake up to find her shaking in pain in the corner of the room, and every time you go near her she moves away. It's the sudden thought that her time on this planet is up.

At 5.25pm last night my oldest girl was put out of her pain by the vet. After a hard decision of whether to operate or not I decided it would not be fair on her.

Have you had to make this hard decision before?
It's the worst part of owning an animal. It's the hardest part of owning an animal.

In the end I, myself know I made the right decision and no matter how hard a choice I know now she's pain free.

So to the vet I would like to say a big thank you for being respectful and patient.

Warwick castle

An almost 3 hour journey from home took my mom, TJ and myself to many adventures in Warwick yesterday.
From amazing countryside (not that I don't see it everyday) to tudor houses.
For myself I love architecture and how over the years it evolved.
Warwick Castle in itself full of pleasant surprises with various collections of furniture dating 100's of years. One of my favourite pieces being the child's suit of armour although this would not have been used on the battlefield, it was amazing to see how tiny the 6 yr old suit was.

Whilst one half of the castle was decorated for medieval times , the other half was decorated early 1800's with models in each room displaying the various clothing that would have been worn. 

I found whilst walking around the castle there were very few notices about the building or information to read about who, why, what, and when it was made. Although there was a time tower which was a little informative on how the castle was passed down from person to person and for what purpose it was made.