If there is one thing you must do when in #LasVegas it’s go on a trip with these guys! We chose to go on a half day trip because despite being busy as HECK all week long with our day jobs, they’re really ‘at our desk, to our car, to our client’s desk, to our car, to back to the office’ jobs which is not a lot of physical exercise overall. We have taken a #canoe trip before & that was a lot of fun so we signed up for this one.

Our #tourguide was Dani Larget and she was awesome! From the first minute we met her she was energetic, informative & full of life. It was only my husband & I plus Dani so we got all her attention & could ask ask much as we wanted about the local #history & where we were going. Don’t let her slight build fool you, this girl can load up a van full of supplies, emergency gear & 2 #kayaks in the blink of an eye! We took off through the Lake Mead National Recreation Area where we learned a ton of the history of the area including Boulder City. This community was built in 1931 to house the workers building the Hoover Dam. It’s still a quaint town that looks a bit old fashioned & would be fun to check out if you have time, but since the Colorado River awaited us, we sped on through.

We arrived at Willow Beach where we would launch our kayaks & where the view was stunning! It couldn’t have been a more perfect day, for the sun was up, there was a really nice breeze & the water wasn’t too fast. Dani took us through a few safety rules & we loaded lunches, water, first aid gear & ourselves onto the kayaks and set off. #BlackCanyon is really beautiful – very craggy, very sheer & you can see where the water has left its imprint over the years – showing how the water level has dropped quite drastically.

There is a fascinating little “tram” that the gauger would take to pull himself across the river when he would go to work monitoring the levels of the #ColoradoRiver to aid the building of the #HooverDam. There is a small building perched precariously on the side of the canyon where he would go to do this & an even more precarious catwalk he took along the canyon wall. We hiked to the spot where his home once stood along the river, you can still see the foundation, and imagine him sitting at the end of a long day enjoying his peaceful, beautiful view.

There is a really cool little cave called #EmeraldCove that you can go into. You back up into the cave so that you’re looking out and the water there is green yet crystal clear. There was a little beach spot where we stopped for lunch (which was SO GOOD) & were joined by a drake & mallard duck. It was so beautiful there & even though the water is quite cold, it felt good to dip our feet & hands in after the heat of the sun. We refilled our water bottles, doubled up on the sunscreen & started off again back to Willow Beach.

We did see some other #animals, such as turkey vultures, a few cute, spike haired ducks, a mama Bighorn sheep & her little one wayyyyy up in the canyon but luckily NOT the swimming rattlesnake nor the scorpions that Dani mentioned to us are native to the area. On our way back to the office to leave our gear, before returning to our hotel, we make a quick stop at #HemenwayPark where there are a herd of Bighorn sheep were in the field of a recreation park… yes, right next to the picnic tables & slide! It was pretty neat to see them so up close & fairly tame but we still gave them plenty of space as there were at least three males & we didn’t want them to feel threatened at all.

All in all, we couldn’t have asked for a better trip. When we travel, we always want to learn the #history of the area, we want to see the #landscape, the architecture… we definitely learned a lot about the many trips & #trails we could take if we wanted to go back and learning more of the history of the builders of the Hoover Dam was neat since we were fascinated by our tour at the Dam a few years ago.

I would give this tour 5 tickets out of five for sure. Dani, of Desert Adventures was knowledgeable, safety conscious & fun. The trip was well worth the money & we would go again. See, it must have been good because we bought T shirts & have already talked about what type of kayak we now need to get for ourselves!

Out of the blue, Mr. My Return Ticket (my husband) decided we should go to see #DavidCopperfield on a recent anniversary trip we took to #LasVegas. I thought hey, why not? Famous guy, been doing it for years, probably a good night out. We weren’t allowed cameras for obvious reasons, so you’ll have to take our word for it.. this show was bananas!

Out he came, still a nice looking guy, appearing as if by … wait… alright fine, as if by #magic! Inside a giant box that WAS empty…  it was! I saw it was empty & I was looking underneath & everything! Yet, there he appeared, David on an awesome Harley Davidson motorcycle!  Nice start! He then is casually doing slow, easy little slight of hand tricks… cracking some jokes, talking with the audience… then SHAZAM!! There’s a spaceship in the room?! He does a full bit with a little robotic alien (long story – go see the show) where he lets the audience in on some emotion regarding his own parents, who have since passed away.

Another cool section of the show was when he talked about his favourite toy as a boy… a skeleton of a T Rex named Frank, who’s been missing for many years. The end trick is so unreal as a MASSIVE T Rex appears in front of our eyes! It’s so hard to figure out because it’s just so huge you can’t figure out how it is suddenly there while we watched so carefully??

There is a lot of audience participation which makes you realize that the results are very unpredictable, David even relied on tossing frisbees out into the crowd to choose people (or their answers) for him to have predicted before the show even started. He had emailed one of his #predictions out to everyone before the show ended (of course we didn’t know this since our phones were put into wooden privacy boxes) so this was even harder to explain – – how could he possibly have known what random results he would get beforehand? Mind. Blown.

Worth every penny, lots of fun & definitely makes you question what you think you know about magic & #illusions… he doesn’t take himself too seriously, despite having been famous for so so long & having travelled the world. A really great evening at the #MGMGrand  For more info or to see a show schedule David Copperfield

You know, I have always liked #CelineDion & thought her vocal rage is quite unreal but after seeing her concert in #LasVegas this week… I have a whole new appreciation for her. She was lovely & engaging from the moment she stepped out on the stage but once she started to sing… that was it… we were enraptured! You realize with every song she sings, that her #talent is ridiculous, she makes it look absolutely effortless, but also that each song must be hard for her to get through now that the love of her life (& her manager throughout her career) is now gone… Celine’s husband Renee passed away in 2016, which she does make mention of, but you feel it in her emotional performance anyway.

One thing I did not realize, is that Celine is quite funny! She made a lot of jokes while speaking to us, the audience & when chatting with her band & back up singers. She came out once wearing the #LasVegasKnights hockey team jersey! Despite her & I both being #Canadian girls, we obviously still have a healthy respect for the brand new team that has risen to the top of the NHL to be in the Stanley Cup Finals.

One thing we loved was that she happily allowed photos (no flash). She sang some of her original songs, even a little piano bar number… and who knew Celine could scat?! But scat she did & it was fantastic. She sang a duet with her back up singer of ‘Beauty & the Beast’ – excellent pairing of voices there! She was gracious to her band & they were spotlighted as well with some instrumentals. I did get emotional for her when it came to ‘All By Myself’ because again, you could only imagine the heartache she & her children feel since Renee has been gone. I think most of us are suckers for a true love story, non?

Of course, the highlight of it all was the encore… nothing other than spectacular… the #Titanic theme – My Heart Will Go On… not a dry eye in the place! Celine was featured inside of an actual cascading, spinning waterfall right onstage! She was amazing, a true show woman & I would absolutely go to see her again. Despite having has some recent health issues… her performance… flawless.