We were scheduled for a bus tour of Miami followed by a Boat tour of the harbour this morning. The tours combined were going to run longer than we had planned so we left after the bus tour. Our bus tour took us through downtown Miami, Coral Gables, Coconut Grove, Little Havana and South Beach (this is where we left the tour). Spanish is more common than you would think over here. All the signs have both English and Spanish and in Little Havana most have only Spanish. They have all Spanish radio broadcasts which are interesting to listen to because you can still tell what they are advertising.

Our flight to Las Vegas should have us returning the rental car no later than 5 so we headed out to the Dolphin Mall near the airport. The mall was huge! Hundreds of stores including a Sports store about the size of K-Mart with a wall of sneakers running down one side. They had sneakers for all sports including American Football. They look like basketball sneakers with cleats on the sole - like the ones Sandilands wears.

Flying into Las Vegas at nightime was fairly impressive. It is surrounded by mountains with not many lights outside the mountains so when you fly over the hill the valley appears to be filled with lights of outlying Vegas with the hotels on the Strip becoming clearer as you fly into the airport. We are staying at the Luxor and booked a room in the Pyramid but none were available when we checked in so we stayed in the Tower and switched rooms in the morning.

A quick stroll through the Strip this morning allowed us to book a car for tomorrow to drive to the Grand Canyon. We’ve booked a Porsche for a bit of fun. It is a long drive (600 miles roundtrip) so we will be getting away early tomorrow. A lot of the hotels are joined together by walkways above the street that removes the need to exit your hotel and go onto the street. There are people everywhere trying to offer your cheap or free show tickets if you go to their resort presentation.

Becca is a bit under the weather with swollen throat and some high temperatures. She is feeling better today but after two nights of poor sleep in Miami (there was a floodlight right outside our window and no blockout drapes) she is catching up on her sleep. I might head down stairs and play some slot machines.