From the ‘USA’ category

The Shock of the New

Friday, 25 May 2012

It’s been over nine years since the Innovations catalogue bit the dust, but I still miss it and all the things it sold that I never knew I needed. Admittedly, I don’t recall ever buying anything, but it was nice to know it was there in case I ever felt in need of a handy portable paper shredder, some snore-stoppers, one-size-fits-all galoshes or a fun fur-lined vibrating golf club cover. You can imagine my delight then that while rifling through the seat pocket on our US Airways flight to Las [...]

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My Life as a Duck

Sunday, 20 May 2012

It suddenly occurred to me that I didn’t complete the story of Prudence the Duck. For those who missed my original post, she arrived in pool of our friend’s home in Las Vegas one breezy day and stayed for a couple of hours. It seemed she and her mate had been attracted by the swimming pool, although they had to abort their water landing when they realised that the cover was still on it.

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Home on the Range

Saturday, 19 May 2012

I knew there was something else I meant to post about on our Las Vegas trip – the little place we’ve invested in as a holiday home. That’s it above with the discreet sign reminding visitors where to turn.

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Dam Fine

Monday, 14 May 2012

As we neared the end of our holiday, there was something of a dash to tick off the things on our must-see list and one of the biggest was the Hoover Dam. We’d seen it several times before, of course, but only from the air, once on the flight path to McCarran Airport and twice from the Twin Otter to and from the Grand Canyon, but not up close and personal. Our host volunteered to drive us there as he had business at Boulder City Airport. In the event, he [...]

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Vorsprung durch Technik

Sunday, 13 May 2012

I worked out that it wasn’t so much jet lag as simple lack of sleep that was making me feel decidedly odd after the return trip from Las Vegas. Between getting up on Wednesday morning and going to bed at home on Friday night, we’d had precisely four hours sleep out of fifty-five! But we are getting back on an even keel after a very long sleep and I’m starting to realise some of the things I didn’t mention about our trip, so this is by way of a catch [...]

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Jetlag

Friday, 11 May 2012

I’ve never suffered from jetlag before, or rather I’ve never travelled so far east or west that my body clock has reacted badly to the time difference. There was a touch of that when we flew out to Vegas, of course, as we chased the day, setting off around 9am and arriving at 6:30pm. This caused me to wake early for the first few days and caused me to be generally out of flunter, although no great hardship. The return leg threatened a different story though. Mrs P warned me [...]

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The Tipping Point

Tuesday, 8 May 2012

We had another Las Vegas weather experience to add to add to our list last night – an electrical storm of sheet lightning and distant thunder,. Not that we got wet. It had been windy all day yesterday and the clouds began to gather and crash in the evening, but the rain passed us by. You could see the clouds’ frayed edges in the distance where the rain would be falling, although it probably evaporated before it reached the ground.

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Top o’ the World Ma

Monday, 7 May 2012

Even though we did a fair bit of foot-slogging when we stayed in Sin City, we didn’t make it as far north as the Stratosphere, which is probably as well since it’s not the sort of area you want to wander through on foot. Too much crime make it less than the perfect tourist destination, unless by car with the doors locked, which makes you wonder why the developers chose this site to build the tallest building west of the Mississippi.

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Cor Luvaduck

Sunday, 6 May 2012

We had two unexpected visitors drop by yesterday in the shape of a pair of Mallard Ducks. We were sitting on the patio when the two of them swooped towards the pool. Fortunately they spotted that the inviting blue water was actually the pool cover and activated their air brakes just in time.

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