The High Roller - The Linq at Las Vegas

 

 The High Roller, is a 550 foot tall giant Ferris type wheel that continuously rotates. It is the worlds tallest observation wheel to date. It is located in the new Linq shopping quarter. We saw it being built and put together the last two years (I believe construction began in 2011), it looked so intimidating when the wheel was being framed. I am deathly afraid of heights, so this ride was going to be a nerve racking one and one to cross of a "bucket list." However,

with the knowledge that forty people can fit into one of the pods - I felt more comfortable, and in my mind I told myself it would be like an elevator ride, you "can do it."

But.... to my surprise we happened to get our own pod. Just the four of us! We purchased
our tickets from an employee who stood out on the front entrance the the shopping area called the Linq. The tickets were $20 each before 7pm and $35 thereafter.

We timed it so we would ride the High Roller at dusk and be able to see the sunset. The entire rotation takes 30 minutes. The pods DO NOT STOP. To my surprise you need to hop on while the pod is moving, and you need to hop off as it is still moving. There is a screen inside the pod which has an informational video on the High Roller and it periodically flashes the number of feet the pod is in the air. You are ascending to 85 feet, 250 feet, 475 feet, to 550 feet! Then the decent begins... and I can breath again!

  

 



 

There is the most spectacular views of the strip. You can see for miles. You are eye level to the planes when they come in and the birds are below you. At full dusk, the LED lights come on the High Roller. At night is when most of the riders choose to ride the Ferris wheel. When we
exited the ride, there was a long line forming. When we came on the ride, we were able to walk right on. We were able to see the lights and the sunset, which was good for me - so I can

 experience the High Roller both ways as it will be a feat to get me to go up to 550 feet again. The sheer mechanics of each pod is enough to fend me away. The pod is on a track that ticks. You can hear the pods ticking to each "linq" in order for it to stay upright as the wheel goes around. All I can say is I am glad I went on it. My husband and friends thought it was the greatest thing they ever rode. It is certainly worth

the experience of riding the tallest observation wheel in the world! The only draw back is that the wheel is off the beaten path of the main drag and I am sure it is hard for people to see where it is unless you know where to look. The Linq shopping quarter has many fun stores to pop into such as: The Polaroid Fotobar Store. This store has photo opportunities with a mock Polaroid Insta Frame you step into that has Las Vegas written at the bottom, a life size Andy Warhol figure to take a photo with. Totally cool! 

Las Vegas "Aria"

Oh my gosh! So much has been going on since my last post! I don't even know where to begin! I made these darling centerpieces for the Girl Scout Father Daughter Dance. We had a Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory Theme... I painted twenty flower pots in various bright colors, painted candies all over them and wrote "Willy Wonka and the Me and My Guy Dance" with the date on them. Stuffed them with candy bouquets and colored cellophane. Wrapped them in tulle and sprayed them with glitter. It took me all Easter weekend to finish them. But, the sad part is I did not take even ONE picture of them when I finished. I was so tired and just wanted to deliver them to the event chairperson. Now I wished I would have taken a moment and snapped a few pics. We raffled them off. Such a fun event!

Anyway... I want to share our recent trip to Las Vegas and our visit to Aria. This is the new hotel and shopping center which is like it's own "city." In a nutshell. Two words to describe this new place are Logan's Run. Did you see this movie? It starred Michael York and it had a "city" within a bubble. Very modern. The city (in Logan's Run) had touch screens and automated doors, windows, used laser technology for surgery to enhance one's appearance. Oh... all the things that are present in this "city" of Aria!

The directory is a touchscreen. Touch the screen to "begin." Touch the area of interest and the screen diverts to that information page. Touch again and more defined information pops up. You can not say that you "got lost" as an excuse for missing a meeting here. The directory screens are very helpful. The building itself is a big metal ensemble. I am not one for "modern" architecture so I was not impressed or found the features appealing...

Tall, tall ceilings. Brightly colored green cones randomly placed? Cell towers? Not quite sure or just for aesthetics..? Technology is also in the restaurant's outside menu's. Walk by a restaurant and look at their menu and it is a touch screen. Select the "lunch menu" and the menu items pop up. Select an item, say the pasta dish. The description and calorie count pop up. Interesting to fully understand the menus. I liked this. My husband the "chef," especially liked this. The pool to the hotel was reminiscent of a tropical oasis. Covered thatched buildings, big pool, palm trees. Inbetween all of the tall buildings. Not sure how long the sun would be out once it starts moving behind the buildings. Plus the pool is visible from all of the windows inside the hotel and lobbies of the meeting areas. Talk about being in a bubble...

The restaurants were all decked out in their themes. This one was interesting with the "balls" floating down on the windows and the black trees. Seems like a perfect place to carve "SB plus DB" in a heart onto one of the trees... The mall was even a modern group of high end stores. Many, many stairs not stores.... not a place for someone who does not like to go up and down stairs constantly! And I am serious. Up and down. The picture of this wood contraption in the center of the mall - is very much like a Logan's Run feature - it is a restaurant. The blue ice sticks in this picture change colors - white, blue then fuscia. There is also a "cyclone" water display and you can walk through cylinders that have various speeds of a funnel in them. Why? This is in the mall. Just odd. I kept think I would see some odd hairstyles or outfits that looked like astronaut suits... beem me up Scotty.

Not all of the stores are opened yet as the "city" has just opened for business the beginning of this year. Just as a reflection, I have been going to Las Vegas for many, many years. I remember when most of the hotels were two and three stories tall. I remember Caesar's entrance with the statues, water fountains and patina green lights at night. I remember walking down Las Vegas Boulevard and the casino doors would be open to the strip and you could feel the air conditioners blasting out of the buildings and you could here the slots paying off in coins! I remember all of the trinket shops along the strip and all of the pharmacy stores they had. Now it is like a theme park with a plethora of "themed" hotels - Paris, Bellagio, Treasure Island, the Venetian. I like that too. I like all of the eye candy that the city offers. The Aria though, I am not into the metal and the modern entourage of a building it is. Plus it over shadows the beautiful Bellagio... just an eye sore next to a building which tries to replicate historical architecture. I wished maybe it was further down the strip, say by Mandala Bay... Then it would not stick out so much. Bottom line... not a fan.

The Bellagio Atrium Summer 2009

The them this summer for the Atrium looked like a "garden party." Such wonderful colors! There was a Ferris Wheel filled with wonderful displays of floral arrangements. There were watering cans sprinkling water, there were water beams shooting over each other (which people could help themselves and had to touch to see if the water was real - each time they would stick their finger into the powerful jet of water it would shoot water in all different directions and people would get wet! Some were even soaked! My family did not do this of course, we just observed the others disrupting the display....), extra large poppy plants, hot air balloons, a mini atrium which had parrots in it. This was a cool part of the exhibit. Jackson was looking at the birds when up popped a lady from the floor with a plate of fruit to feed the birds. They loved the watermelon and other samples and quickly ate them up. Three parrots flew on top of the lady's head and started to play with her hair in their beaks. She would walk around inside the caged area with these birds having a good time on her head. The water globes were spectacular to see. How do they do that? Make the water into a sphere like that? So cool... I appreciate all the work that goes into this exhibit and the seasonal displays they have. I was able to see the last day of the Christmas one from 2008 and the beginning of the Chinese New Year 2009 when we came to Las Vegas in January. Plus I LOVE the fact that it is FREE!

The picture of the kids at the very beginning was taken in front of the Tiffany window. They made the window display into an aquarium with their jewelry behind the water bubbles. So creative!

Hoover Dam

We just got back from one of my favorite places, Las Vegas Nevada! We took four days to relax in the electric town! We had always talked about visiting Hoover Dam when we were in Vegas and this time we made point of it. I am glad we did. They are currently building a bridge over the dam for traffic. This will close the pass on the dam itself. In the future we will not be able to drive on the dam. So that in itself was fun to scurry across and walk onto the dam. We took the small tour which brought us down to the generators. Fun to go into the tunnel down below and to see the two minute film that documents the building of the dam. Such a huge place! Hard to believe in the early nineteen thirties that a bunch of young guys on pullies and a bunch (tons actually) of cement created this wonder!

You can see how low the water level has become over the last ten years with our drought. Amazing to see where water once flowed in this dam, and now there is none. They have an exhibit room that is interesting to see the tools and the clothes these men wore to build this. How hot it must have been in the heat with no air conditioning, no bottled water to cool you down. We have it made!

Computer Electronic Show

We went to the Computer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas this past January 7th thru the 9th. The show started on the 8th, but we arrived early to hang out in the casinos. My husband goes with my Dad every year and I tagged along this year because I wanted to see the computers. I need a new computer for my photographs. To hold them into albums and to use Photo Shop. I just can not share a computer with David any longer... I found the Hewlett Packard Touchscreen computers to be awesome! I am deciding between the all-in-one or the free standing computer with the tower. They had the IQ816 on the demonstration floor. It was so much fun to use and so easy to operate. I am curious about the draw backs. I love the touchscreen part. I love the fact that it has the Blue-Ray capability and it is wall-mountable. The computer also has a dual tv tuner. And the screen, did I mention the screen? It displays the most beautiful images. I loved looking at it. I spent a good portion of my time here, pocking around. The show also had the new computers on display that were super thin, a quarter of inch thin! The tv's were also a quarter of an inch thin. No more bulky tv's and computer monitors. (I am so glad we never built our tv unit into the wall - no need to now).

They also had on display the new laptop eye candy air brushed tops you can purchase. Yummy! Cameras from Canon and printers that can print images like you would not believe... the detail is gorgeous. They were taping an episode of Jeopardy too!

These are some pictures of the view from our room during the day and at night. Amazing! We stayed at The Bellagio Hotel. Scroll down one blog post to see the Bellagio Conservatory.