Fire escapes built on the front façades of New York buildings.

A large tree growing in a roof-garden of a New York building.

Times Square in New York.

The Guggenheim Museum of Modern Art. The building, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and completed in 1959, represents a radical departure from traditional museum design, spiraling upward and outward in smoothly sculptured coils of massive, unadorned white concrete.

The Chrysler Building in New York. It is an office building, often cited as the epitome of the Art Deco skyscraper. Its sunburst-patterned stainless steel spire remains one of the most striking features of the Manhattan skyline. Built between 1926 and 1930, it was briefly the tallest in the world (319.4 m) until the Empire State Building opened in 1931. The decorative scheme of the facade and interior is largely geometric; at the request of Walter P. Chrysler, who commissioned the building. Stainless steel automobile icons (e.g., radiator caps in the form of Mercury) were incorporated in the frieze.

The "Flat Iron" building in New York.

The Empire State Building in New York. It is a steel-framed 102-story building completed in 1931. It rises to a height of 381m. It was the highest structure in the world until 1954. A 68m television antenna mast, added in 1950, increased its total height to 449m; the height was reduced to 443m in 1985 when the old antenna was replaced.

A closer view of the Empire State Building.

In the foyer of the Empire State Building. There was a 2 hour wait to go to the top. We preferred to go on a open-top bus tour of New York that night instead.

Times Square in New York.

Times Square in New York. This car is full sized.

The original Hard Rock Café in New York.

Times Square in New York.

The United Nations buildings in New York.

The United Nations buildings in New York.

Grand Central Terminal in New York.

Columbus monument in the distance in New York.

Steam from power stations is piped under the streets and is used to heat buildings. This is why you often see steam escaping from street vents in movies set in New York.

The Brooklyn Bridge in the distance in New York.

The Brooklyn Bridge and New York at night.

An expensive apartment building in New York.

The World Trade Center in New York. It was built by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey as a central facility for businesses and government agencies involved in international trade. The complex is notable for its huge twin towers, each of which has 110 stories and is 411m tall. Designed by Minoru Yamasaki and completed in 1970, the towers were the world's tallest buildings until surpassed in 1973 by the Sears Tower in Chicago. Each tower has 104 passenger elevators, and 21,800 windows.

A night view of the Empire State Building.

Macy's store in New York. It is an 11-story department store that occupies a city block and was for many years physically the largest single store in the USA. The company grew out of a partnership founded in 1858 by Rowland H. Macy whose several previous attempts at retailing had all failed. The store prospered after the American Civil War. The company was among the first retailers to place stores in suburban shopping centres.

This photo shows how Las Vegas is in a desert.

The view from the first complex that we stayed in at Las Vegas (the Las Vegas Hilton). It is the principal city of Nevada. The first settlers were attracted by the artesian springs in the arid valley along the Old Spanish Trail, hence the name Las Vegas ("the meadows"). With the coming of the San Pedro, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake Railroad in 1905, Las Vegas became a railroad town. Its growth was stimulated by legalized gambling (1931) and by construction in the 1930s of the Hoover Dam 47km east.

The pyramid shaped Luxor complex in Las Vegas. It is a brilliant piece of architecture.

We stayed 2 nights here.

Another view of the Luxor complex.

Inside the Luxor complex. There was a large open space inside.

Inside the Luxor Casino complex.

Our hotel room at the Luxor complex. You can see the sloping side of the pyramid (the wall containing the window).

The furniture also had a strong Egyptian influence. The wardrobe was in the shape of the pylons at the Egyptian temples.

Artistic licence outside the Luxor complex allowed the sphinx to have the head of Tutankhamun.

There was a museum inside the complex housing copies of the items found in Tutankhamun's tomb.

Copies of the items found in Tutankhamun's tomb at the Luxor complex in Las Vegas.

Copies of the items found in Tutankhamun's tomb at the Luxor complex in Las Vegas.

Some of the complexes along "The Strip" in Las Vegas.

"The Strip" was originally a stretch of trees along the road leading into Las Vegas where the first resort type casino complex, the Flamingo Hotel, was built by gangster Bugsy Siegel in 1946. 

Part of the massive internal garden (park?) under the glass dome of the classically beautiful Bellagio complex.

Part of the gigantic Cesar's Palace complex in Las Vegas. This complex itself had as many shops as Chadstone.

Outside the Mirage complex.

At night there was a volcanic display outside the Mirage resort.

The Treasure Island resort put on a pirate show outside its complex

The recently completed Venetian complex at Las Vegas. It had a full scale copy of the Doge's Palace, Rialto Bridge etc. and canals with gondolas which passed inside and outside the buildings.

Inside the Cesar's Palace complex.

Flying in a light plane (a twin otter) over the Hoover Dam. Formerly called Boulder Dam on the Colorado River, at the Arizona-Nevada border, it was constructed between 1930 and 1936 and was renamed in 1947. It is the highest concrete arch dam in the United States. It impounds Lake Mead, which extends for 185km upstream and is one of the largest manmade lakes in the world. The dam is used for flood and silt control, electric power, and irrigation and for domestic and industrial water supplies.

The Colorado river flowing through the Grand Canyon.

Colorado means red in Spanish. In this photo you can clearly see the reddish-yellow colour of the river.

The Grand Canyon. It averages 16 km in width from rim to rim, with the greatest distance being about 29 km. Its depth as measured from the north rim is slightly more than a mile or about 5,700 feet (1,737 meters). The south rim is approximately 365 meters lower than the north rim.

The Grand Canyon. Like the Russian palaces, photos do not do it justice. You have to visit it!

Two Australian tourists at the south rim of the Grand Canyon.

Chipmunks at the Grand Canyon.

The Grand Canyon. It is one of the great sights of the world that everyone must visit at least once in their lifetime.

Sunset at the Grand Canyon.