Las Vegas – 08/12/2009
There is something new to do in Sin City: Follow the trail of ‘The Amazing Race’ finalists who sprinted across Las Vegas, Nevada, in a quest to win a 1 million grand prize.
After zipping across eight countries in 21 days, the contestants landed at McCarran International Airport and raced to the Graceland Wedding Chapel on the Las Vegas Strip to get their next clue.
The chapel offers ‘Elvis wedding packages,’ complete with Elvis Presley executors who walk the bride down the aisle and ensure musical entertainment for the couple and guests, including performing ‘Viva Las Vegas’ at the end of the ceremony.
Jon Bon Jovi was married there, as were Billy Ray Cyrus and Aaron Neville, the chapels Web site boasts.
Next stop: Mandalay Bay, the well known resort and casino, where a contestants from each team had to rappel face first down the side of the gleaming 43-story building.
‘Thats the craziest thing Ive ever done,’ said Cheyne Whitney, who finished and won the race with girlfriend Meghan Rickey at the end of the finale, which aired Sunday on CBS.
The hotel offers a like sight on a more smaller scale at its restaurant Aureole, where wine stewards attached to mechanical hoists fetch bottles from a four-story wine tower.
Teams then have to race to the theater at the Mirage, where they got a taste of Cirque du Soleils ‘The Beatles Love,’ and the Monte Carlo, where they had to count 1 million worth of poker chips.
Clues also led them to a high rollers suite at the MGM Grand and ‘Mr. Las Vegas’ Wayne Newton, who published the finale line for this seasons race was his house: Casa de Shenandoah.
For those unknown with ‘The Amazing Race,’ the hit reality television series takes a dozen two-member teams and sends them on a crazy, breakneck-pace journey around the world in search of clues that will lead them to the next stop in the challenge. The team who finish first gets 1 million.
