Day Four: Shopping till your feet fall off

Shopping was on the agenda for the day. Since we had dropped off the car a day before we needed to get public transport. It is quite easy to get to the outlets. It costs $8 for a 24hr pass on the RTC buses, which will get you to two fashion outlets as well as Freemont Street and the Stratosphere. All things you may want to check out in Vegas.

However we were going to shop till we dropped. There were a lot of different shops and we had a great time walking around checking out all the fashions and of course buying some of it. We went to the Premium Outlets North which had a great range but it is outdoor so it was hot walking between the air conditioned shops.

In the evening it was time for Cirque Du Soleil. There are many different shows to choose from and we chose ‘O”. It is the water themed performance and it is amazing!! Some really hight dives, beautiful customers and lots of synchronised swimming. It was spectacular and very enjoyable.

For dinner we were in the mood for sushi. After walking around for a while we found a place at Caesars palace called Sushi Roku. Lots of Japanese food later and we were content and full. A lovely way to end the evening.

fancy agedashi tofu

Because we don’t have photos from our shopping and Cirque Du Soleil experience as we are not allowed to take photos inside here are some different photos of our hotel to keep you interested.

In no particular order...

Doors of the hotel

View from the outside

Inside the Casino

Outside at night

View from our window

Our hotel from the helicopter

Day Three: Helicopter Ride

Today began bright and early at 7am with a phone call for Max. No there is no Max with us but rather my phone seems to have a similar number to others and I have already received two different phone calls for different people and two texts. We both ended up asleep again and didn’t get up until midday. While we hadn’t had a big night the night before but we somehow found ourselves leading the Vegas life.

After dropping off the hire car easily at Treasure Island we made our way slowly back down the strip. The Venetian was just how I remembered it was in Macau, with the canal and the blue-sky ceiling. However there was an awesome store called It’Sugar. With a whole look of interesting novelty items and lots of bizarre lollies or since we are in America should I say candy??

Candy dancing ladies

hmmmm sounds yummy

We also had lunch at the Venetian. Where else…but at an Italian restaurant. The pasta was nice and smooth and the sauce was tasty.

 

Making our way back down the strip was hard work. It was so HOT! Somewhere in the mid 40s. Whenever we could we popped in to a casino to cool off. Unfortunately that same extreme heat meant that we received a call from our Helicopter tour people, Maverick Helicopter Tours. While we were still able to go on the tour we were no longer able to land in the Canyon as it was just too hot there. That was a little disappointing but we were still going up in the helicopter and that was exciting.

I was expecting that the helicopter ride would be a bit scary as I always feel uneasy when riding in the small planes Dash 8’s that fly between Canberra and Sydney. However the helicopter felt a lot more stable and both of us enjoyed our trip and the spectacular views we got from the air. Check out some of the photos below it was really beautiful.

the most beautiful scenery of all

Hoover Dam

Grand Canyon

Desert

Very exciting fuel stop

rolling hills

Vegas is huge and this is where the 2 million people of Vegas live

We briefly stopped at Coyote Ugly to check out the bar during happy hour however it wasn’t really exciting and there weren’t that many people there. For dinner we decided to go to MGM Grand hotel. We ended up at Hakkasan, an upscale Cantonese restaurant/bar/nightclub. The wait for the restaurant was too long so we ate at the bar. I thought the food was fantastic and very well cooked. It is not a cheap place to eat but I thought the price was reflected in the excellent cooking.

Who could resist a stop at the M & M shop, which is four levels of M & M merchandise and candy. So many colours of the little chocolates. I was not so interested in the merchandise but couldn’t resist a little bit of chocolate. I mean who can resist really.

Day Two: Hot hot Vegas

So Laura and I are leaving Heng to his BotCon (Transformer convention to those not in the know) and hitting the road. Vegas here we come!! It is about 5 hours to get from San Diego to Vegas by car. Most of the way there are rocky mountains and quite a bit of sand. Also whenever we stopped and got out of the car the intense heat hit us like a wall. Our car’s temperature gauge said it was 110 degrees Fahrenheit, which according to Google is about 43 degrees Celsius. It was HOT!!

The World’s largest thermometer didn’t seem to even be able to record how hot it was.

Lunch was at a sandwich restaurant Arby’s which is like McDonalds but sells sandwiches.  There seem to be a lot of these fast food style restaurants. A lot more than what you find in Australia and the small family Chinese or other café seem to missing. I am not sure if that is just in the part of America we are exploring or not.

Healthy Turkey Wrap

Before we knew it we were arriving in the glitz and glamour of Vegas. In the day it was not so exciting but once we had checked in and had a rest we hit the strip at night and it was beautiful. So many lights and so many people.

We took a walk and found ourself outside the Bellagio. We will actually be coming back there to see Cirque du Soleil later in the trip but for now we just enjoyed the fountain show. The weather was still really warm even though it was well and truly night so walking around too much was hot work.

I was in the mood for Asian so we went to P.F. Changs, a Chinese chain restaurant. There was a wait for the table so we waited at the bar an tried some of their signature cocktails. The food was great as well. Very tasty Chinese food. 

I think our fortunes were quite accurate :D

We had some time for tacky souvenir shopping before heading back to our hotel the New York New York. So far the hotel has been great with nice big room and comfortable beds.

Day One: Driving Adventure

Today started early and continued well past 24hours. Finally we are lying down ready to sleep. We were on the road with our hire car around 8am. The car was a Kia Cerato and it wasn’t too difficult to drive, also with cruise control on the highway what more could you want. Well for one thing a petrol station at the airport. If you are coming in on the M5 and going to the International Airport you need to fill up at the 7/11 before you enter Sydney or perhaps don’t run as late as we were and drive around a bit near the airport.

Check in took a while as the plane was full and printing boarding passes took a long time. However the Virgin staff gave us Express Passes to get through Immigration and Customs which sped up the process immensely. We were able to make it to our gate on time.

Virgin Australia had a completely full plane and that must mean they are good right?? I thought overall their plane was nice. The food was excellent, had some very delicious chocolate cake. The on board entertainment was the only downside. I thought the range of movies and TV shows was lacking.

We arrived safely in Los Angeles yay!!

Our car hire was through Dollar and I am thinking we probably wont use them again. To collect your hire car no matter the company you have to get picked up from the terminal by their complimentary shuttle. That was easy. But then you have to wait at the Dollar office to collect your rental car. By wait I mean we were standing in line for about one and a half hours!! There were quite a few staff on but the process was so SLOW! Finally we got through the line then we went to a garage and chose our car from a variety of makes and models in the class we booked. We ended up with a Kia Elantra which was similar to the car we drove to Sydney with. It is an easy car to use which was good considering all the driving that was to come.

There is one HUGE highway from Los Angeles to San Diego with lots of lanes some of which exit and some of which go straight. The first part of the trip was speedy but we ended up in congested traffic for the second half. I am pretty sure I am never going to complain about Canberra roads again and this traffic jam lasted for ages!!

For lunch we ate at Rubios. A fish Taco chain. Laura and I had our very first fish tacos and Heng had a vege burrito. Thumbs up all around.

After a long car ride we finally made it to San Diego. We were very tired but didn’t want to sleep until later so we would sleep through the night. We had booked accommodation at the Best Western Seven Seas. It was in a nice location although nowhere near the sea. A clean comfortable and cheap room.

After having showers and freshening up (by this stage we had been awake for the good part of 24hours) we headed out to Walmart to get a phone to use in the US. Getting there was an experience in itself. Navigating the highway even with the GPS was difficult and a little hair-raising in the dark. Walmart was huge and fulfilled all our phone needs. Although we did almost get into an altercation with another customer because we took the last two cheap phones and he wanted one. But we had waited for ages to get these phones and there was no way we were giving one up!

This is what we looked like when they tried to fight us for our phones.

It was now getting late but we were hungry so we headed to Denny’s, a family style restaurant which is open late. The food was yummy and filling and the waitress was nice. She couldn’t quite believe we had never been to Denny’s before.

Thanks to our trusty GPS, which we are extremely glad we packed, we managed to get back to our hotel. Everyone was asleep very soon after that. It was a tiring first day but I am excited about all the things to come!