Las Vegas - Week 12

November 5th - November 11th 2012

We celebrated 5th of November. (Movie V for Vendetta.)

We visited Las Vegas with mixed feelings, but still very glad we did. Our trip to Las Vegas is described below. On the way home, we were warned by weather forecast about bad weather coming our way. We were not happy about it. On Friday, it was really grey and ugly, but it was just raining. When we got up on Saturday (J. worked), there was a bit of snow on the roofs and ground.

The road was icy and it was not nice drive. I was glad when I was back at home. The weather did not improve and by middle of afternoon, it got really ugly. It got dark, windy and snow was falling down. It is time to get a hell out of here.

Las Vegas - Day 3

November 8^th 2012

We woke up relatively early; the bed was not really comfortable. We packed our stuff and got ready to leave. We figured out some plans yesterday (trying to avoid another discussion). We checked out, put our stuff to the car and walked to the Aria casino. J. wanted to buy something with sign saying “Aria”. It was really windy and cold. Long journey and at the end, we were in the casino (nothing special really) and found store, where J. bought something. Good job. After walking back, we could finally drive out of the parking garage.

The city looks much worse during day light. We were making small detour to see the sign “Welcome to Las Vegas”. Apparently one of the “must to do” things. So we did it.

We stopped by Einstein Bagels and got some quick and cheap breakfast. In less then five minutes, we dot on freeway I-15 (leads to Salt Lake City) and started going north. Again, after leaving the Strip, the city became pretty boring and ugly. Forty miles on freeway, after first seven miles (still the city) it just became the desert. There was pretty much nothing. The turn from freeway, gas station and road to the Valley of Fire State Park.

At least the landscape changed, it was more hilly and less boring. And then we got into the part, where there were really interesting rock formation.

There were some hike possibilities, but we did not have so much time, so we were going to make as many stops as possible and basically drive through the park. One of the stops was nice stairway to the platform with old drawings in the stone. One thing, some people are really a..h.. and wrote on the stone. Really??? Still pretty cold and extremely windy.

Our next destination was visitor’s center. As we learned before, some of them are not very useful, as we the case with this one. They had some displays, gift shop and few alive animals – lizard and some spiders.

When we got to the center, we saw state trooper blocking the road to the dead end park road. We wanted to drive there and ended up waiting few minutes because they were shooting the commercial for Audi. We saw the same crew later on our way out.

The dead end road was about 5 miles long. It was really interesting landscape and nice views. But the end of the road had some rock formation that were supposed to be visited by mile long hike, which we did not have time for. And there was another road that was closed. Too bad.

J. was getting a bit sick because of the windy and bumpy road. We stopped at the cabins. They were built in 30’s with New Deal works. They were not in use anymore and it was just reminder of old times. Pretty one.

Well, that was pretty much our last stop. We had to realize, that we had over five hours of driving ahead of us (plus we were loosing an hour due to time change). It was really nice detour and it was incredible how this formation just existed in the middle of boring desert. But we had some boring driving ahead of us.

For over an hour, we were driving within Lake Mead National Recreation Area. We even had to show our Federal annual pass. Time to time, we saw glimpses of lake in the distance, otherwise it was just pretty boring and flat landscape. Oh … Nevada.

We saw a lot of rivers like this one:

And we are back in Arizona:

It was very windy. We passed the Hoover Dam and it felt like the time in South Dakota (when we were moving from Michigan to Washington State). We had an hour on horribly boring (and pretty straight) road number 93 (to get on freeway). It started to rain some. On and off.

We got coffee and gasoline in Kingman (town on freeway I-40) and started to go home. It was a bit less then 150 miles. Pretty boring drive. Some rain. Weather forecast calling for strong winds, rain and later even snow.

When we were getting close to Flagstaff, it got dark. Cold. Rainy. It is time to get out of here. Something a bit warmer and nicer. And … I still think Las Vegas’ word is trashy.

Las Vegas - Day 2

November 7^th 2012

We did not make firm plans for our short stay and it did cause us some tensions in the morning. We could not make the plan or decision what to start with. J. wanted to get breakfast, but it was either too expensive or too far, so we had a bit of cold and quiet time. At the end, we decided to make small loop around town and Red Canyon Park. First, we got stuck in Strip’s traffic on the way to Flamingo casino. At least parking in plentiful and mostly free. Some nice stores and creations along the way. Like this pink Christmas tree:

Flamingo casino had free Habitat (mostly water creatures). Actually, many casinos had some free attractions or displays. The Habitat was between different casino’s buildings, included the chapel, and (closed) pool. It was actually very cool. Obviously, there was bunch of pink Flamingos, many ducks, some black swan, and many fishes. Really nice. One really annoying thing: smoking (everywhere).

No real place to get breakfast. On the way back to parking garage (people already gambling) some cafés and other places. One of them had this fruit creation:

We left Flamingo and were heading to the Red Rock Canyon Area. I had rough plan, but we got lost a bit. At least traffic was not too bad. We got back on the road and found our way. There was a lot of new (or newer) bridges and roads. Many new houses or whole subdivisions. A bit weird. Another nice day. The park was relatively short loop along red rocks and other different geological wonders. It was interesting, but did not have that “wow” factor.

Along the way, we stopped at the Silverton Casino, which was supposed to have big fish tank with sea creatures. No problem to find the casino, It was on the edge of town, smaller and older and directly connected to Bass Pro shop. Strange. We found the tank, but it was kind of small and not too interesting. In the same area, we stopped at the shopping strip, because we saw Café Rio (we learned about it in Utah, but did not have chance to eat there, it is small chain). Decent Mexican food (really fast).

We got lost again on the way to the chocolate factory (with free tour). Well, I guess we saw some different parts of the town. We as well drove by the airport and I found the landing airplanes very cool (we were pretty much next to the runway). Chocolate factory. Again, big store and a lot of M and M’s stuff. The whole tour was the walkway next to the production line. It was not really too interesting.

Outside, there was a desert garden. It looked pretty nice, unfortunately, they put lights and other Christmas decoration up, so it looked trashy. Or just went with Vegas theme.

We were going back to the city. Again, the road got somewhat confusing and we had to turn around, but at the end, we parked at the hotel and casino called Circus Circus. We walked in, looked around (the gambling part was very similar and somewhat tiresome). They were supposed to have free (short) shows. We found that part of hotel and waited for 10 minutes for one of those shows. It was girl dancing and doing “monkey business” with silk ropes. It was pretty cool.

And … on the move again. We drove short distance to the Treasure Island casino. Pretty long walk from the garage to the hotel (how they make money on valet parking). We changed the mind and took tram to the Mirage casino. Yes, there is private tram (free) between some of the casinos (probably owned by some company). We were less impressed then yesterday. Huge entry ways, architecture and hundreds of slot machines. We crossed the Strip and ended up in the Venetian casino. And … circled back to Treasure Island. Interesting … but …

We drove back to our hotel. The plan was to take the back road, but we took wrong turn and drove some extra miles to get back. From our parking garage, we wanted to make one more circle around casinos nearby. Another crossing the street. Lights. Cars. And people. So many people. MGM Grand was undergoing some renovation, so the entrance was a bit weird. We walked through but it was pretty lame. We made quick stop in Hooters casino, lame as well.

At MGM we wanted to see their lions exhibit. Apparently, they had the habitat with animals as a free attraction. When we got there, we learned, that they closed the habitat and there were no more lions (except this one in lobby). So disappointing.

On the way back to our hotel (we were both pretty tired), we walked through Excalibur casino (not much there either) and then New York (we had late dinner there). J. wanted to do the roll caster in that casino, but just the view of it was making me sick, so nothing happened. Oh … Vegas.