The USA Road Trip Las
Vegas
Day 14 Helen’s
arrival
Day fourteen my sister arrived from Australia via L.A.
Because we were not really sure what time her flight would get in, Chelle took
the kids to the pool while I waited for the shuttle from the airport to arrive.
Helen arrived midmorning dropped her bags and hit the ground running heading
down to the pool to find the rest of the gang. After getting her breath and a
bite to eat and having a swim with the kids, we headed out onto the Strip to
explore a couple more of the casinos. It’s hard to comprehend the indulgence
and opulence of Las Vegas unless you have been there, once you get back a
couple of streets from the strip it is an entirely different world.
Day 15 Shopping and
Exploring
After breakfast the girls headed out to do some shopping at
one of the local malls. So I grabbed Ryan and my camera and headed off to camp
outside of Nellis Airforce Base in the hope of getting some good photos of
aircraft overhead, being an aircraft freak this had been something I had
planned for a while, especially as Nellis is one of the busiest bases in the
States. Unfortunately on this day it didn’t happen to be this way, so we packed
up and went back and met the girls and retreated back to the hotel and the pool
as the temp was once again hitting 110 degrees. Later in the afternoon we took
the kids to the games arcades in a couple of the Casinos and Ryan and I went on
the roller coaster at New York New York. Tash was gutted because she was too
small to ride and she had been the one who really wanted to go. So she had to
sit it out and watch us come back in, I wish Ryan had done the same. Ryan loved it, but I came off white as a sheet
and feeling decidedly under the weather. That evening we set out to see the
lights and all the action along the strip, starting with the Dancing Fountains
out the Front of the Bellagio and ending with the Volcano in front of the
Mirage and the Pirate show at Treasure Island. The one thing we underestimated
was the length of the strip and the number of people that were out, the heat
didn’t help either. By the time we made it to Treasure Island (the other end
from us, about 2km away) it was 10:30 and the kids were shattered. We must have
finally fallen into bed close to midnight.
Day 16 More Exploring
Chelle and the kids, still being tired from the night before,
stayed around the hotel and then went over to the Luxor to check out their
pool. While Helen and I took advantage of the cooler morning temperature and
explored the parts of the strip yet unseen. We checked out the wild life
sanctuary (???) at the Flamingo, which of course has a handful of pink flamingos
along with some other endangered birds, including a Black Swan (didn’t know
they were endangered Lol). Other places we visited were the Eiffel Tower, the
Canals of Venice, the Vatican and of course ancient Rome. Imagine being able to
see all these places in one morning all in the middle of the Nevada desert. Once
again it is hard to describe unless you see it in person. Las Vegas is fun for
a couple of days to look around but after that the falseness of it all starts
to grate.
While touring and getting lost inside Caesars Palace I did
get to see “Iron Mike Tyson” signing autographs, he looks a long way from his
heyday, now he looks just like any other washed up boxer.
Day 16 being our last day, Chelle and Helen went out for a
drink at Coyote Uglys and watched some poor unsuspecting buck on his last night get dragged on stage which
they described as pretty seedy. Afterwards it was Chelle and my turn and we
went downstairs had a couple of drinks and listened to a pretty good cover band
while wasting $20 dollars on a couple of machines, the only money we gambled on
the whole trip. Somehow I happened to miss the girls scantily clad dancing girls
Ryan had seen earlier much to his mothers horror.
Day 17 Driving Las
Vegas to L.A
Not much to tell here. The drive was a fairly short but
enjoyable one through the Mojave Desert, once again beautiful scenery. Crossing
the San Bernadino Mountains we got our first glimpse of L.A. Or should I say
the smog and haze that covers the city.
Arriving in Anaheim mid afternoon we once again got
ourselves settled then headed out to find DisneyLand or more rightly Downtown
Disney, the shopping precinct outside the park. Our motel was only three blocks
from the park so it was an easy walk, but I managed to make it unnecessarily
longer by taking the roundabout route, much to everyone else’s annoyance. Of
course walking around Downtown what is one of the first places we should come
across, but the Build a Bear workshop (I swear we have found one in nearly
every city). Chelle and I had agreed that as Tash had been given money for her
birthday she could buy something. So nearly an hour later we finally came out
with a bear named Hannah, a new friend for Coco.
Ryan mean time had found a store where you could design and
build your own radio control car and the Lego shop, so he was in a quandary as
to what to do, fortunately he deferred the decision and we got back before
midnight Lol.
