Essexgirl's Californian Exploits - Part Three: Las Vegas

We managed to get an early start when we left San Diego as it was going to be a long drive, back past Los Angeles, to Las Vegas. The road, at times, was very much The Road to Nowhere and went on forever, with no signs of towns. We pulled up at a rest area on the edge of the Mojave Desert for a picnic lunch. This was one of the best things about the RV. We had bread, cheese, salsa relish, fruit and crisps (Ratboy had some meats), plus potato salad or bean salad and had a really nice meal sitting at the table in the RV. We got to Vegas (we were also staying at a KOA attached to one of the big casino-hotels: Circus Circus at about 4pm, and set of out for a walk. We looked into getting scenic flights to the Grand Canyon, which we managed to get for Wednesday (we arrived on Monday) so we had to stay an extra day which we didn't mind. The trip would be $199 each. After wandering in and out of some casinos for a bit, we ended up at Treasure Island which had a tropical-themed restaurant called Kahuna (or something). We were starving so we had dinner gratefully. I had a stir-fry which was nice, drinks were expensive though. When we came out a wind had picked up and it was freezing. People were waiting for the free show which happened outside the hotel, several times a night, but as it was so cold, and we had not brought jackets with us, we decided not to wait around 20 mins for it to start and went back, as it had been a long drive.

The next day we caught the tourist trolley bus up to the Mandalay Bay which was one of the newest casinos-hotels. It took quite a while as the bus went all around the back of the hotels. The hotel was quite smart, and we caught the mono-rail to the Luxor next door. There we played on the camel racing game and had an all you can eat buffet lunch for $13 (I think). The salad bar was fabulous and I could have filled myself up on that. The main courses were divided into 'themes' such as Italian, Mexican, Roasts etc, I went to the Italian and had several different pastas with sauce and a disappointing vegetable lasagne. I also had an ice cream factory for dessert. Completely stuffed, we went for a walk around the casino/hotel and went on one of those I-Max simulator rides which was very good (but possibly too soon after the food). We looked at some other casinos and saw the fountain display outside The Bellagio, and saw penguins at The Flamingo before getting the painfully slow trolley bus back to our end of The Strip. After a brief rest we got a taxi downtown to Fremont Street where all the original old casinos like The Golden Nugget, The Pioneer and the Golden Gate were. There was a canopy over the area that turned into a fabulous light and music show for six minutes every hour, which we thought was excellent. A small pizza for dinner and we got a cab back to the RV park.

The Wednesday was a very long day, we were picked up at 6.50 outside Circus Circus and caught a (delayed) flight to The Grand Canyon. We flew over Hoover Dam, Lake Mead and part of the Canyon. After we landed we got a coach which took us to a couple of look out points where we had the opportunity for photos of some spectacular scenery and a few short walks. There was a buffet lunch included which was nice, before getting a flight back again. It was quite bumpy going back and we both felt a bit queasy. As lunch had been late we just had some snacks before going to see An Evening at Le Cage at The Riviera. The show was presented by 'Joan Rivers' who wore a different assortment of gowns to introduce each act. All the performers were males impersonating female stars such as Cher, Madonna, Britney, Diana Ross and Michael Jackson (the exception!). Quite where the Cher impersonator put his whatnots in that skimpy costume I shall never know! We then went up to the Straosphere Hotel where we went to the lookout point and James went on the rollercoaster 1200 feet above the city (not for me!). We got back about 1.30am - it had been a very long day having been up since 6am but we had really enjoyed it.