Posted tagged ‘Las Vegas’

Las Vegas

November 27, 2013

We just got back from a quick trip to Las Vegas. Our son and his wife had invited us a few weeks ago to join them for a quick trip to Las Vegas. Hotel rooms are a commodity that obeys laws of supply and demand. When the supply goes up the price goes down. So we found a relative bargain for Sunday to Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

So we booked a room for about $125 per night at a hotel that normally runs for $250 per night. We were in a large room at the Hotel Vdara with a king size bed, kitchenette, a view of the Las Vegas strip.

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Here’s the view from our room on the 26th floor. One of the things that is unusual about the Hotel Vdara is that it doesn’t have a casino. Casinos are not far away though. Short walk to the Belagio or a little bit longer to Caesar’s Palace.

On Monday, we decided to take a ride out to see the Hoover Dam. Unfortunately, a lot of people had the same idea. Weather was sunny and clear. Visibility greater than 100 miles. We couldn’t find a place to park. We got a few pictures though from a couple of scenic pullouts.

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We are not much into gambling but there is lots to do. There are so many good places to eat. We ate at the Wicked Spoon at the Cosmopolitan Casino on Sunday night. just about anything you might want to try. Asian, Italian, American, seafood, you name it, they have it.

Monday we dined at Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill at Caesar’s Palace. We had reservations for 8:30 PM for the four of us plus Jonathan our 2 year old grandson. Not cheap, but everything was outstanding. I had a Sea Scallop dish and Paula had Rabbit. (I know, the poor bunny rabbit) Good service and excellent food. Jonathan was oh so well behaved. He had some apple juice, but what he really wanted was the ice to chew on. Here are some pictures.

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After dinner, we all walked back to the Vdara by way of the Belagio. Half of the fun is watching the people and the art that is on display. The Belagio still has their fall displays up. I am sure that will change quickly starting next week. First here is the entrance to Caesar’s then the displays at the Belagio.

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And finally for you chocolate lovers out there, here is the chocolate fountain at the Belagio Patisserie.

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And one more thing, we have discovered there is now a Dunkin Donuts in Barstow (for our East Coast friends, Barstow is out in the middle of the Mojave desert, about 125 miles east of LA. For a while, the only Dunkie’s was at Camp Pendleton on the way down to San Diego. Slowly but surely, Dunking Donuts will come to the west coast. There is help.

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BTW, all pictures were taken with my trusty iPhone 5S.

I wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving. Stay safe. Don’t overeat or over drink. We will be joining our daughter-in-laws extended family in Rancho Palos Verdes. Lots of family, lots of kids. Paula will be baking pies tomorrow. We have some good wines to taste. After Thanksgiving, I have to continue work on the 15th edition of my Christmas letter. We will not be doing black Friday. You couldn’t get me to the mall on black Friday, let alone any Friday.

Be good,

Joe

 

 

 

 

Las Vegas NV

October 5, 2013

Today is the last day of our trip. Yesterday we travelled from West Jordan UT to Las Vegas NV. we had a short visit with Neil and his family. So now we are heading home to LA. SLC to LA is about 750 miles give or take and is a bit too long to make in one jump.

Las Vegas is a natural spot to stop for the night. This is the third time that we have made the trip from SLC to LA. We have been searching for a good place to bed down for the night. We didn’t want to go to downtown Las Vegas. I despise staying at casino-hotels. All I want is a QUIET hotel where we can rest overnight.

Last time we stayed at a hotel in Primm NV which is at the CA NV border. There are three worn aging casinos resorts there. Last time we had reserved two rooms for Paula, myself and my mother in law. Reservation screwed up they only had one room for us. I am NOT sleeping with my mother in law. The time before that we stopped at Jean NV. Similar aging casino hotel.

So we thought we might be forced to either stay up in St George UT or continue on down the road to Victorville CA. Nothing in between but desert, sage brush and coyotes. St George to LV is about 150 miles. LV to Victorville about the same. So we’re stuck with Las Vegas. St George was too soon to stop and Victorville too far.

So back to the travel hotel web sites. Lo and behold we found a Double Tree by Hilton near the LV airport. It has no casino, reasonable price (about $100). It has a bar and restaurant. It is quiet. I can hear some aircraft noise but it is not outrageously loud. I made the reservation through the Hilton Honors iPhone App.

They put us on the 5th floor. Top two floors are the Hilton Honors floors. When we checked in they gave us two warm chocolate chip cookies. This was so much better than Primm or Jean. We were also told that happy hour was in progress. Woo-Hoo!!!

So we came down to the hotel bar and had a few drinks and watched the end of the LA Dodgers Atlanta Braves game. We missed the Red Sox thumping of the Rays. We had a few drinks (Gin and Tonic for Ms. Paula, Martini for me), then light dinner and back to our room. We watched Bill Maher’s show on HBO. We give the Double Tree 5 stars. We’ll definitely stay here on our next trip to SLC.

One idea that Hilton has started is recycling in the hotel rooms. They have trash cans that have two inserts. One for regular trash and one for plastics. Clever idea. Here’s a picture.


So thats it for Las Vegas. Today, once we finish breakfast we are off for LA. We’ll probably stop in Mojave rest stop (right after the CA NV state line.) This time the colors are alive in the desert. The sage brush seems to be pollinating. Lots of yellows and orange. The mountains are alive with color. Here is a picture I took last Saturday in CA. imagine what a whole hillside would look like with flowering sage brush.


No place to safely stop along yesterday’s route to take a picture. So back to LA. We will have about couple of weeks home before we head back north to Fresno CA for CA Grand Chapter OES.

Joe

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Location:Pollock Dr,Paradise,United States