We went for breakfast downstairs at the hotel as it was meant to be pretty good.
We all thought it was ‘fine’ but nothing to rave about.
We flew out today, but didn’t have to be at the airport for a while, so we decided to go for a walk.
Famous Gold & Silver Pawn Shop
We watched the TV show Pawn Stars last night and noticed that that is based in Vegas!
It was only 18 mins away by foot for us, so we took a walk out there.
We got there and had a look around…there were some very expensive things in there, so no chance we were buying anything, but it was fun and something to do.
To The Airport
We got an Uber to the airport and Tom came with us, even though his flight to the UK wasn’t for another 9 hours!
We got through security, which took a while, and then pretty much did nothing! We just sat in the airport and waited.
Back To Vancouver
We got on our flight just after saying goodbye to Tom, and flew back home to Vancouver!
The flight was uneventful, and so was the train home.
We got back and unpacked everything. Kim went off to training and Curtis went to the shop to get a few things for lunch.
We are back to work tomorrow after an amazing week trip!
We pulled up in a campsite in the Valley of Fire, with no electricity, and it was great!
There were a couple of big dogs next to us, huge wolf like dogs, that kept howling which was amazing.
We had a bit of a chat with the guy next to us and had a walk around the place.
We had an incredible night sleep, after we also had a big walk at night time, in the silence, taking in the night stars.
Back to Vegas
We got up and got on the road back out to Vegas.
We had to drop off the bike that Tom rented, as well as the RV.
We stopped at a dump site and had the fun of dumping the waste from the RV!
We did all ot that successfully and then drove onward.
The trip was pretty uneventful.
We stopped in and got breakfast at a bar next to where we dropped the bike off. The breakfast was huge, but just what we needed.
We left the breakfast spot and headed on.
We had a good run and then a tire on a truck next to us exploded, which was scary but nothing bad happened!
We dropped off the RV and took an uber to downtown.
Downtown
We are staying in downtown for just one night, so we took Tom to the hotel we stayed at before which we really enjoy.
We had a relax for a bit and then walked out and down Fremont St with Tom.
We showed Tom the sites and then did a little bit of gambling, just you have to! We won $10, too. We went back and watched a bit of TV before getting ready to go out.
Andiamo Steakhouse
We had to take Tom to the steakhouse we went to here before, so we took him there and ate far too much..we each had a steak as well as steak tips for a starter to share, 2 sides and they give you a couple of free meals too, for some reason, soiit’s incredibly filling!
We walked off the food and did a bit more gambling and won some more money!
TV Relax
We watched a bit of TV together and just relaxed, enjoying some electricity!
We leave tomorrow, as does Tom, so the trip is coming to an end, though it was incredibly fun!
Tom was up early to get a couple more laps in before the finish of the race.
He really enjoyed doing it as the sun was rising, though it was cold!
The race finished up and we were pretty much ready to go. We treated ourselves to showers and then got packed up to go.
Coffee!
We got going on the road, heading towards a coffee shop we saw, called River Rock Roasting Company. Everyone seemed to head there at the same time, so it was quite busy, but we sat outside with amazing views whilst we had some coffee and snacks.
Valley of Fire
We have been to the valley of fire before, but Tom has not, so we decided we would camp there!
We drove all the way there after our coffee and got there at a pretty good time.
We didn’t really have plans for the evening, just have a look around, adventure a bit and then relax and play some cards.
Thisblog is up a lot earlier due to us being unsure if we will have any internet connection tonight at the campsite.
We merry with Tom and headed out for breakfast around 09:30.
We were going to find somewhere to go but we saw McDonald’s and it was closer, so we went there as it was easy.
We left McDonald’s and continued about our day.
Walk Around The Strip & Rollercoaster
We started off by Kim going Kim the New York New York rollercoaster. She had wanted to go on it for a while and there was no queue, so she went on it. She really enjoyed it and there were some fun loops in there.
We walked around all of the strip, showing Tom the best spots that we remembered from when we were here before. We spent a lot of the day just walking around.
Lunch
We stopped off for some lunch at In & Out burger to introduce Tom to it.
It was as delicious as always, and Tom seemed to enjoyed it too!
Relax
We walked back to the hotel to relax for a bit. We watched the Apprentice with Tom and then got ready to go out for the evening.
Absinthe
We went out in the evening and walked to Ceasar’s Palace to watch a show! We stopped at the Bellagio fountain to watch a fountain show and then went into the show.
We had VIP tickets to Absinthe, which was a very rude acrobatics/comedy show.
We had a terrific time in the tent and as VIPs, we got to go in through a secret entrance which was a green telephone box.
We absolutely loved the show! It was very rude but so funny and incredible acts, doing a lot of different things.
Dinner
We went to Panda Express to get some food afterwards and then headed back to our rooms.
We said goodnight to Tom and then watched a bit of TV before sleeping.
We leave Vegas tomorrow to go somewhere we have been before, but should be a lot of fun!
We did a bit of shopping and Kim was able to get some shorts to replace her current ones.
We then got an Uber back to Mandalay Bay to get our bags and head to the airport.
Flying to Austin!
We are off to Austin!
We got to the airport, did all the usual things and then once through security, it was imperative we got food.
We went to Popeyes to give it another go and were pleasantly surprised!
Kim had chicken tenders with fries and Curtis had 3 chicken pieces with mac & cheese.
It was way better than it was previously.
We are now waiting to board the flight and will arrive late tonight, so if anything of interest happens on the flight or after, you’ll see about it here tomorrow!
We organised to meet with a friend, Alice, who we met in Rome around 2 years ago. She lives here in Vegas, so we had to meet up!We got up, had breakfast and then Alice was coming to collect us, so we got ready quickly and headed out.
We stopped off at the supermarket to get some drinks and snacks and then continued the drive up to Alice’s apartment, where we got ready to head to the pool.We went down to the pool and relaxed there.
The weather was hot but the sun wasn’t out, so it wasn’t too bad. We had a drink and chatted for a couple of hours and then got back in the car to go to Mandalay Bay.
Pool #2
We got to Mandalay Bay and went through to their beach/pool area. They have an artificial beach equipped with a wave pool.
We got ourselves some deck chairs, some how, and then walked down to the wave pool and chilled in there for a while.
When we got cold we went and sat in the sun and fell asleep!
Lunch
We had a spot of lunch with Alice, which was at a Mexican place.
We had a pork taco each alongside some potato in a cheese sauce with jalapeños.
Zipline
We relaxed at home for a couple of hours and got showered before we headed back into downtown so Kim and Alice could do the zipline.The zipline goes through Fremont Street and it is done in the superman pose.
Whilst Kim was queueing, Curtis got a beer with Kenny, who joined us for the day.
Once Kim finished her zipline, we walked around Fremont Street for a bit and then got hungry so we all got in the car and drove to In & Out for a delicious burger!
We got a Lyft home and then slept. We are up at a decent time to check out tomorrow but don’t fly until the evening.
We got rid of the car this morning, driving it down to the airport for 11:30.
We dropped the car off and grabbed a Lyft to take us down to Mandalay Bay.
Exploring The Strip
We hadn’t really explored the inside of all the big, main, hotels, so we thought we would do that as a nice easy, relaxed day.
We walked around Mandalay Bay, Excalabur, New York New York, Flamingo and a few others, spanning over a few hours!
In the flamingo we saw a few actual flamingos, too!
We walked for a while and then stopped for a nice Italian coffee at Illy.
We then went to look around in the mall at a few things and then got a Lyft back home.
Dinner
We had a jacket potato for dinner, covered in a chili con carne, and then watched some TV and the movie A Quiet Place. This movie was pretty good, but certainly made us sweaty!
We woke up this morning and had a call from Espen & Marcus, so we had a chat with them for a bit.We got ready and had breakfast after speaking with them and then were ready to go.
Hoover Dam
First on the agenda was the Hoover Dam. We drove for 1 hour from our apartment to get there and it was a pretty simple drive.We got to the dam and had to pay $10 for parking. We parked up and headed down to the dam.The sheer size of the dam is astonishing! We didn’t pay for any tours but we did walk around it a bit and got some cool photos which we think show the depth.
We walked around here for a bit and then stopped for an ice cream in the cafe, which was perfect for such a hot day!Weirdly, the Hoover Dam is in Arizona, but only just, so much so that when we left, we had to drive out of Arizona, into Nevada and then back into Arizona.
The Grand Canyon
We weren’t too sure what to expect, but we drove for 1.5 hours from the hoover dam to get to the Grand Canyon (west).We didn’t know that it was a tour in which we had to pay and then take busses buses everywhere, but it worked out well.The first place we went was where the observation deck was, but it didn’t look great, so we didn’t pay for that. We did get some cool photos of the Grand Canyon though.
Behind us from this area was a native American village, which we got to walk around which showed all the different types of buildings used.
We got back on the bus after this and went to the next section, which gave us a 360° view within the Grand Canyon, which was awesome!
We even saw the old cable car system they used to move materials whilst mining.
We left this area and got on the bus to get to the final place, which was a ranch.Unfortunately, by the time we got there, everything was closed, but it looked like an old wild west town.
Kim tried to lasso a fake bull and managed to do it when she wasn’t being filmed!
We went and saw the horses and then tried to do some horseshoe throwing, which Kim perfected on the first throw!
We left here and went back to the main area where we collected our car and drove back towards Vegas, with a stop in IKEA!
We got some Swedish meatballs, of course, and looked around the shop.
We got back home, much earlier than we have been, and ate some ice cream whilst watching TV.
We completely forgot to get anything for breakfast in last night, so we had to go out for some this morning.
We originally went to a place up the road but it was right inside a casino, which smelled of cigarettes, so we went to the next casino and found Denny’s, which was luckily hidden away out of the way of the casino.
We each got some food and drinks and filled outselves up before starting the day.
Stratosphere
Interestingly, our ‘starting the day’ was heading back to the apartment and relaxing. We were both so tired for some reason, so we just relaxed and watched TV for a couple of hours.
Eventually, we drove out to The Strip, where we got to the Fashion Show Mall and parked there, as it was free.
Once we parked up, we headed into the mall to get a Starbucks to take with us on our 30 minute walk to the Stratosphere.
The Stratosphere is the tower of Vegas and is actually taller than a lot of the world’s towers, including Tokyo’s tower, which we thought was pretty tall. This tower is about 1149ft.
Upon the Stratosphere, there are 3 rides. Kim wanted to go on all of them, so she did! It was actually a pretty decent price, too.
We both went up the tower and went right up to the highest point, where Kim went on the Bigshot. This ride is a short one, but it takes you up and then throws you down, as seen below.
Next up it was the X-Scream ride, which takes you over the edge and back a few times. This one wasn’t great, to be honest.
We moved from here to the ‘finale’ – Insanity. This is a spinning ride which also hangs over the side of the tower. Pretty scary stuff!
We got some good views from the tower, which was nice. Contrasting both the mountains, downtown and the strip.
The Strip
Downtown
Mountains
Drinks In Venetian
We left the Stratosphere and the walked down to Circus Circus where we met a former colleague of Kim’s and went for a drink.
He drove us down to The Venetian hotel & casino and walked through the maze of places to finally get to a replica of the canals and the main square in Venice.
We sat here for a couple of hours and had a drink whilst chatting about all kinds of things. Really lovely guy and was good for Kim to catch up with him.
Blue Man Group
We got a pizza slice after getting dropped off at Mandalay Bay and wandered towards Luxor, which is where we were seeing Blue Man Group.
We got in and it was a fairly small arena. We were given some tissue paper to ‘decorate ourselves’, too.
It was an odd show, with musical and comedic elements, but it was pretty good! We aren’t going to go into too much detail, but we would recommend going, for sure.
We left around 11:00 after having breakfast and drove back towards Vegas.
We had a stop planned on the way, before getting back to Vegas, but our first goal was coffee.
We got over from Utah into Arizona and then into Nevada again.
We stopped for our Starbucks and then headed back on the road.
Valley Of Fire
We stopped at the Valley of Fire for a couple of hours to see what it is all about. This is a national park and cost us just $10 to get in.
We stopped at the visitor centre and even just there it was stunning!
There was a road to drive down, so we did just that, before we came to the end of it where the ‘white domes’ are.
We went for a quick walk down the path to see what was there.
We left this area and drove back towards the visitor centre, but stopped to walk into the ‘Fire Waves’ – This sounds much more dramatic then it was.
We walked for about 20 minutes to get to the end. There were some cool views and cool looking rocks, but it was not as awesome as we thought it would be.
Back in Vegas
We arrived back in Vegas and found our apartment. We have an en-suite and a really comfy bed, so we’re happy!
We got situated and relaxed, Curtis watched the Leafs also.
Dinner
We ventured to PopeyesLouisiana Kitchen for dinner, out of interest.
We got some boneless chicken, cajun fries, cajun mash and a ‘biscuit’ each.
We got a Lyft to the strip, where we started by watching the remainder of the water fountain show that was happening.
After the fountain, we headed into Bellagio and found the “O” theatre.
We eventually got in and sat down…in the 2nd row!
This’ How Close!
We won’t say anything about the show and obviously couldn’t take photos, but it was tremendous. Every part of it was incredible, and it was a huge arena, purpose built for this show.
Mr & Mrs Hale 