Leaving Las Vegas

So it is to Sheryl Crow that we go for today's post title Leaving Las Vegas becuase that is what we are doing today. Not, like Sheryl, in a state of anxiety, but after a fairly uneventful and enjoyable few days rest.

I woke at 4 and got up and completed the blog post about yesterday. Nice to be up to date before the journey home. 

Drew woke at 6.15 so I went down to Starbucks to get coffee and breakfast and bring it back to the room.

Drew had a Chocolate Croissant and I had a egg and cheese muffin, there was a ham version, but it is Friday! We both had a venti Americano to wash them down. 

We then showered/bathed and packed checking that we have everything that we brought with us. So by 8.15 we were all set, but had three hours before check-out at 11. I didn't fancy going outside in the 103F heat and getting all sticky before flying back home. So we sat relaxed and read.

At 10.45 we used the check-out online facility, an e-mail had arrived overnight with a link and we were able to review the detailed bill and confirm it before clicking check-out. As the bill was correct we clicked the link and got a confirmation e-mail of the amount to be charged to the credit card. This seems like a helpful approach, beating the more common approach of having a paper bill pushed under the door overnight. It worked well.

So at 10.50 we left the room and went down on the lift. There were lots of low-tech people queueing to check-out in the traditional way.

With an hour to spare we went into the Monte Carlo Food Court for Lunch –We had Pizza slices from Sbarro, mushroom for me, pepperoni for Drew. But is this lunch or supper we ask ourselves. It maybe 11.15 here but it is 7.15 pm at home and we are about to fly for 9 hours 50 minutes to get there!!

We left the hotel at Midday and the bellman got a taxi straight away. Even though you could see the Airport from out room it took 25 minutes to get from the hotel to the Airport. At 12.30 we checked in our luggage and began going through passport and security. This process seemed quicker than usual, and we were through and putting our belts and shoes back on by 12.55.

So we went to the Club Lounge at the airport, which is where I am typing this. The lounge is one of the better ones I have visited, with a full salad bar, two types of soup, sandwiches as well as crisps, flavoured popcorn and pretzels.

Drew started with salt and black pepper popcorn and moved on to a Roast Beef sandwich, a bag of crisps and six Oreo biscuits. <<co-pilots note: its a long and winding road sky and i need to keep my strength up >>

It being Friday I stayed with the egg, cheese and salad, alongside some lovely pretzels, a bag of salt and vinegar crisps and  popcorn. A real treat. This was all washed down by diet coke. 

So that's it folk, with an hour before the plane takes us home we come to the end of the holiday. Thanks for following us on our way for these last three weeks.

Let's Go to Vegas

So I'm back with my favourite genre of music today as I pick Faith Hill's Let's go to Vegas to represent this post about our third day in Vegas.

I hope this is not getting too repetitive for you my readers, but as with days one and two of our stay in Vegas today we also visited some of the hotels in the town.

The day started at 5.15, a real-lie in for me, the latest I have been up all holiday. The sun was shining brightly and the temperature was rising, while only in the 80s at 5.30 it was soon to go up to the 100s.

Drew woke up at 6.40 and I went downstairs to get Coffee for us both. It is interesting to see that there are still people at the slot machines even at this time of the morning, some clearly still going from a late night the night before, the others just up and hoping their luck is brighter with the morning.

A conversation I overheard while waiting for Coffee made it clear that our approach to Vegas is different to others. A lady spoke to her friend and said: "Would you get me a coffee, I need one to keep me going as I can't order a cocktail until 8am and I had the last two at 4am, so I am starting to miss the buzz." In an attempt to be non-judgemental I'll just leave it there, but I am reminded of a friend of mine from many years ago who was afflicted with addiction saying to me: "I don't know if I'm addicted to alcohol and use gambling as a way to get more alcohol out of hours, or if I'm addicted to gambling and use the alcohol to make that more acceptable." His conclusion was he was addicted to both.

We did what has become our tradition here and left the room at 8.30, today instead of going up the Strip we went down. It being so hot we nipped into the New York New York as an air-conditioned way to get to our next set of venues. An above road walkway leads from New York New York into Excalibur, an hotel with an Arthurian theme. From Excalibur we walked through to the Egyptian splendour of the Luxor and from there on to the Hawaiian themed Mandalay Bay. In a comment yesterday one of my colleagues, Lloyd, called Las Vegas, Disneyland for Adults, and while I think Disneyland and DisneyWorld can be for Adults (having visited the former on my 50th birthday and planning to visit the latter for Drew's 40th) I see what he means, the unreality, or hyper-reality of walking from Olde England, to Pharaonic Egypt and on to Hawaii in a few hours is like a theme park.

We stopped at a restaurant called Citizens in Mandalay Bay for breakfast at 9.45. Drew chose a 'build your own omelette' with tomatoes, onions and jalapeños to complement the eggs. I opted for the California Omelette which was composed of the eggs with sour cream, guacamole, pico de gallo and American cheese. They were both fluffy omelettes which were full of flavour. Drew had an English Muffin with his and I had sourdough toast.

From the Mandalay Bay we caught the tram back up to the Excalibur and crossed over on the above street walkway to the Tropicana.  The Tropicana is one of the oldest hotels still in operation in Vegas, but has been recently updated and has a pleasant airy feel. 

We sat for a while in air-conditioned comfort then we split up with Drew heading down to take a photo of the Welcome to Las Vegas sign while I headed over to the Shrine of the Holy Redeemer. From the back of the Tropicana Conference Centre this was a 200 yard walk, so I arrived at the Church a lot less hot and sticky than the day before. I got there at 11.40 and noticed that a priest was hearing confession so took the opportunity to seek forgiveness for my sins and prepare myself to go back to life at home and work.

I prayed after confession until Mass began at 12.10. Mass was celebrated by an African priest with a Nigerian accent, again the Church had over a 100 people present for a weekday Mass. The priest focussed on the psalm of the day (Psalm 89) and the words: "Make us know the shortness of our life that we may gain wisdom of heart." I am reminded why being here in the presence of the Lord, open to the foreverness of a relationship with him gives sense to the shortness of days that makes up a human life.

I walked back from Mass via the Tropicana Car Park and through the MGM Grand, which is a well-known venue for boxing and other sports. From the MGM Grand it is across a walkway to New York, New York and back to the Monte Carlo at 1.45, Drew had arrived back just before me and had obviously spent more time out in the heat than I had as he was quite 'moist'.

A brief siesta and I was up writing yesterday's blog post. At 7 we went out again and I was reminded of the part of Vegas that I've missed on the holiday to-date, the drunken morass of people acting in crazy ways. I guess it is because we have been going out between 8.30 and 1.30 when Vegas is quite and where the streets are clean and free of vomit and spilt drink. The cleaners are out from 6am making the streets, walkways and escalators/elevators presentable, but at 7pm in the evening (and I suspect later, but haven't been tempted to try) crowds of drunken people, young and not so young are milling around the streets with plastic drinks containers.

We were only going across the road for a visit to the Coke Cola store and then the M&M store, amazing what merchandise each of them have - though while we enjoyed looking around we came out of both without buying anything.

We had decided our last night in the US should see us eating Mexican food again and we liked the look of the restaurant at the front of the Monte Carlo called, Diablo's Cantina. The restaurant played loud music and the waiting staff were dressed with as little as was decent on, but the food was excellent.


For appetisers Drew opted for a Tortilla Soup, a dish he had tried in Santa Fe. He thought this one was spicier and had more meat in it than the first version he'd tried. I opted for my favourite chicken wings, these were the Diablo Hot XXX wings, but they really weren't that hot, still with the blue cheese dip they were meaty and tasty.

For mains Drew went for the Jalapeno Chicken Tacos which had a nice kick to them. I had a Pulled Chicken Burito with red chilli sauce which was also tasty. Both were served with sour cream, guacamole, pico de gallo, refried beans and rice. It felt like a fitting culinary end to the holiday.

We stopped at Sambalatte's for a coffee and I had the first cup of coffee in a real china cup in the holiday. As Drew put it: "Three weeks I have had you trying to find coffee from a mug not a polystyrene cup, so I'm glad you managed it before you went home!"   

We went back to the room by 10 and to bed soon after.

Waking up in Vegas

After the time of travelling it is time for a less busy few days as this morning I am waking up in Vegas. 

Day one in Vegas

It was 4.00 am when I woke up and for about 30 minutes I simply sat looking out of the window down to the Strip, with busy 4am Vegas going on below. There seem to be as many taxis about at this time of the morning as there were last night.

With no coffee making machine in the room my new task at 6.30 when Drew awoke was to get some clothes on and go downstairs for coffee. Yes you could get it by room service, but that is too decadent (and I imagine expensive).

On returning to the room it was time to sort through our clothes and see what we still had clean and what needed to be washed before leaving on Friday. Once we had that sorted I called the Bell Desk and they came and collected the, small, bag of washing at 7.30.

We left the hotel at 8.30 (well we left the room, it is about 1/4 of a mile from the lifts to the Strip side of the hotel. 

The core of the Strip, Las Vegas Boulevard, from the Mandalay Bay in the South to Encore in the North is only 3 miles long, yet travelling from one place to another can take a lot of time with so many things to distract you on the way.

We headed off on the first morning of our stay to a breakfast place recommended by a colleague, thanks Iz. This was called Hash House a Go Go, the Hash, of course, referring to hashed potatoes. The walk was about a mile and a half up and down the escalators which means that as a pedestrian you don't notice the traffic unless you look down.

We got to Hash House a Go Go at 9.40 am and looked at the menu. Drew had a hash of crispy potato with roasted Chicken, garlic, onions, asparagus and eggs sunny-side up. While I had a hash of crispy potatoes with chorizo, jalapeño, cheddar and tomato. They were both delicious, and for those worrying about the absence of fruit and veg in my diet note there was a slice of melon and orange on the plate and I eat them both, and indeed everything else. Wow what a set of flavours, amazing, a great start to the day all washed down by orange juice and coffee (or diet Pepsi in Drew's case).

From here we explored the Linq hotel and casino which houses the Hash House, then we moved on to the Venetian and the Palazzo, as I mentioned last night the hotels are places worth visiting in their own right. In these two linked hotels there are a Gondola ride, internal and external, St Mark's square and other images of Venice (though, thankfully, no people throwing 'soil' out of the window into the canal, which was my first experience of Venice back in the 80s!!)

After wandering through these hotels we crossed to Treasure Island and stopped for a coffee. Even though it was only 11.15 the heat was beginning to get oppressive. <<Co-Pilot's note: Stop whingeing>> 

As the morning was fast going by we split up and I walked the 1/2 mile to Las Vegas Cathedral for Mass at 12.10. Clearly the Cathedral takes my approach to air-con, it was so cold you might have wanted a cardigan. Still Mass was prayerful and reflective, though the priest began Mass noting it was the memorial day of St Louis, an English king!! I guess there were no French people in the congregation to correct him :-) 

The priest also pronounced Louis in the way the City which bears his name is pronounced here in the US, so it was St Lewis the King. Still I think it is a real pleasure to have time to go to daily Mass, as I can now and again when I am on holiday, I look forward to retirement and a time when I can go everyday. 

Mass finished at 12.40 and I then walked back to the hotel. While the easy route would have been to walk down the strip, by this hour of the day it was worth walking further but keeping cooler. So I walked down to Treasure Island, walked through there to the Tram (this is a monorail, but not to confuse it with the public monorail the inter-hotel connections are called trams) to the Mirage, walked through the Mirage to the side facing Caesar's Palace, walked through Caesar's Palace to its link with the Bellagio and then caught the tram from the Bellagio back to the Monte Carlo. I got back to the room at 1.45, Drew was already back. I must admit the heat makes Las Vegas a tiring town, time for my first siesta of the holidays!

I only slept for an hour, but it was refreshing, then it was time to post a blog and put this morning's photos on Flickr. We then discussed where to eat tonight and after a lot of discussion decided we would treat ourselves to one of the very smart restaurants in our sister hotel, the Aria. Our food costs, with the exception of Alinea in Chicago, have been below average so far this holiday, so we thought we would put that right!

The restaurant is called Sage and the executive chef is Shawn McClain, the tasting menu that we selected exemplifies his simple approach which makes use of the great abundance of the nearby Californian terroir to produce fresh, tasty and elegant food.

The amuse bouche was an oyster with Tabasco sorbet, as Drew thinks oysters taste a little of snot I was allowed two of these. The salty sliver of oyster was warmed by the chilli heat of the Tabasco, a winning combination to bring the palate to life.

Before the next course came we were offered either bread with bacon and cheese or a French style bread, Drew went for the latter, I went for both, and both were excellent.

The first of the courses was sturgeon and caviar with fennel and cucumber and buckwheat tuiles. Drew has had an aversion for fish eggs since eating at a lovely restaurant in Spain where one or other form of fish egg appeared in every dish on the menu. Still he managed to consume the caviar which added a saltiness to the strong flesh of the sturgeon. The buckwheat tuiles offering a nice alternative texture to the soft fish and fish eggs.

Our next dish was an Oyster Beef Tartare on rye bread with horseradish and crème fraiche, the idea of raw beef mixed with raw oyster is a new combination for me, but they go beautifully together, they were served on the side of a large crisp of rye bread, so that each bite could be a combination of the tartare, the bread and either the horseradish warmth or the coolness of the crème fraiche - delightful, I could have eaten four or five plates of this if there hadn't been more delights to come.

The third dish was a Maine Day Boat Scallop with clam chowder and bacon, the performance of the scallops being delivered and then the chowder poured over was excellently done by the waiter, it really allowed the aroma of the chowder to begin to wet the palate before the flavour of the clams in the chowder and the scallops met the lips, lovely. There was a slight harsh alcohol after-taste with this dish, for perfection I would have left that out, but everyone's taste varies.

Next came the grilled foie gras with turnip and dried kumquat, again foie gras, indeed all liver, causes Drew problems with texture, so I had the pleasure of eating both of these plates. The foie gras was rich and earthy in flavour and the sharpness of the kumquat skin complemented it perfectly, it almost achieved lemony notes in the taste. The turnip, in tiny cubes were served in a light broth and gave a crunch element to this dish - another winner for me.

Following this was a real delight for me crispy Rabbit loin with salsa verde, romesco and chorizo alioli. As someone for whom rabbit was a cheap meat we eat in a stew that might last a few days as I was growing up I always thing of rabbit as the stew flavourer, rather than a lovely delicate meat in its own right. Well Chef was showing me it could indeed be a delicate meat. Made crispy with the lightest of tempura batters it was wonderful on its own, with the sharpness of the salsa verde, the pepperiness of the chorizo and garlic and the nuttiness of the romesco it showed what a versatile meat it can be, resonating differently to each of the flavours of the sauces.

The main meat dish was pieces of grilled Ribeye of beef, with amazing skill the chef had a crisp outer layer to the meat while retaining the full flavour of a lightly cooked piece of beef insider. The celeriac provided a nice traditional complement to the beef and the little ball of bone marrow wrapped in straws of lightly fried potato offered another dimension of flavour and texture. As is traditional Drew offered me his bone marrow, so I had the bonus of having two.  

So we moved on to the bit of the menu where instead of me getting extra from Drew he does so form me. The waiter produced an unexpected inter-course delight, Lemon balls (or cubes) put in a glass and then covered with strawberry foam so that the flavours combine. Drew eat both and said it was fizzy on the tongue as well as clearly combining both tastes, a real palate cleanser.

The first of the two desserts, or in Drew's case the first two of the desserts, was a huckleberry panna cotta with vanilla gel and almond essence this was fruity, nutty and lovely. Though Drew did have one complaint it was covered with blueberry spheres, that looked like some pretend roe, see the comments about his distaste for roe above.

The final dessert was a de-constructed S’Mores. S'Mores aren't things people from the UK are familiar with but they are a traditional night-time camp-fire treat popular in the United States and Canada, consisting of a roasted marshmallow and a layer of chocolate sandwiched between two pieces of flavoured sweet cracker (Sourced from Wikipedia). The dessert was chocolate, meringue and marshmallow flavoured ice-cream with a biscuit. The chocolate was more like a nutella, but the meringue tasted crisp and not unlike the concrete we had in Alinea a week or so ago. Drew managed both of these with eminent delight. 

We finished with a cup of espresso each and then walked back to the Monte Carlo. We got to bed at 11.00 pm having spent 2 1/2 hours over the meal, a pleasure compared to the sometimes rushed feel of US dining. 

Day two in Vegas

Day two of our stay in Vegas followed the pattern of day one quite closely. I woke at 4.30, sat and watched the people and traffic down on the Strip then at 6.40 Drew woke up. At 7 I went down for a coffee while Drew had a bath. 

We again lounged for a while before leaving the room at 8.30. Today we set ourselves of visiting other hotels from the ones we visited yesterday. Drew was also convinced that he wasn't going back to Hash House for breakfast, as he was way to full.

So leaving the room we again took to walking up South Las Vegas Boulevard, this time we stayed on the right side as you walk up and walked all the way to the Fashion Show Mall. Here we walked across one of the above road cross-overs to get to the Wynn, I'd been inside here yesterday for a restroom stop on my way to church, and suggested to Drew he'd like to visit and take some photos. So we wondered around the displays here until 9.45 when we stopped at The Cafe in the Wynn for breakfast.

Drew decided to go sweet for breakfast today, so had a chocolate chip muffin with his coffee. I opted for a breakfast bagel and this was egg, cheese and ham in a bagel. It was very nice. 

We continued our stroll through the Wynn and in to its neighbouring property the Encore which is equally tastefully laid out.

From the Encore we walked over to the Cathedral. One of my friends and regular blog reader and flickr viewer, Robin, is a big fan of stained glass. So having seen some remarkable and unusual stained glass during my visit yesterday I'd asked Drew to come up and take photos of it.

From the Cathedral we walked further up to the run-down part of the strip, where some of the old hotels look in need of renovation. We walked as far as the SLS Casino, which I didn't recognise until researching online later is on the site of the old Sahara Hotel which I have such awful memories of from my first visit to Vegas. My sister and brother-in-law will be glad to know that the Sahara was closed in 2011 and though the space is being used all the things we hated most about it have gone. I'd not realised until today quite how far from the centre of things we were when staying out in the Sahara in 1994, a 'rat-pack' hotel of the worst kind, now buried with much of Las Vegas' history.

Drew and I stopped for a soft drink, diet coke for me and a bright orange gloop called 'Orange Fantasy Sunshine Burst' for Drew. I have no idea what E numbers go in to making it that colour, but I didn't stay around to see how hyper Drew was.

After the drink I went outside and caught the Deuce, the Strip bus, down to the lower part of the strip to walk to Mass at another church nearer the hotel. This is the Shrine of the Most Holy Redeemer and Mass was at 12.10, seems to be the time for Mass in this part of Vegas?

The church is plainer than the Cathedral, but had a larger congregation for Mass. Like many churches in the US there was no pedestrian entrance, I had to walk through the Car entrance, hoping kind parishioners wouldn't run me down.

The priest gave a brief homily focussing on the words of St Paul to the Thessalonians (1 Thess 2:11-12: "Another reason why we constantly thank God for you is that as soon as you heard the message that we brought you as God’s message, you accepted it for what it really is, God’s message." He focussed on how by coming to Mass today we were responding to God's message, a nice positive note for this afternoon's Mass.

I walked back to the hotel, thankfully a thundercloud had come along, so the sun was hidden and the temperature was down to 93 from the earlier highs. I got back to the hotel at 1.25 and Drew arrived back from his walk 15 minutes later. 

Yes, you have guessed it, after the heat of the morning it was time for another hours nap, which was lovely. I then got up and completed a blog post.

Tonight we had decided to look for Thai food. Seeing as I cook Thai style food four days of every seven, it has been strange to have had none at all since the beginning of the holiday. There is a high class Thai called LemonGrass a few minutes walk from the restaurant where we eat last night, but we decided we shouldn't spend all the time in our hotel or its immediate neighbour, so opted for what looked like an interesting restaurant called Sea in the Bally Hotel half-way up the Strip from here.

Sea has a Budda sitting at the end of a pool and tables set a little into the floor so which you are sitting normally the table is at pool level, little flowers waft pass during the meal.

The waiter warned us that Thai food was spicy and talked of a 1 - 5 scale where 5 was spiciest. As it turned out we would have put his five as a 2 or 3, but I guess that reflects our habits of Thai eating where finger chillies and above is where it gets spicy, not habaneros or jalapeños.

In the Thai tradition we ordered food to share; our appetisers were Village Steamed Dumplings, what I would call Kanom Jeep, they were tasty but not very spicy, and what they called Thai papaya salad and we would call Som Dam, this was very nice with the major difference from our experience being the absence of shrimp in the salad, again we would use more fresh chilli in this if making it for ourselves.

For mains Drew's choice was called queen of basil with beef, we would call it Neua Pat Grabow, though I have seen it spelt Pat Krabow too. The thai basil gives a sharpness of flavour like nothing else I know, so this went down very well.


My choice was Pat Prik Gai and apart from calling the gai chicken this was what the menu here called it. This was the dish with the most heat in it, but interestingly this was from chilli paste rather than fresh chillies which gave it a harsher flavour than would be my normal experience.

All that being said we eat every piece of the meal leaving no left-overs. This included the sticky rice, Kow Neuw, but I would have called it gluey rice given quite how sticky it was. Still we managed to break it apart to eat with our meal.

Overall the meal was a success. It was nice to eat the flavours we love so much, even if they were not quite as spicy as we prefer. We ended up content.

From the restaurant we walked through Bally's and across the walkway to the Bellagio, while I had taken a short-cut through here on my way back from Mass yesterday Drew had not been inside. He spent some time photographing the seascape which is an impressive sight in the middle of the hotel.

From the Bellagio we caught the tram back to the Monte Carlo and were in bed soon after 10pm.

I did it my way

I always stop after the road trip part of a holiday like this to provide an overview of the details of the travel. Being in Vegas it seemed appropriate to use Frank Sinatra's song: I did it my way as the title for the post.

Frank was one of the great heroes of Vegas <<Co-pilot's note: cough: mob :cough>>, and even now they are performing a tribute show to him called Frank, the Man, the Music.

So we did it our way 

So in summary; we picked the car up with 13,467 miles on the clock and returned it with 16,913 a total of 3,446 miles. Of those miles Drew drove 54% of the miles and I drove 46%. This compares to distances of 5,247 miles in 2013 and 4,027 miles in 2011. There was more stopping and looking this time than on the last two visits when the looking was often done from the car.

In time terms we travelled for 67 hours and 54 minutes. I drove 53% of the time and Drew drove for 47%. This compares to 94 hrs 51 mins in 2013 and 92 hrs 19 mins in 2011. 

We were lucky in having extended stays in New York, Chicago, Grand Canyon and now in Vegas. In addition we got to visit 17 states and one Canadian province and have great memories from the hours we spent in Toronto, Detroit and Milwaukee in addition to the evenings we spent in many other towns across the country. And of course we made it to the last 8 states of the 38 Drew had not visited.

We tracked Route 66 for 3/4 of its route, and loved the eccentricity of the way the road is remembered across each of the different states.

Overall, and with a day or so to go, a great holiday with lots of memories that I'm sure we will come back to, including 3,306 photos (and still counting).

Thanks to everyone who have followed us along the way, and who have commented on the blog and the photos.

Viva Las Vegas

So now we arrive at Las Vegas, what else could I choose but Viva Las Vegas to represent today’s end of the road trip part of the holiday and the next few days of relaxing before returning home.

Here is the map of today's journey:

Leaving the Canyon

I was up at 4.00 and read some online stuff on the Canyon to complete the information I had gained yesterday. 

Drew woke at 5.30 and I made coffee for us both. Drew got up at 6.30 and having showered and dressed we left the room and checked out, we were in the car and ready for our last drive at 7.30.

Breakfast

We stopped on route for breakfast at McDonalds in Williams, AZ, getting there at 8.35. Drew had mentioned a McDonald's Breakfast at various times during the holiday, so this was the chance to have one.

Drew opted for a sausage, egg and cheese McGriddle while I had a sausage muffin with egg. We eat and were back on the road by 9.15.

Getting hot 

Having left the Canyon when it was 84°, as we came down from the heights of the Canyon so the temperature began to rise. It was 90° in Williams and every few miles Drew would shout out as it raised a degree. It was 99° as we left the I40 and joined the US93 heading towards Nevada.  

By the time we were passing Dolan Springs Drew had the pleasure of announcing that the temperature was 102°.

We came up to the state line in Nevada and it was now 108°, very hot indeed. This is 42° for those who use Celsius!

Lunch

We stopped in Henderson, NV for lunch and to swap driver at 12.20. The place we stopped at was a large side of the road Casino called the Railroad Pass Hotel and Casino and it had a nice dining room in the theme of the railroad.

Drew opted for the dish called Just a Burger, which was a standard burger in a bun with fries. I opted for the Classic Reuben, this consisted of salted beef with Swiss cheese and sauerkraut served on rye bread, this also came with fries. My sandwich was sharp and tasty.

We left the Casino at 1.20 and headed down into the valley which is Las Vegas, we could see the Strip and the huge hotels from 10 miles away.

Arriving in Las Vegas

I had decided at the start of the holiday not to try and struggle with finding a Hertz garage in the busy parts of Vegas, I'd only spent a few hours in the place in the past, so didn't know the detail of the locations. I had therefore opted to hand the car back in the Hertz garage at Las Vegas Airport. This proved a good idea as the Car Return was well signposted all the way in to the area. The Hertz garage at the airport was huge and it was only a minute from arrival (at 2.00) before we had handed the car back. It has proved a very good car for the journey without any problems. I'm really pleased it worked so well for us.

From the Hertz garage we boarded the shuttle to the airport and from there got a taxi arriving at the Monte Carlo at 2.30.

Monte Carlo

A very efficient process for checking in saw a queue of 30 people dealt with in 2 minutes, we were checked in and up in our room by 2.45.

View from our room

We are on floor 25 in room 218, with a view along the strip, so outside the window is New York New York, MGM Grand and a selection of shops including an M&M store.

You might think the 25th floor might be a problem for the elevators, but in the Monte Carlo there are three banks of elevators, one for 2-12, another for 12 - 22 and the final ones for floors 23-32. So for us we get in to one of the six lifts that serve our floors and the first stop is floor 23, if anyone is going there. As it happened we came straight up to floor 25 and along to the room.

At 4.15 Drew popped out to get us each of Coke from downstairs - this is cheaper than room service and there are no mini-bars in this kind of hotel in the US. I loaded up all the photos from the last few days on to Flickr and named them, it took a while, but it is a good process to remember the fantastic things we have done.

The Strip

At 6.00, Flickr was right up to date, we went to look at Las Vegas. 

We walked from the Monte Carlo into our neighbouring hotel, The Aria, this is new since Drew's last visit here and is very spectacular. The Aria leads in to the Crystals Shopping area which is also highly decorated, it includes flowers, kites and water twisters, amazing to see. 

At the end of the Crystals we then ventured outside, as you can imagine it was very hot, but not the hot of the early days of the holiday, with humidity too, but a dry heat which was nice to walk in as the sun went down. We walked up the strip until coming to the Bellagio, we timed that well as the famous Bellagio Fountains began their 7pm display about 2 minutes after we got there.

Our next stop was Caesar's Palace, this place is amazing, not only is it so huge it would be easy to get lost, but it has shops and galleries which, through careful use of decoration of the ceilings, and temperature management, make you feel you are outside. With images of the Trevi Fountain and other monuments of ancient Rome is simply an amazing site.

Yes for the critics there is also signs all around of conspicuous consumption, with no mention of those who can't access the requirements to buy in these places, but that being said our first two hours had cost us nothing, other then the leg-power to walk.

My first visit to Vegas was not a great success, back in 1994 we came into the town the night after we had arrived at Los Angeles airport. My propensity for second day tiredness after coming across the Atlantic was something I first discovered on that occasion. 

When we arrived my family and I caught a bus, which in those days seemed to go from the back-door of every casino. It was a dismal journey with me falling off to sleep and seeing lots of bins and rubbish and not many bright lights. 

Memorably on one occasion on the journey a very large Floridian lady got on the bus and turned to my brother-in-law and said: "shift your fanny, hunn; before I land on you!!" (NB, this is the North American use of the word fanny, not the British one).

I slept that night for 8 hours and felt grateful to be leaving Vegas the next morning. I didn't expect to be coming back.

However in 2006 Drew came to Vegas for an academic conference and he loved the place. His photos from that visit can be found at this link. So given his excitement about the place, I was persuaded to try it again.

I realise now that Vegas is a mindset. If you try and judge it by any normal standards it won't fit. If you treat it like an unreal theme park where everything is at the edge of excess you can begin to enjoy that excess. Having learnt that from Drew that's what I'm doing.

Dinner

After Caesar's Palace we walked down the other side of the strip, you get from side to side by escalators and walkways, no road crossing here. We were heading to the Rain Forest Cafe in MGM, where Drew had experienced a lovely meal when he was last in Las Vegas in 2006, unfortunately it was closed for renovation work, so we crossed the strip, again by elevated walkway, to New York New York, where we found a lovely Italian Restaurant called Il Fornaio. 

Having seated us they greeted us with a selection of bread and olive oil and balsamic vinegar for dipping. We did this while we placed our order.

For appetisers Drew had Carpaccio which was a large portion of meat with a good amount of cheese. Drew enjoyed. I went for one of the evening's specials: Arancini al sugo, it was last year in Cavtat that I last had Arancini and these were an excellent example of this kind of dish, tasty and filling with a lovely tomato and basil sauce, the remainder of which got mopped up by my bread.

For mains we both had pasta dishes, Drew selecting Capellini al pomodoro, you could see the fresh basil over the plate. I opted for Tagliatelle alla bolognese, very traditional, but none the worse for that. The pasta was el dente and the sauce was rich with meat and tomato, lovely.

Drew was also interested in the desserts, there was a large selection, but he opted for Cannoli Siciliani; a cannoli filled with sheep’s milk ricotta served with candied orange,

bittersweet chocolate and pistachios. It looked lovely and Drew enjoyed every last morsel of it.

From New York New York it is a short walk to our hotel, which is next door. So we arrived back at the Monte Carlo at 10 and were in bed by 10.30.