Tuesday
23rd November
Didn't sleep too well last night, woke up 3 times through the night, the last time was 4.30, 20 minutes before the alarm was due to go off, no point going back to sleep. The shuttle was 5 minutes early, but at least I was ready for it. We picked up 4 other passengers on the way to the airport, with me first on, last off, but still arriving at the United Airlines check in dead on 6.30. I checked my bags in kerbside then headed upstairs to find a cuppa before going through security. The flight left on time, more carry on bags were checked for cargo. This is now becoming so much the norm that I'm not getting so concerned any more. I took a couple of photo's of the terrain again, it's so interesting to see snow on the mountains in a desert.
We landed in Vegas at 10am and after a rather long walk found the train to take me to terminal 1 and the baggage claim area. It's such a long way that the luggage was already out on the carousel and both of mine in the first lot out. Bought myself a round trip shuttle ticket for $14.00, not bad. The shuttle left the airport at about 10.37 and it took us 2 minutes to leave the airport road and join the highway to the strip. I was at the Bellagio by 10.55, first on and first off. When the driver announced the Bellagio, the other passengers were looking around to see who the lucky person was that could afford to stay here, little did they know I got it really cheap because of the GFC, and am I glad about that, I wouldn't want to be paying the full price. It is very elegant and the lobby impressive, but nothing much in the way of services in the room. There is no complimentary tea/coffee, the stuff in the bar fridge is on a sensor so anything that is moved is automatically charged to your room, and if I want to keep my own drinks cold I can hire a fridge. The bathroom is very big as you can see in the photo's. If I want to use the internet it costs $14.99 for 24 hours. Now, you have to remember that when you see a price, that's not what you are going to be paying, they add the tax on when you go to pay for the item, so that $14.99 could work out to be a little more. This is the first hotel that hasn't had complimentary Wi Fi available to guests. It is also the first time I've seen local calls charged for. Am I putting you off staying here yet?
Anyway, now I'm settled in my room it's time to head out and book some entertainment. I had lunch first at a restaurant in the hotel, fish and chips and as you can see in the photo it is served a little differently to anywhere else I've been. I bought a ticket for Cirque Du Soleil's 'O' for Thursday night, in the inner circle, why not splash out, cost me $175.00 but I think it is money well spent. I also arranged to go on a Grand Canyon tour tomorrow - $199.00 to be paid to the tour director on pick up. I have to be down in the tour bus lobby by 6.20am. No ordinary bus stop at the Bellagio as you will see in the photo I took down there. The bus leaves at 6.30am and returns at 6pm, a looooong day. Unfortunately they are not doing the Hoover Dam tour due to the new bridge. There is a separate dam tour that is a 5 hour tour but unfortunately I can't do it on Thursday as it is Thanksgiving and isn't running.
Back in my room I had a nanna nap till 3.30 then went off for a walk to the MGM Grand hotel. They were having a "CSI Experience" where you can test your skills as a detective. There are 3 crime scenes to choose from where you have to study the scene then work your way through labs to see if you can figure out what happened and by whom. I was allowed to take photo's in there but I got so engrossed in my crime that I forgot all about the camera. At the end you have to put in a full report to Grisham, on a pc, and if you have all the correct information you are awarded a diploma, I got mine with flying colours.
My next stop was the Excalibur where they were running a 4D Polar Express experience. That was good fun apart from one scene in the lead up to the movie. They had a few examples of what to expect, water spraying on you, wind blowing in your face, and the worst part, rats scampering around your feet, that got me shuddering and lifting my feet up. Once the excerpt from the movie started though it got really good. I had two kids next to me and the little boy at one stage said he was getting scared, but I got him past that bit and he and his sister really enjoyed it. They went on to the next one that I would have done if I'd had the grandkids with me but going to a Spongebob Square pants alone would have looked a bit odd.
Back outside on the strip it was freezing cold and the wind was blowing so hard I was nearly blown into the road at one intersection. I called in at the CSV to pick up some goodies to take back to my room. The wind was really making walking hard so I ducked into the Monte Carlo where there is a tram that runs between it and the Bellagio, a freeby, which got me back to the hotel in a warmer and less wind blown state. An early night for me as I have an early start tomorrow.
Wednesday 24th November
I was woken with a phone call at 6.35, the bus was waiting for me downstairs but I had to give it a miss as it would take me too long to shower, dress and make my way through the maze of this place to get to the bus stop. This was the first time I relied on the room alarm clock only, usually my mobile was set also. Don't know why I didn't do it this time. I went back to sleep and woke at 8 to a dark sky, rain and more gusty wind. In a way I think I'm glad I didn't do the tour now. It wouldn't have been very pleasant out on the skywalk. I had a look at the alarm clock to see if I could figure out what I'd done wrong and saw I'd set it for pm instead of am. Duh. I decided that I'd have that relaxing bath I'd been promising myself and as there was no bubble bath I put in a drop of my shower gel, well at least I thought it was a drop, check out the amount of bubbles I ended up with.
I
finally emerged at 8.40 and all soreness is gone.
I lay on the bed in my robe reading for a while and dropped off to sleep again till 11. I think I've finally caught up on all the sleep I've missed. Got dressed and headed out to get something to eat. All that water and sleeping has left me with a huge hole in my stomach. Got a cup of Earl Grey tea to go with my lunch but I think they take the name literally, once it has milk in it, it is actually grey, so I added my own Twinings EG to it and got it to the right colour and flavour, a good cuppa in the end.
During the day, Vegas looks just like any other city, lots of big buildings, and on a dull day they don't look that impressive. I figured today would be a good day to stay in and get some more work done on my web site. I found a connection for $10.00 for 24 hours, well, $5.00 is $5.00 and the connection signal is the same as the Bellagio. I haven't found one yet that has full signal so a fair signal is going to have to do for now. I got a fair bit done despite constant disconnections and as I didn't think I'd be able to stay awake for 24 hours, I worked as fast as I could and finally hit the pillow at 12.30.
Thursday 25th November
I had an early morning call from Bernie which was great, another long chat, sorry Tony, hope you don't get too much of a shock when you get the bill. I won't get to see you guys when I get back but I hope you enjoy your holiday and I'll see you when you return. After my shower I thought I'd use up the rest of my 24 hours net connection and got more work done on the latter stages of my trip. Loaded as many photo's as I could when connected but it was slow going. I've only got till 2.15 before my time runs out. Unfortunately it didn't last very long, I had about 30 minutes before it dropped out completely and I couldn't reconnect no matter how many times I tried. Time to bite the bullet and part with the money to connect to the hotel server.
I worked on my journal till 3pm then took a break, and never lost connection once. I've got everything up to date now apart from the Vegas visit. I wandered over to Jimmy Buffet's Margariteville, I love that shop and the music. Wandered through a few of the shops in Miracle Mile Mall, couldn't do the whole lot as I had to get back, have some dinner and get ready to go to 'O'.
It's 9.15pm and I'm back from 'O', and OH what a show. It was fantastic and I hope to get to see it in Perth sometime. The kids would love it. I hope you all get to see it sometime, somewhere near where you live. Cameras weren't allowed in so sorry, no photo's for you. Guess you'll have to go see it now :-)
Well, this is the end of my travels, I leave here tomorrow and head home. I can kiss Saturday 27th goodbye, it doesn't exist this year for me. I have had one hell of a journey and thoroughly enjoyed every thing I've seen and done. Thanks for all the good wishes as I've been travelling, I've enjoyed receiving your emails, text messages, phone calls, catching up with family and friends that I got to see and meeting new ones. I hope I didn't bore you all too much with my narratives and the tree, squirrel and snow pics.
Take care and I'll see some of you sometime after I return home on Sunday.
Didn't sleep too well last night, woke up 3 times through the night, the last time was 4.30, 20 minutes before the alarm was due to go off, no point going back to sleep. The shuttle was 5 minutes early, but at least I was ready for it. We picked up 4 other passengers on the way to the airport, with me first on, last off, but still arriving at the United Airlines check in dead on 6.30. I checked my bags in kerbside then headed upstairs to find a cuppa before going through security. The flight left on time, more carry on bags were checked for cargo. This is now becoming so much the norm that I'm not getting so concerned any more. I took a couple of photo's of the terrain again, it's so interesting to see snow on the mountains in a desert.
We landed in Vegas at 10am and after a rather long walk found the train to take me to terminal 1 and the baggage claim area. It's such a long way that the luggage was already out on the carousel and both of mine in the first lot out. Bought myself a round trip shuttle ticket for $14.00, not bad. The shuttle left the airport at about 10.37 and it took us 2 minutes to leave the airport road and join the highway to the strip. I was at the Bellagio by 10.55, first on and first off. When the driver announced the Bellagio, the other passengers were looking around to see who the lucky person was that could afford to stay here, little did they know I got it really cheap because of the GFC, and am I glad about that, I wouldn't want to be paying the full price. It is very elegant and the lobby impressive, but nothing much in the way of services in the room. There is no complimentary tea/coffee, the stuff in the bar fridge is on a sensor so anything that is moved is automatically charged to your room, and if I want to keep my own drinks cold I can hire a fridge. The bathroom is very big as you can see in the photo's. If I want to use the internet it costs $14.99 for 24 hours. Now, you have to remember that when you see a price, that's not what you are going to be paying, they add the tax on when you go to pay for the item, so that $14.99 could work out to be a little more. This is the first hotel that hasn't had complimentary Wi Fi available to guests. It is also the first time I've seen local calls charged for. Am I putting you off staying here yet?
Anyway, now I'm settled in my room it's time to head out and book some entertainment. I had lunch first at a restaurant in the hotel, fish and chips and as you can see in the photo it is served a little differently to anywhere else I've been. I bought a ticket for Cirque Du Soleil's 'O' for Thursday night, in the inner circle, why not splash out, cost me $175.00 but I think it is money well spent. I also arranged to go on a Grand Canyon tour tomorrow - $199.00 to be paid to the tour director on pick up. I have to be down in the tour bus lobby by 6.20am. No ordinary bus stop at the Bellagio as you will see in the photo I took down there. The bus leaves at 6.30am and returns at 6pm, a looooong day. Unfortunately they are not doing the Hoover Dam tour due to the new bridge. There is a separate dam tour that is a 5 hour tour but unfortunately I can't do it on Thursday as it is Thanksgiving and isn't running.
Back in my room I had a nanna nap till 3.30 then went off for a walk to the MGM Grand hotel. They were having a "CSI Experience" where you can test your skills as a detective. There are 3 crime scenes to choose from where you have to study the scene then work your way through labs to see if you can figure out what happened and by whom. I was allowed to take photo's in there but I got so engrossed in my crime that I forgot all about the camera. At the end you have to put in a full report to Grisham, on a pc, and if you have all the correct information you are awarded a diploma, I got mine with flying colours.
My next stop was the Excalibur where they were running a 4D Polar Express experience. That was good fun apart from one scene in the lead up to the movie. They had a few examples of what to expect, water spraying on you, wind blowing in your face, and the worst part, rats scampering around your feet, that got me shuddering and lifting my feet up. Once the excerpt from the movie started though it got really good. I had two kids next to me and the little boy at one stage said he was getting scared, but I got him past that bit and he and his sister really enjoyed it. They went on to the next one that I would have done if I'd had the grandkids with me but going to a Spongebob Square pants alone would have looked a bit odd.
Back outside on the strip it was freezing cold and the wind was blowing so hard I was nearly blown into the road at one intersection. I called in at the CSV to pick up some goodies to take back to my room. The wind was really making walking hard so I ducked into the Monte Carlo where there is a tram that runs between it and the Bellagio, a freeby, which got me back to the hotel in a warmer and less wind blown state. An early night for me as I have an early start tomorrow.
Wednesday 24th November
I was woken with a phone call at 6.35, the bus was waiting for me downstairs but I had to give it a miss as it would take me too long to shower, dress and make my way through the maze of this place to get to the bus stop. This was the first time I relied on the room alarm clock only, usually my mobile was set also. Don't know why I didn't do it this time. I went back to sleep and woke at 8 to a dark sky, rain and more gusty wind. In a way I think I'm glad I didn't do the tour now. It wouldn't have been very pleasant out on the skywalk. I had a look at the alarm clock to see if I could figure out what I'd done wrong and saw I'd set it for pm instead of am. Duh. I decided that I'd have that relaxing bath I'd been promising myself and as there was no bubble bath I put in a drop of my shower gel, well at least I thought it was a drop, check out the amount of bubbles I ended up with.
I
finally emerged at 8.40 and all soreness is gone.I lay on the bed in my robe reading for a while and dropped off to sleep again till 11. I think I've finally caught up on all the sleep I've missed. Got dressed and headed out to get something to eat. All that water and sleeping has left me with a huge hole in my stomach. Got a cup of Earl Grey tea to go with my lunch but I think they take the name literally, once it has milk in it, it is actually grey, so I added my own Twinings EG to it and got it to the right colour and flavour, a good cuppa in the end.
During the day, Vegas looks just like any other city, lots of big buildings, and on a dull day they don't look that impressive. I figured today would be a good day to stay in and get some more work done on my web site. I found a connection for $10.00 for 24 hours, well, $5.00 is $5.00 and the connection signal is the same as the Bellagio. I haven't found one yet that has full signal so a fair signal is going to have to do for now. I got a fair bit done despite constant disconnections and as I didn't think I'd be able to stay awake for 24 hours, I worked as fast as I could and finally hit the pillow at 12.30.
Thursday 25th November
I had an early morning call from Bernie which was great, another long chat, sorry Tony, hope you don't get too much of a shock when you get the bill. I won't get to see you guys when I get back but I hope you enjoy your holiday and I'll see you when you return. After my shower I thought I'd use up the rest of my 24 hours net connection and got more work done on the latter stages of my trip. Loaded as many photo's as I could when connected but it was slow going. I've only got till 2.15 before my time runs out. Unfortunately it didn't last very long, I had about 30 minutes before it dropped out completely and I couldn't reconnect no matter how many times I tried. Time to bite the bullet and part with the money to connect to the hotel server.
I worked on my journal till 3pm then took a break, and never lost connection once. I've got everything up to date now apart from the Vegas visit. I wandered over to Jimmy Buffet's Margariteville, I love that shop and the music. Wandered through a few of the shops in Miracle Mile Mall, couldn't do the whole lot as I had to get back, have some dinner and get ready to go to 'O'.
It's 9.15pm and I'm back from 'O', and OH what a show. It was fantastic and I hope to get to see it in Perth sometime. The kids would love it. I hope you all get to see it sometime, somewhere near where you live. Cameras weren't allowed in so sorry, no photo's for you. Guess you'll have to go see it now :-)
Well, this is the end of my travels, I leave here tomorrow and head home. I can kiss Saturday 27th goodbye, it doesn't exist this year for me. I have had one hell of a journey and thoroughly enjoyed every thing I've seen and done. Thanks for all the good wishes as I've been travelling, I've enjoyed receiving your emails, text messages, phone calls, catching up with family and friends that I got to see and meeting new ones. I hope I didn't bore you all too much with my narratives and the tree, squirrel and snow pics.
Take care and I'll see some of you sometime after I return home on Sunday.