Thursday - Snowy and Cold
I'm back! My friend and I had a fabulous time in Las Vegas. The weather down there was great. It was warm enough in the daytime for us not to need jackets, and if we didn't go too far at night we could get away with something light over our shoulders.
On the other hand, we didn't really like Las Vegas. It seemed so fake! Everyone had a hustle or a hand out and the buildings just weren't all that. I told my friend at the end of our trip that the decor on the buildings seemed impressive if you haven't seen the real things. I'm unable to put pictures up from this computer, I'll try and do a post when I go back to Japan.
On our first day we went to Gordon Ramsey's restaurant in our hotel, then walked around a lot. We also bought tickets to see Zumanity, which was my first Cirque de Soleil show. It was a very adult show, but I enjoyed it a lot.
We did some shopping, went on the High Roller Ferris wheel, and just enjoyed ourselves on Sunday. On Monday, we did a helicopter tour to the Grand Canyon and that was amazing. It's really beautiful there and it is so cool to be able to say I rode in a helicopter! In the evening we did a little walking around and went to the Strat's observation tower. We ate a sandwich there and took pictures of the sunset and the cityscape.
On Tuesday, we decided to do the Big Bus Hop-on, Hop-off tour. It was enjoyable. I was able to get a pair of sandals at a mall and my friend got some new clothing. We also visited the historic Fremont Street which I'm afraid that we found rather scuzzy and scary. There were lots of vagrants and shills around, it made us uncomfortable. We did make a long stop at the Mob Museum. That was interesting, but overwhelming. We came back to our hotel and had a fast dinner at the Food Court before going back to the room and packing our bags.
We checked out on Wednesday morning and went for a walk before going to Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen for lunch. The food was really good for me, although my friend wasn't as impressed with her meal. I had the Taster menu, so I had Caesar salad, Beef Wellington and then Sticky Toffee Pudding. It was all rather lovely. My friend had the same starter and dessert, but chose a burger for her main course. She didn't like her burger very much.
We went over to watch the Bellagio Fountain one last time before we left and then we got our bags and took a cab to the airport. We had received a message that our plane would be late, but we were worried in case we got caught in a big line at security or something. Honestly, we both had no troubles with security and were over at our gate before we knew it. We stayed there for quite a while! The plane was about 3 hours late, sad to say. We sat, we charged our phones, and we went for walks and dinner. We finally boarded around 10 pm and got back to the Edmonton Airport around 2 in the morning.
My friend dropped me off at my sister's and then she continued on her way. I went to sleep around 4 am.
I got up to stay around 10 am this morning, had a nice late breakfast and just a quiet day. I did some laundry, chatted with my sister and made arrangements to meet up with a friend tomorrow. I have to go out quite early in the morning so I don't have much time to dawdle in the morning. This will be one of my last chances to do some shopping so I hope I am able to find things that I want!
Come back later and I'll try to fill you in on my Friday. Until tomorrow....
3 comments:
No gambling? Lol. Vegas is the land of the fake, but you can still see some strange and interesting things there. I liked to watch the gamblers (since I don't gamble). Seeing someone lose thousands of dollars in a few minutes never gets old. ("A fool and his money..." etc--and nowhere else does it happen as fast as it does in Vegas!)
Unfortunately, everywhere in the U.S. where the weather is fairly temperate/hot is filled with vagrants, beggars, and homeless people. It's really terrible because you can't really go anywhere without people holding up signs or asking you for money. I was shocked by how big the problem has become since returning to the U.S. (nearly 8 years ago now - the time has flown). It's a sign of the decay in the culture and political situation that this is happening in one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
I don't blame you for not liking Las Vegas (I don't like eve the idea of it) or being as uncomfortable as you were in certain areas.
Thanks for your comments ladies!
There didn't seem to be too many people gambling. A few people were playing slot machines, but I didn't see many people really gambling the way I think of gambling!
And I think when the weather is better in Canada we have vagrants and panhandlers too. It is a problem everywhere. Sigh.
Thanks again....
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