las vegas strip

The spectacular water display at Bellagio
One of the few remaining old style lights of Vegas


The Hotel where we stayed.

Thursday 6th

Today we decided to sleep in a bit, when we got up we went to McDonald's for breakfast as it was nice and close. After that we decided to go "Croc" (shoe) shopping. We found the shops but they were only Kiosk outlets and the workers didn't have a clue what they were selling, so we wasted a lot of time on nothing as they didn't have the product i was looking for. After that we decided to walk the strip again and have a peek in the casinos that we missed the other day, we are also collecting dice for Peta in Cairns so it was a good excuse to go into all of them. During the walk down the Strip we went to M&M world and Coke World, these places were amazing, I never would have though that M&M's could have enough merchandise to cover 4 floors but they do. When we arrived at "New York, New York" we decided to ride the Casino's roller coaster. The price was a bit Exxy at $14.00US a ride but it was worth it, it is one of the longest roller coasters I have been on so one ride was enough. We also waited for the Bellagio water display for 40 minutes before we realised they were doing maintenance on it. We also visited Mandalay, Excalibur and Luxor.
Later that night we decided to go back to the strip to take some photo's of the lights of the casino's and look at the Bellagio water display, firstly the Casino lights are not what I expected, a lot of the older Casino's from the 50's and 60's with the fancy lighting displays are being replaced buy new super casino's with fancy facades and super screens to display there messages on, sure it may be more efficient but doesn't have the wow factor that Vegas is famous for.

One Casino making up for it is the Bellagio, during the night they have a spectacular water display, it is hard to describe but it is water shooting in the air done to the tune of a famous song, think of it as "Skyshow" with water, we stayed an watched 3, yes we wasted more time on a water display but it was worth it especially when it is backed to an Elvis song. Viva Las Vegas.

hoover dam

Night lights of Las Vegas
Red Rock Canyon

Red Rock Canyon

Hoover Dam

Bronte at Hoover Dam

Wednesday 5th March. Today we headed off about 50ks to the Hoover Dam. Damn!!, pardon the pun, the dam is huge, it's 660 feet thick at the bottom, 48 feet thick at the top and the concrete weighs 6.6 million tonnes. There is enough concrete in the dam wall to make a foot path 4 feet wide and 3 inches thick all the way around the equator. Now that's a lot of concrete. It's almost to hard to believe until you see it in real life. Did a tour that takes you to the turbines in the base of the wall that generates the electricity. After that we went to the Red Rock Canyon, which was about 70 ks from the dam across the other side of Las Vegas. The scenery was fantastic as we completed a 13 mile scenic drive around the bottom of the Canyon. Tomorrow I think we are going to head to the Grand Canyon and do the glass viewing platform. Not sure yet, will see how we feel when we get up. The Grand Canyon is a couple of hundred of kilometres away. Given the price of petrol here that does not matter, it's only about $3 a gallon.

After dinner we went for another drive to higher ground to look at the lights of Las Vegas. Found a good place about 30 ks away. It was good just to stop and look. We managed to take a couple of photos that turned out OK. I have posted one of the photos.

las vegas

Entrance to Las Vegas strip
Paris on the strip

New York on the strip

Inside the Venetian

Tuesday 4th March. Got up today and checked out of the motel. Decided to head to Maccas for breakie then set off for Las Vegas. Found the strip and chucked a lap in the car just having a bit of a look around. As we drove past the Sahara the big illuminated sign out the front had rooms for $45 a night. Managed to get the price for the next three days. Once unloaded and checked in we headed into the strip and walked into a lot of the major casinos from MGM back towards the Sahara. I think we managed to walk about 20 ks in total. We went into the Venetian, Paris, Ballys, Bellagio, Caesars, New York and many others. We paid to go to the top of the Eiffel tower which gave a good view of the entire Las Vegas. Did not realise Las Vegas has 1.8 million people living here at the moment. I knew it was big and busy but not quite that large. Still have to check out Luxor and a couple of others that look cool. Went for a drive around the city last night and checked out some car dealerships. Saw the new Mini Clubman and the sedan version of the new wrx. It's hard to believe how much cheaper cars are here. A new Mini at home costs around $49k on the road and here it is only $29kUSD but given the exchange rate that still makes it $32K in Aussie dollars. Subaru and BMW was much the same savings. Damn the Aussie tax on cars, might have to shift to America to live and buy a really nice car!!!

universal studios and travelling to Las Vegas

Whiskey Pete at Primm Valley
Calico ghost town

Hollywood sign no fog!!

Monday 3rd March. Today we packed up and went to see the Hollywood sign before leaving. Success, there was no fog and we had a great view of the sign. We even managed to drive through the winding streets towards the sign and got the closest look at it that you ever could. Basically it was the point where signs stated if you went any closer you would be arrested. I don't think many people would have driven as close as we did. We then decided to drive to Beverly Hills and do a lap of Rodeo Drive. We didn't bother getting out of the car to go shopping as most of the shops were out of our league. We then headed for Phoenix Arizona and decided to stop at a place called Calico, which is a ghost town on the way. Little did we know there are two places in California called Calico and we were heading to the wrong one. By the time we realised we were 200ks out of LA in the wrong direction. We turned around and headed for Las Vegas instead of Phoenix as we were no where near there whatsoever. Because of the time wasted we only made it to Primm Valley which is about 90 ks from Las Vegas. Stayed the night at Whiskey Petes which is a casino, the room only cost $35 for the night. Had dinner at the restaurant down stairs and then went to bed. By the way on the way to Las Vegas we did find the real Calico, but it was about 4 hours later in the day than we expected. The ghost town was really good as we did stop for a quick look.

Universal Studios

Richie on the motor bike from T2

Jurassic Park ride

Sunday 2nd March. Today we went to Universal Studios to see how films were made. We caught the metro underground to the universal stop and then had a short walk up a steep hill to the entrance. We entered the park and decided to do the universal tour first thing. We got on the train carriage thing and spent 45 minutes being driven around the back lots of the production. Got to see props and cars from movies from over the past few years. The Wisteria Lane (Desperate house wife's) set was closed as they were getting ready for filming the new season. The one prop on the tour that was really good was the 747 crash site from War of the Worlds movie. They have a real 747 that they have pulled apart and placed over this area of crashed cars, smashed houses and caos. If you have seen the movie you would know the scene. We then went on the rides starting with Jurassic Park which is a river ride where you do a giant drop at the end and every one gets wet. The second ride was The Mummy, which is a roller coaster in the dark. Both these rides were lots of fun and we rode them each several times. There was a lot of other things to see and do and I think we managed to fit in all of them. The day was very enjoyable and we had a great time. We left the park at around 5.30 p.m. and caught the metro back to the motel.

hollywood

The Hollywood sign in fog!
Lassie's star on the walk of fame.

Foot and hand prints of Arnie.

A Baywatch lookout.

Venice Beach.

Saturday morning and we are up early again, this time to go see the "HOLLYWOOD" sign. After travelling for about 20 minutes we located the closest possible location to see the sign. You can not actually get near the sign as it has a fence and security around it. We had a great location but the fog was almost covering the sign, the fog stayed all day just to piss us off. We tried to get closer but because of the fire last year we were unable to. We went back to the motel and left the car behind. As we are staying on Hollywood Boulevard we walked toward Hollywood and the walk of fame. Oh my god the walk of fame is more a hike! It went on for ages and ages, way to many stars on the ground. Had a look around at Kodak Theatre and the hand and foot prints of the stars in front of the Chinese Theatre. There are so many Souvenir shops in Hollywood it's not funny. We made our way back to the motel and then went for a drive.

We decided to drive to Venice Beach. No people in g-strings or speedos as the weather was a bit cold. We did find the Muscle Beach section but there was only a couple of normal people using it and no muscle Mary's. It was just like you see on TV and the beach was actually the location of Baywatch. On a hot day there would be an amazing amount of people on the beach, as it was cold (14degrees) I expected no one to be there, but there was a lot of people all tourists like us.

Last night we booked tickets to Universal Studios on-line and we saved about $35 each ticket than the gate price. So Sunday we are off to see how the movies are made.

the car, road trip to LA

Our PT Cruiser
Walrus on the beach
The coastal view

Well today is Friday and were meant to be picking up our Pontiac G6 at 10.00 a.m. We had breakie nice and early and then went to get the car. When we arrived it turned out our car was going to be a Chrysler PT Cruiser. Bit of a bummer as we were looking forward to the Pontiac. Anyway on the road and heading out of San Francisco, Bronte driving on the wrong side of the road in the wrong side of the car. I think it felt just as bad being passenger! It took us 9 hours to get to Hollywood and to our hotel. It was only 600 ks but it took forever, was a bit like the great ocean road back home. Was a very misty and foggy day, alot of the way we could not even see the sea even though we were right next to it. Along the way we stopped at a place where there was hundreds of walrus on the beach. There were lots of others stopped on the way looking at them just laying on the beach. We arrived at our hotel, checked in and had Quiznos subs for dinner. Not sure if we are going to Universal Studios tomorrow or looking around Hollywood. Will work it out tomorrow morning.

castro

Granite pylons in the Pink Triangle Park.
The Pink stones on the ground hence the name.

Today we got out of bed and went for a walk around San Francisco. We found the tourist info station and went in for a look. Bronte was not feeling good so he went back to the room as he had a bad cold. I decided to catch the street car back to the Castro. I got a coffe a Starbucks and just did some window shopping. I had a look at the pink triangle park and then went back to see Bronte. Bronte was still sleeping so I went back out again. I now decided to go to a Japenese bath house and have a steam bath and massage. It was fantastic and I got home about 3 hours later all relaxed. Tomorrow we pick up our car and head to LA.