DAY 1
Left Edmonton at crazy am on Feb 15
Drove to the border - was chastised by the border guard for having illicit oranges - oranges were taken away.
HOWEVER, Chris "forgot" 4 oranges in the bottom of the cooler - we are now criminals!
Got to the first gas station in the states, saw some disgusting American snack food. Pink and green sugar-coated puffs of cake with inch-thick icing. Pork rinds (that's deep-fried intestine - ew!) and every form of chip, candy, and chocolate bar available - oh, and they are all 50% bigger than in Canada too.
Got to Idaho just North of Salt Lake City for dinner and then for sleep.
DAY 2
Left Pocatello at crazy am on Feb 16
Drove drove drove
Had brunch at Crackerbarell, Chris' nostalgic road-trip restaurant - here's where the "eating too much" began.
Drove drove drove
Entered Arizona (which was a surprise - didn't know that the I 15 jogged through there)
Freaked out when we were going 130 K's per hour on a twisty skinny very hilly road through mountains in pitch-black night with hunderds of other speeding cars.
Broke throught the mountains then got into Las Vegas - the bright lights could be seen nearly 45 minutes driving away!
Got to hotel, checked in, then walked all through the strip, from our little motel by the Tropicana to Treasure Island.
Looked for buffet for dinner - no real luck. Had to settle on "the Surf Buffet" at the Boardwalk casino - grossest meal ever. The salad bar was mostly okay, but the food had been there for a while, and I was going to grab a piece of corn but realized it was being kept warm in a VAT OF BUTTER. uhg.
Went back to hotel, in the room next to us 12 just-21 kids were having a LOUD drunken party - didn't care, went to bed.
DAY 3
Woken up at 7 am by MORE loud drunken kids who were getting ready to leave. Sigh.
Got up, packed up, checked out.
Went to next hotel, the San Remo and checked in. (because we arived on a Sunday, there's some freaking high room rates on the weekend. Had to stay in a cheapie motel the first night so we wouldn't be broke).
Walked through the Mandalay Bay casino, the Luxor (which was beautiful), and New York New York.
Had a much better brunch buffet at the Luxor. They had cherry tomatoes there - which are deathly expensive in Edmonton. Decided to eat my weight in tomatoes. Went walking all through the strip, saw the fountain in the Belagio, walked through Bally's Paris, easily my favourite casino/hotel, Treasure Island and the MGM Grand.
Went back to hotel, and dressed up for dinner.
Met up for dinner with some of our friends who happened to be in Las Vegas too. Went to the Belagio for the dinner buffet. Holy swanky! King crab, smoked salmon, lab, creme brule - and they consider this the "casual dinning"!
Went up to the little (well, 600 foot) Eiffel tower at the Paris hotel - got a gorgeous view of the night skyline. Also saw the Belagio fountain show from above all lit up. Then, went to New York New York hotel where we had drinks in this piano bar where two grand pianos with two pianist/singers play and sing incredibly well, jear the audience and each other, and can come up with music on the spot - they improvised Bohemian Rasphody. Very impressive.
Feet were in pain, completely worn out from the full day of walking.
DAY 4
Woke up nice and late in our very very quiet hotel room. Did I mention the gorgeous view? I will post pictures on here another time, it was incredible.
Walked to the middle of the strip, visited the Venetian, Ceasars Palace, the Monte Carlo, and some of the smaller hotels along the way.
Had brunch at the quite good Harrah's. Again, ate many cherry tomatoes.
Gambled a bit at a 25 cent roulette table. Lost $10. :(
Walked around some more - bought some lovely lovely hand lotion from Bath and Bodyworks which is a "Basil and citrus" mix, some "cillantro ginger" aromatherapy cream, and a delicious lip balm that is "vanilla sugar".
After going back to the hotel for a break we went to the downtown section of Las Vegas and walked through Freemont Street. It wasn't as nice as the strip, but it was okay. We saw the "Freemont Street Experience" which is basically a light show that's projected on a screen arch that's been put above the street. It was kind of cool. Chris loved it because it was all about classic rock, his kind of music. We went through some of the hotels there, most were much older, but one was kind of neet - the Binion's Horseshoe - it was all made up like an old gambling house.
We had dinner at the Goldent Nugget, it was okay, but not 5 stars like everyone said it was. There was however, "the best bread pudding in the world" there though according to Chris. I gave up my portion so he could have more - I'm so damn nice.
DAY 5
Woke up and went to the far end of the strip, which is were some of the older casinos and stuff were. Saw Circus Circus where I had stayed last time, nearly 20 years ago with my family. Had a $2 pina colada (26 oz!) at http://www.westwardho.com/! - of course that illicited many jokes - grrr. Had lunch at the Imperial Palace - which wasn't terrible, but was in no way oriental at all (??), then Chris and I went off to do two different things. I went to see a Warhol exhibit at the Belagio - they had 50 portraits from throughout his painting career. It was quite astonishing to be so close to some of them - there was no magic line on the floor that beeps, nor were any of the guards really paying attention. Got to see the diamond dust paintings up really really close too which was cool. It was a total surprise that this exhibit was on, so it was a total bonus. Got the catalogue of the show and a Warhol biography DVD too - that was cool. Chris went to see the car museum at the Imperial Palace. They had over 300 cars there, all of them were for sale. They even had a super fancy one of 1.8 MILLION dollars! Eek! We met up again, then went to see the Chinese New Year garden that was put up at the Belagio. Quite fancy - they had real mandarine orange trees growing fruit. Then we saw the fountain show one last time.
We then went to Treasure Island to see the silly Pirate ship battle - Chris really wanted to see it. Other than a few pyrotechnics, it was pretty hoakey, however that's what one could expect.
Bought a few souvenirs and some postcards for the family.
Chris finally went on the big scary rollercoaster at the NY NY hotel - this thing was insane - droping over 12 stories, going 67 miles per hour, and it also has this special move where it tosses you upside down. I stayed with my feet planted firmly on the ground eating a quite yummy pretzel, thank you very much.
Then we went to the one show we got to see - we went to see the Tournament of Kings show at the Excalibur. It was basically like Medieval times in Toronto - jousting, horse riding, battles - it was actually pretty cool. Some cool pyrotechnics there too. The audience participation part was a little silly - but with a beer-stein full of strawberry daquiri I was into it. There was a little cornish hen, some brocoly, tomato soup, and potato wedges for our "feast" which we had to eat with out utensils - quite messy but fun. We had a good time there.
After, we went to the Stratosphere which is the big CN Tower-like, uh, tower, at the end of the strip. We went up all 1100 feet to the top of the tower, then went out to the observation deck - OUTSIDE. It was freaking high. Then Chris went on the little rollercoaster which is another 60 feet up and goes around OUTSIDE. I wonder how right he is in the head sometimes :) Anyhow, the view was gorgeous, and I managed to enjoy myself while still holding on for dear life to the inside fence the whole time.
After coming back down to where gravity wants me, we went over to the Sahara Sands to gamble a bit. Chris spent some time at the blackjack table, and I mosied around with some quarters. I won back kmy $10 roulette money and most of the miscellaneous dollars I put into the penny slot machines and the novelty HUGE slot machines. I was happy with my near-break-even, and so stopped. Chris lost the whole $30 he put down, but had a great time playing.
We got back to the hotel, started packing up, and went to sleep.
DAY 6
Next morning we woke up nice and early, got all our stuff checked out then went out to breakfast at the Tropicana, the guy who served us there was really nice - the best service we got the whole trip was actually at the Tropicana and the Luxor. We then wandered to the Gambling Hall of Fame museum where lots of old Las Vegas memorabilia was displayed, some old show and famous people pictures, and some videotape of old casinos being imploded - those were pretty cool. It was a nice way to cap off the trip.
We then got in the car and went to Boulevard Mall so I could go shop at Hot Topic. It was fantastic! I was so overwhelmed at first I wasn't shopping properly. In the states, the Large sizes were perfect for me, so I was doubly happy! I got three pairs of undies (wonderwoman, one with red and silver flames, and a pink pair that says "boys are stupid, throw rocks at them") and some shirts (a little green and white t-shirt with Fraggle Rock characters on it, a pink one with a black screened skull profiled on it, and a long-sleeved black shirt with white dress cuffs and collar with a tiny embroidered silver skull on it) Very cute. Also got my brother his birthday gift (the Kermit Weezer t-shirt, and a Weezer pin), and two other buttons - one that say "Gonzo for president" for Chris, and I got one with Good Luck Bear (carebears) on it. Totally fantastic shopping experience.
We then took off and headed back north.
We stopped for the night at Provo, Utah where we had dinner in a little truck stop - this place "The Gardent of Eatin'" was serviced by 4 generations of the same family - Grandpa was in the kitchen, Moma had a day off, Daughter and Sister were on shift, with Sisters' boyfriend (her friend's ex-boyfriend???) hanging out, and Daughter's daughter at home with another friend - now, Daughter's daughter was not the girl of Daughter's current boyfriend, despite looking like him, no, he has only fathered her other child, the Daughter's daughter is someone else's kid. Confusing and scary.
We went to sleep in a cute lodge-y motel in the NEXT town.
DAY 7
Got back on the road and headed north some more.
Went to breakfast at an International House of Pancakes - very good, but they don't have real mapple syrup. Drove some more, then slept in Helena, Montana which was a really lovely little college town. We had dinner in a nice steakhouse - where I started having normal sized meals again.
DAY 8
Got all the way back to Edmonton, no problem with the border guards. Had lunch at Applebees - okay, so that meal wasn't exactly normal sized. I ran out of time on the liscence plate game I was playing the whole trip - I was missing like 8 states, those little ones on the East coast, plus Arkansa and Kansas. I actually got Hawaii and Alaska - those were totally awesome. The best place for liscene plates was the Crackerbarell on the second day :) Got into Edmonton around 7 pm, had Swiss chalet for dinner and collapsed.
Fantastic trip!
posted by traxis @ 4:11 p.m.
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