Day 3 - Las Vegas

I'm not much of a city girl, but still I'd looked forward to visiting the Las Vegas strip. It would be nice to mix up our heavy traveling days with a day of sightseeing in the city. I don't regret planning our vacation this way. We got to see a lot of the major attractions and do a little gambling in the process, but it was a bit of a let down. Let me start from the beginning.

It's 7am when we get up and we drive to the Luxor for breakfast. As expected it's overcast and cold outside. By the time we finish with our breakfast it has started drizzling. Luxor's Egyptian theme:

Then we head to the castle of Excalibur. I like the medieval castle idea, but it looks rather tacky.

We have to walk across a walkway to get to the other side of the street. Traffic on Las Vegas Blvd's six lanes of traffic is crazy! Hotel New York, New York across the street.

Complete with miniature Statue of Liberty.

Next we go to the MGM with its imposing lion out front

I'm looking forward to visiting the lion enclosure, but they are not out yet. We decide to take the metro rail to Mandalay Bay and then go back. I can't remember why we decided to do that, but it helped us pass the time. When we get back the lions have just come out.

They're in a large class enclosure, with an all glass walkway that leads through it. You can stand underneath a big glass platform and watch the lions from below. We've never been this close to a lion before and they're so much bigger in person than they look at the zoo.

We're lucky enough to be there around the feeding time; the handlers jump into their enclosure with big sticks of minced meat. They stick the meat on the walls of the glass enclosure so you can see them lick it off the glass. Really cute!

The rain continues to fall and we try to stay dry by walking through the casinos rather than through the rain. The first few times the noise and the lights were really overwhelming, but after a while you become kind of numb to it.

We pick up the car and decide to see if our room at the Palazzo is ready. The Palazzo is one of the world's five star hotels and everything is done with high end finishes. The lobby:

Somehow we end up on the 40th floor! We can't wait to see the view from this high, but the roman blinds are closed and we can't find the cord to raise them with anywhere. It turns out there's a remote (yes, really!) to open them and after struggling with it a bit the blinds slowly go up to reveal ... absolutely nothing! We're so high up that we've somehow wound up inside a big cloud.

A quick impression of our new digs

After enjoying our luxurious new surroundings for a while and posting yesterday's blog, we head back out and visit the Palazzo's sister property; the Venetian.

The Venetian is famous for its gondola rides through its fake canal, but they're all docked because of the rain. Luckily they're still doing them inside:

The ceiling in the shopping center is painted with replicas of famous old Italian paintings.

The Mirage used to host Siegfried & Roy and their siberian tigers, until a tragic accident permanently cancelled the show. The tigers still live at the hotel. We walked all the way to the back of the casino, only to find that their habitat was closed because of the weather. Stupid rain!

Our next stop, Caesar’s Palace, is a similar hotel. It's modeled after ancient Rome, complete with famous statues like the Trevi fountain

More statues by the main entrance

Sandy has been looking forward to visiting the Flamingo hotel because of its penguin exhibit, but after roaming the wildlife habitat for a while we realize that the penguins are nowhere to be found. They did have some other cute birds though:

Interesting side note: the Flamingo is one of the oldest hotels on the Strip and my grandma stayed here when she visited Las Vegas many years ago. This one is for you grandma:

The fountains at Bellagio are our next stop. It takes us a few tries to get out timing right, but finally we get to watch the powerful fountains dance to the music. It's unbelievable how high they shoot the water

It's starting to get dark (and cold) out and it's been more than 10 hours since we last ate so we decide to head over to the Wynn for dinner. It starts raining again and our feet hurt from walking up and down the Strip all day so we decide to take the Monorail. We walk all the way to the back of Bally's to catch the tram, only to realize that it doesn't stop near the Wynn so we walk all the way back to the strip. The light drizzle from earlier has now changed into a proper storm and soon we're both dripping wet.

The Wynn is a 5 star hotel also and it's decorated very nicely for the Chinese New Year:

Even the casino has a touch of class

The Lake of Dreams turns out to be an outdoor show and has been cancelled due to inclement weather. No kidding! We head over to the buffet area instead, but it's very expensive and we're not really in the mood for fancy food.

Treasure Island across the street from our hotel isn't as fancy and we decide to try our luck there. The restaurant doesn't look anywhere near as nice as the Rio, but the food is amazing! I can't believe we drove all the way to the Rio to have mediocre food when we could've had a fabulous meal right on the Strip.

We start our meal at the pasta-made-to-order station. Sandy has a gnocchi pomodoro with mushrooms and I have fettuccini pesto with shrimp. I only wanted a little bit, but the cook makes me a huge portion and it is so good that somehow I finish it all. Next we try the sushi -- fabulous also! Then I head for the dessert table and gorge myself on unhealthy stuff; fruit tarts, chocolate covered strawberries, cotton candy, and a bit of cheese cake.

Treasure Island's main attraction, the Sirens of TI, is also cancelled because of the weather and we decide to head back to the Palazzo and have an early night in. The hotel by night

We stop by the casino first, because it would be insane to visit Vegas and not gamble at all. We find a penny slot machine and settle down for a game of triple sevens. In a nutshell; you pull the handle and hope that three of the same pictures line up.

Somehow it takes up thirty minutes to gamble away our 1 dollar. I don't get the attraction at all ... it's soooo boring! Roulette and spin the wheel are equally stupid; there's no skill involved, just dumb luck. We end our day by spending some time watching people play black jack. I watch as a man loses $500 in less than a minute. I'm in shock; he, on the other hand, doesn't seem to care at all.

On our way back to the room we pass by this Chinese new year tiger

We're back in our room relaxing in our hotel issued bathrobes when out of nowhere an earsplitting siren blares through our suite. We scramble around the room trying to locate the source of the sound. "This is part of our early alert system, please wait while we investigate the source of this alarm" a voice comes over the speaker. Then the alarm starts again. And again. And again. It just won't stop! I can feel my heart hammering in my chest. What if we need to evacuate? It's a long way down from the 40th floor! We hurry back into our clothes only to find out that it was a false alarm. Phew!

Well, despite the rain it's been a nice day, but I'll be glad to hit the road again tomorrow. Hopefully the weather will clear up some overnight.

Goodnight!

Day 2 - Death Valley to Las Vegas

We're off to an early start today! Sunrise at Zabriskie's Point is supposed to be fabulous so we're on the road by 6:20am. We make it there just in time ... to see the sun hiding behind the clouds. Still, the gentle slopes of Zabriskie are a sight to behold:

We return to the hotel for the elaborate breakfast buffet and eat as much as we can. It's going to be a long day and who knows when we'll be able to eat again. After breakfast we check out the general store next door and pick up some souvenirs, then on to the Borax museum. Death Valley was once a mining site for borax. These are a few of the old coaches.

After checking out we decide to head over to the Devil's Golf Course. The road there is closed because of recent flooding, but we're not easily deterred. "Hey, that's not bad!" I said. Well, let's just say that it's hard to tell distances here. After a while we can't even see where we parked the car anymore, but the view is incredible:

A close up of the sharp salt deposits the area was named after:

Even the mud cracks here have salt on them:

A short distance down the road is the lowest point in the entire northern hemisphere. It's named Badwater Basin after a pioneer said it was "bad water" because his donkey refused to drink from the salty water.

There's a small amount of water at the basin all year round. It's home to a rare species of snails, but we didn't see any.

The way back leads us past Artist Drive, a one way canyon that winds through a series of bizarre colored mountains.

The most famous part of the canyon is a viewing area called Artist's Palette. The mountains there are a mix of mint green, rose pink and other strange colors.

Another green mountain on the way out:

The weather at this point is starting to become more ominous and the wind is howling around the car. A sign next to the road warns against dust storms like this one:

In the shelter of the canyon it's still very pleasant and we decide to take a short walk into Golden Canyon. It's considered an easy hike with its mostly flat terrain and we walk on and on without realizing how far we've gone. Sandy poses in a hollow in the rock wall:

I do the same:

There's supposed to be a spectacular formation of red rocks past the end of the trail and once we figure out that we've already almost completed the trail it makes sense to just keep on going. It's called Red Rock Cathedral and the rocks are arranged in vertical bands, somewhat like an organ. I took a few pictures of it, but as it turns out there was something even better at the end of the trail.

It's not listed on the trail map, probably because it's a very steep climb (going downhill was not easy), but the view back towards the salt flats was incredible. You can tell how high up on the mountain I was by looking at Sandy; she's right in the middle towards the bottom of the picture. The picture really does not do this place justice. The way the little bit of sunlight reflected off the salt was unreal!

Another nice view on the way back to the car:

And a picture of desert holly about to bloom. You see them everywhere.

We say goodbye to Death Valley and drive to Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. It's starting to rain now and we're glad to be out of the narrow canyons of Death Valley. Not a good place to be during a rain storm!

A sea of grey and brown stretches out in every direction.

The refuge is built around a series of springs that contain a species of fish found only in Death Valley and Ash Meadows; the pupfish. In spring the males are a striking royal blue and we're lucky enough to see them. They're tiny little things so it was hard to get a good picture of them, but here's a view of one of the springs with its green/blue water:

Cute bridge over one of the streams:

Even if you can't see the water you can easily tell where it runs.

We try to hit Red Rock Canyon on our way back to Vegas, but it's almost completely dark by the time we get there and we decide to go straight to Fremont Street. It's just like any old street in Vegas; bright lights, casinos with scantily clad servers, tacky souvenir shops ... except for one thing; the Fremont Street Experience. Every hour they play a short presentation on the cover that spans the street. Here's a snapshot from the one we watched:

Our next stop is the Rio. Sandy has fond memories of their dinner buffet and after struggling with directions and having to wind our way through a seemingly endless array of slots and roulette tables we sit down to eat. The buffet stretches out from one end of the restaurant to the other ... even for American stands this is unreal! It takes me a good 10 minutes before I've made my way around all the stations. The food wasn't as good as Sandy remembered, but the experience alone was worth it. FYI: the mango ice cream is delicious!

At this point we're both starting to feel pretty tired and we decide to drive down the strip to get to our hotel. It's stop and go traffic, but that's okay; it's nice to have time to look around at all the glittering lights. Here's a quick picture I snapped at a traffic light; hotel Paris with its fake Eiffel Tower:

Our hotel for tonight is a couple of miles off the Strip, but our room (should I say apartment?) is really nice. We got a free update so now we're in a suite with a living room with built-in fireplace, a kitchen with gas cook top and to top it all off a lavish bathroom with a jacuzzi. I'll try to snap some pictures of it tomorrow morning.

Total mileage for today: 207 miles

PS. I'm posting this message from my "office" at the Palazzo. The life of luxury definitely agrees with me!

Day 1 - Las Vegas to Death Valley

The first hotel I recognize is the pyramid of Luxor, with the sphinx in front. I had no idea how much I've been looking forward to this vacation until that moment. Everything I've been reading about for the past weeks is suddenly here! We see the Stratosphere, then Excalibur, then another and another. Soon we're so busy pointing out hotels to each other that we barely even notice the plane touching down.

At the rental center we get a free upgrade to a mid-size SUV, but our excitement is short-lived when we realize the car is overdue for an oil change. Somehow the second car turns out to have the same problem! After switching a second time we end up with a monstrous Jeep Patriot. It's pretty nice, but switching cars took up quite a bit of time so we waste no time getting on the road.

After a quick stop at Walmart for a much needed lunch we leave the bustle of Vegas for the endless desert. There are no rolling sand dunes here, only miles of dirt and rocks dotted with sparse vegetation. Joshua tree:

It's when we pass through the small town of Beatty that we run into this strange contraption; a surfing sail rigged onto a bicycle. Only in America!

We reach Rhyolite in the early afternoon. Its short history started in 1904 when gold was discovered. Within 5 years the population reached 10.000, but by then the mines were beginning to fail. When gold is discovered to the north two short years later the population is down to 675. By 1920 only 20 people called Rhyolite home.

The old general store.

The bottle house.

A beat up old car sits behind the general store.

The bank too has seen better days:





















After a quick drive through town, we decide to head for Death Valley and find that it's not what either of us had expected. Somehow driving through snowcapped mountain ranges doesn't jive with what's known as the hottest place on earth. It is however unbelievable beautiful and more diverse than any national park I have seen so far.

White salt flats in the distance.

We stop at the information desk (closed) and it's then that I realize I can't hear anything. No identifiable sounds, but more importantly, no background noise. I don't think I've ever heard "nothing" before. What a special feeling!

JC at the information center.

After a short detour, looking for something we weren't able to find, we decide to head towards the village of Stovepipe Wells. First two pictures I took from the car;

I love the layers of all the different colors!

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Not long after turning down the road to Stovepipe Wells, we come across the Devil's Corn field. Wow! The ground is white and spiked, but when I touch it it's soft and the white top layer crumbles to reveal brown dirt underneath. I think the white top layer might be distilled salt?

A short distance further down the road, the scenery changes again and this time we see golden dunes that look like a scene from the Sahara desert.

Now that's the kind of desert I've always dreamed of!

Up close it turns out there's quite a few plants on the lower part of the dunes and in the valley. I run from dune to dune convinced that if I just keep going I am going to find a shot without plants in it. Sandy wisely decides to stay behind and wait for me.

It's 40, maybe 50 degrees at the most and yet it's easy to see why heat stroke is a serious problem in the summer. The air is dry and it's tough going up and down the shifting sands. When I get back I'm absolutely knackered.



I never found any dune views completely without vegetation, but I saw several mud cracks like this one.

The sun is starting to set and we decide against driving to Zabriskie's Point for the sunset. It's cloudy, plus we're not sure if we'd make it there in time. Instead we get to watch as it turns the surrounding mountains a soft red.

We make it to the hotel shortly after 6 o'clock and head to the cozy 49ers restaurant for dinner. Sandy decides on a gyro sandwich and I order a mesquite grilled chicken salad. Yum!

It's barely 40 degrees by the time we finish eating. The desert gets very cold at night, but that doesn't deter me from taking a quick dip in the hotel's spring fed pool. The warm springs keep the pool water around a comfortable 80 degrees year round, although the cold night air is chilling to any part that is not underwater. Sandy burrows into the warm comfort of her winter coat to watch me swim.

Time for me to get some sleep. We've decided to make the most of the short winter day light hours while we're here and that means getting up before sunrise tomorrow. No free internet here, so you I will post this from the visitor center tomorrow.

Goodnight everyone!

Total mileage day 1: 216