Monday 15th November - Las Vegas
Suddenly being in Vegas has changed our routine from one of daytime fun to one of night time action. This has got to be the ultimate party town with most of the entertainment taking place after dark. We found ourselves a library (yes they do have them here!) and parked up there for the afternoon. Almost dark as we were leaving we headed back to the 'Strip' to find a home for the night. The first motel/casino was grimy and entailed a ridiculous walk through a 'gambling zone' just to get to the front desk! We settled for the Travelodge right in the heart of the Southern part of the Strip (it is 6 miles long) for a the stupidly cheap price of 23 pounds. Outside our room we can see the lights of the Eiffel Tower of Paris and the Harley Davidson cafe whilst New York, New York is around the corner. The Ben Elton Queen based musical was playing in the Paris part of town so we bought ourselves a couple of tickets to see it this evening. A quick visit to the surreal and incredibly detailed New York, New York later and we were in our seats. The show was really excellent with a distinct Las Vegas feel in the dialogue and setting - rescuing Rock 'n' Roll from the clutches of a 'Pop Idol' induced future was the storyline - Sue had seen it in London twice (!) couple of years ago but this was a more 'jazzed-up' version - typical Las Vegas with explosions and scantily clad women. After the show we found ourselves in a nearby club watching 4 soul singers belt out tunes of yesteryear - we noticed Liberace's wife in attendace too! It was all over too soon and we were soon in Aladdin's with some Japanese people doing the quickstep to old disco hits - we took our cocktail drink (and lamp) with us down the street - this kind of activity seems to be actively encouraged around here! We heard the Desert Inn Hotel (where Elvis played his first ever Vegas gig - fact!) be imploded at 2.30am on the way home and watched it all on TV 5 minutes later when we got in!
Tuesday 16th November - Las Vegas
We walked past Elvis and policemen on bicycles (the traffic's terrible in the city centre !) on our way to Excalibur Hotel this morning. This hotel has a theme of the middle ages with a suitable castle, dragons and knights in shining armour. As usual we were wandering about the massive casino trying to find our way out - they don't bother with 'exit' signs it seems! Next stop was Luxor with it's pyramid-shaped hotel and Egyptian theme - it has a diagonally directioned elevator called an 'inclinator' - the best effort since Willie Wonka's 'wonkavator'! We posed briefly for Cleopatra and Marc Anthony photos of ourselves which we didn't buy before deciding we wanted to see Elvis in concert. A bus pick-up later and the man appeared from behind a tacky gold curtain. Dressed in 70's gear the show was small but good though old Elvis did get a bit emotional towards the end telling us why he liked certain songs. Elvis-a-Rama museum had all the usual paraphernalia you would expect to see associated with 'the King' - records, cars, fried peanut-butter sandwiches (well, maybe not the last one!)... We walked to the Venetian hotel with it's upstairs recreation of Venice complete with water-filled canals, gondolas and huge overhead classical painting replicas. We finished our night at an 'erotic/exotic celebration of vampires' set to music at a club at the Stratosphere Hotel. The truth was that it was people wearing fangs, wearing little and dancing to rock music with some acrobatics, rope climbing and magic thrown into the mix.
Wednesday 17th November - Las Vegas
One more lazy morning for us especially after a few drinks we had last night. The Tropicana Hotel had a free show at 1pm in their casino which was partly high-wire and partly balancing act. We re-visited Venice again just to see it was for real and next up was Caesar's Palace with it's Colluseum and Romanesque recreations not to mention it's huge shopping zone. Treasure Island Hotel had an early evening pirates show complete with huge ship, firing canons and fiery explosions. The Mandalay has it's own 'beach' whilst The Mirage Hotel had a nature feel to it with huge fresh flower displays, waterfalls galore, gigantic fish tanks and a regular evening 'volcano' display. We've pretty much seen most of the main sights here now and are tiring of the seemingly endless walks just to get out of a casino! In 3 days here we've bet the grand total of $1 ! We did plan to go to some early morning 'gambling lessons' but never quite got round to doing it. If there's anywhere else like it on earth we'd like to go and see it! Saying that 3 days/4 nights here has been just enough, great as it has been.
Thursday 18th November - Las Vegas - Los Angeles via Mojave and Joshua Tree
Another belter of a day (it's been shorts and t-shirts by day and shirt sleeves at night weather) as we left it all behind. We didn't leave all the casinos behind just yet though - Primm the last Nevada outpost before California had casinos and even it's own around town rollercoaster. Soon off the main highway we were on the backroads through Mojave National Preserve withh it's rocky barren landscape, sand dunes and even joshua trees. Each town, marked on the map, we came to had become a ghost town in the truest sense with only car shells and abandoned huts to remind us a community once lived there. We hadn't counted on this and thus there were no roadside cafes so we made do with 'cheese Danish pastries' from our motel which in fact tasted like custard! We decided to quickly drive through the Joshua Tree National Park and head straight to LA. The drive was worth it though with mile after mile of the trees supplemented with some amazingly chiselled rocks giving the landscape an etheral haunting quality - all that was missing was some U2 music! We were soon negotiating our way around the web of 'freeways' that link the sprawling suburbs of Los Angeles. We found a place to stay in the Anaheim region which is only a few minutes from Disneyland which we visit tomorrow!
Friday 19th November - Disneyland
A drive of about 20 minutes took us to Disneyland Theme Park. Once there a quick train journey from the car park took us to the gates and we were in. First stop for us was Thunder Mountain 'railroad' with it's excellent rollercoaster. We liked it so much we went straight back for another go. The day was warm and the park was filling up with people - today was the first day of the Disney Christmas parade for this season so probably another reason for the big crowd. After a stop for the Star Tours space simulator it was a 3D movie (Honey I Shrunk the Audience!) and very good it was too! A boat trip through 'the Jungle' and a journey through 'Haunted Mansion' told us we were probably a bit old for some parts of this place, good as they were. Next up was the river run of Splash Mountain - this proved to be memorable with in particular a vertical drop over a waterfall leaving most people screaming. As we looked for lunch we came accross the only McDonalds on earth to serve only fries and drinks! Unfortunately for us there were 3 or 4 rides we were keen on that were closed either for no reason or 'for development'. After trying the spinning teacups,watching local music heroes 'Bill and his Hillbillies' and Snow White - The Musical it was back for more of Thunder and Splash Mountains (7 and 3 times each respectively) - we couldn't get enough you could say. To finish the day the Christmas Parade went sauntering past us with all the usual Disney suspects before the curtain was brought town with a late-night fireworks display. A really great day for us but ultimately this place is heaven for kids!
Saturday 20th November - Anaheim, Los Angeles - Hollywood, Los Angeles
Last night we had a telephone call from the woman next door asking us to turn off the TV. We did and next thing she was talking to us through the paper-thin walls asking us to be quiet (we were only talking normal not shouting at each other!) - we suggested she move motel! As we were staying on Beach Boulevard we decided to follow the road to it's end, where we reached a town called Balboa on Newport Beach. The town was a classic west-coast surfer's town with lots of bars and restaurants. We settled for a place called 'Charlie's Chilli' for our brunch before walking down the palm-dotted beach. Next stop was Malibu and to get there we needed the Pan American Coastal Highway. This led us right round the coastal belt of LA past Santa Monica and the airport and we encountered the first roundabout of our travels here and in Canada. Malibu has lots of expensive looking big-gated houses on the hills above and right down to the very sandy beaches. We pulled up at a shopping centre for a cup of tea and to catch up with the news in the papers. We headed back down Sunset Boulevard through even more pricey Beverley Hills until we got to a Hollywood motel. It sounds quite glamorous but there was not much really of note along the way.
Sunday 21st November - Hollywood, Los Angeles
We stuggled to haul ourselves out of bed today with an easy-going schedule ahead of us. It actually rained last night (almost seems strange to us!) and a blustery wind was about as we headed to a great place called Denny's for breakfast/brunch. Though the movie industry moved out of here years ago the tourist industry remains. We saw the obligatory 'Hollywood' sign on the hills in the distance and walked down the (very) long stretch of the Walk of Fame spotting the famous, not so famous (behind the scenes people) and downright weird (Kenny G and Chuck Norris, anybody !?). The Hollywood Museum was good with it's behind the scenes information, Marilyn Monroe section and a trip to the cells where 'Silence of the Lambs' Hannibal Lector hung out whilst filming! Next up was the front of the Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard where anybody who's anybody has placed their hands and footprints over the last 70 years or so. The place itself has a bit of a sleazy factor to it despite the fame with plenty of street bums and downmarket shops and shows.
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