Las Vegas
Trip Start
Sep 01, 2004
1
9
17
Trip End
Sep 17, 2004
Las Vegas,
Nevada,
United States
Wednesday, September 8, 2004
This was a great feeling driving through this journey. I had always imagined what it would be like to drive through Nevada from all the films that we have seen on TV. Although it was itensely hot, we had the roof down and were bombing down the I-15 with Bon Jovi blasting out from the sound system. And all this with not another car in sight. It was one of those moments where you can look forward or in the rear view mirror and a straight road and just see empty tarmac - awesome. Also, didn't see one Police Car on this run, I wasn't hammering the speed or anything, but I was expecting to see one hiding somewhere along this route.
This was were the afore mentioned cool box came in again. Because it was so hot we had loaded the box with cold water bottles and my word we needed them
Bedroom in the Venetian
. We had to eventually put the roof back up and hit the air con just to get some rest from the heat. But do not worry, the roof was down again as we turned onto Las Vegas Boulevard.It's quite funny really because you can see Vegas from miles away as it is just an oasis in the middle of.....well, nothing really. Once we first clapped eyes on it we were dead excited, but then it seemed to take ages to actually get there.
We got to the Venetian Hotel at around midday and could check in straight away. The journey had taken about 5 hours with the stop off at Zion. We were on the 11th floor which had a view over the courtyard of the Venetian. The place is like a maze. The pool is on the roof top and you have to come down one elevator and then back up another to get to our room. This could easily be mis-calculated as Lorna found out to her cost. She ended up coming back from the pool in just her bikini and towel and ended up having to walk right through the middle of the casino floor past all the blackjack players etc. Very embarassing moment for her, but hilarious for the rest of us!!
The suite that we stopped in was immense. We had opted for just the standard room but this was like a Presidential Suite compared to other hotels around the world
View from bedroom
. We had a seperate sitting area on a lower level and a lovely big bed. However, remember, the odds are that you wont actually be spending much time n the room so don't overspend on this as these standard rooms are by far adequate enough.We decided to go for a walk around the hotel and grab some lunch. It was amazing to see a canal running through the hotel.....ON THE 2nd FLOOR!! It is just so hard to try and explain unless you see it for yourself. There was also a replica of St Marks square in the middle as well and Gondola's floating down the canal - amazing.
We had lunch at a little cafe inside the hotel called LA Kitchen. Lorna had a pizza slice and I had a calzone roll, with a drink for $11. Not bad for a posh place. We then decided to go for a walk out on the strip. We had to keep jumping into casinos just for the air-con it was so hot outside.
We finally made it to Hard Rock Cafe which is actually a couple of streets back off the strip. We had a Bud Light & a Smirnoff Ice for $10 and we both got ID'd. This felt good until the bar man said "Oh I can see youv'e been old enough for ome time!" - cheeky sod! Anyway, we did the bar fly thing and sat there chatting to the bar man for some time
Sitting room
. We had quite a laugh. Built into the bar are actually slot machines which you can play on. If you are playing the machines you get free soft drinks in here as well (coke, lemoade etc).We moved on and visited a few more hotels/casinos like Paris, Camelot, Caesers Palace etc until we ended up at New York New York. When here, we needed another drink so nipped into the Starucks for a Strawberry Frapp ($4.45). This cooled us down as we went to take a look at the rollercoaster that runs round the hotel - pretty cool.
We then headed back to the hotel pool before heading down for dinner. We went to "The Grill at Valentino" in the hotel which was lovely. We had a bottle of wine, Spaghetti Bolognaise, Chicken Alfredo, Cheesecake and some Ice Cream. The price for the whole meal was $90 but it was very very nice.
After dinner we went to the concierge to try and book a show for tomorrow night. We wanted to see Penn & Teller but tomorrow night was the one night they were not performing - typical. Anyway, instead we opted for Mama Mia at the Mandalay Bay Hotel - should be good. After we booked the ticket we set out onto the strip again, this time walking in the opposite direction towards Startosphere - its quite a trek from the Venetian I can tell you! When we arrived we needed a beer so got a Bud and a Amirnoff Ice for about $7 all together.
After a few more stop offs on the way back we finally collapsed into our huge bed. It had been a busy day in all...
