Week 4: (24 – 28th Dec) Las Vegas

The I-15 from LA to Vegas

The drive from Los Angeles to Las Vegas went down without incident so that was a plus.  The “living the dream” family at home had suggested we pull in to Peggy Sue’s 50 Diner but it is only 2.5 hours out from LA so we decided just to keep going.  We had to stop for petrol a bit closer to Vegas to fill up the hire car and I decided to complete the transaction while Big A filled up the car.  Funny because in the States you pay for the petrol before you get it.  So filling up the car required me to over estimate how much our beastly Corolla would need to “fill er up”.  I put $50 down and it only came to $36, apparently we will only be charged the $36 – apparently! 

Driving into Vegas is surreal.  So much desert and nothingness to suddenly encounter this massive sprawl of highrises. 

We arrived on the 24^th December expecting to find a very over the top Christmas experience in Vegas but it was quite the opposite.  We stayed at Bally’s in the North Tower which, at US $80 p/n was great value and although the hotel was busy, the room was quiet.  Surprisingly, it had no evidence of Christmas anywhere and having just come from Disneyland and LA where it was literally on every corner, it was a bit surprising.  When we spoke to a staff member they explained that Vegas is actually the place a lot of non Christians visit over the holiday season who don’t celebrate Christmas. Apparently there was a dedicated Christmas area somewhere in one of the casinos but we didn’t find it. 

Our Christmas lunch consisted of a visit to the Village Buffet at Rio.  Our research both on line and on the ground had lead us to believe that it was the number 1 seafood buffet in Vegas.  As seafood is our traditional Aussie Christmas lunch we were very excited to be able to keep that tradition alive half way around the world, 280 miles from the sea (what were we thinking).  Some of the food was lovely, like the snow crab legs and cajun fish but Oh My God where did they get the oysters from?  I swear they tasted like they had been retrieved from the Vegas sewers.  The prawns and mini crayfish were so small and the rest of it was average.  We took our quickly deflated elation and drowned it in 2 bottles of wine while the girls played with their American girls, DSI and drawing pads.  The waitress actually asked us to leave 3 hours later as the queue waiting to be seated was now +70 people deep!

So much has been documented about Las Vegas it’s hard to think of anything that would surprise or interest any reader of this blog, however the place is still overwhelmingly larger than life when you are there.  The casinos are big and bright and the number of restaurants, bars, shops and people are extraordinary. One thing that, in my naivety, I didn’t quite realize was how much exploitation of the female body there was.  Everywhere you looked there were billboards of women in diamond encrusted bikinis or just a thong and on every street there were men and women handing single (and not so single) men cards with information about how to get a lady for the night. I was able to ignore it until one day when we were on the strip waiting for Big A and the girls were picking up call girl cards from the street.  One was extremely explicit and I lost it, insisting the girls through the filth away (I’m such a prude).  My shock was probably compounded by the fact that I was standing watching a man seeking donations to help the homeless on behalf of the Salvation Army. 

Joe's Stone Crabs - Yummy

Over the few days we were there, apart from the Village Buffet,  we also ate at Le Café and Le Provencal in Paris casino, the Garden Grill in Circus Circus and Joes Stone Crabs in The Forum off Caesars Palace.   Joes was the standout and a seriously great restaurant worthy of all the praise.  Darryll made us feel extremely welcome (even Little and Middle A).  We had the signature, crab claws and they didn’t disappoint, coming as close to mud crab as I’ve ever tasted.  The girls meals included an amazing hot chocolate fudge brownie with ice-cream for dessert which was so wickedly good and at $8.95 for the entire 2 courses and a drink, great value.  

We contemplated a flight to the Grand Canyon and in hindsight I’m disappointed we didn’t do it, but Big A had seen it many times before, our budget was running in deficient and there was little interest from Middle and Little A so we gave it a miss.  In fact we didn’t do any organized trips or shows but chose instead to just walk around the strip. 

By walking 2.5kms up from the strip, we came across Circus Circus, a dirty smelly Casino with an amusement park in the middle of it and a Circus show performed each hour.  It was awful but it did have a pretty good restaurant called the Garden Grill that had all you could eat ribs.  On our way back from Circus Circus we came across a mock ice-skating rink at the Venetian.  The rink was made of a plastic resin that emulated ice but was not as slippery and the girls loved it.  So much that we went back again the following day.   The Cosmopolitan is the newest Casino and absolutely stunning and polished.  Caesars Palace and the Bellagio are still extremely impressive and well worth a wander around just to get a sense of their grandeur.

As I said earlier we didnt see any shows and that’s probably got a lot to do with Big A who wasn’t impressed by the line up. Aparently Human Nature (yes the Aussie group), Donny and Marie Osmond and Matt Goss (from the “when will I, will I be famous?” duo Bross) just don’t cut it for the big fella.  He did actually ask me on a number of occasions “why aren’t the big acts here?”  “Why aren’t the likes of Elvis, Michael Jackson or Sinatra here?”  At first I didn’t have the heart to tell him they were all dead but in the end I had to. This didn’t stop him from asking.  Even when Celine Dion came back after a short Christmas break he still wasn’t happy – oh well!  Very late on the 28^th December we flew via British Airways to London – yippee…..

Big A’s Perspective   

Vegas…it’s a strange place….somehow I seem  to have a great time each time I go but I can’t seem to understand why.

I’d forgotten how awful the trip is to Vegas from LA….double it if you have little kids….are we there yet, I’m bored, I need to go to the toilet etc etc…and that was just the wife!

Anyway, after about 4 hours we hit the town of Prim, Nevada. What is this place? I have no idea why anyone would build anything here and even less idea why anyone would stop there. An extinct hotel/casino with a disused rollercoaster are interesting relics of seemingly better times …part of the ‘tosser-world’ fun park no doubt.

Anyway, a quick pit stop for fuel and some drinks and we set off for Vegas.

Yee..bloody..ha….Vegas…finally….and just as I was preparing to relax…. a 40 minute traffic jam to get from the highway to our hotel.

 I left the girls at the foyer and headed to the airport to drop the car off…Alamo didn’t have a drop off place on the massive, expensive hotels on the strip!

Airports are not usually the easiest places to navigate around at the best of times but try getting t the new car rental return terminal….wow…it would be easier to find platform 9.5 and catch a train to Hogwarts!

Anyway after a $20 cab fare back to Vegas from the airport I entered the Bally’s foyer with high hopes. However I couldn’t get to my room as I was told that I needed ID as the Child Bride didn’t answer the phone in the room.

However, this was a minor hiccup as within an hour later I was laying on my bed in the hotel room listening to the girls fighting.

I’d always remembered Vegas as being a cheap place to stay and even cheaper place to eat and drink. The casinos offered amazing deals on both accommodation, food and drinks to get you there and keep you there. ……Not any more.

Whilst our room was great, food is now expensive.

Another thing…Vegas is supposed to be a mecca for entertainers…. I saw the Hagler v Leonard fight here. Elvis lived here. Sinatra, Dean Martin…..but for those poor buggers that had ventured to Vegas over the Xmas break they were subjected to the likes of Matt Goss and Human Nature….I’d rather poke my eye out with a needle and give the money to the homeless!

Whilst we did see a few Americans, the whole place is full of Mexicans, Chinese and Indians…it was like being in a shopping centre food court…but wow, how much money did those Mexicans have…by the number of shopping bags they had Abercrombie & Fitch did very, very well out of them!

Caesars Palace Opulence 

Some of the hotels were amazing in a good way…like wow the Bellagio fountain is amazing. Others were amazing in others ways ….like wow this casino is full of people that haven’t had a wash in a week, or wow this carpet hasn’t been cleaned in 30 years….places like the Imperial Palace and Circus Circus are just awful!

I don’t like shopping…no…that’s not correct. I don’t like wandering around shops in an aimless, unfocussed manner. I know what I want to buy; I find a place to buy it; I go there; I buy it. I don’t go to the shops to find something I might want to buy.

And there is a chain of stores in the states that I love….it’s called Ross and there was one in Vegas. It’s like a store that sells out of date food…but they actually sell high end brand names for virtually nothing. Ok, they might not have an enormous range of sizes, styles or colours and some styles might be a touch ‘last decade’…but they were cheap.

The clientele might not be the wealthiest but for me this just adds to the experience…..homeless types in Ralph Lauren…I love it! However, the Child Bride only allowed me to buy some socks there!

As for the Xmas buffet we endured…it didn’t start well. We sat down and the extended family of what I can only assume to be ‘competition’ buffet eaters sat next to us. Even the two babies with them ‘chain-ate’ the whole time.

I definitely think there should be a sign that tells these people they don’t have to

pile their plate to the ceiling with everything available on every trip? Sorry, but its like feeding time at the zoo!

The tours to the canyon are expensive and if you go by any other means than flying expect to spend 90% of your day in a bus getting there and back. We decided to save our money, allow the girls an adventure to savour on their own time in the future.

As for gambling….the Child Bride got within about 10 feet of a table at one point and I spent the whole $5 that was provided to me by the hotel… in about 3 minutes. ..and that was that. I don’t have enough money to happily give it away to people I don’t even know without at least relieving my guilt or getting a poppy or a pin in return.

So overall….I have to admit I enjoyed it…. and I didn’t seem to have the same aversion that my wife did to images of naked women being flaunted in my face every minute of every day. ..sure its sleazy and I don’t really get the place….but its easy and interesting.