Vegas Baby !!!!

Again a fitful sleep, but only cos I wasn’t sure the alarm would work, checking out was at most, a 2 minute deal, and then patiently waiting for the Disney Express to take me back to the airport for my flight to Vegas.   As it turns out, the bus being late wasn’t an issue as the flight was also delayed by a good half hour and then left later anyway . 

The airport was packed and check in and screening took extra long.  Then  there was nothing to do but wait for the rest of the travellers to arrive, which they did about an hour later.  By then I’d found something for lunch and we all caught up on their flight and my down time.

The flight to Vegas was gorgeous.  The terrain was just stunning ranging from wildly rugged mountain to dead flat desert.    And it was so quick we literally had been served our drinks and they announced the start of the decent.  In less than an hour we were landing on the tarmac in full view of the strip, within full sight of New York New York and the Luxor… so odd  pointing out Vegas landmarks from the plane window.

Getting our bags proved a longer exercise, and my poor limy lovely is looking decidedly worse for wear with a dent that looks like with a bit more of a prod would turn into a decent tear.  But it got here, and I guess that’s the main thing.  We waiting in the searing Vegas sun for the shuttle and the poor man having to load all our bags did so with a few choice words ( and I think it was my case that made him  utter it – more because the luggage space was full and he had to lift it above his head to get it in) then we were off and running to the Flamingo.

Oh. My. Lord… what a kerfuffle was check in.  WE were organised… but they were not.   Apparently a conference had meant that they’d over booked our room type and we agreed to a lower category and a room credit… That whole performance took them a good hour and half to rectify and by 6.30 pm we were in our rooms finally and settling in.  Giving me time to write this J

The rest of the travellers were literally fit to drop with little more energy left but to drag their cases up to their rooms and collapse for an hour before meeting down at the buffet.  

The room is nice enough, but with no fridge ( and I’ve never seen a Vegas movie without a mini bar) its going to be a trip down to the main floor for drinks of any kind.   Cold water included.

Our view is looking over the inside of the resort, meaning the pool and flamingo enclosure and Jacuzzi… and its going to be a bit confronting to wander down through the restaurant and other areas to go for a swim… there is no ‘side entrance’ to any of that area so hope no one minds some extremely white legs and ‘that’ll do’ bathers wandering past them while they eat.

I’m looking forward to taking a walk tonight to see some of the lights and take some photos.    The size of the hotel is mind blowing and everything smells of smoke as there aren’t any areas where you can’t smoke including the eating places… so burn hazards are going to be very real.   I am thankful I have packed plenty of antihistamine cos ciggy smoke is not something I can take much of. 

And you can’t do Vegas without a buffet or two and the one at the Flamingo was excellent… with most of us rolling our way out of the restaurant to head in different directions once we’d eaten. 

After the buffet a group of us walked down the strip and took in this pulsing city…. It truly comes alive after dark and we hurled ourselves into the seething mass of humanity surging along both sides of the strip to take in some sights and go pick up tickets for tomorrow nights show.

Its true what they about Vegas… there is surely nothing like it in the world.  With a constant taste of smoke in my mouth that bit is going to be hard to swallow for a non smoker,  and I hope I don’t get emphysema from my time in Sin City, but draw back I must as there is no escaping it… even the rooms smell of smoke as this last bastion for smokers exists purely on hedonism and to hell with the costs. 

Some of the spectacular scenery on the flight from LAX to Vegas.

Just landed on the tarmac and in the background is Luxor Casino and New York New York Casino to name a few...

Out in the grounds of the Flamingo Casino where we stayed

oops... got sidetracked by one of countless slushie bars on our way to the Mirage Casino

Hot in the City....

Whoa it hot out there today .  

As I write this, its almost 5pm and its still 38C outside.  The temperature would easily have been into the 40’s at lunch time when I was wandering around Downtown Disney.  There were screaming children in every direction purely due to the heat searing your throat when you breathe.   You know that blast of hot melting heat when you open the oven?  Yep, that… coming off the footpath as you walked across it, with no escaping  but moving forward.   Seriously. 

I stayed for a few hours just wandering and pondering .   I sat in the shade to have another lovely Wetzel dog and their FABULOUS fresh lemonade which was so good in the heat.   It was sad to see so many babies clearly distressed by being out in such extreme temps…

And even though I am usually  glow in the dark white, I swear that the little bit of time in this blazing sunshine has altered my colouring a bit… My only purchases today, other than food was of course copious amounts of water and another trip to Marcelines Confectionary… this time, I bought a fresh super sweet pineapple spear dipped in chocolate… OMG… heaven on a stick. 

As a result of the extreme temps, I came back to my hotel around mid arvo totally par boiled and headed for the pool regardless of how many bodies it might already house.  Lucky for me, I got in about a good 20 minutes before the crowd so I had a little time with relatively few kids who feel the need to cannon ball in a pool no bigger than a backyard one… and the worst offenders… yep… the Aussie kids…

So damp but cooled off, I headed back to the comfort of the aircon once the cannon ballers arrived, to  just stay cool and prepare for the next leg.   You would hardly believe I’d want to be doing washing but I decided that if its ever going to dry in a flash, today is it,  and I’ll have a fresh start for Vegas.

I’ve had some issues getting into the time zone too… for the first time ever, and found myself wide awake at 1am… and there was a lot of kerfuffle going on outside on the stairs… I stayed indoors , but now I wonder what was going on, as around mid morning as I was sitting with my feet in the pool, along came 2 fire trucks full of fire-ies and an ambulance wielding a trolley.  Nothing was given away though and all left within a halfa with none of us around the pool any the wiser.   Destined to be one of life’s little mysteries.

With my shuttle all arranged for the morning,  all I have to do now is get an early night and be at the airport to meet up with the rest of the travellers and head up to Vegas for the ‘tour de California’ to begin.

Without the luxury of free wifi in Vegas as I have here, I’m not sure when the next post will be… failing finding a free macca’s to upload, it’ll be when we hit Anaheim and free wifi again in a few days time for a big ol’ update… hopefully though, we’ll be able to do so in Vegas.

Time will tell…  ciao for now  xxx

The gourmet Jelly Bean wall... just a fraction of the goodness... peach is always my fav.

some of the beautiful Halloween decos in Marcelines Confectionery...varying scenes line the walls and are just stunning.

Just Chillin

There absolutely HAD to be something wrong with the bedside clock this morning.. . there was no way I’d slept a full 12 hours.   But turns out I had, so when the clock said 10am, my next thought was ‘shit, I missed breakfast’…

So still feeling weak and kinda spaced out, I decided that a tour wasn’t the best course of action today and just decided to shop at Downtown Disney and then spend the rest of the day poolside.

Well, the poolside didn’t happen, thanks to it being 40C out and its literally standing room only in the little hotel pool.  But I might say, the aircon is aaahhh-mazing and has really been what I needed to just relax and do nothing today .

Downtown Disney is really an easy place to lose a day, the shops and restaurants are just mind blowing. 

I wandered at will through Disney inspired art, clothing, jewellery and a million other things.  But in amongst, are some firm favs of mine.  Like Build a Bear.  Love that place, but am not as keen on their stuff this time, so has made the decision to go the ‘Duffy Bear’ route so much easier this time. 

One other place that even as a non-car person, is just mind blowing was a boy version of Build a Bear – with cars…. And I can’t for the life of me remember the name of the shop… cos I’m a non-car person (NCP)… but I spent more time in here than in Build a Bear.  Basically what you do is choose a car, then the sky ist he limit as to how you want to decorate it… only its from the ground up and you literally use ‘mechanic’ type tools and workshop set ups to put your machine together .  You choose the mags, the decals, the suspension, and being a non-car person, you’ll have to imagine the rest, but it was amazing.  The store was full of boys and fully grown men, and even the odd old guy making their dream car come to life.  And these babies are functional… they are remote control… with lights and all sorts of wotnots…

Loved it… and I’m a NCP… 

It is quite painful though, walking past food that I know I love and don’t even feel like eating it… hope that goes away soon .

The lego shop was astounding as always with displays that defy description.  I wandered through here, thinking of how my kids would have just about had kittens in a store like this not too many years ago.  With walls of choose your own blocks and stuff you just don’t see at home, its was packed with eager kids and parents fearful of the damage to their cards. 

One very disturbing discovery today though is that my new camera is not working properly on video mode… no sound whatsoever… and its not making me happy.  Will probably spend some time on youtube tonight trying to work out why before I need to video parades or stripper school or whatever. 

Everything is better with sound.

So this evening, after a quiet afternoon in the aircon, thanks to there being a billion people in the pool only designed for perhaps 10 at most, I headed back to Downtown Disney to wander .

And you just  KNOW when the urge to shop and the smell of Cajun cooking has you salivating, you are definitely on the mend. 

YAY!!!

The beignets were to die for… not sure I’m ready for the gumbo yet but creole cooking is one of my all time favs so when we come back I’m going to visit that restaurant again and have me some Cajun goodness .   And no one tell my sisters I was still out wandering around at nearly 10 pm.. they’ll have kittens. 

So I’ll leave you tonight with a few snaps from todays highlights..

this was the size of a truck on the roof... all made from little tiny legos

nope, not select your own lollies - its select your own lego mix.  cool huh?

this is from the Ridemakers - here you choose your sound for the car - vayring revs, varying squeals etc.

choose your own mags

choose your own wheels

Are We There Yet?

Well I look back at the last 24 hours and most of them are a blur.  I remember a middle of the night text.  I remember the cutting  of rainbow coloured shaggy fur fabric and checking my luggage in.  But the rest is pretty sketchy.

I’m at Auckland airport right now ,  waiting to board the next leg of the trip.  The trip over was uneventful,  with the exception of a meal on the plane I wasn’t expecting and a window seat   that turned  out to be a miniscule sliver of the guy in fronts window or the same size sliver of the window behind me.    This was disappointing because this was the only leg of my crossing that will be in daylight and the tiny bit of the gorgeous coastline of NZ was all but obscured by plane hull. 

And the flight went by so fast it was amazing to me that when I checked, we were 26 minutes from landing in the city of Sails and didn’t actually feel any longer than my usual commute to work.  So here I sit, with about 2 more hours to kill before I’ll even bother to head for the gate.    And I have a sneaking suspicion that I might have contracted the tummy bug that one of my kids had yesterday… should make for an interesting  long haul section no?

                                                  ***

So,  on board my long haul, having  just suffered through a hellish 2 ½ hours almost constantly on a bowl,  I made it to my seat and there I stayed until 2 hours out from LA.  I slept fitfully  through the entire performance.  No meal.  No movies.  Just concentrating on keeping everything ‘nice’.    I will NEVER book a window seat long haul again… ever.  The two people between me and the loo were not friendly and not keen to let me out… so I remained trapped.  Add to that, the flight being probably half children under 5 and we had the recipe for a memorable flight.   

Customs  in the US is always a fun affair, but today we had 4 massive flights in at the same time…. It  was long, sweaty and tempers were flaring all over the place.   Of course, I made it through unscathed  about an hour later and retrieved my now hurled to the side luggage, that is only a shadow of its glorious new self with greasy chain marks and dings all over its limey goodness…

I wandered out to where I remember catching the Disneyland shuttle and waited and waited and waited… finally in my all but delirious state, went over to a different shuttle company and booked a seat… within 15 mins I was on my way… only, I’m not sure he knew the way… it took 2 hours… nearly double what it usually takes.

Ahhhh…. But I’m here now…. And like childbirth, the pain is all but forgotten  due to the euphoria of being back on hallowed Disney ground.

I managed to keep some dinner down and just wandered the shops and listened to all the amazing musicians along the walkway.  I swear I have a spring in my step again and can’t wait to launch into my solo campaign tomorrow. 

A few shots of my first day:

Caramel ( or Carmel, as it is pronounced here) apples... definitely going to have one of these yet

Disneyland all Halloweened up...