- 86,701
- Rule 12
- GTP_Famine
Yep, jetting off on another forrin' jaunt to far-flung climes... (see the Iceland thread)
Some friends of ours from the MX-5 Owners' Club moved out to Vegas last Autumn, following a job transfer (I cannot tell you any more unless I then shred you) and, to stave off their boredom and isolation, some of us resolved to fly over to visit them. In the end it turned out to be just us three and another couple who made the journey (though on separate flights and to different hotels).
So myself, my partner and daughter headed off to London Stansted Airport (STN) in the wee small hours of the 3rd of April to catch our (first) flight...
Thursday 3rd
We arrived at Stansted wholly on time - 2 hours before the flight - to be told that American Airlines flight 124 had been cancelled. The aircraft had developed a fault and hadn't left JFK at all the previous day. So passengers were reassigned flights to get them to their destinations - which in our case lead to a 2 hour coach trip down to London Heathrow (yes, the same one which has had a bundle of problems recently, including failure to deliver luggage. Woo).
On the bright side though, our reassigned flight - now from London Heathrow to Chicago's O'Hare - was a Boeing 777. I've never been on one of these behemoths before and, being AA's flagship 'plane, flying between the two busiest airports in the world (by aircraft movements and passenger numbers) you can guarantee a nicely-decked-out bit of kit.
And, after 6 hours of sitting about (punctuated by an Irish breakfast and pint of Caffrey's at 11am), it certainly was. We had tremendous fun flicking between our 12 audio and 12 video channels on our personal touchscreen entertainment centres, but were most amused by watching the flight progress (particularly the bits where he was headed for Norway at one point, the height/speed/air temperature readouts and the gradual ticking-back of timezones) instead. The descent into O'Hare took us over Lake Michigan, which provided much turbulence and quite an interesting landing ("interesting" when you're in the world's largest twin-engine aircraft is a relative term - it was rough and no mistake).
Our new steed - an American Airlines Boeing 777
The inside - this is one big airplane and no mistake
The LCD touchscreens of joy - eventually the plane went the right way...
Quite high, reasonably fast and a little bit nippy out there...
Which left us facing US Border Control. I will add naught at this point beyond the phrase "US Homeland Security are a joyless pack of :censored:s". And mention that they privately lopped the padlock off the wee one's case in order to inspect it.
We only had a two hour stop at O'Hare between the 777 landing and the 757 to Vegas. 85 minutes of this was taken up with US Border Control. 7 minutes was spent retrieving our cases and running in the approximate direction of where we should be going. Where we were then accosted by a friendly American Airlines who was aware of the situation, took our cases for us and pointed us in the right direction. We arrived at the gate dead-on boarding time and took our seats at the back of a 757 which seemed to mainly smell of piss and be occupied by a fat, old local celebrity of some variety, who spent the majority of the flight drinking at the back of the plane and chatting up the stewardesses. Mind you, I love 757s, because they climb like crazy off the runway, which made the flight more bearable.
Chicago. This is the entire of Chicago that we saw. Sorry
By the time we touched down, it was Friday local time, and about 8am on Friday back in the UK - yes, we'd already been moving for 26 hours and we hadn't reached the hotel yet...
Friday 4th
Lou and Andy (our friends) came to pick us up from McCarran in what became gradually known as "The Woo of Powah" - a 2001 Daewoo Nubira he'd sort-of inherited from his predecessor in the job. In fact The Woo had very little by way of powah (or power). Or brakes. And has a dicky wheel bearing. But on the whole, proved a novel little road slag in amongst the other, more... "American" fare.
We checked into our hotel - the Stratosphere - at about 2am, and immediately threw ourselves at our beds.
It's worth a note at this time that when we went to Iceland, we stayed in a hotel that was directly opposite the tallest object in Reykjavik - the Hallgrimskirkja - which could be seen from any point in the city. Now we're in Vegas, we're staying in a hotel that is the tallest object in the city and could be seen from any point therein. I suspect there's something of a theme developing here.
Almost breathtaking in its subtlety...
Even from a quarter mile away.
Yes. That's a ride up there. And it's the highest "thrill ride" in the world. These people are mad.
It turned out that the extraordinarily late flight - 7 hours after we should have arrived, due to the cancellation and reassignment - helped us tremendously. We awoke at about 11ish - equivalent of a late lie-in - and made our way down to the casino floor in search of some eats. We located a couple of interesting-looking places and settled on Lucky's, just next to the Starbucks.
Lucky's turned out to be a stellar choice - we had every meal that we had inside the hotel at Lucky's. After an earlier recommendation from Danoff I plumped for a chicken fried steak for "breakfast". I'd imagine those of you familiar with it will need no explanation at this point - everyone else can forget about it. Milford Cubicle chose a "granola parfait". Apparently this means a £4 goldfish bowl full of yoghurt, crunchy things and strawberries. Win.
Om nom nom nom
Following "breakfast", we had a trip up to the top of the Stratosphere tower. This is apparently the tallest free-standing observation tower in the USA. At 1,149ft (350m), and having been on the indoor (108th floor) and outdoor (109th floor) observation decks and seen the view across the city, I believe it... Access to the tower is free for Stratosphere residents and $8 for Nevada state residents - $10 for others. And worth every penny. Cent. Whatever.
The Strip, as viewed from the top of the Stratosphere tower.
Downtown Vegas, as viewed... yadda yadda yadda.
The second pool at the Strat, and we seem to be casting something of a shadow...
The Mandalay Bay, the MGM Grand, the Luxor and TheHotel at Mandalay Bay - these are nearly 5 miles away...
We then suited up for a stroll up the Strip (or, more accurately, in the direction thereof, since the Stratosphere really does stretch the limit of the description). A gentle hour later, we'd made it past the Sahara (where we watched the rollercoaster. Repeatedly) and up as far as Circus Circus. At this point we were utterly knackered and chose to go in for a light drink. This is not especially far and not a particularly good sign.
Circus Circus. I tell you, you needn't leave the Stratosphere for all your sight-seeing needs...
However, inside Circus Circus is a very kid-friendly area called "The Adventuredome". This kept mini-Cubicle occupied for the afternoon for not very much money (and allowed me to win stuffed toys for her). From there it was back to the Strat, back to Lucky's and back to bed.
Saturday 5th
Saturday was, apparently, a planned run with MX-5s/Miatas - Lou had managed to purchase herself a Miata M-Spec and joined a few Miata Owners Of Vegas (MOOV) runs, and with the 7 of us being MX-5 Owners' Club members, it was to be a joint run. In the event, only one MOOV could make it, to send their apologies. So the lone Miata and the Woo of Powah made their way up to Mount Charleston. For the uninitiated, this peak is within spitting distance of 12,000 feet high. For the ununinitiated, altitude and naturally aspirated engines do not make good bedfellows. And The Woo of Powah has about 90 horses and they're nailed to an automatic 'box. And it's carrying 5 people. Luckily, we were only going to about 8,000 feet, to a diner just above the town of Mount Charleston. So that's alright then.
The lone MOOV.
The Miata running up to Mount Charleston
The Woo of Powah at Mount Charleston Lodge. Just to prove it got there.
We seemed to bump into a local Cobra Owners' meet up there - I counted seven (two real) in the car park. Unperturbed by the shouty roadsters in the car park, we went in and enjoyed the famous "wobbly coffee" and a light brunch (err...), before heading out to a local beauty spot from which it was possible to see much of Clark County and an appreciable portion of Nevada. A sign at the spot indicated that in the early 1950s, the US took the unprecedented step of announcing three nuclear tests on the Nevada Test Site and invited locals to view the tests from this spot. No, you didn't misread that.
Mmmm... Cobra...
Mmmm... Brushed aluminium Cobra...
The view from the Lodge.
The reason why MX-5s aren't more popular in the US...
The Nevada Test Site, as viewed from the vantage point at Mount Charleston
From there it was down to the local ski resort for a very pleasant hot chocolate and back home to the Strat - where we went up to the top again and watched the sun set over Vegas...
The ski resort at Mount Charleston - snow within 30 minutes of the desert...
One Miata - check. One Stratosphere from 30 miles away - check.
Yes, that's a plane that we're above.
Sunset over Vegas - and the lights come on...
Whereupon someone came up with a clever idea - why not head down to Fremont Street (the original Vegas, and now home to some "individual" attractions) to sample the Fremont Street Experience? I'd not heard of this, so gladly went along - the deal being that Ms. Cubicle would put mini-Cubicle to bed and, when we returned to the Strat we'd all go down to the casino floor for some comedy.
In the end, not all went to plan. A random reveller accosted us and muttered words which turned out to be "half yard", "daiquiri" and "16 bucks". Just 10 minutes later there were four of us with half-yard daiquiris (from La Bayou) and one designated driver. We strolled Fremont Street - the Golden Nugget, the 4 Queens, a tacky gift shop where I found a pen with Ms. Cubicle's first name on it (a rarity) - slowly supping drinks apparently made of screenwash and ice cream before the Fremont Street Experience. Followed by a bit more of the same. Followed by my return to the hotel room with the phrase "But I only had one!". Then one of our party took the phrase "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" a bit literally, and tried to leave parts of his lunch behind. So the money-losing was postponed and all hit the hay for the night.
The Fremont Street Experience - a 200 foot long TV. Awesome.
The golden nugget, and the water slide through the shark tank (yes) at the Golden Nugget.
The famous cowboy sign on Fremont Street.
I'll just have the one, thanks.
Sunday 6th
Sunday proved to be a wholly unusual experience. After another breakfast at Lucky's and another Granola Parfait (I had a foot-wide short stack of blueberry pancakes, for about 90p), we found ourselves standing outside the Stratosphere, Accord-spotting.
Mmm... breakfast...
Wait, Accord-spotting?
Yep, we were due to head out to an as-yet-unknown park with GTP stalwart Danoff, pausing only to collect some food from something called a "Carl Junior" (apparently). Danoff kindly bought me some souvenirs of my American adventure - though it seems he was torn between these and "a gallon of gas"...
We spent a good couple of hours out in the park - the Family Famine, Danoff, Mrs. Danoff and Mini-Danoff, who proved to be a golden retreiver (or "yellow labrador") called Rustle and combined his owners' traits of being cute and willing to get his teeth into anything. I'll leave you to decide which is which - righting wrongs and noting cultural differences. It was amusing hearing Danoff saying Jaguar in English and me replying in American.
Party in the park
After being kindly ferried back to the Stratosphere, we found a Woo of Powah and a Miata soon waiting for us. In order to deter the attentions of some large blokes on bicycles, who appeared to be security, I quickly leapt into the Miata (having been the only adult who didn't get seat time during the Mount Charleston trip) and we set off back to Lou & Andy's for a barbecue.
Apparently something about Paradise Road, the Woo of Powah or the combination thereof didn't agree with the member of our party who was unwell the previous night, as what happened in Vegas took the opportunity to stay in Vegas yet again, out of the passenger window. I was glad of a seat in the Miata, as we took the chance to avoid the sudden obstacles in the road.
The afternoon was spent living the American dream - barbecue, swimming pool, hot-tub (and coffee and strawberries & cream). Most righteous.
Monday 7th
We set ourselves a challenge on Monday. Okay, I set ourselves a challenge. We wandered down to the Las Vegas Monorail station at the Sahara (just to see it, frankly), then hopped onto the Deuce ("No eatin' no drinkin' no sleepin' on the coach - if you wanna stop there's a red button which yo can pooooooooosh") down to the famous Las Vegas sign, where some Japanese-American bikers kindly took our photo. The challenge then was to walk as much of the Strip as possible, while calling in at every major casino and getting a $1 chip from each...
The start of the afternoon's fun...
We set off from the Vegas sign at noon, and by 3pm we'd made it into Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur, Tropicana, MGM Grand, New York New York, Monte Carlo and the Bellagio, just in time to catch the first showing of the fountains that day. By 3.30pm we'd made it into and back out of the Bellagio (for the chip) just in time to catch the second one. At 4pm we'd also done Paris and Planet Hollywood, before meeting up with the MX5OC bunch again for a quick trawl of the shopping centre. We made it to the Flamingo and Caesar's Palace (which proved an absolute bugger to get a chip from) before parting company again, whereupon we managed Imperial Palace, the Mirage, Treasure Island and the Venetian, before meeting up back at the Bellagio for 7.30pm for the first lit fountain show of the evening. Yes, we'd managed SIXTEEN casinos (with proof) inside 8 hours. To go with the chips I'd already got from Circus Circus, the Sahara, the Golden Nugget and, of course, the Stratosphere, that was 20 casinos (19 Strip, 1 downtown). Nice.
The Luxor
The Excalibur
New York, New York
MGM Grand
A view up the Strip from the overpass between Excalibur and Tropicana
Paris, from the Bellagio bell tower
Paris by night
Bellagio fountains by day (Caesar's in the background)
Bellagio fountains by night...
From there we went to Planet Hollywood for a buffet (recommended, but $24 each) and home to the Stratosphere via a very unpleasant taxi journey.
Tuesday 8th
With all the exertions of the previous day, Tuesday was a planned rest day. Having investigated the 8th floor pool earlier in the trip, we headed up there to find that it was closed for "remodelling". Thanks for telling us and all.
Luckily, the hotel has two pools and residents were permitted to use the 25th floor pool instead - much smaller and quieter and with a waaaaaay better view (no photos - no cameras allowed at the pool).
We planned an early night, due to the early flight, so at 4pm we headed across the street to a place called "Ihop". Where I had the best bacon and egg cheeseburger I've ever had (for about 12p).
When we returned to the hotel, we bumped into Lou and Andy, who'd had a brilliant idea - it was still early enough for us to catch a trip to the Hoover Dam. So we all dutifully bundled into the Woo and headed east.
I swear we were on that dam for 10 minutes and it went from daylight to pitch darkness. And damn that's one big dam. Though we were quickly removed by the Hoover Dam Police (what?) as apparently pedestrian traffic isn't permitted after dark. Nevertheless, we got to add Arizona to our list of states visited (Illinois was involuntary). We returned to the hotel about 3 hours after we'd left and everyone was thrown at beds.
Lake Mead from the top of the Hoover Dam
The freeway bridge, under construction, just west of the Hoover Dam
The Nevada side of the Dam from the Arizona side. Look at the ickle cars!
Wednesday 9th
Up at 4am. Oh joy. Checked out and hopped into a taxi to McCarran for 5am for a 7am flight to JFK (incidentally, if you get a taxi in Vegas, try and get the Ford Excursion - I only saw one, and he was brilliant. Friendly, chatty and undercharged - unlike the guy on Monday evening). Amazingly, this one was on time, though again was a 757 seemingly made out of urine and the flight was dogged by turbulence throughout (wing seat plus 757 with winglet upgrade plus turbulence = bowel problems) and we landed at JFK, on time, at 3pm local time. I say "on time"... We landed on time. We were cleared to cross the active runway. We arrived at the gate on time. And waited. And waited. And waited. And then the tannoy went...
"You know folks, it never ceases to amaze me how we can sneak up on them - we're kinda big and loud and all - but somehow we've done it anyway."
Legend.
Leaving Las Vegas - and you can still see the Stratosphere
Flying over the Strip at two thousand feet...
Lady Liberty on JFK approach
Crossing the active runway at JFK
We had about 3 hours to kill at JFK, so went to Duty Free (really tiny duty free section, it has to be said) and to the Deli at the terminal where, from other recommendations, I had a Philly Cheese Steak Hero. With extra Jalapenos. Om nom nom nom.
3 hours later we hopped onto our 767 for transatlantic fun. For the matheticians amongst us, that's a 7 hour flight with a 5 hour time difference - so a 7am landing the next morning. Sleep happened (amongst the "food"), but waking also occurred just in time to see a sunrise from 37,000 feet. Also recommended. Not quite as recommended as being up for 29 hours (21 with time zones)... Bed!
Sunrise over Ireland at 37,000ft
Notes on the USA:
Positives
Courteousness. Vegas isn't exactly the centre of America's honour. Nevertheless, everyone (everyone) was polite. Mini-Cubicle sneezed in a shop and a woman 40 feet away said "Bless you!" to her. If somebody bumped into you they immediately apologised, regardless of whether it was their fault or not. In fact, the only impolite people we met were the professional tramps at New York New York, the people handing out the call-girl cards, the first taxi and the floor manager at Caesar's Palace, who then received a barrage of British sarcasm.
Value-for-Money. About the only thing that costs more in the USA than the UK is a haircut by Elvis. I filled up with petrol in the UK yesterday and it cost me more than all the food I ate in 4 days in the US.
Haircut by Elvis
Cleanliness. I'm not sure what it is they do in the USA, but there's more litter in my front garden in a tiny little hamlet in the middleofnowhere than I saw at any point in Vegas. With the possible exception of hooker-flyers.
Warmth. Okay, Vegas is 20 degrees further south than Sheffield. But even so, the heat in Vegas in April was comparable to the heat in Sheffield in August, but I could have stayed outside all day. No humidity = little sweating = massively increased comfort levels.
Tipping culture. I'm not a fan of tipping, but in the US it seems to actually generate the kind of service tipping rewards. We rarely tip in the UK because UK services are rarely beyond the minimum you expect, but in the US it really is service with a smile. Mind you, with the politeness I mentioned, it might be that this is just the norm...
Negatives
Tax. Though the sales tax is lower in the US than the UK, it's applied on top of displayed prices. In the UK the price you see is the price you pay - having to mentally add 7% to see if you can afford a product is a bit of a bind.
Drivers. Seriously guys... Behave behind the wheel like you do in person please. I've managed to determine, thanks to US drivers, that green light travels much faster than ordinary light, by simple observation of the fact that the instant the light goes green, the guy three cars back honks his horn.
Toyota Prius. Just look it up, folks.
This holiday was brought to you by:
American Airlines
The Stratosphere Hotel, Las Vegas
Mount Charleston Lodge
Danoff
High-resolution versions of pictures for wallpapers are available upon request...
Some friends of ours from the MX-5 Owners' Club moved out to Vegas last Autumn, following a job transfer (I cannot tell you any more unless I then shred you) and, to stave off their boredom and isolation, some of us resolved to fly over to visit them. In the end it turned out to be just us three and another couple who made the journey (though on separate flights and to different hotels).
So myself, my partner and daughter headed off to London Stansted Airport (STN) in the wee small hours of the 3rd of April to catch our (first) flight...
Thursday 3rd
FAIL
We arrived at Stansted wholly on time - 2 hours before the flight - to be told that American Airlines flight 124 had been cancelled. The aircraft had developed a fault and hadn't left JFK at all the previous day. So passengers were reassigned flights to get them to their destinations - which in our case lead to a 2 hour coach trip down to London Heathrow (yes, the same one which has had a bundle of problems recently, including failure to deliver luggage. Woo).
On the bright side though, our reassigned flight - now from London Heathrow to Chicago's O'Hare - was a Boeing 777. I've never been on one of these behemoths before and, being AA's flagship 'plane, flying between the two busiest airports in the world (by aircraft movements and passenger numbers) you can guarantee a nicely-decked-out bit of kit.
And, after 6 hours of sitting about (punctuated by an Irish breakfast and pint of Caffrey's at 11am), it certainly was. We had tremendous fun flicking between our 12 audio and 12 video channels on our personal touchscreen entertainment centres, but were most amused by watching the flight progress (particularly the bits where he was headed for Norway at one point, the height/speed/air temperature readouts and the gradual ticking-back of timezones) instead. The descent into O'Hare took us over Lake Michigan, which provided much turbulence and quite an interesting landing ("interesting" when you're in the world's largest twin-engine aircraft is a relative term - it was rough and no mistake).
Our new steed - an American Airlines Boeing 777
The inside - this is one big airplane and no mistake
The LCD touchscreens of joy - eventually the plane went the right way...
Quite high, reasonably fast and a little bit nippy out there...
Which left us facing US Border Control. I will add naught at this point beyond the phrase "US Homeland Security are a joyless pack of :censored:s". And mention that they privately lopped the padlock off the wee one's case in order to inspect it.
We only had a two hour stop at O'Hare between the 777 landing and the 757 to Vegas. 85 minutes of this was taken up with US Border Control. 7 minutes was spent retrieving our cases and running in the approximate direction of where we should be going. Where we were then accosted by a friendly American Airlines who was aware of the situation, took our cases for us and pointed us in the right direction. We arrived at the gate dead-on boarding time and took our seats at the back of a 757 which seemed to mainly smell of piss and be occupied by a fat, old local celebrity of some variety, who spent the majority of the flight drinking at the back of the plane and chatting up the stewardesses. Mind you, I love 757s, because they climb like crazy off the runway, which made the flight more bearable.
Chicago. This is the entire of Chicago that we saw. Sorry
By the time we touched down, it was Friday local time, and about 8am on Friday back in the UK - yes, we'd already been moving for 26 hours and we hadn't reached the hotel yet...
Friday 4th
Lou and Andy (our friends) came to pick us up from McCarran in what became gradually known as "The Woo of Powah" - a 2001 Daewoo Nubira he'd sort-of inherited from his predecessor in the job. In fact The Woo had very little by way of powah (or power). Or brakes. And has a dicky wheel bearing. But on the whole, proved a novel little road slag in amongst the other, more... "American" fare.
We checked into our hotel - the Stratosphere - at about 2am, and immediately threw ourselves at our beds.
It's worth a note at this time that when we went to Iceland, we stayed in a hotel that was directly opposite the tallest object in Reykjavik - the Hallgrimskirkja - which could be seen from any point in the city. Now we're in Vegas, we're staying in a hotel that is the tallest object in the city and could be seen from any point therein. I suspect there's something of a theme developing here.
Almost breathtaking in its subtlety...
Even from a quarter mile away.
Yes. That's a ride up there. And it's the highest "thrill ride" in the world. These people are mad.
It turned out that the extraordinarily late flight - 7 hours after we should have arrived, due to the cancellation and reassignment - helped us tremendously. We awoke at about 11ish - equivalent of a late lie-in - and made our way down to the casino floor in search of some eats. We located a couple of interesting-looking places and settled on Lucky's, just next to the Starbucks.
Lucky's turned out to be a stellar choice - we had every meal that we had inside the hotel at Lucky's. After an earlier recommendation from Danoff I plumped for a chicken fried steak for "breakfast". I'd imagine those of you familiar with it will need no explanation at this point - everyone else can forget about it. Milford Cubicle chose a "granola parfait". Apparently this means a £4 goldfish bowl full of yoghurt, crunchy things and strawberries. Win.
Om nom nom nom
Following "breakfast", we had a trip up to the top of the Stratosphere tower. This is apparently the tallest free-standing observation tower in the USA. At 1,149ft (350m), and having been on the indoor (108th floor) and outdoor (109th floor) observation decks and seen the view across the city, I believe it... Access to the tower is free for Stratosphere residents and $8 for Nevada state residents - $10 for others. And worth every penny. Cent. Whatever.
The Strip, as viewed from the top of the Stratosphere tower.
Downtown Vegas, as viewed... yadda yadda yadda.
The second pool at the Strat, and we seem to be casting something of a shadow...
The Mandalay Bay, the MGM Grand, the Luxor and TheHotel at Mandalay Bay - these are nearly 5 miles away...
We then suited up for a stroll up the Strip (or, more accurately, in the direction thereof, since the Stratosphere really does stretch the limit of the description). A gentle hour later, we'd made it past the Sahara (where we watched the rollercoaster. Repeatedly) and up as far as Circus Circus. At this point we were utterly knackered and chose to go in for a light drink. This is not especially far and not a particularly good sign.
Circus Circus. I tell you, you needn't leave the Stratosphere for all your sight-seeing needs...
However, inside Circus Circus is a very kid-friendly area called "The Adventuredome". This kept mini-Cubicle occupied for the afternoon for not very much money (and allowed me to win stuffed toys for her). From there it was back to the Strat, back to Lucky's and back to bed.
Saturday 5th
Saturday was, apparently, a planned run with MX-5s/Miatas - Lou had managed to purchase herself a Miata M-Spec and joined a few Miata Owners Of Vegas (MOOV) runs, and with the 7 of us being MX-5 Owners' Club members, it was to be a joint run. In the event, only one MOOV could make it, to send their apologies. So the lone Miata and the Woo of Powah made their way up to Mount Charleston. For the uninitiated, this peak is within spitting distance of 12,000 feet high. For the ununinitiated, altitude and naturally aspirated engines do not make good bedfellows. And The Woo of Powah has about 90 horses and they're nailed to an automatic 'box. And it's carrying 5 people. Luckily, we were only going to about 8,000 feet, to a diner just above the town of Mount Charleston. So that's alright then.
The lone MOOV.
The Miata running up to Mount Charleston
The Woo of Powah at Mount Charleston Lodge. Just to prove it got there.
We seemed to bump into a local Cobra Owners' meet up there - I counted seven (two real) in the car park. Unperturbed by the shouty roadsters in the car park, we went in and enjoyed the famous "wobbly coffee" and a light brunch (err...), before heading out to a local beauty spot from which it was possible to see much of Clark County and an appreciable portion of Nevada. A sign at the spot indicated that in the early 1950s, the US took the unprecedented step of announcing three nuclear tests on the Nevada Test Site and invited locals to view the tests from this spot. No, you didn't misread that.
Mmmm... Cobra...
Mmmm... Brushed aluminium Cobra...
The view from the Lodge.
The reason why MX-5s aren't more popular in the US...
The Nevada Test Site, as viewed from the vantage point at Mount Charleston
From there it was down to the local ski resort for a very pleasant hot chocolate and back home to the Strat - where we went up to the top again and watched the sun set over Vegas...
The ski resort at Mount Charleston - snow within 30 minutes of the desert...
One Miata - check. One Stratosphere from 30 miles away - check.
Yes, that's a plane that we're above.
Sunset over Vegas - and the lights come on...
Whereupon someone came up with a clever idea - why not head down to Fremont Street (the original Vegas, and now home to some "individual" attractions) to sample the Fremont Street Experience? I'd not heard of this, so gladly went along - the deal being that Ms. Cubicle would put mini-Cubicle to bed and, when we returned to the Strat we'd all go down to the casino floor for some comedy.
In the end, not all went to plan. A random reveller accosted us and muttered words which turned out to be "half yard", "daiquiri" and "16 bucks". Just 10 minutes later there were four of us with half-yard daiquiris (from La Bayou) and one designated driver. We strolled Fremont Street - the Golden Nugget, the 4 Queens, a tacky gift shop where I found a pen with Ms. Cubicle's first name on it (a rarity) - slowly supping drinks apparently made of screenwash and ice cream before the Fremont Street Experience. Followed by a bit more of the same. Followed by my return to the hotel room with the phrase "But I only had one!". Then one of our party took the phrase "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" a bit literally, and tried to leave parts of his lunch behind. So the money-losing was postponed and all hit the hay for the night.
The Fremont Street Experience - a 200 foot long TV. Awesome.
The golden nugget, and the water slide through the shark tank (yes) at the Golden Nugget.
The famous cowboy sign on Fremont Street.
I'll just have the one, thanks.
Sunday 6th
Sunday proved to be a wholly unusual experience. After another breakfast at Lucky's and another Granola Parfait (I had a foot-wide short stack of blueberry pancakes, for about 90p), we found ourselves standing outside the Stratosphere, Accord-spotting.
Mmm... breakfast...
Wait, Accord-spotting?
Yep, we were due to head out to an as-yet-unknown park with GTP stalwart Danoff, pausing only to collect some food from something called a "Carl Junior" (apparently). Danoff kindly bought me some souvenirs of my American adventure - though it seems he was torn between these and "a gallon of gas"...
We spent a good couple of hours out in the park - the Family Famine, Danoff, Mrs. Danoff and Mini-Danoff, who proved to be a golden retreiver (or "yellow labrador") called Rustle and combined his owners' traits of being cute and willing to get his teeth into anything. I'll leave you to decide which is which - righting wrongs and noting cultural differences. It was amusing hearing Danoff saying Jaguar in English and me replying in American.
Party in the park
After being kindly ferried back to the Stratosphere, we found a Woo of Powah and a Miata soon waiting for us. In order to deter the attentions of some large blokes on bicycles, who appeared to be security, I quickly leapt into the Miata (having been the only adult who didn't get seat time during the Mount Charleston trip) and we set off back to Lou & Andy's for a barbecue.
Apparently something about Paradise Road, the Woo of Powah or the combination thereof didn't agree with the member of our party who was unwell the previous night, as what happened in Vegas took the opportunity to stay in Vegas yet again, out of the passenger window. I was glad of a seat in the Miata, as we took the chance to avoid the sudden obstacles in the road.
The afternoon was spent living the American dream - barbecue, swimming pool, hot-tub (and coffee and strawberries & cream). Most righteous.
Monday 7th
We set ourselves a challenge on Monday. Okay, I set ourselves a challenge. We wandered down to the Las Vegas Monorail station at the Sahara (just to see it, frankly), then hopped onto the Deuce ("No eatin' no drinkin' no sleepin' on the coach - if you wanna stop there's a red button which yo can pooooooooosh") down to the famous Las Vegas sign, where some Japanese-American bikers kindly took our photo. The challenge then was to walk as much of the Strip as possible, while calling in at every major casino and getting a $1 chip from each...
The start of the afternoon's fun...
We set off from the Vegas sign at noon, and by 3pm we'd made it into Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur, Tropicana, MGM Grand, New York New York, Monte Carlo and the Bellagio, just in time to catch the first showing of the fountains that day. By 3.30pm we'd made it into and back out of the Bellagio (for the chip) just in time to catch the second one. At 4pm we'd also done Paris and Planet Hollywood, before meeting up with the MX5OC bunch again for a quick trawl of the shopping centre. We made it to the Flamingo and Caesar's Palace (which proved an absolute bugger to get a chip from) before parting company again, whereupon we managed Imperial Palace, the Mirage, Treasure Island and the Venetian, before meeting up back at the Bellagio for 7.30pm for the first lit fountain show of the evening. Yes, we'd managed SIXTEEN casinos (with proof) inside 8 hours. To go with the chips I'd already got from Circus Circus, the Sahara, the Golden Nugget and, of course, the Stratosphere, that was 20 casinos (19 Strip, 1 downtown). Nice.
The Luxor
The Excalibur
New York, New York
MGM Grand
A view up the Strip from the overpass between Excalibur and Tropicana
Paris, from the Bellagio bell tower
Paris by night
Bellagio fountains by day (Caesar's in the background)
Bellagio fountains by night...
From there we went to Planet Hollywood for a buffet (recommended, but $24 each) and home to the Stratosphere via a very unpleasant taxi journey.
Tuesday 8th
With all the exertions of the previous day, Tuesday was a planned rest day. Having investigated the 8th floor pool earlier in the trip, we headed up there to find that it was closed for "remodelling". Thanks for telling us and all.
Luckily, the hotel has two pools and residents were permitted to use the 25th floor pool instead - much smaller and quieter and with a waaaaaay better view (no photos - no cameras allowed at the pool).
We planned an early night, due to the early flight, so at 4pm we headed across the street to a place called "Ihop". Where I had the best bacon and egg cheeseburger I've ever had (for about 12p).
When we returned to the hotel, we bumped into Lou and Andy, who'd had a brilliant idea - it was still early enough for us to catch a trip to the Hoover Dam. So we all dutifully bundled into the Woo and headed east.
I swear we were on that dam for 10 minutes and it went from daylight to pitch darkness. And damn that's one big dam. Though we were quickly removed by the Hoover Dam Police (what?) as apparently pedestrian traffic isn't permitted after dark. Nevertheless, we got to add Arizona to our list of states visited (Illinois was involuntary). We returned to the hotel about 3 hours after we'd left and everyone was thrown at beds.
Lake Mead from the top of the Hoover Dam
The freeway bridge, under construction, just west of the Hoover Dam
The Nevada side of the Dam from the Arizona side. Look at the ickle cars!
Wednesday 9th
Up at 4am. Oh joy. Checked out and hopped into a taxi to McCarran for 5am for a 7am flight to JFK (incidentally, if you get a taxi in Vegas, try and get the Ford Excursion - I only saw one, and he was brilliant. Friendly, chatty and undercharged - unlike the guy on Monday evening). Amazingly, this one was on time, though again was a 757 seemingly made out of urine and the flight was dogged by turbulence throughout (wing seat plus 757 with winglet upgrade plus turbulence = bowel problems) and we landed at JFK, on time, at 3pm local time. I say "on time"... We landed on time. We were cleared to cross the active runway. We arrived at the gate on time. And waited. And waited. And waited. And then the tannoy went...
"You know folks, it never ceases to amaze me how we can sneak up on them - we're kinda big and loud and all - but somehow we've done it anyway."
Legend.
Leaving Las Vegas - and you can still see the Stratosphere
Flying over the Strip at two thousand feet...
Lady Liberty on JFK approach
Crossing the active runway at JFK
We had about 3 hours to kill at JFK, so went to Duty Free (really tiny duty free section, it has to be said) and to the Deli at the terminal where, from other recommendations, I had a Philly Cheese Steak Hero. With extra Jalapenos. Om nom nom nom.
3 hours later we hopped onto our 767 for transatlantic fun. For the matheticians amongst us, that's a 7 hour flight with a 5 hour time difference - so a 7am landing the next morning. Sleep happened (amongst the "food"), but waking also occurred just in time to see a sunrise from 37,000 feet. Also recommended. Not quite as recommended as being up for 29 hours (21 with time zones)... Bed!
Sunrise over Ireland at 37,000ft
Notes on the USA:
Positives
Courteousness. Vegas isn't exactly the centre of America's honour. Nevertheless, everyone (everyone) was polite. Mini-Cubicle sneezed in a shop and a woman 40 feet away said "Bless you!" to her. If somebody bumped into you they immediately apologised, regardless of whether it was their fault or not. In fact, the only impolite people we met were the professional tramps at New York New York, the people handing out the call-girl cards, the first taxi and the floor manager at Caesar's Palace, who then received a barrage of British sarcasm.
Value-for-Money. About the only thing that costs more in the USA than the UK is a haircut by Elvis. I filled up with petrol in the UK yesterday and it cost me more than all the food I ate in 4 days in the US.
Haircut by Elvis
Cleanliness. I'm not sure what it is they do in the USA, but there's more litter in my front garden in a tiny little hamlet in the middleofnowhere than I saw at any point in Vegas. With the possible exception of hooker-flyers.
Warmth. Okay, Vegas is 20 degrees further south than Sheffield. But even so, the heat in Vegas in April was comparable to the heat in Sheffield in August, but I could have stayed outside all day. No humidity = little sweating = massively increased comfort levels.
Tipping culture. I'm not a fan of tipping, but in the US it seems to actually generate the kind of service tipping rewards. We rarely tip in the UK because UK services are rarely beyond the minimum you expect, but in the US it really is service with a smile. Mind you, with the politeness I mentioned, it might be that this is just the norm...
Negatives
Tax. Though the sales tax is lower in the US than the UK, it's applied on top of displayed prices. In the UK the price you see is the price you pay - having to mentally add 7% to see if you can afford a product is a bit of a bind.
Drivers. Seriously guys... Behave behind the wheel like you do in person please. I've managed to determine, thanks to US drivers, that green light travels much faster than ordinary light, by simple observation of the fact that the instant the light goes green, the guy three cars back honks his horn.
Toyota Prius. Just look it up, folks.
This holiday was brought to you by:
American Airlines
The Stratosphere Hotel, Las Vegas
Mount Charleston Lodge
Danoff
High-resolution versions of pictures for wallpapers are available upon request...
. Glad you had a good time. Las Vegas is always portrayed as America's cess-pool, but I've never heard anyone who didn't have fun there.
Every time I looked down, I saw big, fake.... assets.
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but since Gordon Brown took over, I don't think that's likely! 
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