This is a long one team, but plenty to update you upon.
The West Coast road-trip in the Beige Bullet continued back towards Los Angeles with a return south along the Pacific Coast Highway to the Monterey Peninsula to take a look at the famed Aquarium. While overrun by a thousand hyped up kids courtesy of Easter deliveries earlier that morning (think of a school camp for 1,000 ADHD kids) the aquarium itself was pretty impressive. While most visitors seemed focused on a couple of sea otters swimming in circles, we found the jellyfish extremely beautiful, and really enjoyed the outer water exhibit featuring some massive yellow fin tuna, sunfish and hammerhead sharks.
The West Coast road-trip in the Beige Bullet continued back towards Los Angeles with a return south along the Pacific Coast Highway to the Monterey Peninsula to take a look at the famed Aquarium. While overrun by a thousand hyped up kids courtesy of Easter deliveries earlier that morning (think of a school camp for 1,000 ADHD kids) the aquarium itself was pretty impressive. While most visitors seemed focused on a couple of sea otters swimming in circles, we found the jellyfish extremely beautiful, and really enjoyed the outer water exhibit featuring some massive yellow fin tuna, sunfish and hammerhead sharks.
From here, we took the Beige Bullet onto the private ‘17 Mile Drive’ which winds around the Monterey Peninsula, taking in some magnificent golf courses, rugged coastal scenery and some local flora and fauna. Among the stops we made was a chance to view the lone Cypress (famous Californian landmark) and the Pebble Beach Golf Club which was home to the 2000 US Open. Happy to report that despite the illustrious nature of this course, beautiful scenery and exorbitant green fees, that Sunday hackers still get a shot at 18 holes. The four we watched coming up the 18th may have looked the part in their gears, but after all four sprayed their shots short of and round the green from 70 yards, we realised this four had probably got there money’s worth in terms of the shots/green fees ratio. The scenic drive terminated in the town of Carmel by the Sea, where Clint Eastwood was recently Mayor.
We were forced to grab a night in Bakerfield California (think of the Tron (Hamiltron) on roids) en route to Vegas. The Econo-Lodge stepped up for us with a room for $39.99 including a free continental breakfast, a treat we woke to early in anticipation of. Our dreams of fresh fruit, bacon, hotcakes and hand squeezed orange juice by the pool were shattered however when we were presented with a cardboard box at reception containing some 5 day old danishes and were pointed in the direction of a filter coffee machine in the corner.
From Bakersfield, we traveled north east to the City of Sin, Las Vegas. This place is outrageous but definitely worth the visit. We stayed in the heart of the strip at ‘The New Frontier Hotel and Casino – Cold Beers, Dirty Girls’. Built in the late 70’s, located in front of the new Trump Tower and themed on the wild west, this gem offered a $49 room (which was actually very impressive) and amongst the attractions had 10pm mud wrestling, midnight topless mechanical bull riding and the only Bingo on the strip.
We had a crack at the Bingo competition - $100,000 for a cover all in the last game if done in 47 balls or less (that’s bingo lingo for those playing at home). We we’re surrounded by chain smoking bingo veterans, and made a couple of amateur mistakes, informed halfway through the first game that we would be disqualified for using non-regulation markers! No wins for us, though Mat came up two short on the final cover-all. We were more successful on the Black Jack table, where again despite some amateur moments, we ended up $20.
Apart from the myriad of casinos on offer, Vegas is a show town and we found ourselves with an abundance of shows to attend – Elton John at Caesers Palace, the Artist Formerly Known as Prince and now known as Prince again at the Rio, the Blue Man Group at the Venetian, Roseanne at New York New York. In the end, we passed on the Hoffortunity to see The Hoff (David Hasselhoff for those older readers – Knightrider, Baywatch) starring in ‘The Producers’ in preference for one of the many Cirque du Soleil shows on offer – ‘Ka’.
Words cannot begin to explain how amazing this show was, and because no cameras were allowed in, we have no pictures to help either. In essence though, this show took the magic of any Cirque du Soleil performance (acrobatics, high wire trapeze & bungee, elaborate costume) and combined it with a set that encompassed the whole theatre and a stage on hydraulics that could rotate 360 degrees and swing 180 degrees from flat, to vertical and back to flat. I’m sure the Hoff would have been good too though...
We took a day out from Vegas to pop across to the Grand Canyon. At this stage, we should pass comment on the US travel plans, which were based on a googled map of the entire US with 4 cities labeled, on which Mat had put dots where he thought places were, and drawn red lines to represent roads. In reality, there are no direct routes featuring Vegas or the Grand Canyon, so Mat’s hypothesized 1.5 hour each way drive to the Canyon from Vegas was actually a 500 mile excursion taking an entire day, with an hour on site at the Canyon.
Now when they named it the Grand Canyon, they were not lying (and thus an hour on site didn’t really do it justice). We did manage to cover a few of the vantage points with the help of the Beige Bullet’s streamline uphill abilities, and even managed to see some wildlife – a Coyote which looked capable of stealing a baby. If we are ever to return to the US, we’ll be making sure we set aside a few days to park the Beige Bullet and actually trek in the Grand Canyon. We did manage to get the tripod out and use the self timer on this gem of a family portrait!!
We took a day out from Vegas to pop across to the Grand Canyon. At this stage, we should pass comment on the US travel plans, which were based on a googled map of the entire US with 4 cities labeled, on which Mat had put dots where he thought places were, and drawn red lines to represent roads. In reality, there are no direct routes featuring Vegas or the Grand Canyon, so Mat’s hypothesized 1.5 hour each way drive to the Canyon from Vegas was actually a 500 mile excursion taking an entire day, with an hour on site at the Canyon.
Now when they named it the Grand Canyon, they were not lying (and thus an hour on site didn’t really do it justice). We did manage to cover a few of the vantage points with the help of the Beige Bullet’s streamline uphill abilities, and even managed to see some wildlife – a Coyote which looked capable of stealing a baby. If we are ever to return to the US, we’ll be making sure we set aside a few days to park the Beige Bullet and actually trek in the Grand Canyon. We did manage to get the tripod out and use the self timer on this gem of a family portrait!!
Back in Vegas, and with finances a bit stretched, we took up an offer (of which we’d been made on every street corner in Vegas) to attend a Time Share presentation in return for US$100 in vouchers at the Luxor and US$100 for the pokies at the Royale. We also got a voucher for a cruise in the Bahamas and a ‘Continental Breakfast’ during the presentation (though this one had fruit juice and donuts as well as danishes). We were a bit worried about what we’d signed up for, but Randy Weir of the Grand View Las Vegas soon put our minds to rest. Randy was a college ball player that hadn’t made it to the pro’s because of injury, and set about selling us on a time share unit that he and his pretty little wife had also invested in.
The beauty of buying in Vegas, we learned, was that we were buying at the top of the pyramid – always high season and the world’s largest tourist destination. This would enable us to buy low and sell high. We then took a drive in his pick up truck to the apartments, only 60 minutes walk from The Strip. When we questioned the location - because he told us that buying in Vegas was location, location, location – Randy suggested that the Strip would eventually expand the 12 miles out to where the apartments were located. Two hours later, we got the price – US$19,000, but for us, only US$14,000. When we turned this down, we were taken to another room to complete a survey where the price dropped to US$5,000. We now own a one bedroom apartment for one week a year on the 3rd floor below…
The beauty of buying in Vegas, we learned, was that we were buying at the top of the pyramid – always high season and the world’s largest tourist destination. This would enable us to buy low and sell high. We then took a drive in his pick up truck to the apartments, only 60 minutes walk from The Strip. When we questioned the location - because he told us that buying in Vegas was location, location, location – Randy suggested that the Strip would eventually expand the 12 miles out to where the apartments were located. Two hours later, we got the price – US$19,000, but for us, only US$14,000. When we turned this down, we were taken to another room to complete a survey where the price dropped to US$5,000. We now own a one bedroom apartment for one week a year on the 3rd floor below…
Just kidding, but we did get the vouchers which we exchanged for cash. Sweet deal. Randy was a bit miffed we didn’t buy. He had said that one in four buy - two of the others are stupid and one doesn’t have the money.
Next update will follow our 5 days back in Los Angeles. Love to all and go the Black Caps whom we will be seeing in 10 days time.
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