Oh Fudge, I'm Forty! Vegas Trip - Day 5

[neilhd]

Day 5 - Thursday 12th July

I woke up this morning at 3, but managed to get back to sleep until 6. A lie in!

We headed out at 07:30 to have breakfast, this time choosing the Grand Luxe Café in the hotel, which was actually serving a full breakfast menu now. They seated us at the exact same table by the casino that they had sat us in the first time we came. I suppose they're trying to make it look busy and welcome but we didn't really want to sit there so asked if we could move. They moved us inside - turns out the place is enormous - and gave us a nice booth seat instead. I ordered eggs benedict and Ele some poached eggs and avocado on toast. 2 minutes after ordering our server came back as she had forgotten what I had ordered!

The food came quickly enough and was delicious. We passed on the OJ as it was a ludicrous $6.50 per glass, and the glasses didn't look that big. So with coffee, it came to $40 which was reasonable enough. We charged it to the room and didn't take any pictures of it. A shame because I'm sure nobody knows what poached eggs or eggs benedict looks like.

We went to the Uber pickup point and called an Uber to take us to the car rental centre at the airport. You can hire from most hotels on the strip but the price difference was quite a lot, so it was cheaper to get a cab to the airport and pick it up there. Plus then we can just drop it back when we leave which sorts out how we get back to the airport tomorrow.

The Uber came quick enough and the driver was a nice guy - quite funny. He took a few wrong turns in getting there, as I think really you have to follow car rental return and that was exactly what we weren't doing. Anyway, the journey didn't take long. We were hiring from Alamo and had done all the online checkin bits so we entered the building, ignored all the desks and found the garage.

We had booked a convertible and we soon found that row. The idea had been a Mustang. In the row were several Mustangs, a few Camaros, a Beetle, Buick of some kind and a couple of BMW 4-Series.

Hmm, a decision… the BMWs were probably the "nicest" cars, but it's not really what we came for. It's not really American. I have an Audi at home so another German car wasn't what we were after. So it came down to Mustang vs Camaro. I've always liked the Camaro a lot so was very tempted but in the end we settled on a nice white Mustang. The interior was a lot nicer than the Camaro anyway. We put the roof down and drove to the exit booth. There were no issues and we were soon on our way.

This was the car (taken later at the hotel):

I programmed Waze on my phone for the Hoover Dam, but we pulled off after a couple of minutes to FaceTime Joe and show off the car to him. I discovered I could plug the phone into the car and it would run Waze on the car screen, but it was quite flaky and didn't always actually do the voice guidance, so I had to keep an eye on the screen. For a while it stopped working altogether so we just balanced the phone on the car screen and used that.

The drive took about 45 minutes or so. With the top down it was quite hot and noisy on the freeway, but the novelty was still there! When we reached the Hoover Dam there were conflicting instructions. The Sat Nav said turn left, but the sign said "Hoover Dam - keep right". We decided the sign was probably more likely to be correct so we did that, only for there then to be another sign a hundred yards down the road that indicated the dam was left, and left NOW. Damn signs! We were too late to make the turn so just had to carry on and cross over the bridge that spans the gorge (with very high walls so you can't see anything - presumably for safety reasons!) and cross briefly into Arizona. There was a junction just after so we turned around in there. The car in front of us did exactly the same so at least we weren't the only ones confused.

We entered the dam site and found the dam car-park. The lady there extracted 10 dam dollars from me, then we drove up a few levels and parked the damn car.

There was an elevator to take us back down and when we got out it was dam hot. They had an enormous fan blowing cold-ish air which I stood in front of whilst Ele went to the dam loo. Then we went into the dam shop and bought some dam drinks. Sorry, I'll stop this soon.

We Facetimed Jess quickly to show her and then we walked over to the dam and started across it. The middle point marks the border of Nevada and Arizona. Obviously I had to take a pic whilst standing half in one state and half in the other.

We continued to the end on the "high" side, then crossed over and walked back over on the "low" side.

It's dam impressive, and hard to take a picture that does the scale justice as the angles are always quite narrow. Very cool to see such an icon of a place.

Lake side:

Dam side:

Don't fall:

We went down into the dam visitor centre, but there was a huge queue for the dam security so we decided not to bother and instead went back into the dam shop where we bought some more dam drinks, some dam snacks and a dam golf ball for Joe.

With that we were done, so we went to the dam loo again, caught the dam elevator back up to the car and left the dam place.

That is officially the end of the extremely un-funny dam jokes.

We decided to keep the top up for the drive home and it was just absolutely baking. This turned out to be a very wise decision as 20 minutes into our drive the heavens opened and we got a full-on Florida-style thunderstorm. Loads of people pulled off the road. Driving in heavy rain doesn't bother me (nor any of you I imagine - we are English!) so I carried on. A minute later my phone blared through the car at full volume warning us of a Flash Flood alert! In one or two points there was water pouring across the road, and a river did seem to be forming alongside the road at one point. I guess they don't really have the drainage and the ground is too hard to deal with it well.

There's a storm a-brewin'…:

We kept on going and within 10 minutes we were clear of the storm and back into sunshine. The temperature had dropped about 20 degrees during it, but rocketed back to full force as soon as we were out of it.

I was craving coffee by this point and we saw a sign on an exit for a Starbucks so we followed that and went through the drive-through. Suitably caffeinated we headed on to the Premium Outlets (the North ones).

Parking was $5 and we had to go up a few levels. We then had to wait about 3 hours for the elevator to come but we made it in eventually. I'd printed the normal coupons from the website and also got a thing that entitled me to a discount booklet at Guest Services. That was basically the first thing we came across so we popped in there and picked it up. It basically seemed to be the same as the printed coupons, but was easier to manage.

We came across a Sketchers and went in. I was thinking of a pair of slip-on Go-Walks, but I the end I preferred a slightly different one with memory foam in them. I don't think they'd be good for me for an all-day theme park marathon as they aren't supportive enough (I have very flat feet!) but they'll be good for an evening. Ele bought a pair of slip-on Go-Walks too. I also bought some socks, which I'm sure you'll find very exciting.

Next up Ele wanted to go to Maidenform, as she always likes the bras in there and always gets a few whenever we're in an outlet in the States. So I sat outside in the shade whilst she went in. I am not kidding - she was in there for 45 minutes. I've spent less time than that choosing a mortgage. She eventually called me in to pay as I had all the bags and money on me. It was a small fortune but she was happy and she got quite a few. She asked me if I liked them. I've said it before, but that's like asking me if I like the wrapping paper on a present. It's fine to have nice paper, but I'm much more interested in what's inside!

We walked down to Under Armour with the intention of buying some golf clothing. I got some trousers, a shirt and a belt, and we got Joe some trousers and a shirt too. Ele bought a gym top.

Next up was North Face. I really needed a waterproof winter coat to replace my old one that I bought several years ago in Florida, as that one fits the gap in my wardrobe between "really smart and lovely coat that isn't waterproof and has no hood" and "incredibly warm coat that weighs a ton and is only really suitable if it's -10C out". I tried on a load of coats, dismissed some of them because they were too expensive, and in the end settled on one I was pleased with, for a very good price. We looked for Joe too but couldn't find anything suitable in his size. We did find him an excellent rain coat though, and Ele got one too. In the end, with the extra discount voucher that gave us loads more off, my "big" coat and the 2 rain coats only came to £175. Good bargain there!

Laden with shopping we went into Levis. I picked up a pair for myself and my brother, not bothering to try mine on as I knew the size and style I wanted. It's also kind of satisfying that my brother - who is 4 years younger than me and still a skinny little git - has upped his sizing requirements from 32" to 34". Ele picked up a pair or two and found some shorts in the sale. With our money-off coupon that we had it turned out we were slightly under the threshold for an even bigger discount, so Ele quickly got a couple of t-shirts that were 2 for $20 to give to Jess's boyfriend.

We could hardly carry everything now, so we called it a day. We did stop in at Fossil though, as Joe had requested we buy him a nice wallet. It was the only thing he asked for. When we asked him on the phone if he wanted anything else he said "oh, can I really have something else as well?". He can be so sweet sometimes. Only sometimes though! We found him a nice soft leather wallet in there that was really quite cheap. He loves it!

We headed back to the car and back to the hotel. I was going to valet park but decided to just self-park. Self-parking is free at the Venetian (even for non-guests). We went up a few levels and found a space easily enough. Carted the stuff back to the room and chilled for half an hour before showering and getting dressed for dinner. We were going to Tao in the Venetian. It's a kind of Asian-fusion restaurant that had been recommended to us by 2 different people. It also has some kind of nightclub but we're not interested in that!

We walked to it (which took about 15 minutes as it's miles away!) and got seated immediately. The interior is amazing with a giant Buddha and lots of other lovely touches like the huge brick wall full of alcoves with candles in them, and for some reason I took no pictures of it at all, apart from this bathtub in the entrance:

The menu was mouth-watering. You may have noticed a lack of lunch on today's report, so we were starving! We ordered some drinks (beer for me, Mohito for Ele) and perused it. In the end we settled on the satay chicken as a starter and crispy orange chicken, Thai duck fried rice and Pad Thai with shrimp.

The starter came quickly and was amazing. Then the main courses arrived. They were incredible. The duck fried rice especially. It was also waaaaay to much food. Like "our server should have told us that’s too much" sort of food. Still you always over-order in these places right? We did what we could but certainly didn’t finish it all. The bill, including another beer, came to $115. A fantastic meal in a fantastic restaurant. Can't recommend it highly enough.

Much food:

We waddled out and rolled our way back to the casino to play a few slots. I had arranged to meet an old friend of mine who now lives in Vegas for some drinks later and the plan was to meet "in the casino" which is pretty much like saying "let's meet in London".

We won a little bit on Wheel of Fortune ($20 or so), then won another $10 on Sphinx 4D on the first spin so cashed that out immediately.. We then lost all of that and another $20 on another game that I forget the name of but was quite fun and then put another $20 into Sphinx 4D. After a few spins I hit the bonus feature and at that exact moment spotted my old friend Gareth and his (American) wife, Lacy, walking across the casino floor. This led to a slightly awkward reunion as I was mid-game! We said a few hellos and introductions - I had last seen him about 20 years ago! I then returned to the machine quickly and they had obviously bought me some luck as I did the bonus feature and got almost $60 out of it. I cashed it out immediately, went to the ATM with my ticket and got the cash and we went to the nice-looking posh bar by the Casino floor.

We got given a table with a couple of sofas. We ordered drinks - beers for the boys, G&Ts for the ladies and spent a good couple of hours catching up. The girls had a good natter and seemed to get on fairly well which was good seeing as they were strangers!

The bill seemed to be quite pricey. Gareth tried to pick up the whole thing but I wasn't having that and chipped in half. It was really good to catch up with an old friend, even if the music kept getting louder and louder so we were pretty much shouting at each other by the end!

We got the bouncer to take a picture of us all and said our goodbyes. We were in bed by 11pm - dirty stop-outs!

[WileyCoyote]

Nice wheels there and a dam fine morning I must say. V hot. And high. And hot.
Some storm you headed into there... biblical even !
Sounds like top shopping too. Do you think the outlets were as good as Florida ? Sounds like you scored some bargains
As well as scoring on the slots
And OMG that dinner looked amazing. Once you get over the bath at the entrance obvs. Seriously I could eat that now. Looked and sounded delish .
And rounded off with drinks and old friends. Brill.

[neilhd]

Originally Posted by WileyCoyote

Nice wheels there and a dam fine morning I must say. V hot. And high. And hot.
Some storm you headed into there... biblical even !
Sounds like top shopping too. Do you think the outlets were as good as Florida ? Sounds like you scored some bargains
As well as scoring on the slots
And OMG that dinner looked amazing. Once you get over the bath at the entrance obvs. Seriously I could eat that now. Looked and sounded delish .
And rounded off with drinks and old friends. Brill.

See more...

Shopping is probably not as good as Florida. It's definitely smaller and some shops didn't have such a good choice. Still bargains to be had though.