Thursday May 29th 2008

    This was more of "hang out and look at all the Vegas sights again" day.  We left for the Tropicana to see Follies Bergere (no we were going to see the "covered show" silly person, we have our 20 year old granddaughter with us and she would think we were a couple of old perverts. : ) ).   The follies were great!!  We had one of the booth tables that gave us a really good view of the stage and managed to get our pictures taken as well.  Now is that tourist or what?  The costumes that these gals wear are just fabulous.  I still wonder how they keep those big head dresses anchored to their heads.  I do understand why they walk so straight up.  If not, the head dress would for sure tilt over.  While running around downtown we made sure to stop by the M&M store, the Coke store and New York New York.  You gotta' see these three places!!  The M&M store has every M&M color of the rainbow including those not on the market and more M&M novelty products that I have seen in my life.  This place is 4 stories high and if you tour it for gifts plan on 45 minutes or so.  Right next door is the Coke store which is always a lot of fun too. Unfortunately this time the second floor was undergoing renovation and we missed seeing some of the Coke memorabilia.  The last time we were here on the second floor there was a "Coke" bar where you could get your favorite Coke drink and watch the younger generation get lessons on how to open the old style Coke bottles.  You know, in the old days the Coke bottles didn't just unscrew, they had to be taken off with a bottle opener.  It never occurred to me that the younger generations had never seen the old style bottle.  And of course both the M&M and the Coke store have a VERY good assortment of T-Shirts, pants, pencils, pens, etc. that you JUST GOTTA have!!  We finally got REALLY hungry and decided to splurge at the MGM Rainforest Cafe.  The Rainforest is a little pricy but not unaffordable.  As usual in Las Vegas we were entertained by the decor of the restaurant and watching the rainforest animals come to life every few minutes.  The girls got a kick out of the women's restroom painted like the inside of a rainforest.  The girls also had to stop by and entertain the lions who were for the first time I remember growling and "woofing". 

Later that evening we dropped by the Rio to see their Masquerade Village and Show in the Sky.  It runs hourly from 7pm until midnight and its a fun event.  The show seems to be patterned after the New Orleans Mardi Gras and is complete with dancers suspended below the ceiling on gondolas that appear to be once again decorated with the Mardi Gras themes.  The gondolas run on a track mounted in the ceiling and move around the casino floor while the dancers throw beads out into the crowd.  This is really a fun show and guess what??  There is always plenty of parking at the casino garage.

The Rio Show in the Sky

The Rio theme

Self Portrait - Molly

Tropicana on the left

Molly at the Rainforest

New York New York

The Coke and M&M store across from New York New York

Rainforest ladies room

The girls entertaining Lions at MGM

Friday May 30th 2008

    Another day of touring and checking out Las Vegas.  We decided to get a day pass for the monorail which was a fun experience.  It's good transportation (not the best in my opinion) and in most cases will deliver you to the rear or near most of the casinos on the east side of the strip.  The best transportation remains in our opinion our truck and parking in casino garages.  However, we have been here on other occasions and are familiar with the garages and traffic.  If you go on a busy weekend or holiday the garages are no longer the best option and you will find the streets jammed with traffic.  The other option is "the Duce" which is a bus line running up and down the strip.  Good cheap transportation that will deliver you nearly anywhere on the strip and at Fremont street downtown.  We got off the monorail at Bally's and just ran around the area "rubber necking". Bally's has a really beautiful sculptured garden and fountain area out front that we had missed on previous trips.

      We headed on down to the Venetian which none of us will ever get bored with.  The art and decor are really outstanding.  Be sure and look up at the ceiling as well as down the halls.  The ceiling is painted with murals that are very similar to those done in Michelangelo's era. 

    Just as we walked down the hall there was a big commotion and video cameras following a group of gals arm in arm walking through the crowd. It was a minute or two before Molly recognized them as the girls from the TV series "The Hills". RATS!! We didn't have our cameras ready!! 

    Be sure and go on one of those romantic gondola rides.  We have not done the outdoor gondola but have done the indoor one.  The "river" wanders down through the shopping area, under bridges and among building that appear to be some of those in old Venice.  And then take some time out to search some of the shops, enjoy the wonderful architecture, taste some gourmet food and just do some people watching. 

    Outside near the Madam Trousseaus wax museum there have been displays of the Hollywood notables.  This time it was Nicholas Cage and Whoopi Goldberg and last time we were here it was Whoopi and Elton John.  I didn't know Nicholas was so tall!!

    I don't know if people are aware or not but if you enjoy watching planes land and take off then McCarron airport will be right down your alley.  This is a really busy airport and one of the only airports I know of in the U.S. where you can sit so close to the runway and watch the action.  They have a turnout on E Sunset Road near Escondido where you can park and not only watch the planes but listen to the flight controllers direct airline traffic in and out of the airport.  There is a sign on the fence that gives a frequency you can tune your FM car radio to and listen in on the conversation with the pilots and Air Traffic Controllers.  East of the airport you can turn left on Eastern Ave and park in one of the shopping center parking lots and watch them fly right over your head.  It's almost like you can reach out and touch them.

Bally's garden

A good looking babe on the Monorail

Bellagio

Saturday May 31st 2008

          You know my memory for this time frame got shaky and I lost some of the things we were doing.  Molly drove us downtown and we jumped on the monorail again and headed over to look through some of the casinos and other sights.  It never ceases to amaze me how much foliage these guys can grown in so much artificial light.  Later this evening we found the Town Square shopping center and it was a blast.  This is the shopping center Bartlesville Oklahoma would love to have but they can't figure out how to do it.  Of course it's done up in Vegas style right down to having dog refreshment stations, a super slick motorcycle and a pickup parked on the street with diamond trimmed F-150 trim.  This place has some really unique stores and then it has places like Borders book store.  But,,, this is no ordinary Borders book store.  This thing had more electronic toys you can imagine.  It truly was a candy store for an old tech person like my wife and me.  If you are really into tech stuff there is a Fry's just down the road from Town Square.  If you aren't familiar with Fry's I can describe it as "if they don't have it then you probably don't need it".  Software, hardware, book, cables, and whatever.  Oh by the way,, don't miss getting your picture taken in front of the famous "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign.

Molly and Dee at the Mirage

Molly and G'Pa at the Mirage

Doggie rest station

Sunday June 1st 2008

      We had so much fun at Town Square and Fry's that we decided to go back and do it again.  We got there so late the previous night that we didn't get to see everything.  We decided to treat Molly to an upscale pizza place.  I never realized that there were such things as "upscale pizza places" but this one cost us $40 by the time we got through.

Diamond bling

Children's playground

Monday June 2nd 2008

          For some reason we weren't in any big rush to get out of the Sam's Town RV park and head north.  Maybe we hated to admit it but we kind of got accustomed to all the entertainment at Las Vegas.  But, we had a dinner date at Pocatello Idaho with the parents and brother of Molly's new beau.  The trip up Interstate 15 is a reminder that Las Vegas is in a desert valley and is kept green by all the water they feed it from Hoover Dam.  It's all just a desert!  On the way out of town we passed by the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on our right and were reminded about the big NASCAR and NHRA races that are held here each year.  The climb through the rocky passes getting out of the desert area is really quite pretty.  Big wide highways and an uphill pull for quite a ways.  As we crossed the Arizona state line and into Utah we remembered that the exit to Zion National Park is just north of St. George on the right and what a really unusual and pretty place Zion is.  We were there in June of 2004 and really would like to go back again someday.  As we got further north it didn't take long to start seeing the green flat fields with snow covered mountains in the distance.  The trip up through the middle of Utah and through Salt Lake City gave us lots of opportunity to see the mountains on our right and off to the west you could barely see the Salt Lakes in the distance.  This is really pretty country.

Interstate 15 North

I-15 North

      The trip to Pocatello had taken longer than we though and it was starting to get dark as we approached Pocatello where we planned on staying at the KOA.  We had to hurry a bit as it was getting really late and we had a dinner date with the family of Landon Bell who was Molly's friend.  It was getting really late and we met everyone at a little restaurant nearby and had dinner.  It was really late by the time we finished and bless their hearts, they drove up from Preston Idaho which is a pretty good hike away.

Yellowstone Tour 2008