---

Hi Friends and Family,

This was the day that we were leaving and again, we had to decide where to have breakfast as breakfast was not included in the cost of the hotel and hotel prices were OK but for two adults and one growing child would amount to nothing less than $50.00 and I'm not doin' it!

No way!

So back to the internet / local tourist magazine for up-to-date info and I found something.

In one of the magazine, there was a small advert about a "real" restaurant in the locality that was so good, it was given an award for "best service" in 2010 and is known to have one of the best breakfasts in town. I checked it up via a consumer website called "Yelp" on the internet and it seemed to be true AND the magazine had a 10% dicount voucher too so we decided to have breakfast there en-route our way out of Vegas.

Driving down-town we saw adverts for homes for rent at $199.00 per week: Things were still looking bad on the residential front I guess. On driving further, we saw an American-franchise bookshop called "Barnes & Noble Booksellers".

ST.........OP!

We've gotta buy more books. We're book-readers and "The Small Young Gentleman" was getting bored of sitting in the car and "just looking"! In Britain, we were able to find loads of charity shops where we could buy quality books and many of them classics of the 1960's and 70's, at not much more than 50p in many cases. In America, we never really got the chance to go to "real places" as we were constantly driving from A to B. In that wise, we spent a good hour and a half here with half a dozen books bought at the full retail price. A cost of roughly $70.00.

After getting our books, we made our way to our restaurant of choice called "Egg and I" or "Egg Works".

Its an American restaurant and for once, we got to see "normal" American people. The place was kitted out in a sort of rustic style and had flat-screen TV's around the vicinity on different channels so that you could read the texts.

The service was really quick and we were seated in a twinking of an eye. The manager heard us talking and came over to chat 'cos of our English accents and it was discovered that her name was Victoria too and that she was married to a fellow Brit!

They had a large menu with a childrens's section which proved really useful as "The Small Young Gentleman" was getting tired of fries, fries and fries and we were finding it difficult to order adult meals for him and he eventually not eating it of course, 'cos they're "yuck" or "schmeckt nicht"! Thankfully, they were decent, healthy meals and they even gave us a complimentary banana nut muffin, huge glasses of water and an activity books with coloured crayons, all for free before we had even ordered anything!

You made your order and when you wanted attention, you flicked the panel with an egg face and the waiters would immediately come over. They even changed "The Small Young Gentleman's" order and when he refused to eat it 'cos "it wasn't what he expected and it was also spicy", they were kind enough not to even charge us for it. How great is that?!

I had the ORIGINAL BREAKFAST BURRITO which is a flour tortilla stuffed with four eggs, diced bacon, bell peppers onions, grilled potatoes and cheddar and jack cheese served with a side of ranch potatoes and salsa. It was lovely. I think Frank had the THE EGG - CEPTIONAL OMELETTE which had sausage, diced ham, onions, tomatoes, sliced mushrooms, bacon, and cheese. Capped with sour cream. The portions were absolutely huge and very filling.

I'm not a coffee drinker but Frank was provided with a sole pot of cofee which you used as much as you wanted. He said that the coffee was very, very decent and being a German, he should know!

After such a satisfying breakfast, we had to go but we were distracted by sighting an American superstore called "Target" which we had seen spoofs of on Saturday Night Live (SNL). As we are against the principles and policies of "Walmart", we decided to buy some "on-the-road" stuff here 'cos we were driving onto The Death valley and therefore back to California-ish!

It was a bit of a drive and there was just sand and more sand everywhere.

We got to our hotel the "Furnace Creek Ranch" a few hours later and just in time for dinner but the Ranch only had two restaurants that were suitable for an evening meal but had horrendous prices so we took ourselves to The General Store and got ourselves some "refreshments".

See you tomorrow!

---