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Published: September 8th 2011
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You are going to ask...but what do they have with all these birthdays...The answer is pretty simple, Mari birthday is just two days behind the one of Leslie. So in our little family, we've got a "birthday season"!The tricky part for me, it is the date is also a "shoulder period" for us, the end of long summer holidays, and the back to school requirements! Not that easy to organize huge parties!
Mari never came to Las vegas. The little guys are in the plane, so why not drive the few hours for the last leg of our summer crazy adventure.
We started by a huge traffic jam just to be able toleave LA. What do I mean by huge...well, around 100km without hitting speeds over 40km/h max. Good news, the music is good, the Mustang has the roof out...bad news, we have a show tonight in Las Vegas!
Once the huge traffic jam over, we were not the only one to speed slightly above the speed limit. I hitted 70 miles per hour, and was still way slower than most. The road is pretty amazing. We went up to the desert. Than later on, the sunset stick
with us and amazing colors...and no pictures as I was rushing. We entered Nevada way past sunset, discovery the first night lights of casino "cities" on the way, pretty cool scenes.
I've come to Las Vegas few time, but I never drove here. The first thing you hit is the South end of the Strip, pretty impressive. No time to refresh at the hotel, we drove straight to the Luxor for our show.
Tonight I give you the Cirque du Soleil, aka Chris Angel. Ok, I have to admit, I didn't do my homeworks properly. Chris Angel has nothing to do with any "cirque" or circus. It is a magician show. Excuse my ignorance, but over the last 15 years I haven't spent much time in front of televisions, which can explain my ignorance of who is Chris Angel. The show was pretty cool, but neither Mari or me are huge magician fans. Lessons learnt, on our next visit it will either be the Cirque du Soleil Beattles show, or Le Reve at Wynn!
After the show, we drove the Strip, one more time with the Mustang, or should I say one last time as we had
to return the car the next morning at 8am. After cruising the Strip, we still had to find the hotel, and get some dinner. Note, we were in bed by 3am, and up at 7am next morning to fill the tank of our toy...bye bye nice Mustang. This toy is actually a pretty affordable thing in the States...daily rent including the proper insurance package: around 85usd per day!
We had to return the car at the Venetian. So from there we hit the Strip for a little "hotel run" through the Venetian, Palazzo, Wynn and Encore. Later on, back to the hotel for a well deserved, and short nap. This would be a very long day for Mari and I, a very long birthday day for Mari!
We decided to have dinner in the privacy of our little room. Why? Well, a seafood platter is easy to organize at "home", and we had our prefered Sauvignon Blanc in the bag. Ok, here is the secret, Dog Point, NZ. This wine is pretty unknown, but not for too long. You know Cloudy Bay, well, the guys who are doing Dog Point are the original winemakers of Cloudy Bay...trust me,
this is seriously good wine!
After a "home style" dinner, it was time to hit the town. The challenge...finding a nice bar with a proper wine list where you can smoke your own cigars. Guess what, it's not that easy to find! I used the help of the Concierge of the Mandarin Oriental. They have a wonderful jazz bar, little problem, it's a smoke free hotel.
In Las Vegas you can find all the flashy you want, so if you are after cosy and classy, it's not always that easy. And I was not going to pay 70usd for a "supermarket bottle" worth less than 10usd! So we made it to Andres at the Monte Carlo. I was first a little dubious. The Monte Carlo is not really on my list of "high-end nice hotels on the Strip". But we found there a cigar bar with a beautiful wine list.
Note, finding a restaurant with a beautiful wine list...easy....finding a nice place where to smoke a cigar...that's a challenge!
We made it back to the hotel one more time closer to 3am. Slight trouble, our flight was at 7am...short night, very short night...wine cellar...emptied!
In
Las vegas we didn't sleep much, we walk a lot, we had great wine...and we didn't even gamble much. Las Vegas, we'll be back...
It was time to wish bye bye to the West Coast and 5,000 miles on the road, it was time to go back home. Las Vegas-Los Angeles-Tokyo-Bangkok...we slept a lot!
Our little trip is over. Next summer should see a different kind of adventure....many miles...but no two months on the road!
Thanks for having follow us for the last two months. I promise, I won't publish a "best of" what we did...wouldn't be fair!
And one more thing....Happy Birthday my Love! I love you!
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Veronique Blanc
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Happy Birthday as well
Thank you to make us dream all the time ... I enjoy reading and watching your photos in mornings on my terrace, with my breakfast ... :-) I hope more to come .. the World tour is not over .... Big kiss to both of you Veronique who is going back to Switzerland end of October from Saigon :-))