Golden Adventures with Scarlet: Thursday, 15 September

34F in Flagstaff this morning – jeans and jackets! Left early because it was a 4hr drive on the I-40 west bound. As our friend, Jim, says: ‘East bound with a west bound attitude!’ Fairly uneventful trip across the desert, which in places, looked like something out of Mars landscape. Very dry and lots of red dirt and mountains! Crossed the Colorado River via the new bridge which goes past Hoover Dam and Lake Mead. The lake is very blue, a lovely contrast to the red dirt!

The view of Lake Mead...

I drove the last hour into Vegas on the 93 and the 215 west bound. That was a thrill – six lanes and mad drivers changing lanes at speed without indicating. Thank goodness David navigated, reading the GPS and I just had to avoid everything else!

Too early to check in to our hotel so we went to the outlet mall on the South side. We were starving, so stopped at ‘Five Guys’ burgers and fries. Have never eaten there before – all freshly cooked, made to order burgers. The regular was enormous! Luckily the server let me change my order to a ‘little hamburger’ – LOL – about the size of an Australian Big Mac! Best fries ever! We didn’t have to wait long for our food. About 15 minutes later, the place was overrun with men (a lot of them tradies) lining up for burgers – we were surprised at how many there were – then we looked at the clock and it was midday – of course! We knew then that the food was GOOD!

Surprised David with a photo in Five Guys...

The outlet mall was ok – very, very busy with Australian tourists! Left and checked in to our hotel, which was across the road from our former favourite hotel, it was called the ‘Las Vegas Hilton’ now called the Westgate Hotel. Right across from the Convention Centre (monorail stop) and 2 blocks from the strip!

Checked in and then dressed for adventure out & about! Took the monorail three stops to Bally’s/Paris casinos. Very busy places! I didn’t make it out of Paris casino without a pair of shoes – which David spotted in a window! Bless him! A few things have changed on the strip since our last visit in 2009. More casinos and beautiful gardens. Still as many people as ever but it was pleasant and had a festive atmosphere! Wished we’d booked in to see a show, but maybe next time! You never get tired of seeing the lights and people watching…. Not so many ‘card slappers’ (the people handing out the ‘girlie’ cards) and the ones that were there, were glued to their phones! I just love watching the gondolas, musical fountains, the opulence of the casinos, the beautiful clothes and shoes….