What could have been the end of a lovely relationship

Our flight was due in the evening so we were supposed to be at LAX around 19:00. 500 km drive from Las Vegas to LAX should not be a problem. So we thought. We took our time to wake up and pack our bags as we thought that the boring drive through the desert would be... boring. We didn't have breakfast as we planned to stop somewhere.

We stopped at the Nevada-California border to have breakfast at the Whiskey Pete's Casino. Maybe some last rounds of slot machines.

We took off and everything went smoothly until this here. Just as the highway started rise towards to mountains, all three lanes stopped. We would spend the next 2 hours driving the 10 km stretch up the slope. Tensions in the car started rising but neither one of us started the blame game. We knew that it would cost us another set of one-way-tickets if we missed our plane. When we reached the top of the pass, we saw that a truck load had been fallen over on the road. And right when we reached the site of the accident, the traffic started moving again. If we'd make it to Los Angeles in time, we would be there just in time for the rush hour. Of course hopefully driving against the traffic. We couldn't afford to miss any exit. And then we missed an exit and had to take a 10 km reroute.

Diamond lane to the rescue: Car pool lanes were mostly empty as people drive usually alone. We had to google how many people are needed in the car to be allowed to drive the diamond lane. It only required 2 persons so we were OK to take the empty lane while all the individual drivers were stuck in traffic.

Two more things to do before the airport: fill the tank and return the car to the rental lot which would be somewhere near the LAX but a bus ride away anyway. I decided to skip the gas station and pay whatever it costs to return the car with an empty tank. Luckily the guy who handled the paperwork at the rental return was kind enough to mark the tank fuller than it actually was. I gave him ten bucks.

During the 7-hour ride from Vegas to LAX neither one of us blamed the other for any delay. There were several occasions where either Minna or I could have said something about being late or missing the exit but we kept our cool and didin't start a fight in the middle of the drive. This was really a proof of the strength of our relationship. And we caught our flight eventually so the fight would have been premature anyway. We didn't manage to send the post cards though. There just wasn't enough time to find a mail box.

It really is a god damn dam

There are several day trips available from Las Vegas. The grandest of them all is of course the Grand Canyon. However, in order to see it properly you will either have to rent a helicopter from Vegas or stay overnight closer to the canyon. As Las Vegas was just a side step on our trip to LA, we wanted to give Grand Canyon the time it deserves, sometime later. So it was either Death Valley or the Hoover Dam. I remember when I had a summer job in the US, some of my fellow summer workers got a job in Death Valley while I lived and worked in the Boston area. Even Boston was hot enough during the summer. Hoover Dam was closer so we drove there.

To our surprise there were two things there which were amazing: the dam itself as well as the bridge. In the movies you usually see people driving across the dam itself but actually the highway doesn't run on top of the dam but there is a huge bridge next to the dam. Mike O'Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge clearance is 270 m. So you could almost fit the Eiffel Tower between the bridge and the Lake Mead.



The Hoover Dam is so famous that ticking it off from the bucket list while in Vegas is worth the 50 km drive.

Breaking the Las Vegas rule

I am going to be the first one in human history to break the famous "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas"-rule. The following really happened in Vegas:

My must-sees in Vegas are:

• The Pinball Hall of Fame
• The Neon Museum
• The Strip
• A buffet
• A show
• A casino or two

and last but not least:

• The Fremont Street

The first experience is of course the Arrival. Ours was like this:

Accommodation: We chose to stay in the MGM Grand. We booked the room from hotels.com and it cost 63 €/night. A bargain compared to LA. A small drawback was the resort fee which hotels.com didn't mention but apparently is standard practice even if booked from elsewhere. The room didn't have a view to the Strip but who cares. Also free parking was available.

The gamble: Slots everywhere. Mostly table games had a minimum bet of $10 or even more. If you had a black jack or a roulette with less than $10 minimum, the table was "automatic" without a live dealer. We played slot machines. The sound was hypnotic. Whenever you won, you just couldn't stop playing because of the ring. The drinks were free as long as you sat by a machine. While I was away getting my membership card, Minna hit the jackpot. With a 1 cent bet, it wasn't really a lot of money but it was a lot of ringing.

Neon museum is also called the Neon Boneyard. It's the place where the neon signs go to die. Or actually to get refurbished and their stories told. Book your slot beforehand and remember that the tours fill up very quickly. You will need to attend a tour as the guest are constantly supervised and cannot explore the museum on their own. This is really a must-see as it has some of the signs of long gone casinos and landmarks.

The show: We tried to book seats for O Cirque du Soleil through the internet but for some reason the transaction didn't go through. So we had to walk to Bellagio to find out that the show was fully booked. However, if you will wait in line 1 hour before the show, there may be some leftover seats. The thing is: you don't know which seats you're going to get and especially how much they are. Or you will end up queueing for an hour and the show is sold out anyway and you just spent an hour in the queue for nothing. As we wanted to get the show-box ticked as soon as possible, we waited in line and got quite good and reasonably-priced tickets, if you can call them reasonably-priced in the first place as they are always very expensive.

The buffet: Based on a thorough investigation on the Internet, we chose The Bacchanal at Ceasars Palace with a wine package. We soon realized that we could have left out the wine package as there was so much to eat that drinking wine at the same time would be too much. Even eating was too much. Stone crabs, sushi, shrimps, jumbo shrimps, meats, pizza, you name it. Come dessert and you will feel sick.

The silver ball: I knew there had to be pinball arcade in Las Vegas and really there was a good one: The Pinball Hall of Fame. Lots of games, lots of modified games (for example Scared Stiff with colored animations as opposed to my original orange-colored animations) and lots of rare games. Even Space Mission which I had played last time in Pekan Baari when I was 10 years old. And of course Kiss (Bally)

On the way to the city which made Hangovers totally acceptable

I have always wanted to go to Vegas. Not only to gamble (mainly because Minna doesn't let me) but to see the atmosphere but also the Stratosphere. The drive from Los Angeles to Las Vegas was absolutely amazing...ly boring. However, worth to do at least once.

The distance is about 450 km. We stopped twice. The first stop was in Calico Ghost Town which was kind of a disappointment. It wasn't actually a Ghost Town, just a tourist attraction. You basically had to pay an entrance fee to a streetful of shops where you could by some tourist junk. 

The next stop was right after the border of Nevada. Primm Outlets. It was a mini-Las Vegas with gambling, shopping and rides for families whose children have turned their parents crazy so that their dad doesn't want to drive any further. Only 72 km to go.

Hollywoodland

Breakfast at the Farmers Market and then off to see the stars and sights. Farmers market was an excellent place for street food. We chose hot dogs.

First up the hill to the Griffith Observatory in the footsteps of James Dean and Natalie Wood. The Griffith Park is the best location for the pictures of Hollywood sign. It is still not very close to the sign though but a long lense will make it look closer.

And a fellow tourist offered his help and took a picture of both of us, just like Natalie and James.

The afternoon was spent by walking over the stars of Hollywood Boulevard and driving the famous Mulholland Drive with a Homes of the Stars map.

View from Mulholland Drive

Just a TV's throw away from the Strip

And we drove back to LA through Malibu and its famous beach. I had booked the hotel on the Sunset Strip: Andaz West Hollywood. The hotel is next to Rainbow Bar and Grill and Whisky a Go Go plus further down the road Troubadour. Andaz West Hollywood is the place where Led Zeppelin, The Who and The Rolling Stones used to stay and throw TV off the balconies. The Strip was just a TV's throw away from our room. 
This is the hotel where Robert Plant claimed to be the Golden God. Unfortunately the Strip didn't seem to be what it used to be in the 80's when Guns and Roses and Mötley Crue hung around. I didn't see any strippers, no drugs. Rockers yes, Michael Schenker was on at Whiskey a Go Go. Unfortunately I wasn't prepared and didn't have the tickets.
And, the first piece of luggage had arrived to our hotel only five days after we had arrived. Free wine tasting in the lobby and half of our luggage. I loved this place. They even had e-check-in service: check in online and they will send you an email when the room is ready. Parking was bit on the expensive side, though.

To Los Olivos and back

We took the scenic route today and drove to the wine country (not Napa, though) through highway 154. Great views and excellent weather. Did some sipping in Los Olivos too. Los Olivos was the nicest of the towns we visited today and the two others (Lompoc and Buellton) were not worth a visit at all. 

Apparently Sideways was filmed somewhere close so we had a Pinot Noir tasting. Clearly very different grape from what we've been used to. http://site.thelosolivostastingroom.com/Menu.html There was of course plenty to choose from. The tasting cost $20 and you got at least 8 different wines. We also bought one called Wrath. It was from Monterey, so not that close but I got the Steinbeck reference.

Lonely Planet recommended a visit to La Purisima mission http://www.lapurisimamission.org/ so we did visit it. It was part of the El Camino Real and had been renovated during the depression after been abandoned for a long time. 

On the way back to Santa Barbara we sampled more of the PCH scenery.

We also visited a used car dealership.

Yesterday I noticed that the colours of my pictures really didn't portray California as well as they could have. That's why I started using filters today. This is how I always imagined California to look like. Saturated colourse from the 60's and 70's.

Santa Monica, Santa Barbara and Santa Claus

We left Santa Monica yesterday. The hotel had the best location right by the beach but it was also quite expensive with our own sea view patio and all. We took the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) to Santa Barbara. Driving this highway has been my childhood dream. Unfortunately we don't have time to drive all the way to San Francisco.

Santa Barbara is the center of the Los Angeles wine country so we will be doing some sipping today.

And we passed Santa Claus Lane in Carpintiria. 

One of our baggages has been Processed for Delivery, so there may be hope in getting it back before we will fly back.

Shop until US Airways returns our baggage

Today we've been mostly replenishing our supplies. The baggage is in God knows where and I am running the second day with the same underwear. I managed to wash the undies yesterday thanks to the soap bar, which felt like plastic, and Value Inns hairdryer. For tomorrow I have a clean set of everything because we did some shopping in http://www.citadeloutlets.com/

The worst thing though is that I am running out of power. I know now how Mad Max the Road Warrior felt. I had a back-up battery for the phone, two chargers (mains and 12 V) and a charging cable, all in the check-in luggage. I bought a 12 V charger today for charging the phone while I am driving. I have the offline maps of California in my Lumia 1020, but apparently Here Drive software eats a lot of juice because the phone is in power saving mode after navigation, even if it is plugged in to a charger. So driving doesn't get my phone charged. And I am expecting a phone call from my airline. I have diverted the calls to Minna's phone now.

Tomorow is Wednesday. We're in Santa Monica now. In the http://baysidehotel.com/, with a seaview. And my car is parked in a place where it is forbidden to park between 7 am and 9 am on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. After 9 am it is possible to park for 5 h. But because tomorrow is Wednesday, the car has to go somewhere for two hours. And, what I've noticed, most of the parking spaces are like that.

We took a 5-minute walk to the end of the road today. Route 66, The Mother Road. I need to reread The Grapes of Wrath. Santa Monica Pier looked exactly like in the movie 1941 http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1941_(film), except that the roller coaster was intact. I played a game of The Getaway http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=1000 in the arcade because there was a broken bumber (insider tip from a fellow gamer) in the Addams Family http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Addams_Family_(pinball).