It’s been a busy week since we returned from a 4 night stay in Vegas, but here’s the blog (better late than never…). We met up with our friends, Aline and Dave, for a couple of days (a midpoint gathering between our yearly Hawaii get together). Speaking of Hawaii, I even found my Kona Brewing beer here in Vegas.
We stayed at Bellagio – great choice, in the heart of The Strip.
The hotel is definitely 5 Star with all the amenities – large gym (didn’t bring our gym gear), multiple pools (a quiet refuge we took advantage of one day), lots of restaurants (delicious and extensive buffet that was included in our stay), and plenty of onsite gambling (great people watching).
The hotel is massive and includes the casino, restaurants, a mall, and The Conservatory. The Conservatory area is changed seasonally and is absolutely gorgeous.
We had a great view from our room; not the strip, but the mountains outside the city. Sunrise was breathtaking.
Aline, Dave and us toured 3 car places while together. First was Nostalgia Street Rods.
We saw a tiny fraction of the private collection of automobiles acquired by Art Goldstrom.
All his vehicles were stored until a few years ago, when daughter Sheri convinced her parents to display some of their vehicles and allow public tours.
We walked around two buildings loaded with vehicles and then went to one displaying Art’s late wife Shirley’s memorabilia collection.
Our next car place was Count’s Kustoms (TV show from the History Channel).
The only person from the show we saw was Ryan. Todd went to take a pic, but was told he couldn’t take pics (after he got a shot in…).
At the entrance was one of Horny Mike’s vehicles seen on the show.
All the vehicles on display were in one large room.
The artwork on these cars is amazing!
Our final car stop was at Welder Up (another TV show – Vegas Rat Rods).
Here they create “Rat Rods” – vehicles that look like old junkers, but they have lots of horsepower. They do a lot of theme vehicle builds, where they re-purpose old parts from anything theme related and use them in their vehicles as something different (example – an antique brass water pressure gauge was used to display Turbocharger boost pressure)
The four of us went to Ellis Island Brewery for dinner one night. While having a beer at the bar (BTW – good cheap beer…), we asked the server if she could put on the Jays game. Apparently their TV needs a colour correction…
Dave put some money in one of the machines and told me to have fun. Little did I know, Aline was taking pics and videoing me! (And yes, I definitely had fun.)
The one morning, Todd and I walked to the Fashion Mall – I wanted to check out the Kipling purse deals at Macys. Throughout the mall were Lego constructions of some renowned US buildings. I had to walk up and look close to believe these were completely made of Lego.
The Vegas strip is a sensory overload, not necessarily in a bad way…
After Aline and Dave left for home, we wandered down to check out the new T-Mobile Arena.
The arena was built for the new NHL team. This will be the first major league team in Vegas, and now they are trying to get an NFL team too. Rumour has it, the new NHL team may be named the Desert Knights. The official name will be released in November.
Right by the arena is a “happening” place called The Park. The area has restaurants, outdoor seating, and some fun games on the walkway like giant Jenga and 3-in-a-Row games, ping pong and outdoor art and more.
While we were there, it was Oktoberfest in the Park. One of the young women handing out beer samples (in her dirndl) asked us if we had heard of Oktoberfest… They even had a band “ The Dummkopf’s ” playing Oktoberfest music. We felt right at home.
The Beerhaus is one of the open-air restaurants in The Park. We had a great time people watching, interacting with others, and drinking some beers – a fun place to hang out…
For dinner one night, we went to the Harley Davidson Restaurant. It was a “bonus” night – we got free beer glasses because we had ordered draft beers and a bunch of fancy bikes began to congregate outside.
One of the bikes we saw parked at Counts Kustoms a couple days ago was even parked outside of the Harley Davidson restaurant.
We weren’t flying out until midnight, so we took up the offer from Mandarin Oriental for a free night stay (offered because of our trip last year), since checkout was at 11 AM at the Bellagio. Parked in front of the MO, was this really “sweet” looking LFA Lexus. (We checked out the price online – starts at $375,000 USD!).
Our time in Vegas was only a few short days, but it was great to once again meet up with Aline and Dave. We will see them again in about 5 months back in Kona. Meanwhile, our next adventure will be in Havana, Cuba for New Year’s Eve…