Bubba

I once saw a Bubba Gump store on Santa Monica Pier. They sold cool stuff themed to the Forrest Gump movie. I think there was also a restaurant out back, but we didn't bother.

Well, we did in Vegas. I must say, the Amrikans can certainly do themed restaurants well. This is such a cool place to come. One of the hilights, certainly.

They have this flip device on the table, with two number plates. The one you can see says "Run Forrest Run". When you want a waitress to come see you, you flip it over to show "Stop Forrest Stop". Excellent.

Lots of clever theming.

Lots of nice food.

'Nuf said

No serviettes on the table. A tin bucket with a roll of brown paper towels.

Sarah says they look wholemeal. Alrighty then..

Celine

The next night was the Celine Dion concert.

At the Colosseum at Caesars Palace. Our seats were last minute cheap ones, so we were up in the gods. It took three escalator rides to get up there. Seriously! Three!

Having said that, they were great seats. In the old proscenium theatres, the further up you went, the steeper the rake of the seats. The top tier seats, the gods, were so steep that if you tripped you feel as though you wouldn't touch anything till you went through the stage.

Not here. The rake was the same as the 2 tiers below is. Actually, we were close to the stage than the people in the back row downstairs.

I will admit it. I am a fan. I don't go to meetings yet, but that may come.

I remember the first time I heard Celine Dion on the radio. I had never heard of her, and I actually thought I was listening to Cher. Not many women with strong, powerful voices back then.

It didn't hurt that she did the odd song by Jim Steinman, the guy behind all of the Meatloaf power ballads, and some of Bonnie Tyler's better known ones.

The concert was impressive.

She's been at it for a while now, but the power was all there, and it appeared simply effortless. She's good. Better than ever.

Cirque

Went to the Michael Jackson ONE show at Mandalay Bay. As you know, this was the reason for our trip.

To be honest, it was a little wackadoodle for my taste. Clever. But wackadoodle. No obvious storyline, but they tried to create one that seemed a little forced.

Glad I went, but yeah nah.

Fremont Street Experience

I can't believe I never came here before. It's nuts!

Lots of weird shit going on.

It's almost boring during daylight, but once the lights go on, the neon zombies come out to play.

It's like a slightly sanitised recreation of old Vegas. Given the police presence, it certainly feels a lot safer than Fremont Street would have been in its heyday.

Performers everywhere, from impersonators of Jack Nicholson and Robert De Niro mingling with the crowd for photos, to rock bands on stage, to 4 guys dressed in nothing but KISS makeup, and unfortunately sized little packages. Must have been a cold night. NOT!!

At one point, we walked past a very good sax player jazzing up the crowd. Parked right against the stage was a 300lb woman and her 350lb electric wheelchair. She was standing in front of her chair, dancing. Boogying. Jiving to the music. As the music continued, she danced lower and lower, until when he finished, she was on her knees. I will admit that I didn't help her back into her chair. I was too busy laughing as I walked away.

I would definitely not try to walk back to our hotel at this time of night. Outside the Fremont light show, old Vegas is a dark and scary place.

We caught the SDX bus that had taken us to the Outlet mall behind the airport.

Can't miss it really, can you? There's one going past every 15 minutes most hours of the day, covering the strip and both outlet malls, one at the south end and one at the north.

Las Vegas

Doesn't take long to fly to Vegas.

Then we are waiting at the carousel for our bags. This year, we are taking two bags, both very colourful. There is a cartoon drawing of Paris, with the points of interest all there. We have a set of 3 of them. The first 2, the biggest and the hand luggage, came as a set from Briscoes (Think a really really really small Walmarts). The big one was on sale, and the little one came free inside it. Sarah then found the midsize one at another bag shop. Couldn't walk past it. Sarah, right?

Anyway, CIA satellites can spot our luggage, so we had no trouble.

Out into the Vegas heat to buy our shuttle tickets.The first of many streeeetch limos glide past.

Last time we did this, they give us these cool casino chips as your tickets. One per person, one each way. This time, we got a little book full of deals around town, with a "one way" or "return" stamp on the front. Bah Humbug!

Waiting on the pavement for the shuttle to arrive is a little painful. Some resort to standing in the shadow of street lights for shade. Clearly that would not work for me. Why are those people standing in my shadow? Piss off!!! Bastards!

We get into the A/C of our shuttle just in time, and we are off on a tiki tour to our hotel. A little disorienting, winding around. I lose my bearings a couple of times.

Suddenly there it is. The Vdara Hotel. Very nice. A strange giant palm tree sculpture out the front. On closer inspection, the fronds are canoes. I have no idea!

We are on the 51th floor, overlooking the city and beyond. Nice.

Where the rubber meets the road

There's an interesting process at the boarding gates.


 A series of poles leading away from the gate, at about 10 foot intervals. They are labeled something like 1-5, 6-10, 11-15 etc.

Our boarding passes gave us sequence numbers B40 and B41.

When it's time to board, they call for Group A numbers 1-30. Those people line up in order down one side of the line of poles.Group A 31-60 line up on the other side. So while one group is boarding, the next group is assembling. Quite efficient.

Once onboard, passengers sit wherever they want. First in best dressed.







The crew is very friendly and very relaxed. I sat a couple of rows behind our exit rows, and watched the attendant do the safety briefing. Most airlines have the attendant brief the ABC side, and then repeat everything to the DEFs. And they ask if the passengers are ok with sitting there, given what they have just been told about egress. No protests, move on.

Not Southwest. She got the attention of both sides of the aisle, and told them she would require a yes or no from each of them. She did her talk, and then pointed to each passenger in turn. Yes, yes, yes, yes...Were you not listening, sir?...yes, yes, yes... It's fast, it's fun, and everybody knows that everybody in the exit row heard what they were told.

The safety PA is good too. I remember the last bit, where she was talking about the life-raft (not much need in the desert to Vegas!). She said if it doesn't inflate, then it's just not your day. Succinct.

They give out free drinks (coffee, coke, sprite etc) and sell heavier ones. They make a point of announcing that there are 3 hostess, each with 50-something passengers to serve, and only 46 minutes to do it. Then they come down with pad and eftpos machine to take our orders. No surprises, it's fast and efficient. Then they come back with a tray holding maybe 6-8 drinks, and they know exactly who they're for. The paid drinks first, then us. In no time, everybody had their drink, and then 2 hostess walked the length of the cabin carrying a large tray between then, handing out bags of nuts.

The whole service was done easily within the time-frame, and some even bought a second drink.
By the way, all of that was without those massive trolleys we are used to seeing rolling up and down the aisle, taking out wayward toes and ankles on the way. Impressive service.

Southwest

We got into LAX about noon, and waiting for the shuttle is always the longest part of the journey to the hotel. About 3 minutes on a good day with a following wind.

Because we were up and at 'em, we wanted to go for a wander. The downside to LAX is nowhere to go near the airport.
Last time we took the trolley from the hotels to Manhattan Beach mall, so decided to do it again.
Just for a change, we decided to get off at the beach itself, and had a wander around the shopping precinct and down to the pier.
I have previously gone on about Santa Monica. The pier is great, the suburb is crap.
Actually, it would be fair to say that I think most of LA is crap. Definitely a transit stop only, and only if you have to. This is a fairly universal opinion, not just mine.
But I have to say it. Despite my dislike of LA, I LOVE Manhatten Beach! I really do. I could live here tomorrow. It's just so what LA SHOULD be like. Just beautiful.

But that was just for one night, and the next day it's back to the airport for our flight to Las Vegas.

We arrive at terminal 1, and enter from the far end. That's where the shuttle parks. I eventually figured out that there are 2 queues for Southwest. One for those checking in bags WITH a boarding pass, and those without. We belong with the withouts.
When you get to the front, there is a kiosk screen on your side, and the agent on the other side of their counter. You check yourself in, and the bag tags print out on their side. The boarding passes print out on your side. You put your bags on the scale for them to tag and enter the weights, and then you take the bags back. Say what!?? This is Amrika, and the bags have to go to those TSA guys over there for scanning, before they go on the belt running behind the check-in counters. Mmmm!

Now, a little background on Southwest.
They are a VBA. A Value Based Airline. And a very successful one, at that.
One of the things they do is free-seating. First on gets any seat they damn-well want.

Rather than have a stampede at gates, you get to board in sequence. The sequence you checked in. So those who check-in first, get to board first. That's all very well, but in reality that creates issues. The building can't deal with hundreds of passengers who got there hours early, just to be first to board. Worse, it can't hold all of their luggage, either.
A cunning plan. Check-in online, and you don't have to be there so soon.
You can check in up to 24 hrs before departure time, and you get your boarding pass to print out if you want.

When you arrive, and you have a boarding pass in your hot little hand, then you join the queue on the left.
If, like us, you checked in and didn't have the ability to print, you got to the queue on the right, with those who didn't check in at all.

So back to my check-in. The kiosk asks if you want to get a boarding pass, just check in bags, or both. I chose both, and we are all set. I get the same sequence number I got online last night. So there is no disadvantage to not printing your boarding pass. In fact, the guys in the left-hand queue still had to do exactly what I did, but without printing a pass. Due to human nature's desire to get one up on the other passengers, most people print their own, so that queue is a bit longer than the 'full service' one. Go figure.

AKLLAX

You know, NZ6 from Auckland to Los Angeles is a bloody perfect flight.
It leaves early evening, so you get dinner after take-off, get a decent sleep, and wake up in time for breakfast before landing. Very civilised.
Not sure if I mentioned on our return from the dentist in Bangkok, but we did it via Singapore. And SINSYD is just a little short to get more than 4-5 hours sleep after dinner. You've got to go full coma as soon as you get onboard to have any chance of a decent sleep.

But NZ6 was great. It may be 12ish hours long, but so is 7pm to 7am. Dinner, sleep, breakfast, no jet lag, no problem. LA has actually moved on to 12 noon, so once you land, the locals are doing lunch.
Being 5 hours ahead is pretty easy to deal with, you don't even care that they are a whole day behind as well.

We are staying at the Crowne Plaza again. Nice and handy to the airport. We booked it on Hotwire.com. I'm sure I have mentioned it before, but here it is again for the members of Alzheimer's-are-us.

• Dial into Hotwire, 
• put in the destination and dates you want a room, 
• select the area you want off the map or a list
• pick the star rating you want
• they will give you a price
• pay for it
• they then tell you the name of the hotel.

This trip it's the Crown Plaza at LAX, and the Vdara in Las Vegas. We wanted sour strip because the show is on at The Mandalay Bay, and it's at the bottom of the strip.

I can heartily recommend Hotwire.com, and I can heartily recommend staying at the south end of the strip. Everything worth doing in Vegas is on the strip, and the living part of the strip starts at The Wynn, and goes down to MGM.

You should always be within walking or staggering distance from your hotel, and being able to pop in, drop your shopping and head out again is a huge bonus.

Back to Amrika

Haven't written anything for a while.
That's because I haven't been anywhere that inspires me to write.

I may have mentioned in the past that I am not a Facebook fan, someone who documents for mankind every bowel movement and fleeting thought.

Imagine if Thomas Edison had a Facebook page.
"Attempt 9234 for creating a lightbulb failed today. A sunny day outside."
"Attempt 9235 for creating a lightbulb failed today. A little cloudy outside."
"Attempt 9236 for creating a lightbulb failed today. Raining."

The last of his dedicated followers would have de-friended him long before the successful attempt ever happened.

anyway...

We decided to come back to the States. There is a bigger trip planned in a few months, but this one turned up as a bit of a surprise. We had booked the leave, but weren't sure where to go.
Then Sarah decided that she really wanted to see the Cirque du Soleil show about Michael Jackson in Auckland. Unfortunately she was busy the weekend that it was on.
The only other show is in Las Vegas, so went online to see if that show would be on when we are in the states in Sep-Oct. Probably not.
There's nothing for it, then. A trip to Vegas!

A friend decided to come with, so flights are organised and show tickets bought.

The day before we leave, a colleague who is also heading to LAX on the same flight, says he's off to see Celine Dion the Sunday before we leave. So online we go, and tickets are bought.

And so it begins again...