Ultimate Road Trip Southbound - Recap
Since we were downsizing as we unpacked in our new condo we put aside a plastic bin to capture items we thought we might need in our temporary accommodations over the winter.
This bin was not meant to be unpacked until we were settled in a condo. It remained in the car until Sedona.
Some of these items were:
Portable toothbrush charger - we had two so one stayed in Toronto.
External hard drive - it has backups of our photos that would provide projects over the winter such as scrapbooking.
Winter gloves, hats and mitts - in case of storms on the road south or north bound.
Extra kitchen supplies - we had extras of dishwasher tablets, aluminum foil, baggies, j-cloths etc.
Extra bathroom items - medicines, creams etc again extras from home that might come in handy and also a good way to reduce all the extras we had.
Night lights from the dollar store - handy in hotel and condo bathrooms to find your way during the night.
We packed a small bag that contained a few days' clothes and personal items that we would take into our hotels during the drive.
A cooler (thanks K and B) for any food items such as cheeses and bread that we bought along the way either for dinner in a hotel when we didn't feel like going out or for lunch on the road.
We also had all our electronic paraphernalia with us, cameras, laptops, iPad, e-reader and all the associated converters and plugs. We wanted/needed to have access in the same manner as at home.
We considered bringing a printer but decided we didn't need it.
We left on Monday November 26, 2012 with plans to be in Sedona AZ by Saturday December 1. On the 26th we left at 10:30 and here is a recap of the first day. After crossing the border into New York we then entered Pennsylvania We spent the night in Springfield Ohio.
Day 2 we left Springfield OH early morning, crossed into Indiana, Illinois where we stopped to see the World's Largest Wind chimes, Missouri and spent our 25th wedding anniversary in Jefferson City, Missouri.
Day 3 we woke in Jefferson City, MO and had lunch in Claremont OK and made Clinton OK our stop for the night.
Day 4 we realized that we were making excellent time so decided to slow down and enjoy some of the sights on the way. We spent time at the Route 66 Museum in Clinton OK.
We spent the day meandering across Oklahoma and into Texas making many stops along the way. Our destination for the night ended up being Amarillo Texas as we realized that the Big Texan had a motel.
Day 5 started out in Amarillo TX and we traveled into New Mexico again taking our time.
We lodged in Gallup NM for the evening after crossing the Continental Divide.
Day 6 we spent the morning sightseeing in Gallup NM. Then it was time to head to our first stop Sedona AZ.
We made a stop for lunch in Winslow AZ to revisit "Standin' on the Corner".
We sailed into Sedona in time for our check-in at Diamond Resorts Ridge on Sedona Golf Resort.
Day 7 and we're quite pleased not to be packing up the car and getting on the road for a week.
One of the week's highlights was a hot air balloon ride.
A recap of our seven days in Sedona.
DAY 1
November 2012
Our plan for this winter is to get in the car and head for Arizona and Nevada. We booked some timeshare in Scottsdale but this got cancelled due to some other requirements (another post). We have a week booked in Sedona and then a week in Las Vegas. Then we have a condo rented for two months and then plan to head to Mazatlan for two weeks before flying back to Vegas and then leisurely, no plans, drive back home.
We left Toronto on Monday, November 26 and stopped to visit friends who have kindly offered to keep an eye on our home while we are gone. After a great visit, with muffins thrown in for the drive, we left at 10:30 and headed to the US border which was much busier than we envisioned on a Monday morning.
Once we were through we passed through Buffalo where there was snow!
We crossed into Pennsylvania early afternoon. We decided not to stop for lunch but rather just grabbed subs and ate them on the drive.
The plan is to get as far as we can in the first few days so that we can slow down and enjoy some heat and sunshine once we are further south/west.
Next state was Ohio.
We headed towards Columbus and arrived in Springfield Ohio around 6PM and checked into the Hampton Inn. The room was nice and we decided to go out and get some cheeses and wine for dinner as we were surrounded by fast food joints.
DAY 2
We woke up in the Hampton Inn in Springfield Ohio on our second day. At 7AM it was pitch dark, somewhere we had gained an hour when we crossed into CST.
We ate breakfast at the hotel as it was included and then headed out around 7:45.
Our aim today is to head towards St. Louis Missouri and stay on the other side. That meant heading towards Indiana and Indianapolis.
The sun is shining. It is 1 degree Celsius or 37 F. This part of the country is farmland and extremely flat.
Then we crossed into Illinois.
We stopped in Casey IL to visit the world's largest wind chimes and to stretch our legs.
The Bank of Casey, going to bat for you.
World's largest wind chimes.
The town was dressed up for Christmas.
There were yellow ribbons tied to the lamp posts for their soldiers serving overseas.
Since we had bought bread, ham and cheese last night we decided to just make sandwiches as we drove.
We then were outside St. Louis Missouri.
We were able to get some great shots of the Arch as we drove by St. Louis.
We continued on our way to Jefferson City, state capitol of Missouri. We were hoping to find a hotel downtown so we could walk around but ended up at a Motel 8 (yuck) at $60 for the night.
I asked the clerk at the desk for a restaurant recommendation and she mentioned a German place. We also found a place called Bingham's in the Truman Hotel which looked like a good menu according to the tourist booklet in our hotel. We drove there and when we entered there was a sign saying they were no longer serving dinner in the dining room but you could eat in the Library. We sat in the Library once we looked at the menu full of fast food we left and headed to the German restaurant where we had a delightful meal.
Das Stein Haus was fantastic. The owner is the chef and he comes out and has a shot of pear schnapps with each table. The food was so good!! The wiener schnitzel was just perfect not greasy at all.
DAY 3
We woke in Jefferson City Missouri to sunshine and a promise of warmer temperatures.
We had our free breakfast at the icky Motel 8 and hit the road. It was a little chilly but it soon warmed up.
We passed through the Land of the Ozarks an area that would be very busy in the summer as it has many lakes.
Missouri is very flat as we drive towards the Oklahoma state line. We saw signs stating the world's largest gift shop so we decided to stop. The gift shop wasn't opened until 10AM but the candy shop was open!
Since we had picked up some souvenirs in the candy store we decided not to wait until 10AM to visit the gift store.
We continued to head west to Oklahoma.
Finally we crossed into Oklahoma around 11AM. Oklahoma is the first state we've hit that has toll roads; it cost us $8 to cross the state. However the speed limit s is 75 miles per hour.
We stopped in Claremore for lunch and then went for a stroll around town. This town is famous as the birthplace of Will Rogers the cowboy, actor, comedian, radio personality and speaker who never met a man he didn't like.
Statue of Will rogers reading the Claremore newspaper.
The historic Hotel Will Rogers was dedicated on February 7, 1930 and Louis Abraham, Walter Krumrei, and Morton Harrison financed the hotel. Their plan came together after Louis' father had come to Claremore to take mineral water baths and was cured of rheumatism. He fell in love with the place, but felt that Claremore had been held back as a health resort for the lack of suitable hotel facilities. The fireproof structure of concrete and steel unique for it's time and furnishings cost $321,000 to build.
During World War II, it was designated as a bomb shelter. It was Krumrie that chose the Spanish decor, partly because of its resemblance to Will Rogers' home in Santa Monica. The six story hotel contained 78 rooms and seven apartments.
Back in the car with Clinton or Elk City OK as our destination for the evening. Just on the outskirts of Oklahoma City was the Hard Rock Cafe Casino.
There are signs along the highway for the Cherokee shopping "experience" since we needed gas and water we stopped.
Found a Hampton Inn that had a restaurant attached to it called Montana's Mike's which had ribs and steak for dinner.
DAY 4
Up bright and early and enjoyed our free breakfast at Hampton Inn before deciding to visit Clinton.
We were hoping to visit the Route 66 Museum but it didn't open until 9AM so we drove around town until then.
The museum is very good and I will post a separate blog highlighting all its exhibits.
We then headed towards our planned destination for the evening with lots of stops along the way.
Oklahoma is so flat!
Elk City had many interesting attractions on its portion of Route 66.
Cowboys shaking hands - sculpture is aptly named Binding Contract.
Elk City
Canute OK
Elk City OK National Route 66 Museum is in the Old Town Museum and it is like a little town full of old buildings and some museums.
We headed to Erick for lunch and found the Roger Miller Museum, Miller was born here.
Also born here was Sheb Wooley who starred on the western “Rawhide” with Clint Eastwood, Eric Fleming from 1959-1965.
But the strangest sight in town was at the SandHills Curiosity Shop. We didn't realize what we had found but we were intrigued with the sight of hundreds of signs on a building. A man walked towards me and I assumed we had happened upon a museum and he was looking for payment. But instead he said "I'm just getting a soda and you are welcome to come in and visit but I can't stay long as my wife is ill". WOW what a place. He insisted on me getting my photo with him. He claimed that I wouldn't be the first to blog about them and showed us a bunch of articles written about them, however I found this blog and this article.
To be honest, he and this place gave me the creeps and my husband later said he wasn't going too far from the door.
The amount of "stuff" was amazing. I had originally asked him (being polite as hubby had wandered off and then asked me where I found this guy) where he was from and he said "came back in '89 after his 4th divorce.
Do I look comfortable??
Now to find lunch at the only restaurant in town. We had cheese burgers with onion rings (took forever) but it was the most delicious burger at half the price we pay at home at the best burger place.
Once we got back in the car we drove around town and were devastated by the lack of life in these small towns.
We crossed into Texas, the area known as the Panhandle. The town of Shamrock was our first stop.
Among the many restaurants and filling stations that once served Shamrock, Texas' Route 66 travelers were the Tower Station and U-Drop Inn Restaurant. Representing the art-deco style that was popular in the 1920s and 1930s, the building was completed in 1936. The building was first constructed as three separate businesses - the Tower Conoco Station, so named for the tall tower gracing its roof; the U-Drop Inn Cafe, named by a local schoolboy in a contest that awarded him $50.00 for his idea; and a retail store. However, when the retail store failed, it was taken over by the cafe for use as a ballroom and overflow dining room.
Groom TX
This water tower was built to lean to attract attention.
t
The tall free standing Cross of Our Lord Jesus Ministries can be seen from twenty miles away.
Our stop for the evening ended up being Amarillo Texas. We had planned on going beyond Amarillo but stopped at the Big Texan to take photos and discovered they had a hotel so decided it would be a fun place to stay.
We tried their brewery and then had dinner in the dining room.
Our room with saloon doors into the bathroom.
DAY 5
Awaking in Amarillo we decided to get on the road and find somewhere for breakfast. The temperatures are unseasonably warm for this time of year as well Texas is suffering from a severe water shortage.
There were some fun sights as we drove.
Great breakfast at my most favourite place to stop for breakfast or lunch in the States.
All fueled up as the waitress insisted on giving us coffee to go and I also bought a box for my collection!
We almost missed the stop for the Cadillac Ranch as there are no signs and DH just happened to notice them out of the corner of his eye!
Cadillac Ranch was invented and built by a group of art-hippies imported from San Francisco. They called themselves The Ant Farm, and their silent partner was Amarillo billionaire Stanley Marsh 3. He wanted a piece of public art that would baffle the locals, and the hippies came up with a tribute to the evolution of the Cadillac tail fin. Ten Caddies were driven into one of Stanley Marsh 3's fields, then half-buried, nose-down, in the dirt (supposedly at the same angle as the Great Pyramid of Giza). They faced west in a line, from the 1949 Club Sedan to the 1963 Sedan de Ville, their tail fins held high for all to see on the empty Texas panhandle.
Decades have passed. The Cadillacs have now been in the ground as art longer than they were on the road as cars. They are stripped to their battered frames, splattered in day-glo paint splooge, barely recognizable as automobiles.
Adrian TX The Magnolia Station was the second gas station to be built in Vega in the early 20's.
A cute map of the area.
Adrian TX
We then crossed into New Mexico and our first stop was Tucumcari a town that contains many Route 66 signs.
It was time for lunch at Del's, a fixture since 1954. It is nice to be able to get simple food like a BLT and a burrito.
After that we decided to get some miles in. New Mexico is very flat, dry and there are not many sights along the way until you get to Albuquerque.
The road around Albuquerque is through the mountains and the terrain begins to change as you climb.
We had planned to be off the road in Grants but decided to push on the extra hour to Gallup to give us a lazier day tomorrow. In fact when we checked into our hotel we realized that we had crossed into Mountain time so had gained another hour.
We checked into another Hampton Inn and asked for some recommendations for dinner. We went with the local "joynt favoured by the locals", Virgie's run by Navajo and serving Mexican and American food. Photo was taken the next morning as it was dark when we were there.
DAY 6
We knew we were only about a three hour drive from our destination of Sedona so we slept in and left the hotel after our free breakfast around 9:30. We then drove to downtown Gallup and strolled around.
Gallup is known as the "Heart of Indian Country" because it is in the middle of many Native American reservations and home to many tribes. It also was a big player in the history of Route 66 and has preserved many of the relics of that time.
The Gallup Cultural Center is housed in the renovated Amtrak train station which is still used by Amtrak. It contains a gift shop, cafe and the train station. Greyhound has been relocated.
Chief Manuelito of the Navajo
WWII Navajo Code Talker stands outside the Gallup Cultural Center.
The historic El Rancho Hotel & Motel has hosted a numerous array of movie stars including John Wayne, Ronald Reagan, Humphrey Bogart,Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Joan Crawford, Kirk Douglas, Doris Day, Gregory Peck and Burt Lancaster. The rugged terrain surrounding Gallup was popular with Hollywood filmmakers during the 1940s and 1950s for the on-location shooting of Westerns.
At 10:30 we headed out for Sedona. We crossed into Arizona and made many stops along the way mainly at various "Indian Trading Posts" some less tacky than others.
World's largest petrified tree
We had a quick lunch in Winslow. We had been here before but really wanted to see it again.
Mention the name “Winslow, Arizona”…and it’s sure to trigger the question “Are you from Standing'-On-A-Corner-In-Winslow, Arizona?”
The lyrics from the song “Take It Easy”, written by Jackson Browne and Glenn Frey, were made famous by “The Eagles”. It’s a song almost everyone knows, hums and sings. It has put Winslow on the map.
While we were there the girl from the gift shop came out to take a photo of a man with the statue. She later told us that he was the son of Merle Haggard an old country singer.
It was now time to seriously hit the road and get to Sedona for 4PM check in time.
As we climb to 7,000 feet above sea level there are more and more fir trees.
We pull off I-40 at Flagstaff and begin our descent to 5,000 feet into Sedona. And then you enter Sedona and the red rocks just loom over you.
We get checked into our unit and I'll post about the resort tomorrow.
It was time to pick up groceries to last us the weekend, we needed some staples as well then it was back to the unit to have BBQ chicken with fresh bread for dinner. The rest of the chicken will make a pot of soup for later this week.
Ahhhh...........we will not be getting into a car tomorrow, the first time in nine days (we had been to Montreal the weekend before we left so that counts as three of the nine days).
SEDONA AZ
It was so nice to awake Sunday and not have to pack up and get in the car again. Not that we didn't love our 6 day drive to get here but...
This is the forecast for our stay. Temperatures in the southwest are much higher than normal, but we're not complaining.
This unit is a studio with a partial kitchen i.e. no oven but other than that everything is full size. I didn't take a photo of the bathroom but it is very large, with heated ceramic floor and large ealk in shower.
The view when we woke up Sunday morning.
Club House
We have a great view of Bell and Cathedral rocks.
After six days on the road it was nice to make a simple dinner of beef stew filled with vegetables.
Isn't this the best gift you could give us, from my sister and BIL.
We woke at 5:45AM for our hot air balloon ride. We dressed warmly, I wore my Canadian winter down coat.
We went to the lobby to await our pick-up. A white Suburban pulled in at 6:15 however it had a trailer attached to it so I assumed it was a garden service. Not so, it was Blair, our driver and pilot who was dragging the hot air basket and uninflated balloon.
We stopped at the Best Western to pick up the other four passengers and then made another stop to pick up two guys known as the chasers.
We then drove to Red Rock State Park which was to be our launching pad. The balloon is a lot bigger than I imagined.
Two of our guys assisted with holding the balloon while it was being filled with very cold air.
I took this photo of the sun rising while we waited.
We watched in fascination as the balloon was readied.
We climb aboard and one of the chasers pushes us off.
Blair gives us some rules.
For those who have taken a subway this is NOT a handle.
The heat generated when Blair activates the gas really keeps us warm even if it is a bit scary having this right over your head.
It was just amazing as we lifted off.
It was so peaceful and you could hardly feel any movement as we climbed. Blair compared the experience to flying in an oversized laundry hamper filled with explosives!
We entered Dry Creek Canyon.
Imagine if Senator McCain had become president we wouldn't be allowed in the air over his home.
While we were enjoying the flight Blair regaled us with various stories. One was about his daughter who was congratulated by her teacher as only 1 of 3 students who knew that Canada was larger than the US.
Her friend, defending herself to Blair for not knowing, said "well, like seriously, everyone knows Canada is just full of trees and don't have an army". "Really, Blair says, then I guess they were just making coffee at Juno Beach?"
Friend then says "they have a beach?"
Landing was more difficult than I would have imagined since take off was so easy. Blair radioed the guys as to where he thought we would land and they drove there.
Notice where/how you climb in and out of the basket!
Blair popping the champagne after we each received our certificates.
Breakfast was delicious with super fresh tasty strawberries along with a pastry.
We've been in Sedona for the last week and haven't gotten tired of taking photos of the fabulous red rocks surrounding the town.
These are a couple of my favourites, taken yesterday around 5PM.
This is a recap of our week in Sedona after our amazing road trip from Toronto to Sedona. You can read our daily road trip updates by clicking on "Newer Post" at the bottom of that post.
I will post more detailed reviews of some of the places in future posts.
On Saturday after we checked in and did groceries we settled in for the evening. We were located right at the Old Creek Country Club on the map above. The resort was called The Ridge on Sedona. Our unit was on the ground floor.
On Sunday I wrote about our timeshare unit a week ago. We slept in and then attended a timeshare presentation (I know suckers for punishment), didn't buy but walked away with discounted hot air balloon tickets.
We spent the day relaxing and I went for a walk with my camera.
I came across this scene, a group rehearsing for their Christmas play.
Monday John golfed in the morning and we went to the factory outlets in the afternoon. This was our view of Bell Rock whenever we left the resort.
Tuesday we were up early for our amazing hot air balloon ride was captured here.
We decided to go to Walmart in Cottonwood to buy a US cell phone and picked up some groceries. Then went back into Sedona to Tlaquepaque (pronounced Tla-keh-pah-keh) for a late lunch. This area is delightful and full of art galleries and shops.
Wednesday John golfed again and then we spent the afternoon wandering around Upper Sedona.
Thursday we went to Flagstaff to get some Route 66, have lunch and pick up toys for the Christmas fund at the golf course John is going to play on Friday.
Friday John golfed but only played nine holes as the course scheduled a members' tournament and wouldn't allow John to tee off at the tenth hole until all the members had. He was home around noon so we went out for a drive and lunch.
We stopped at this crazy gift shop,full of great stuff. No photos were allowed inside the shop.
The Coffee Pot
Saturday was check-out day and we were on the road by 9:30AM.
We checked out of our condo in Sedona after our seven day sojourn. Our final destination on this leg of our road trip is Las Vegas where we will stay until mid-February. Our check-in date was Sunday December 9.
Since we are only about 270 miles from Las Vegas and we have a day to get there we decided to take our time and do some sightseeing on the way and spend the night in Kingman AZ.
Our first stop was in the town of Jerome. We had been here before but it is always fun to revisit some places. The drive to Jerome is not one of my favourites as it meanders to about a mile above sea level. At 5,200 feet above sea level it is known as "America's Most Vertical City" and "Largest Ghost Town in America".
Parking was difficult to find as it was a Saturday and the town was holding its children's Christmas party The fire trucks were giving them rides around town with the sirens whirling.
We found a spot, gathered our cameras and started poking into cute little gift shops. We stopped for coffee at Bobby D's BBQ at the English Kitchen, the oldest continuously operating restaurant in the state of Arizona. In its early days, it was owned by a Chinese immigrant, and it served the miners and other workers in the town. Today, it maintains a cozy atmosphere and a spectacular view of the Verde Valley, clear across to Sedona.
Once known as the wickedest town in the west, Jerome was a copper mining camp, growing from a settlement of tents to a roaring mining community. Four disastrous fires destroyed large sections of the town during its early history, resulting in the incorporation of the City of Jerome in 1899.
Founded in 1876, Jerome was once the fourth largest city in the Arizona Territory. The population peaked at 15,000 in the 1920's. The Depression of the 1930's slowed the mining operation and the claim went to Phelps Dodge, who holds the claim today. World War II brought increased demand for copper, but after the war, demand slowed. Dependent on the copper market, Phelps Dodge Mine closed in 1953. The remaining 50 to 100 hardy souls promoted the town as a historic ghost town. In 1967 Jerome was designated a National Historic District by the federal government. Today Jerome is a thriving tourist and artist community with a population of about 450.
The Connor hotel is a landmark in town (even on our last trip) where lots of bikers hang out.
We decided to drive to the ghost town before lunch. I'll cover the ghost town in a later post.
We had planned on having lunch at The Asylum Restaurant in the Grand Hotel.
However parking was even worse when we got back to town so we decided to just drive on and grab something as we were booked into a mountain resort that we didn't want to have to find in the dark. This turned out to be a very good plan.
So we headed down the highway with its hair raising twists and turns, I guess you know by now that I do not like these types of roads!
We made a stop in Seligman as I was following our route in our Route 66 book.
A trip down Route 66 in Seligman is a trip back in time to the days when Route 66 was the Main Street of America. In the late 1970's Seligman was bypassed by the Interstate and the Santa Fe Railroad ceased its operations in the town in 1985. Many old towns with similar histories would have faded away once they were bypassed, but not Seligman.
HUALAPAI RESORT
Next leg of our journey is Sedona to Las Vegas with an overnight stop in Hualapai Resort with a stop in Jerome AZ.
By this time we decide that we need to get to Kingman and find our resort. We set the GPS and we reached Kingman around 3PM and then started climbing Hualapai Mountain Road. We knew the resort was twenty miles southeast of Kingman. This road climbs and climbs and climbs in an almost deserted area. There was a lot of traffic coming the other way.Finally the GPS announces "you have reached your destination" in the middle of nowhere. We pull out our phones to ask directions but both phones are without service. We debate turning around and finding somewhere else but decide to continue climbing. Suddenly there are lots of people and a ranger station. John goes into the ranger station and comes out smiling stating we are only a mile from the resort. On we trudge and finally find the sign for The Hualapai Resort and get checked in.
Our room is called a suite and it was very cute. Our room was totally decorated in bear motifs. Everywhere you turned there were bears.
It was great, and chilly to walk to the restaurant for a great dinner. These baked potatoes were great; they had a very smoky flavour making us assume they were baked with the BBQ ribs that were on the menu as well.
The lodge was all lit up for the season as were the houses in the area.
LAS VEGAS
We were on the last leg of our road trip to Las Vegas where we will settle until mid February.
We chose the breakfast buffet at the Hualapai Resort where we spent the night. It was a beautiful chilly morning as we strolled to breakfast.
More bears!
This was our view from the dining room as we ate breakfast. More of the female elks came to join this group, we didn't see any bulls.
Time to pack up and do the last leg of this journey, an easy 120 miles to Las Vegas with a photo stop in Kingman. We realized as we drove through the downtown area of Kingman that we had been here before.
On our way!
The landscape is not the same as Arizona or the previous states we have driven through. It is much more rocky and arid looking.
We pass through Bullhead City just before the Nevada state line. The casinos loom in the middle of nowhere.
This casino is so named as it is near the state lines of California, Nevada and Arizona.
This section of highway was dedicated to various heroes of wars.
As we enter the town of Henderson we realize we can see the Strip in the distance.
A view of New York New York as we drive in.
It was a really quick check in. I asked the clerk if there was a time difference to Arizona and he said no, it is 1PM.
We settled in and realized there was a time difference and we had gained another hour, so three hour time difference from home.
We walked out to dinner, off the Strip and about ten minutes away to a highly recommended Italian restaurant across from the Hard Rock Casino.
We didn't take any photos of our dinner but we had:
Porcini Pappardelle con Ragù di Cinghiale -Long wide porcini pasta, wild boar meat sauce
and:
Vitello Piccata - Veal scaloppini, lemon, white wine, capers served with starch & vegetable of the day
Monday we went to a timeshare presentation for the free breakfast and tickets to a show. As veteran timeshare owners since 1982 these are always interesting to see what is happening in the industry. It's not much fun when you get an inexperienced sales rep but this time we had a top sales manager who was responsible for member services. All in all we had a good time.
Some stats from the LV Visitors' Center:
HOW MANY VISITORS COME TO LAS VEGAS?
Last year was 38,928,708.
HOW MANY CONVENTION DELEGATES VISIT?
2011 saw 4,865,272 attendees.
HOW MANY CONVENTIONS ARE HELD PER YEAR?
19,029 were held last year.
WHAT IS CLARK COUNTY'S GAMING REVENUE?
In 2011 it was $9.2 Billion.
WHAT IS LAS VEGAS STRIP'S GAMING REVENUE?
Last year was $6.1 Billion.
We decided to walk to the Strip for lunch and to wander around. We are about a mile off the Strip and we decided to have lunch at Harley Davidson as we had never tried them before. They had a special comprising an appetizer, rib steak, six shrimp, baked potato for two for $35. We decided that this would be our big meal of the day as we could walk it off in the afternoon.
The usual characters were out on the Strip.
The world rodeo championships are in town so even the statues are garbed in cowboy gear.
Poor SpongeBob SquarePants reduced to working for tips.
The cowboys loved these girls.
Marilyn was not happy that hubby was taking this photo.
However zoom cameras are great if a little fuzzy.
Talk about super-sizing my meal!
Some shots of New York New York one of my favourite hotels for the design.
You certainly see some sights on the streets of Las Vegas. Most of the cartoon characters are represented but not by their corporate sponsors. They are people who dress as the characters and then want tips before you can photograph them.
We had got a shot of Marilyn last week.
Then the other day we came across Marilyn as she was walking home with Elvis after a hard day's work, I found this photo to be sad. If it was me dressing as Marilyn then I would change out of my "working" clothes before walking the Strip.
It is certainly strange to be spending the winter in Las Vegas. This is certainly an interesting place and there is a lot more to do than just hang out on the Strip.
We have been here for two weeks so far, over Christmas and New Year's.
Christmas Day we went to the Strip and were amazed at the number of people out and about, everywhere was crowded.
We came back to the condo and cooked our own turkey dinner, a ten pound turkey for $11!!!
Eating and drinking along the Strip is very expensive, long gone are the days of cheap meals. An average beer is $11 + but if you go off the Strip or down to Fremont then the prices drop dramatically.
It is worth checking out Happy Hours.
People go crazy for the buffets, no matter the casino it was impossible to get into one on Christmas Day as people were willing to line up for ages.
Some of our favourite meals so far:
Best burger at Rattlecan in the Venetian, soooo juicy just the way I like a burger.
Best delivery pizza from Dine Inn.
Best pizza by far was at Romaine Course Caesar's Palace in the Cypress Street Marketplace. This was just like having a slice of pizza in Rome, thin crust and no tomato sauce. Loved it!! As you can see I had eaten half of it before we remembered to take a picture. We will definitely be going back here for another slice.
This is not an ordinary food court with the same old, same old tired restaurant chains; these are unique food vendors selling upscale food.It is even included in a Frommer's review.
I will be trying the Lobster Chowder Company and Ah So which sells Asian soups.
Best steak and lobster for the best price is at TGIF's in the Gold Coast and if you go between 3PM and 6PM (we just make it lupper after the movies where we have popcorn for lunch) then it is only $13.99!! They cook your steak to order and the tail can be either grilled or steamed. You get your choice of potato and vegetables. We've had this twice in two weeks!!
We have reservations January 7 for Gordon Ramsey's Steak at Paris and we are really looking forward to it.
We also plan to eat at his Pub and Grill. We were going to go there on Friday as we were in Caesar's Palace but couldn't find it when we went back to look for it! It is located in the Forum Shops which is a massive place and really hard to find your way around.
Getting around:
We have been using the various shuttles offered by some of the casinos. We can take the Rio shuttle to either Harrah's or Bally's/Paris which is so convenient. When we were staying at Wyndham they ran a shuttle from the timeshare to Harrah's as well.
The monorail is not cheap as one trip is $5, there is a daily pass at $12 if you are going to be traveling around all day.
There are old, restored signs along Fremont St in downtown Las Vegas 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There is also a Neon Museum which requires a paid admission fee which we plan on visiting while here.
Here are a few of them.
The Hacienda Horse and Rider
Part of the Hacienda Hotel, 1967
The Flame Restaurant 1961
Aladdin's Lamp 1966
Dot's Flower Shop 1949
1940s
One of the most mind-boggling sights in Las Vegas and there are many, is the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace. It is so easy to get lost in here! Taken in December 2012/
I sit here this morning still salivating over our meal last night at Steak, a Gordon Ramsay restaurant in Paris Casino Las Vegas.
From the moment you arrive you are treated as special guests. We waited for a few minutes in the bar, which was packed, until our table was ready. The hostess stated that we would now step from Paris to London via the chunnel to our table. The kitchen is open concept and it all appeared to run so smoothly!
"Hell's Kitchen" season 10 winner, Christina Wilson, is head chef at Gordon Ramsay Steak at Paris Las Vegas. To honour her TV show roots she has put together a tasting menu that reflects her time spent at the infamous restaurant.
Our servers, Mike and Sean were so amazing.
We couldn't decide whether we should order a la carte (how could I choose between pork belly or foie gras as an appetizer and beef wellington or ahi tuna??) or select the lasting menu.
The wine list is delivered on an iPad should you choose to go a la carte.
Sean suggested we try the tasting menu as it offered a more interesting sample of items that were not on the regular menu. All guests at the table must choose the tasting menu, however, Sean suggested we could trade out one of the desserts for Ramsey signature sticky toffee pudding!! We also opted for the wine pairings with each course.
The tasting menu is for a limited time only, and as one of first 1,000 diners to select the tasting menu we were given a folder of the tasting menu signed by Head Chef and "Hell's Kitchen" season 10 winner Christina Wilson, and Executive Chef Kevin Hee. Our servers also threw in some pens labelled with Paris and Gordon Ramsay Steak.
Now you really want to hear about the food!
Sean explained the bread platter – lemon-thyme-olive oil focaccia, roasted pancetta, mushroom-truffle, Stilton-walnut with an English Devonshire sea salt butter. If I could have just eaten this bread all night I would have been happy at any price.
Next course was the Amuse Buche - Scotch Egg with a coating of Berkshire pork sausage, red wine braised cabbage paired with Louis de Sacy, Champagne Rose. Simply divine.
The first course is a roasted beet salad, house-cured salmon, everything bagel soil, cream cheese puree paired with Flowers, Chardonnay from Sonoma Coast 2009. OMG I can't even come up with an adjective to describe this, both of us just oohed and ahhed as we ate it.
Unfortunately our photo didn't turn out so you'll just have to imagine it.
Second course was a scallop risotto composed of diver scallops, black truffle, squid ink, herb puree paired with Sighardt Donobaum, Gruner Veitliner, Zomberg, Wachau 2008. Everyone knows from watching Hell's Kitchen that Gordon is a taskmaster when it comes to perfect risotto. It was perfect and is not available on the a la carte menu. I dreamt about risotto last night.
Third course - Beef Wellington with glazed root vegetables, potato puree, red wine demi glace and paired with Orin Swift, "The Prisoner", Napa Valley 2010. This was simply scrumptious. Beef Wellington is Gordon Ramsay’s signature dish and is served medium-rare. I swear the beef melted in your mouth and the crust flaky and light.
If you chose to order a steak a la carte you were presented with a visual presentation of your choices.
Christina, busy in the kitchen.
She came out to speak to someone behind us and our server told us it was Dana Cohen, photo below from Dana's Facebook page from their dinner last night.
For the dessert course we were served brown butter pear tarts, sauteed warren pear spheres with maple ice cream and vanilla sauce paired with Chambers Rosewood, Muscat, Rutherglen.
We reminded the server that we had asked to substitute one of the desserts for the sticky toffee pudding. We ended up eating the two pear desserts and then were served the Sticky Toffee Pudding, a sweet pudding cake, brown sugar toffee, brown butter ice cream. Amazing.
We then had the largest cappuccinos ever and we were presented with three chocolate and liquor dipped spoons which paired well with our coffee.
*****SIGH*****
We're on a mission to eat at all three of Gordon Ramsay's restaurants in Las Vegas, a trifecta of Ramsay.
Last week we ate at Steak in the Paris Casino a very upscale and pricey establishment, worth every penny as far as food and service went.
The final stop will be next week at BurGR in Planet Hollywood!!
Today we went to his Pub and Grill a far more casual venue which recently opened in mid-December 2012.
We ordered from the lunch menu, the only menu presented to us. This has come up in several reviews that there is a grill menu and a lunch menu, and it seems sometimes guests are offered both and sometimes not.
The menus online now state that the grill menu is from 5PM and the pub menu is available from 3PM to midnight.
Gordon’s Pub & Grill is divided into two distinct sections, and that division extends beyond the menus. ”Uniform-wise, the Grill is slightly more proper, while the Pub is a bit more punk,” added Allison, who also designed the uniforms at Gordon Ramsay Steak in Paris. “The hostess dress” is a piece de resistance. Its newsprint is packed with articles from Gordon’s homeland and history. Some fact, some hilarious fiction, all designed to engage the guest from back to front.
“Studded straps and kilt-pin closures keep the dress hanging on! Guests will find lots of witty gems in the one-of-a-kind newsprint. The hostess even has Zip-It gloves fashioned by glove guru Dorothy Gaspar, who created gloves for Ryan Gosling in ‘Drive’ and Madonna.”
The drinks menu is brought on an iPad and there is an extensive beer selection.
Duck Confit Poutine
Hand-cut french fries, duck gravy, duck confit
This was absolutely addictive, with lots of shredded duck meat and the gravy was sensational (I just asked my DH for a word to describe it). You don't even miss the cheese you would normally get on a poutine, even though I did hear another diner ask for cheese to be added to which the server graciously provided.
Braised Pork Belly Roll
English pea purée, cipollini onion, baby carrots, mustard sauce
I had forgotten that the menu mentioned baby carrots and was a little put off by the tentacle looking dark items on my plate. However, I gamefully cut into them and they were delicious. But oh that pork belly, I had it once before in 2010 on a trip to London and this was far more delightful but two pieces was too much for me (shouldn't have had the poutine).
DH chose from the "swimmers" menu. The broth was amazing, I could have just had that with the fresh bread that was served with it.
PEI Mussels and Clams (photo was taken with phone and flash made it much more yellow than it really was!)
chorizo, caramelized fennel, lemon zest
We decided to share sticky toffee pudding with sweet cream ice cream. We had also had this last week at Steak.
We had a mission to work our way through Gordon Ramsay's restaurants in Las Vegas:Steak, his Pub and Grill and finally BurGR.
We started with his most expensive upscale Steak and ended at his least pretentious casual burger joint.
It has been an amazing culinary experience with nary a bad word about food, service and ambiance. It has certainly raised the bar for any further dining experiences.
After this experience I can see us going back to his venues to work our way through the appetizers and desserts.
BurGR is located immediately inside the Las Vegas Blvd doors of Planet Hollywood. We had some show tickets to pick up so we wandered around the Mile shops and were surprised that there was also a branch of A Cheeseburger in Paradise located there, a restaurant that we always go to when in Honolulu Hawaii.
We were meeting friends that were in Las Vegas for a vacation at noon at BurGR in Planet Hollywood. This is the most casual of his places in Vegas and it doesn't take reservations. We sauntered back around 11:40 and were placed on the waiting list. The hostess took our phone number so she could text us when the table was ready. We took a seat in the bar to await our friends.
We were seated and our server was amazing, she could explain every item on the menu.
There is a video that was prepared for their opening in December.
We ordered drinks and some appetizers to start.
First up were jalapeno poppers, which I dislike in most places as they are just generic, frozen, dropped in a deep fryer.
Not these!! There six poppers served in shot glasses which contain homemade cheddar bacon ranch dressing to soften the heat. We were also warned that one of the poppers had the seeds left in it had an extra surprise.
DH must have gotten that one, it was the smallest on the plate but he loves any kind of heat so didn't even blink while the rest of us oohed and ahhed about the heat we were feeling.
These were delicious which is an understatement.
This photo is not a great one.
Since I had raved about the pork belly at the Pub we sampled an order as it only contained two buns and we cut those in half.
I would go back and have several orders by myself!
Then we shared an order of onion rings which we were promised that the onion wouldn't do that slithery thing that usually happens.
Next we ordered our burgers, two Hell's Kitchen with jalapenos and avocados for the guys, one Uber and one Britannia.
Burgers are, of the burgers are intensely flavorful, cooked over an open flame fueled by hardwoods. The burgers are made with cuts of short rib, brisket and chuck and basted in Devonshire butter, which adds to the rich taste. Burgers are served on milk-based brioche buns, made fresh daily and topped with sesame seeds. I will have to learn how to make these buns as they did not get wet on the bottom nor did they fall apart.
We, very wisely, decided to only order one fry, truffle parmesan. These fries are hand-cut and thrice cooking will ensure extra crispness. Also they use Kennebec potatoes offering a lighter, less starchy and crisper fry—perfect for the signature curry ketchup and chipotle ketchup.
We had tried the sticky toffee pudding in his other two restaurants so we decided we would order to share. This would be my open disappointment, these are served as push-up pops which is clearly stated on the menu, however I just didn't get a taste of the toffee and it also said it was a salted peanut butter but there was no flavour of that either.
But we still enjoyed them!
Everyone proclaimed everything delicious!!!!
These were taken yesterday at Bellagio Las Vegas in the Conservatory. The display will close on January 5.
The next display will be Chinese New Year's. 140 expert horticulturists theatrically arrange gazebos, bridges, ponds, and water features uniquely for each season.
These bears are made out of white carnations.
Yesterday, which was the coldest day of our stay, we had booked tickets for the Neon Boneyard which opened in October 2012.
The Neon Museum is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the rich history of the city through its most iconic art forms, the neon sign. The Neon Museum’s collection consists of three components: the Neon Boneyard, the Downtown Gallery and the Las Vegas Signs project.
I am only posting a sampling of the signs they have on display. I will post others in the future.
This was an incredible experience to see all these iconic symbols of the old Las Vegas.
Last week we visited the National Atomic Testing Museum here in Las Vegas and The Mob Museum in Las Vegas .
You are given your "passes" when you pay your admission.
There is an additional optional exhibition on Area 51. I love anything to do with Area 51 ever since we visited it in 2005, which you can read about in this link.
We've also visited Roswell New Mexico and Los Alamos in 2006.
It is a very good museum with excellent displays and depictions of the creation of the atom bomb and the history surrounding it.
The exhibits showing Las Vegas during the time of the testing of the bomb was fascinating.
We went to Hoover Dam last week. We'd been there before but it is still an astounding sight. We hadn't seen the Mike O’Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge (Colorado River Bridge). Construction on the nearly 2,000 foot long bridge (with a 1,060 foot twin-rib concrete arch) began in late January 2005 and traffic began using the Hoover Dam Bypass on October 19, 2010. This signature bridge spans the Black Canyon (about 1,500 feet south of the Hoover Dam), connecting the Arizona and Nevada Approach highways nearly 900-feet above the Colorado River.
The 9-11 terrorist attacks quickly made it clear that Hoover Dam wasn't just a traffic bottleneck and safety hazard but also a target.
Commercial traffic was immediately banned from U.S. 93 across Hoover Dam, forcing a 75-mile detour. The urgency to build the bridge accelerated.
The highest and longest arched concrete bridge in the Western Hemisphere.
The second-highest bridge of any kind in the United States and 14th in the world.
The world's tallest concrete columns of their kind.
But what sets the bridge apart most of all is the setting.
It is perched 890 feet above the turquoise Colorado River, wedged between rock cliffs that form Black Canyon, with commanding views of Hoover Dam and Lake Mead.
James Stillings has an amazing site with fantastic photos of the dam.
I took this photo for my geeky friends - you know who you are!
Two time zones depending where you are on the bridge - Arizona or Nevada
These photos were taken in Las Vegas this week. There is a moving walkway from the casino to Las Vegas Blvd.
Spotted this week outside Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas.
Being Irish born I love a full Irish breakfast and it can be hard to find one that is like the real thing.
I do believe you can find anything that your stomach desires here in Las Vegas.
There is an Irish pub Ri Ra in Mandalay Bay Casino, which I just discovered, is part of a chain.
The name loosely translates as hubbub or uproar.
We went for breakfast last Monday after our overnight stay at New York New York where we attended a performance of Cirque du Soleil's Zumanity.
The full Irish breakfast lived up to my expectations except for the white pudding which wasn't as spicy as I would like. The black pudding was delicious, the sausages fantastic and the ham, the ham!! All washed down with a perfect pint of Guinness!!!!
Last week we went to Red Rock Canyon and did the 13 mile scenic drive. It was a beautiful cloudless day. Red Rock Canyon is located west of Las Vegas on Charleston Blvd (State Road 159).
The desert tortoise is Nevada's state reptile and can live to be 60-80 years old in the wild and spends 95% of its life in a burrow. Desert tortoises can live in areas with ground temperatures exceeding 140 °F (60 °C) because of their ability to dig underground burrows and escape the heat. In its burrow it is also protected from freezing winter weather while dormant, from November through February or March.
Since Chinese New Year falls on February 10 this year our top shots this week are the Chinese New Year decorations around town. This is a big event in Las Vegas as there is a large Asian population and there is even a Chinatown.
We had visitors this week so we did a tour of the casinos and snapped a lot of photos.
Taken at MGM Hotel and Casino here in Las Vegas.
Taken in the shopping mall section of the Aria.
Some shots from the Venetian.
All the casinos are decorated and I posted some photos from the conservatory at Bellagio a few weeks ago.
Mardi gras, French for Fat Tuesday is today. Last week we dropped into The Orleans Hotel and Casino which is designed with a New Orleans theme.
We booked a night at Treasure Island Hotel and Casino as we had tickets for a show at Harrah's.
I booked the room online for $59. When we checked in we had a trainee clerk and when he saw we were Canadian he asked if we spoke French. DH answered in French and the clerk was so excited to speak to someone in French he upgraded our room to a superior on the 29th floor, there are 30 floors at Treasure Island. It turned out the clerk was from Paris and had just started work that day.
After checking in we decided to use our 2 for 1 beer coupons we were given. We went to Gilley's within the hotel. We also had some yummy chicken wings.
Then we headed over to Harrah's (the most expensive place to have a drink!!) to see Million Dollar Quartet.
Million Dollar Quartet is a recording of an impromptu jam session involving Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash made on December 4, 1956, at the Sun Record Studios in Memphis, Tennessee.
Then we had a late dinner of appetizers back at Treasure Island.
We were able to get some amazing pictures of the Strip from our room. Click on photo for larger view.
Our condo is just across from Rio. I just love seeing the mountains every morning when we rise.
The next morning we planned on eating breakfast at The Big Kahuna, however, even though the restaurant had many empty tables we were told in an unfriendly manner that we would have to wait fifteen minutes to be seated. We left.
We had friends stay at Flamingo last week. It is one of the older hotels on the Strip but is very centrally located.
They have a courtyard designed with ponds and waterfalls that have some water fowl such as flamingos, ducks and unusual black Australian swans.
We had tickets to see Donny and Marie at the Flamingo last night. They were free so I didn't expect great seats, however they were incredible seats!
The show was amazing! The energy that they both put into their performances was overwhelming.
We stayed at New York, New York Hotel and Casino in January 2013. We had stayed here before and enjoyed the ambiance, the feeling of being in New York.
MEAL PLAN WEEK 1
UPDATE: My plan is to post our plans on Sunday and then re-post the following Saturday with updates.
I'm not sure how long my good intentions will last but definitely this week forced me to reconsider our leftovers and make a conscious decision to use up the food. Therefore we have had the chili three times, in the past this might have gotten frozen for lunch but since we are in a rental condo for only another five weeks we are trying not to freeze items.
I'm going to give meal planning a try. I have always more or less planned meals in my head but perhaps in putting it in writing I can reduce our grocery spending.
This will be a little different than if we were in our own home as we are in Las Vegas for a couple of months so I do not have my pantry staples available so may have to either not make certain meals or else buy the staples that would normally be on hand.
I wouldn't normally list the contents of my fridge or freezer but there is so little in there but it needs to be managed as mentioned below.
Nor do I have my cooking utensils or appliances such as my crockpot or breadmaker. So our initial meals until we go home may seem uninspired.
For instance we had to buy a potato masher when we moved into the LV condo.
I made the turkey pot pie with a boxed pastry mix (over $2) without my measuring cups or rolling pin. A cold bottle of club soda served as my rolling pin.
Our Christmas turkey will be the base of our soup pot this week. He is currently simmering away on the stove. He served us well, he was a ten pound Butterball on sale for $11. We had him Christmas day, Boxing Day he was served as hot turkey sandwiches, then he became a turkey pot pie for dinner and lunch.
I also will not be baking very much as I don't have a mixer.
There will be lots of soups as we really don't want to be eating processed foods for lunches.
Also, we are in Vegas so there will be more meals than normal eaten out.
We also don't want to stockpile freezer items or perishables as we are only in the condo until mid February when we go to Mexico for two weeks. We will have a condo there also so we will be cooking meals but again with limited resources.
Where I have left blanks I will repost at the end of the week with updates.
I am not including breakfast as we usually have juice, grapefruit, cereal and/or store bought pastry.
Sunday December 29
Lunch - leftover turkey pot pie from Saturday's dinner
Dinner - roast pork, potatoes and broccoli
Monday December 30 NEW YEAR'S EVE
Lunch - turkey soup with noodles
Dinner - cooked shrimp with dipping sauce followed by crab legs, lobster tails with salad (seafood cost $26 for 2)
Tuesday January 1
Lunch - late breakfast - homemade salsa and chips
Dinner - chili with salad and Cheddar garlic biscuits
Wednesday - originally we were going to have tuna sandwiches but the roast pork was sitting in the fridge.
Lunch - leftover roast pork sandwiches
Dinner - same as Tuesday
Thursday movies - originally the plan was for Nathan's hot dogs at the movies but we had the pork...
Lunch - leftover roast pork sandwiches
Dinner or Lupper - TGIF at Gold Coast DH Dragonfire chicken and I had 8 oz flat iron
Friday - originally I was going to make the chicken a l'orange but since there was still chili, salad and biscuits... we had to buy some additional items for the salad.
Lunch - late breakfast of sausage sandwiches (bought on sale and frozen)
Dinner - chili with salad and biscuits; the leftover chili has been frozen for a later dinner or lunch
Saturday
Lunch - we just munched on whatever as we ate a late breakfast of sausage (needed to finish the package) on English muffins (were bought earlier and frozen) - delicious
Dinner - Chicken a la orange with rice, salad and garlic bread. $3 worth of chicken breasts. Garlic bread 2 for $5.
GOOD BUYS
9 Texas ruby grapefruit for $2.99
MEAL PLAN WEEK 2
As I stated in my first post on meal planning I will put up my plans on Sundays and then repost it the following Saturday with the actual outcomes.
So this week we didn't really stay on plan as we ate out more than planned and also changed our minds a couple of times.
Sunday January 6
Lunch - Saturday's leftover chicken a la orange The two boneless skinless chicken breasts ($3) were used for dinner for two, lunch for two and could either be one more lunch or else used in a chicken soup stock.
Dinner - homemade pizza with green peppers, onions, mushrooms and pepperoni
Making chicken soup from a chicken breast that has been in the freezer for a while, some languishing celery and carrots and will throw in the leftover frozen container of chicken soup. The mushrooms and peppers which didn't make it onto the pizza were put in the chicken pot as well.
Monday
Lunch - leftovers?? chicken soup
Dinner - We had 7:30 reservations at Gordon Ramsey's Steak in Las Vegas Paris! I posted (drooled) about it.
Tuesday
Lunch - pea soup (homemade) since I made chicken soup on Sunday we will have that instead
Pizza at Luna Rosa the way we love it, thin and no tomato sauce!
Dinner - ham and colcannon (the ham and spinach are in the freezer leftover from a previous meal) we had chips, eggs and beans instead, a favourite do to no brainer dinner. Also used up the remaining cheese biscuits.
Wednesday
Lunch
Dinner- cabbage and sausage stew ham and colcannon with corn. The remaining colcannon, corn and ham bone went into a pot of pea soup that I started after dinner. That ham cost $5 and made four dinners and is now part of the soup.
Thursday - we usually go to the movies - saw Django and loved it!
Lunch - I had spotted Nathan's hot dog stand in the Palms casino and since I love having one of their hot dogs when we're in New York City we had one for lunch.
Dinner - DH had an urge for a hamburger so we went to TGIF's (becoming a weekly tradition after the movies).
Friday
Lunch - DH had the leftover pizza from our lunch earlier this week at Luna Rosa.
Dinner - salmon instead we opted for steamed crab legs (again) with salad.
Saturday
Lunch - pea soup
Dinner - chips, eggs and beans fajitas with beef. I love this recipe!! Tortillas were only $1 a package for 10.I bought the blade flat iron steak for $7. The leftovers were frozen for a soup.
MEAL PLAN WEEK 3 ??
MEAL PLAN WEEK 4
Well we started the week off with leftovers from Saturday mainly because they are there.
My original plan was to go shopping and get a chicken to roast but since I hadn't decided what we were going to eat the rest of the week there isn't any point in going shopping.
I'm also kinda stumped on a new recipe to try. I could call the loaded baked potatoes a new recipe as it isn't something we have ever had as a stand alone dinner...
Also pretty indecisive as to what we will visit this week.
Sunday - Football and DH nursing a sore throat
Lunch - frozen homemade chicken soup and baguette and cheeses
Dinner - leftover ham, potatoes and cabbage/carrots.
Monday - The Strip after lunch and picking up our show tickets for next week.
Lunch - with friends vacationing in Las Vegas at Gordon Ramsay's BurGR.
Dinner - pizza too full from a late lunch
Tuesday DH golfing
Lunch - tuna sandwich salad with hard boiled egg
Dinner - roast chicken, roast potatoes and cauliflower the cauliflower looked awful so we went with broccoli.
Wednesday - Valley of Fire it was a little overcast so not great for photos in the desert. Instead we drove to Boulder Dam and then to Boulder City. We hadn't seen the bridge at the Dam as it only opened in 2010 and we have a soft spot for Boulder City.
In 2006 we drove to Boulder City and when we reached it we looked at each other and said "we've been here before!!" We had been there in 2004 when we went to the Dam.
We stopped into the Boulder Dam Brewery and had a snack of chicken wings.
Lunch - probably out tuna sandwiches
Dinner - Loaded baked potatoes
Thursday - Movies DH went golfing as it was a warm but overcast day.
Lunch
Dinner - chicken pot pie using the leftovers from Tuesday
Friday - Old Las Vegas walking tour decided instead to pick up our mail and since we were over that way to visit Terrible's, Planet Hollywood and Hooters' Casinos. Then we parked at New York, New York and wandered on that side of the Strip.
Lunch - leftover chicken pot pie.
Dinner - Salmon with homemade mayo-mustard-horseradish sauce we went to the Gold Coast TGIF for steak.
Saturday - stay at home, movies and surfing.
Lunch - had a big breakfast of sausages, bacon and eggs so we munched on potato chips in the afternoon with coke. Don't judge me!!
Dinner - homemade pizza
MEAL PLAN WEEK 6
Another indecisive week for menu planning as we decide what to do.Last week was indecisive but it all came together.
Sunday - Cirque du Soleil Zumanity and overnight stay at New York New York.
Lunch - homemade chicken soup with noodles
Dinner - out
Monday - Vegas show at V Theater Planet Hollywood
Brunch - Ri Ra Irish Pub in Mandalay Place. My heart be still!! The breakfast menu states black and white pudding Lord help the server if this is not available.
Dinner - is included with our theatre tickets so we're going for Italian.
Tuesday - Valley of Fire depending on the weather. I need blue skies! We decided to just relax and stay in.
Lunch - ??
Dinner - ??
Wednesday - DH golfing
Lunch - leftover pizza
Dinner - spanakopita it's hard coming up with ideas when you don't have your pantry staples. I decided it was silly to buy phyllo pastry that I wouldn't be able to completely use up. Instead we had spaghetti, salad and garlic bread.
Thursday - Fremont Experience with dinner Red Rock Canyon
Lunch
Appetizers at Red Rock Casino Yard House - ahi tuna (one of my absolute favourite things in the world) and moo shu egg rolls.
Dinner - Pork chops, beans and mashed potatoes.
Friday - DH golfing
Lunch - mashed potatoes!
Dinner - This week's new recipe Spanish stewed chicken thighs with mashed potatoes was so good it immediately
Saturday - woo hoo picking up friends at the airport who will be staying with us for the night.
Lunch - Starbucks sandwich (1!!) and two cappuccinos $18 yikes!!!
Dinner - Steak and ribs at TGIF Gold Coast.
MEAL PLAN WEEK 7
We didn't manage a new recipe for this week since it is our last week in the LV condo and we are out and about as well as we need to finish as much of our perishables as possible.
Sunday - relax at "home" and had a great breakfast of grapefruit, juice, bacon, eggs, tomato, potato cakes and mushrooms
Lunch - each to his own
Dinner - Spanish stewed chicken thighs with carrots and turnip added to stew, served with steamed lemon broccoli, pickled beets (homemade) and crusty cheddar cheese bread.
Monday - staying at TI and going to show at Harrah's
Lunch - leftovers
Dinner - appetizers at TI
Tuesday - Donny and Marie Show at Flamingo
Lunch - leftovers
Dinner - leftover chicken stew with broccoli
Wednesday - DH golfing
Lunch -
Dinner - hamburger stew with carrots and brussels sprouts and cheesy mashed potatoes.
Thursday - VALENTINE'S DAY Visit wedding chapels along Old Las Vegas
Lunch - tacos and quesadillas at Mickie Finnz
Dinner - crab legs and lobster tails with salad crusty bread.
Friday - DH Golfing
Lunch -fried mushrooms
Dinner - Fremont St Heart Attack Grill we decided we really didn't need to eat here as it is fast greasy food. We decided to finish the stew and pickled beets with crusty bread.
Saturday - Fremont St
Lunch - burgers at 5 Guys - the worst I've had at that chain
Dinner - fajitas Luna Rossa rigatoni a funghi and spaghetti and meatballs with caesar salad.
Sunday - Last day in Las Vegas. Packing and afternoon on Strip
Lunch - wings and fries Blondies Planet Hollywood
Dinner - TGIF steak - we had our first meal here when we moved into the condo and have enjoyed almost weekly dinners since December 16 so it seemed fitting to have a last meal here.
LAS VEGAS NV
Getting settled in Las Vegas for a week at the Wyndham Desert Resort then we moved to our final location in Vegas for two months a rented condo off the Strip across from the Rio Casino.
Sunset from our window
Snow on the mountains from our window
What would we have brought along that we didn't or forgot?
More cleaning supplies rather than having to buy them.
Extra condiments such as coffee, tea, salt and pepper, cornstarch and other spices etc than you might want to use. However we did get asked at US Customs if we were bringing in any food.
DH forgot his cigars so bought a travel humidor and stocked up.
Had to buy a potato masher!!
Definitely should have packed some plastic storage containers.
Ice packs for the cooler.
I should have packed something crafty to do, especially my knitting as I could have done a lot while in the car. But then again, I would have missed a lot of photo ops!!
Good ideas - emptied plastic water bottles are great for storing and moving some items. We had bought soup stock that came in a box which didn't transport very well so we used the water bottles.
We also used emptied water bottles as ice packs. We froze them with tap water.
COST RECAP
Gas - $425
Hotels - $622
Timeshare condos (2 weeks) - already owned paid RCI exchange fees of $500. Will try to avoid that fee on the way back using internal resorts with no exchange fee.
Condo rental Las Vegas - 2 months
Timeshare condo (2 weeks) planned end February 2013 - no exchange fees
Air fare to Mazatlan - not yet booked
Internet - was free at all hotels. Diamond Resorts charged $45 for the week (shame on them).Internet is included in the condo rental.
Cell phones
Mailbox
We could probably have flown for that price, however, once here we would have had to rent a car for three months which would have been prohibitive.
Hotels could have been cheaper as we mainly stayed at Hiltons. They ranged from $100 to $125. This could have been cheaper if we had booked ahead of time online or phoned ahead.
However, having stayed in one Super 8 for $60 I was quickly reminded why I would rather spend the extra money for cleanliness and comfort.
Every hotel (except The Big Texan) included breakfast. I didn't calculate the cost of our meals as this is a vacation as well.
Our food costs while in Las Vegas are not included as we would have had to eat at home anyway. However, food is much cheaper here as are many other items such as haircuts and pedicures.
Once we were established in one place we changed our cell phone coverage. DH obtained a new SIM card for his with a local phone number. Since I hated my phone I bought a new one and bought a monthly plan with no contract from Straight Talk.
We also opened a mailbox at UPS so our mail could be redirected by our friends.
TCHOTCHKES (Souvenirs/junk) TO DATE:
DH - 4 t-shirts Route 66/Jerome
- 1 golf shirt
Me - 1 hoodie Jerome
- 1 cat.shoe box
Us - 2 coffee mugs
- 2 beer glasses Harley Davidson
I should have written this before we got back from Mazatlan but didn't... I will do a separate post on all the casinos.
There are many links (blue print) that you can click on to get more details.
We left Sedona December 8 and spent the night at the Hualapai Resort arriving in Las Vegas December 9.
We stayed a week in Wyndham, a timeshare that was lovely.
We moved to a rented condo on S. Valley View for two months. We were less than pleased
with the first unit we were given and spoke to the owner that we were going to look elsewhere. He asked that we look at another unit and we accepted it.
However we really felt that it wasn't as clean as it should be. We soon had it the way we liked.
The location was ideal, however, we could park at the Rio and catch the shuttle to Harrah's or Paris.
The two months just flew by.
We loved waking up each morning to blue skies and sunshine surrounded by the mountains, the Palms, Rio and Gold Coast casinos..
Every evening we were treated to a sunset.
We spent Christmas and New Year's enjoying the warm weather and the sights on the Strip.
Christmas we cooked a turkey and for New Year's we had crab legs.
We loved the Christmas display at Bellagio.
We had friends visit in January and February and we enjoyed taking them around Vegas.
We went to the tiny LV Zoo.
A highlight was completing a "trifecta +" of Gordon Ramsay's three restaurants located in Paris, Caesar's Palace and Planet Hollywood.
Steak at Paris. This was absolutely the best meal ever and the priciest. Everything was perfect.
Ramsay's Pub and Grill at Caesar's Palace. Duck confit poutine and pork belly!!
BurGR in Planet Hollywood merited two visits as our friends wanted to try his burgers.
We had great pizza in the food court at Caesar's Palace.
We had a great burger at Rattlecan in the Venetian.
We went to the movies five times using the Palms $4 Thursday movie admission with a rewards card.
We went to Fremont St. several times. Here are some of the old neon signs.
We went to Lake Las Vegas. Yes, it looks like the Ponte Vecchio in Florence.
We dined weekly at TGIF's in the Gold Coast directly across the street from the condo.
We would either have the steak or the steak and lobster dinner.
A little blurry but it was very tasty!
I tried out several new recipes as part of my challenge to make a new recipe every week.
We went to the Hoover Dam and Boulder City twice.
Visited the Neon Boneyard on the coldest day of the year. Click on photo for larger view.
We toured the National Atomic Testing Museum.
I fell in love with the Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace.
We certainly saw some interesting sights especially this Elvis and Marilyn (click on link).
We had a gorgeous day when we went to Red Rock Canyon.
Had a beautiful warm day for Valentine's and enjoyed the wedding chapels in Old Vegas.
Old Las Vegas is always interesting. It is a shame to see some of the landmarks being destroyed.
The lineup at the Pawn Stars TV show location.
Enjoyed the Chinese New Year display at MGM and Venetian.
And the Chinese New year decorations at Bellagio.
We stayed overnight at New York New York and saw a Cirque de Soleil show.
The next morning we had the best full Irish breakfast at Luxor.
We stayed overnight at Treasure Island and went to a show at Harrah's.
We had free tickets to see Donny and Marie at Flamingo.
There's M &Ms!!
And the world of Coca Cola.
People watching is always an entertaining pastime.
The world's largest gift shop.
DH played golfed, you can read about that in his blog.
We left Las Vegas on February 17 and drove to LA where we flew to Mazatlan Mexico on the 18th for two weeks. We flew back to LA on March 5 and then drove to Las Vegas on March 6 for two nights at Wyndham and then left Vegas for Sedona.
MAZATLAN MEXICO
Monday - we leave early morning for LA and spend the evening at the airport Hilton
Lunch - Jack in the Box burger - mediocre but we were in bumper to bumper traffic from Vegas to LA. The trip took six hours instead of four.
Dinner - LAX Hilton. Tuna salad and curry chicken.
Tuesday - we fly to Mazatlan
Lunch - aboard Alaska Air, we shared a delicious cheese platter with fruit.
Dinner - Torres Mazatlan restaurant. Shrimps in garlic butter with rice and vegetables.
Will update once we arrive
Wednesday - took the bus ($1 each) to the grocery store Soriana and a cab back ($10)
Lunch - La Palapa restaurant at Torres Mazatlan. Salads
Dinner - rotisserie chicken and salad
Thursday - lazy day
Lunch - chicken sandwiches on croissants
Dinner - beef patties, gravy, potatoes and corn.
Friday - downtown Mazatlan by bus - market and photos
Lunch - calamari and shrimps at The Shrimp Bucket
Dinner - cheese and crackers
Saturday - pool time
Lunch - club sandwich from Palapa restaurant by the pool - Palapa on the left below.
Dinner - a take on cabbage and sausage stew with chicken. I have homemade stock from Wednesday's chicken. No diced tomatoes available in condo shop so will use just tomato paste.
We were in Mazatlan the other day and watched the fishermen along the Malecon.
This fisherman convinced DH to let the birds grab a piece of fish from a stick.
However on another try the bird dropped the raw fish onto DH's shoulder and DH was less than pleased to have raw fish all over his new LV t-shirt!
About 4 miles north of downtown lies the Sábalo traffic circle in the Zona Dorada (Gold Zone) near the Punta Camarón, a rocky outcropping over the water. The Zona Dorada begins where Avenida del Mar intersects Avenida Rafael Buelna and becomes Avenida Camarón Sábalo, which leads north through the abundant hotels and fast-food restaurants of the tourist zone. From here, the resort hotels, including the huge El Cid Resort complex, spread northward along and beyond Playa Sábalo. The new Marina Mazatlán development has changed the landscape north of the Zona Dorada considerably, as hotels, condo complexes, and private residences rise around the new marina. North of here is Los Cerritos (Little Hills), the northern limit of Mazatlán.
A pulmonia is a taxi that looks like a souped-up golf cart. Hundreds of these roam the streets. They are very popular among locals.
Tell the driver what you are interested in seeing or simply tell him to drive you around and get familiar with Mazatlan. You can have a Pacifico or Corona beer if you want.
The name Pulmonía (pneumonia) comes from the idea of old residents that riding an open air car can give you a cold !!
Viejo Mazatlán, or Old Mazatlán, lies at the southern end of the 15-mile Mazatlán peninsula. The Plaza de la Republica is the central city plaza, and sits in the center of the historic district. Nineteenth century mansions can still be found here, together with the upscale shops and restaurants of Plazuela Machado, the restored opera house, Teatro Angela Peralta, and the twin-spired cathedral, Basílica de la Purísima Concepción. Across the street from the cathedral is the popular Panamá Restaurant and Pasteleria, home of the best pastries in Mazatlán.
Two blocks north of the cathedral is the Pino Suárez market, the sprawling central market that covers a full city block. The bustling Pino Suárez market is the real heart of old town Mazatlán, a 110-year-old "super" market that is as colorful as it is functional. From the northeast corner of the Pino Suarez market, the shrimp ladies can be found just five blocks north on Aquiles Serdan.
MALPICA
We took a day tour to some small Mexican towns on Tuesday. These towns are a world apart from Mazatlan. Malpica was the first town and I was fascinated by the church from the moment I saw it from the bus.
Malpica is a small sleepy town with only 700 residents.
The Stations of the Cross were very intriguing. They were a mixture of various styles.
We visited this town this week and stopped into the bakery. I am posting more about this town tomorrow. Two pieces of pastry was 10 pesos or less than a dollar and they were so good we were annoyed the next morning not to have stocked up!!
MAZATLAN MARKET
We went into town yesterday and went to the Mercado or market, Jose Maria Pino Suarez located in the Centro part of town just two blocks away from the Cathedral.
I love these markets, no shrink wrap, no Styrofoam just lots of fresh produce.
But first...a new portrait of us...I got a little pink in the sun!
We are in Mazatlan Mexico this week. Yesterday we took the bus into town, 10 pesos or just under $1 per person. Not sure where we wanted to get off, we got off at the market, mercado.
Mazatlan has twenty miles of ocean stocked full with lots of fresh seafood ready for catching, especially shrimp and oysters.
We wanted to see the shrimp ladies or changueras. We lucked out and happened to turn down Aquiles Serdán and saw the ladies lining the street under colourful umbrellas. Plastic tubs are filled with brown shrimp, blue shrimp, white shrimp, fresh water, deep-ocean and farmed shrimp piled high upon floating ice. We didn't spend a long time there yesterday, but will be making a longer visit which will include lunch during the week and I'll provide an update next week.
Last week I posted about the Shrimp Ladies of Mazatlan. I promised that we were going to go back and buy some shrimp and have them cooked in a local restaurant. On Thursday we did that.
It was fun selecting which lady to buy from (the first one that actually spoke to us), selecting our shrimp after she pointed out the prices, 120, 140, 150 pesos a kilo (equal to 2.2 pounds). We didn't negotiate but I suppose you could. It wasn't quite a kilo when she weighed them but it was enough and cost 126 pesos about $12.
I confirmed with her that we could take them to a restaurant Dunia around the corner to have them cooked and she said yes and also pointed to the place across the street that would do them as well. They had a huge sign showing the various ways they could do them for you.
We opted for Dunia as I had read about it.
We headed over, handed our bag to the waitress and sat down. She asked garlic? We said yes and ordered a couple of beers. She brought the beers and lime (de rigueur in Mexico).
She then brought a delicious salsa, which hardly had any tomato but a lot of cilantro.
And then our shrimp served with tortillas! Absolutely delicious but I think she forgot the garlic!
CONCORDIA
On our tour this week to three Mexican colonial towns, Malpica, Concordia and Copala we visited the church in Concordia. I wouldn't recommend this tour from Vista tours. It is really a shopping tour designed to make you buy "stuff". The first stop before we even began was to a tequila distillery which was actually interesting. Onilikan is located in the Zona Dorada right in Mazatlan.
In Malpica we went to the bakery and that was good. Then we were taken to the Real McCoy silver jewelry shop. They have really nice pieces and I did buy one but I am sure that it wasn't really a bargain.
Next stop was on the highway outside Concordia to look at hand crafted wood products. They also sold some tacky clay pots and paintings. I didn't dare go near the silver vendor as I could hear his hard sell.
Concordia also offers an abundance of locally made pottery in the pre-Columbian motif. There is an old style town square, built in front of the church, which is a great place for photos. The church is over 350 years old making it the oldest in the state of Sinaloa.
This area produces mangoes which are for sale everywhere in season during the summer. I wish our tour had made a stop at nearby mineral springs where the local women do their laundry, just as they have been doing for many generations.
WEEK 2 MAZATLAN
This is our second week in Mazatlan and we've been eating out as there is so much variety and especially an abundance of fresh fish.
SUNDAY - lazy cloudy day
Lunch - Saturday leftover chicken sausage stew
Dinner - Torres Mazatlan Palapa Restaurant
MONDAY bus into town
Lunch - Shrimp Bucket
Dinner - cheese and crackers
TUESDAY day trip to Malpica bakery and church and tile making/Concordia/Copola
Lunch - Copola Daniel's mediocre we didn't even take photos of our food.
Dinner - hamburger stew to use up some of the vegetables
WEDNESDAY pool day and lunch in Zona Dorada
Lunch - burgers at Mary's
Dinner - pork chops with cauliflower
THURSDAY photo trip to town
Lunch - Shrimps at Dunia
Snacks - nachos
Dinner - bacon and eggs
FRIDAY pool day and then to town for dinner at Plaza Machado
Lunch - tuna sandwiches
Dinner - Casa Canobbio - terrible
SATURDAY
Lunch - pool side calamari and nachos and cheese
Dinner - Pedro and Lola's Plaza Machado
One of the great things about travel and blogging is getting to meet other bloggers as we had the honour to do yesterday.
I had been googling Malpica last week after we took a tour on Tuesday. One of the first items to pop up was a blog called The Golden Years and as I read her blog I realized they were right here in Mazatlan. We exchanged a few emails about the town in general. The more I looked at her photos and read her posts I realized that they hang out at the resort we are staying in Torres Mazatlan.
They are avid RVers and have been coming to Mexico every winter for the last 7 years. They are adventurous travelers who drove all through South America in the 70s with their children.
We met for breakfast on Monday morning and immediately hit it off and departed with promises to keep in touch.
It was Carnival in Mazatlan in early February before we arrived. Mazatlan's International Carnival is a six-day, multi-event celebration overflowing with live music, folklore, dance, entertainment and traditional costumes. Held since 1898, Mazatlan's 115th version of Carnival is an all day, all night fiesta with something for everyone, the third largest in the world.
'La Linterna Magica', The Magic Lantern, was the theme for Carnaval Mazatlan '13, 'The Magic Lantern' is reference to early movie cameras and this year they celebrated cinema, and all it has brought to people around the world.
Some of the papier mache floats are on display in the plaza and this one was my favourite which we snapped this week as we were going to dinner.
I remembered eating at The Shrimp Bucket when we were in Mazatlan in 2002. We set out to find it last Friday. It is their 50th anniversary and my DH was given a t-shirt to commemorate the occasion. It made me laugh as it had a typo "Gril".
In general it is a little overpriced compared to many other places but it is very good.
We had an order of calamari to start and then shared an order of 15 peel and eat shrimp but cooked in garlic butter.
These calamari were so good not like those over battered ones that don't even look like calamari.
We went back a few days later and didn't order any appetizers but the server brought us a complimentary cup of shrimp broth, which we have never had. A little trepidatious since I hadn't tried any fish soups, it was delicious with squeezed lime (as suggested) but a little salty. I am looking forward to making this myself.
The photo isn't that great as our server had a little difficulty with serving these without spilling and then dropped a cup when clearing the table.
We then had the actual "buckets" of shrimp. There are 12 in a bucket but these are huge shrimps compared to the peel and eat we had last week.
Beer battered
Coconut
Mazatlan's Plazuela Machado is one of the oldest plazas in Mazatlan, built in the year 1837 under the auspices of a wealthy trader in silver cloth and pearls, Don Juan Nepomuceno Machado. Featuring architecture influenced by the French and Spanish, the recently restored Plaza Machado brings back an era when Mazatlecáns spent leisurely afternoons and evenings around city plazas. Today the restored 18th century buildings feature sidewalk cafés, theatres, a museum, hotel and musical events throughout the year.
This is a vibrant exciting plaza to visit in the evenings. Many expats and tourists congregate here. There are musicians, artists, dancers to be entertained by.
We've been a few times in our two weeks in Mazatlan in February/March.
The first evening we ate at CasaCanobbio based on reviews on Tripadvisor and an acquaintance. We were very disappointed. Atmosphere is great. Service is fine and they don't rush you.
I had read they had a fine wine list, but 75% of it was unavailable and it was the most expensive wine we have seen in Mazatlan.
But the worst of it was my Fettuccine Alfredo. The noodles were drowning in a thick pasty sauce that resembled something from a can. There was no hint of garlic or cheese.
My husband had the spaghetti and meatballs which he rated as fair. The spaghetti was swimming in a soupy sauce.
The restaurant had few diners but when we stepped out into the plaza we noticed that all the other restaurants were packed with diners, obviously they knew something that we didn't.
UPDATE: I had written the same review of Casa Canobbio on Trip Advisor and did receive an apology from the restaurant and an offer to return for a complimentary meal.
We went back on Saturday night and ate at Pedro and Lola's. This was lots of fun as we had a charming server who had all the tables laughing around us. People chatted back and forth between tables. We did have a rather obnoxious guy with his "two" wives beside us. The girls were all boobs, blond and botoxed Canadians.
I had ahi tuna so you know I was in heaven!! DH had fajitas which looked good as well.
There are fire dancers and spray can artists.
During the day it is much quieter and the streets are not closed off to traffic. Many of the restaurants do not open for lunch. But it is still busy and you can see many walking tours.
We went back to have lunch at Beach Burger after wandering around and taking photos of the area.
Burgers were good but huge!! Again the crowd was mainly American/Canadian and very chatty.
The donut vendor came around and did a great business selling to the eaters.
One of the pulmonia drivers kept coming around the block and playing Life Goes On by the Beatles and dancing as he drove.
Always an entertaining area to spend a pleasant afternoon or evening.
SUNDAY Mazatlan
Lunch - poolside club sandwich
Dinner - Fat Fish - best ribs!!
MONDAY Mazatlan
Lunch - Plaza Machado Beach Burger
Dinner - spaghetti
MAZATLAN TO LA
TUESDAY in transit Alaska Air to LA
Lunch - grabbed a burger at Mazatlan airport
Dinner - Caesar salad and curry chicken - a story in itself about terrible service
LA TO LAS VEGAS
WEDNESDAY LA to Las Vegas drive
Lunch - we had the breakfast buffet at the hotel so we skipped lunch
Dinner - ordered pizza in Las Vegas
THURSDAY DH golfed
Lunch - leftover pizza
Dinner – ordered wings and philly cheese steak
LAS VEGAS TO SEDONA
FRIDAY drive to Sedona
Yesterday morning we awoke to a rainy day in Vegas, a very unusual sight! DH took the car for an oil change and then we had to check out of the condo by 10AM. We loaded up the car and went to get pedicures. Our usual girl wasn't there so we decided to skip it. We picked up some items in Wal-Mart that are cheaper than at home.
We noticed that because of the rain the flowering trees were in full pink bloom. The dark clouds were moving away from the Strip.
We did a quick grocery trip as we have a Smith's discount card and picked up enough for dinner tonight and breakfast.
Then it was time to say good-bye to Vegas.
As we left the city it started to pour and visibility was reduced.
We crossed over the bridge at Hoover Dam. It was not a day for visitors.
We were hungry once we reached Boulder City but didn't want to waste time as it is a five hour drive to Sedona.
We grabbed a quick hot dog and got back on the road.
I amused myself taking photos of the mountains and the skies once we crossed the state line into Arizona.
At one point we stopped so DH could get a panoramic view of the grey white striped mountains.
We were amused by this warning.
Continuing to be amused...
Not so amused...
It is now not funny at all outside Kingman where there are numerous accidents on the northbound portion of Highway 40 and nearly always involving a jack-knifed semi-trailer causing personal cars to run off the road.
We decide it would be a good idea to fill up and go to the bathroom (in our flip flops and shorts).
From Williams to Flagstaff we are driving at a crawl. The temperature is now -4C or 25F.
We are climbing to 7,000 feet above sea level as we approach Flagstaff and the weather just worsens. We exit onto I-17 and the road appears clearer and we pick up speed as we head down to Sedona.
All of a sudden we are stopped in bumper to bumper and we don't move for over an hour. We are thankful that we have groceries in the car as well as lots of clothes. I manage to eject my running shoes from the suitcase on the back seat so I can at least walk if it is necessary.
We watch the sun set on the snow-laden trees.
Finally we start to move at a crawl, everyone is being very careful and we proceed down the 30+ miles to Sedona and then on to our final destination arriving about three hours later than the original estimate. Once we dropped down to Sedona there was not a flake to be seen.
We get checked in to our unit and put our feet up!
Lunch - hot dogs at Dairy Queen
Dinner - cheeses and bread
SATURDAY lazy day after our horrendous drive yesterday. Just went out for groceries in cottonwood.
Lunch - cheese and crackers
Dinner - NEW crab legs in garlic sauce baked in the oven and salad
We are staying in a resort in Cornville AZ just outside Cottonwood and Sedona for the week.
Here are some photos.
We moved from HighlandsResort Verde Santa Fe in Cornville AZ to this resort last Friday. It is about fifteen miles from Cornville on the outskirts of Sedona.
The grounds are beautiful and well laid out.
The resort has everything we like, pool, fitness centre and a bistro.
I just don't understand why resorts that are not situated within walking distance of anything don't have a small store with the basics. There is another resort right next to us that would also benefit as well as the RVs that are parked on the grounds. The resort that we love in Mazatlan has a small shop that we use often. it is a little more expensive but then you would have to take either a bus or pulmonia into town.
Our one bedroom is much smaller than most we have stayed in. My DH calls it a hobbit house. But it is a standalone cottage with a large deck outside and a hibachi. There are also communal gas BBQs just down the road.
It is very compact, I miss not having an oven, but I can live without it for a week. It feels like an RV. However, and we haven't done the sales pitch, but their website states they are able to bring luxurious vacation housing design to the marketplace, for one-half of the price of many competitive vacation ownership options.
Not a bad place to do your laundry!
The weather is amazing the skies at night gorgeous.
Water runs throughout the grounds.
DAY 1 NORTHBOUND
On Monday we said a sad goodbye to Sedona and started our drive home. It will take longer than it took us to get here when we left home on November 26, here is a recap of our southbound trip.
We headed through Flagstaff where there is still snow on the top of the mountain as a result of the snowstorm that greeted us two weeks ago as we drove through Flagstaff from LA back to Sedona.
At Interstate 40 you have two choices.
Arizona is on average 4,100 feet above sea level so the temperature slowly dropped as we climbed.
The drive is seven hours and 465 miles to Santa Rosa NM.
We headed into New Mexico which is at 5,700 feet above sea level on average so the temperature continues to drop to around 7C. Lunch was a quick stop at a Subway so we could save as much time as possible.
The landscape is very different from Sedona's warm red rock.
The road stretches in front of us.
At least there are billboards to keep us entertained.
We didn't really make any other stops and checked into the Hampton Inn in Santa Rosa, put our feet up and ordered a pizza for dinner.
DAY 2
We awoke in Santa Rosa NM, had breakfast at the hotel and headed out to take photos of Route 66 in Santa Rosa.
Santa Rosa is an old Spanish town on the Pecos River, it began as a large Spanish rancho. It got its name in 1890 from a chapel built by Don Cleso Baca to honor his mother. In the early days of Route 66, 1926 through 1937, the old alignment of Route 66 left Santa Rosa to continue on towards Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico then drop back down to Albuquerque and Los Lunas. In late 1937 Route 66 was straightened out to go directly to Albuquerque and by pass Santa Fe completely.
Roadside dining was an important Route 66 experience. Santa Rosa’s. home-owned and home-operated roadside cafes were famous up and down the highway.
The “Fat Man” symbol of the Club Café was a familiar icon and appeared on the highway as early as 1937. The Route 66 landmark is now closed but was operational from 1935 to 1992. Joseph’s Bar & Grill, family operated since 1956 is now the home of the grinning “Fat Man.”
Gloriously neon-lit roadside cafes include the Comet II (circa 1952) and the Sun n’ Sand Restaurant (1966)
Bozo and his wife Anna have taken his hobby and created a museum which welcomes all Route 66 travelers. We didn't go in but I have only read good things about it.
It was time to get on the road as we were booked in Oklahoma City for two nights with a visit to some friends. The drive is approximately six hours but we would be making several stops along the way.
We needed a pit stop and were trying to find the town of Endee in New Mexico so we pulled into Russell's Truck Stop which appeared to be your average highway travel centre. We ended up going back to the car for the camera and spent some time visiting the fascinating car museum that also contains some great memorabilia.
There is also a Subway and a diner that is supposed to be excellent, it was too early for lunch.
I'll be featuring more of the photos from the museum in upcoming posts.
Even the washroom signs were a delight.
We were going to find the town of Endee but when we saw it was a sixteen mile dirt road we decided not to invest the time.
We crossed into Texas and had lunch in Amarillo at a great diner Blue Sky with fantastic burgers and fries. We realized that we would not get to OKC at a reasonable hour to meet our friends as we had crossed into Central Time and lost an hour so we sent a message that it would be better to meet tomorrow.
I was browsing in our Route 66 an came across a reference to the Slug Bug Ranch in Conway TX which is a play on the Cadillac Ranch outside Amarillo which we saw on our southbound trip back in December instead of cadillacs planted into the ground Conway has VWs.
Texas is only 1,700 feet on average above sea level but it is very flat and very dusty.
We cross into Oklahoma which is at 1,300 feet above sea level, more green and definitely more red.
We reached Oklahoma City and got settled into the Wyndham on Meridian near Will Rogers Airport and went to dinner at Shorty Small's next door for ribs.
The ribs were dry and had too much burnt charcoal flavour.
WEEK 13 MEAL PLAN
Sunday - pool and then into Cottonwood to check out the Rendezvous
Lunch - we skipped as we had the breakfast buffet Pcoc Diablo
Dinner - 10th Hole at resort - club sandwich and reuben
Monday - our last day in Sedona. Lost an hour in NM
Lunch - Subs at Subway Navajo AZ
Dinner - ordered pizza into our room at the Hampton Inn in Santa Rosa NM
Tuesday - breakfast at the hotel in Santa Rosa NM. Lost an hour to Central time.
Lunch - great burgers and fries at Blue Sky in Amarillo TX
Dinner - Shorty Small's ribs next to Wyndham in Oklahoma City OK
Wednesday - Cowboy Museum with coffee and carrot cake
Lunch - Tapwerks in Bricktown OKC great beer awful food
Dinner - Indian with friends Gopuram
Thursday - on the road again Oklahoma City to Shreveport LA
Lunch - ham sandwiches based on great highway ads from Robertson's in Texas to eat in the car. -
Dinner - in Homewoods Hilton restaurant salmon and Tuscan Ragout - delicious
Friday - drive from Shreveport LA to New Orleans LA about 6 hours
Lunch - charcuterie plate at Hotel Astor New Orleans
Dinner - cheese and crackers
Saturday - breakfast buffet at Market Cafe
Lunch - jambalaya at city Park
Dinner - lamb and veal Moran's on Bourbon St.
DAY 3
Oklahoma City
It was really cold and overcast when we went out to the car so we hurried back inside and put some layers of clothes on. We decided we would head to the Cowboy Museum for the morning.
The museum opens at 10AM however the restaurant doesn't open until 11 if you were planning on having coffee.
The Museum is wonderful. There are sections on the history of the rodeo, old cowboy westerns, the Cavalry, and the life of cowboys and ranchers.
I will add a few photos here and then do a separate post with more photos.
We stopped for coffee before we left and were served by a delightful elderly gentleman in his western finery. All the volunteers were attired in their cowboy boots and denim.
When we stepped outside it had warmed up and the sun was out. We drove to the Historical Memorial
They suggest you visit the museum first and then go to the memorial. However, the memorial takes your breath away and we forgot that advice. I was lucky that a guide asked if I had any questions and I asked him about the display of chairs. He said there are nine rows of chairs representing the nine floors of the building, with each row having a chair for each of the 168 people killed in the explosion. The children are represented with smaller chairs. There are five chairs sitting against the fence and represent the five people killed that were not in the building.
Again I’ll do a more detailed post at another time.
From here we went to Bricktown. Bricktown, a once abandoned old warehouse district, received a much needed facelift with the passing of MAPS (Metropolitan Area Projects) in 1993 when Oklahoma City took on a massive public facility enhancement project.
We parked and went into Tapwerks for lunch. Bad decision but great beer selection. I ordered the Guinness stew which must have come from a can. It was a gluttonous stew of thick gravy, mushy vegetables and stringy meat. DH ordered the buffalo chicken wrap and asked the server when it came whether it was supposed to be hot. She took it back and after a very long wait it came back and was no warmer.
We wandered around Bricktown which is much like the Riverwalk in San Antonio but smaller. It was very quiet as it was a workday afternoon. I imagine it would be a lot of fun in the evening and on the weekends.
On our way to a friend’s house we made a stop at the State Capital.
We had a great time catching up with our friends and enjoyed an Indian buffet.
DAY 4
Oklahoma City - After the complimentary breakfast at the hotel we were on the road once again. We were heading to Shreveport LA for the evening before continuing the next day to New Orleans for the long weekend and DH’s birthday.
Not an exciting day in photos as most of it was spent in the car.
After leaving OKC we drove into Texas again heading towards Dallas. There were signs along the way for Robertson’s ham sandwiches so we picked up three sandwiches along with some jerky and complimentary pickles. There was a lot of construction as we went through Dallas so we had two of our sandwiches and pickles as we drove.
Texas is green and when you come into Louisiana it is even greener and lots of trees.
We didn't have a reservation so we stopped by Wyndham but it didn't have a restaurant and the location didn't have anywhere around it to eat without taking the car.
We opted for the Hilton Homewood instead. What a gorgeous location in Bossier just outside Shreveport. Our room had a mini kitchen with a full dishwasher and fridge. The room was luxurious with a seating area.
We went to dinner in the dining room, only complaint, it was too brightly lit. Most people were sitting at the bar for dinner. The food was delicious!! DH had a Tuscan stew of pork and beef served on fettuccine and I had a grilled salmon on a bed of bok choy and other vegetables. It had to be good when DH went to the kitchen to compliment the chef!
DAY 5
Shreveport LA - We did a quick drive around the Shreveport/Bossier area but it is quite run down and other than the casinos there isn't much to see.
Back in the car for the drive to New Orleans the terrain changes to bayous and bridges around Baton Rouge. We decided in the interest of time we wouldn't make any side trips and finished our sandwiches with potato chips.
Notice the water between the raised highways. I-10 runs across the southern part of Louisiana. It passes through Lake Charles, Lafayette and Baton Rouge before dipping south of Lake Pontchartrain to serve the New Orleans area and then passing through Slidell before leaving the state.
In August 2005, the I-10 Twin Span Bridge was severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina, rendering it unusable. Initially, the bridge was repaired through a $30.9 million contract with Boh Brothers Construction Company. However, Louisiana has since replaced the bridge with two higher elevation spans in 2009 and 2010.
Traffic was really heavy from Baton Rouge to New Orleans probably because it was Good Friday and everyone seemed to be coming from Texas for the weekend or else getting their boats out for the season.
Superdome - served as an emergency centre during Katrina. It originally cost $165 million to build and the repairs to the roof after the hurricane cost $100 million. When the roof flew out it damaged most of the windows in the Hyatt located nearby as well as several other buildings.
I snapped these photos as we were looking for our hotel.
We found our hotel in the French District, a Wyndham that really was not up to our standards but the location was perfect at Royal and Canal.
We went out to look around and get our bearings. We stopped for a drink in Brennan’s in the Astor Hotel after it was impossible to find a table in the Carousel Bar in the Hotel Monteleone.
We had a beer and a wine and shared a plate of charcuterie which was delicious with various dried meats and crackling.
DAY 6
New Orleans - As we headed out we asked the concierge for a walking map and ended up booking a three hour city tour which turned out to be a great idea. We headed to Cafe le Monde for breakfast, because that is what everyone does. The line was so ridiculously long and we had been there before that we walked down to the Market Cafe and had an all you can eat breakfast for $10 each along with New Orleans famous delicious coffee.
Our view as we had breakfast and listened to jazz.
Fortified we wandered around Jackson Square. Since it was Saturday the artists and performers were out displaying their wares.
A wedding was taking place in the square outside St. Louis Cathedral. This would be only one of several weddings we would encounter today. I will do a separate post on the wedding traditions.
We wandered in and out the many souvenir shops.
We stopped for a beer in the Crescent City Brewery where we had stopped twenty years ago.
We sat at the bar and enjoyed watching the oyster shucker.
Then we headed to our hotel to wait for our afternoon tour. David was our driver and guide and we made several stops at other hotels to pick up other passengers.
We did a tour of the downtown area. It was interesting that most of the buildings were abandoned before Katrina but were now being converted into hotels or condos.
The clarinet on the wall represents where jazz was first played.
We then drove through the Garden District which is full of individual majestic homes that cost upwards of a few million dollars.
Next stop was St. Louis # 3 graveyard where we left the bus and David explained about the style of burials and expressions like “being buried poor”. It reminded me of our visit last January to the cemetery in Granada Nicaragua. I will do a more detailed post on the cemetery at a later date.
We were then taken to the City Park which is bigger than Central Park in NYC. It was full of families enjoying the perfect weather and couples getting married. We tried the jambalaya at the Morning Call and then reboarded the bus.
As we drove to the Ninth District which was where Katrina did the most damage David provided the background. He showed us houses that still had the markings from the searchers.
The markings indicate that the house was searched on September 13, 2005 by the Western Texas ? and the zero indicates no bodies were found.
In the lower 9th district he showed us the work being done by the Brad Pitt foundation.
On the way back we drove down Magazine which has six miles of shopping. That will be on my next agenda.
Most of the hotels along Canal Street used to be department stores. The Ritz Carlton still has its sign showing it was a 5 and 10 store.
We opted to leave the tour at the market and did some shopping. Most of the touristy stuff that is sold in the stores can be found here for a couple of dollars less.
For dinner we strolled along Bourbon St. and ate at Tony Moran's an order of lamb chops and veal.
More strolling and a stop for a glass of wine in the shadows of the cathedral was a perfect ending to the day.
DAY 7
New Orleans - Easter Sunday and DH’s birthday so we started with a must-do in New Orleans, coffee and beignets with a bowl of fruit at Huck Finn’s on Decatur.
We headed to the waterfront
and then we stood across the street from the cathedral and enjoyed the fine weather and people watching. A trio of three guys were warming up to do a show. Known as the Calypso Tumblers they put on a great show totally engaging the audience.
You can watch a long version of their show on this video I found on Youtube.
While this was going on you could also watch the horse and carriages, the taxis arriving with the passengers in their Sunday best for church, the characters and the Easter bonnets.
We went looking for some coffee mugs and then stopped into the Crescent City Brewery for a lunch of Louisiana meat pies and mashed potatoes.
It was perfect as we had the Chris Owens’ Easter parade on our schedule and it passed right by the door. Chris Owens is in black.
We took out stuff back to the hotel and there was a severe thunderstorm warning,
It was also affecting the golf tournament in Houston.
We sat out the storm and headed out around 8:30. It was much quieter on Bourbon than the night before.
Since we weren't that hungry we strolled back to the bistro Grapevines and had a duck salad and DH had enormous shrimp in the best gravy ever.
Time for bed!
WEEK 14 MEAL PLAN
This is our first week of our drive back to Toronto after four months away in the southwest US after a long weekend in New Orleans.
SUNDAY - New OrleansEaster Sunday and DH’s birthday
Lunch – beef and pork Louisiana meat pies and mashed potatoes at Crescent City Brewery
Dinner – Grapevines duck salad and BBQ shrimps
MONDAY – Drive to Memphis
Lunch – Canton MS KFC
Dinner – Memphis BB King’s
TUESDAY – Drive to Nashville overnight at Doubletree Hilton downtown Nashville
Lunch – BBQ pork and brisket sandwiches
Dinner – Nashville Joe’s Crab Shack
WEDNESDAY – Drive to Cinncinnati passing through Kentucky- overnight in Hampton Inn Akron-Fairlawn
Lunch – we had large buffet breakfast at Doubletree Hilton in Nashville so we skipped lunch
Dinner - Houston Inn Akron salad bar and excellent prime rib
THURSDAY - Drive to Mason OH for the evening at Hampton Inn King's Island
Lunch -
Dinner - Hyde Park Grill Holiday Inn Akron OH ahi tuna, brussel sprouts, beef au jus
FRIDAY - our final day on the road as we left Ohio, drove through Pennsylvania, New York and then crossed the border into Canada.
Lunch - Erie PA wings at Quaker Steak and Lube
Dinner - Hamilton ON at my sister's house
SATURDAY - our first meal at home in Toronto
Lunch -
Dinner - chicken divan and crusty bread
DAY 9
I 40 between Memphis and Nashville is referred to as the Music Highway.
Memphis - Driving to Nashville TN is on today’s agenda after a breakfast at the hotel in Memphis. But first a drive by shooting of some sights in Memphis.
The following information is from the NPS website:
On April 4, 1968, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated at the Lorraine Hotel, just a day after speaking at the Mason Temple Church of God in Christ. Built in 1925, the Lorraine Hotel was a typical Southern hotel accessible only to whites in its early history. However, by the end of World War II, the Lorraine had become a black establishment which had among its early guests Cab Calloway, Count Basie, and other prominent jazz musicians, in addition to later celebrities such as Roy Campanella, Nat King Cole, and Aretha Franklin. Partly because of its historical importance to the black community of Memphis, Martin Luther King chose to stay at the Lorraine during the 1968 Memphis sanitation workers strike.
In 1890, the Grand Opera House was built on the corner of Main and Beale Streets. The Grand was billed as the classiest theatre outside of New York City. Vaudeville was the main source of entertainment at the time and acts featured singers, musicians and magicians. The Grand became part of the Orpheum Circuit of vaudeville shows in 1907, thus the theatre became known as the Orpheum.
Vaudeville at the Orpheum was successful for almost two decades. Then in 1923, after a show that featured the singer Blossom Seeley, a fire started and the theatre burned to the ground.
In 1928, at a cost of $1.6 million, a new Orpheum was built on the original site of the Grand, but it was a different theatre. The new Orpheum is twice as large as her predecessor and opulently decorated. Lavish tasseled brocade draperies, enormous crystal chandeliers, gilded moldings, and the Mighty Wurlitzer pipe organ are just a few of its new amenities.
As vaudeville's popularity waned, the Orpheum was purchased by the Malco movie theatre chain in 1940 and presented first run movies until 1976 when Malco decided to sell the building. There was even talk of demolishing the old theater to build an office complex. However, in 1977 the Memphis Development Foundation purchased the Orpheum and began bringing Broadway productions and concerts back to the theatre.
According to the Saint Blues website:
On the street now called Elvis Presley Boulevard, across the way from Graceland, Mike Ladd and Tom Keckler were doing something magical with guitars at Mike Ladd’s Guitar City. Seems whenever these boys laid hands on someone’s guitar, it just played a whole lot better. Hell, they even customized one for the King ordered by his father. You can see him play it in “Aloha From Hawaii”.
I've created some links to some of our photos of the references in this Wikipedia article below.
The Pyramid Arena, initially known as the Great American Pyramid was originally built as a 20,142-seat arena located in downtown Memphis at the banks of the Mississippi River. The facility was built in 1991 and was originally owned and operated jointly by the city of Memphis and Shelby County; Shelby County sold its share to Memphis in April 2009. Its unique structure plays on the city's namesake in Egypt, known for its ancient pyramids. It is 321 feet (98m, about 32 stories) tall and has base sides of 591 ft; it is by some measures the sixth largest pyramid in the world behind the Great Pyramid of Giza (456 ft), Khafre's Pyramid (448 ft), Luxor Hotel (348 ft), the Red Pyramid (341 ft), and the Bent Pyramid (332 ft). It is also slightly (about 16 feet) taller than the Statue of Liberty. A statue of Ramesses the Great stood in front of the pyramid, which was created from a mold of the actual statue in Egypt. In 2011, this statue was leased to the University of Memphis for the cost of $1 and was moved to the campus in April 2012.
It was a cold and grey day as we drove through Tennessee.
We made a stop at the Casey Jones Village in Jackson TN not MS as shown on the sign above.
It was very cold and starting to drizzle as we wandered around.
Here is a great video with the history of Casey Jones and the Wabash Cannonball!
Lunch was at a roadside BBQ diner somewhere along the interstate we had a pulled pork and a brisket sandwich.
At Mile 340, the interstate enters the Eastern Time Zone, and shortly thereafter the road begins its descent of the Cumberland Plateau into the Tennessee Valley.
The GPS was not very helpful as we tried to find our way to downtown Nashville and traffic was heavy but we managed. Again hotels were very expensive and we checked into the Doubletree Hilton based on its good location. We used valet parking as the garage was down the street. We added on some layers of clothing as it hadn't warmed up. The hotel shuttle dropped us on Broadway which is The District a little like Beale St. but it is about six blocks long and the music is all country!
The entertainment starts at 10:30AM and goes all day long. Again it is customary to tip the musicians.
When we stepped out it had started to drizzle and then some hail so we went in and out of the shops and crossed to the Rock Bottom Brewery hoping to sample a local brew. We sat at the bar for a while as a lone server busied herself arranging bottles and never making eye contact. Two other people arrived at the bar and given menus. We were still being ignored so we got up and left.
Lucky us!! We spotted Joe’s Crab House down the street where the servers were pleasant and fun. We had an order of Queen (new to me) crabs and an order of King. They come in a big bucket with an ear of corn and potatoes. Finger licking delicious!!
Some night photos.
DAY 10
Nashville – It's been a long time since I was awakened by the sound of Ave Maria from church chimes.
As HHonors members we had a complimentary breakfast buffet which was delicious with biscuits, scrambled eggs, sausages, bacon and fresh fruit (yeah strawberries and grapefruit). It’s too bad the service was so bad considering they only had to clear the tables and serve coffee and juice. It would have made more sense to have the juice on the buffet as well.
We called to have our car delivered to us, it was nippy out but the sun was shining. We put on another layer for our supply in the car and DH even pulled out his scarf.
We drove to Printers Alley for a few photos and then up Capitol Hill. Parking was difficult and when we did the state ranger asked us where we parked and said we would likely get ticketed and towed so we got back into the car and decided to head down to the Ryman Auditorium instead. Then we took a walk along Broadway and down to the waterfront.
Roy Acuff and Minnie Pearl statue at the Ryman Auditorium. Her trademark price tag is on her hat at the back.
ON the road again towards Columbus OH for the evening.
First we drive through Kentucky which is such a great state to visit. We've been there efore and there are many different towns to visit with so much history.
We checked into the Hampton Inn in Mason OH near King's Island which was scheduled to open mid April. It was way to cold at the moment for a water park! King's Island is in Mason OH just outside Cincinnati.
King's Island is touted as the largest amusement park in the mid-west.
The clerk suggested we eat at the Houston Inn in Lebanon. What a quaint place, totally stuck in a 1980's country. Check out their photo gallery here.
However, the prime rib was delicious and the entire meal was very inexpensive.
DAY 11
Mason OH - DH decided we should check out Golfsmith's for a golf cart he wanted. As we drove from the hotel we noticed a huge grey cloud that could only be something burning. DH jokingly said he hoped it wasn't the mall we were going to. As we waited in traffic at the exit we wondered what was causing the jam.
Therein lay the problem, the fire WAS a tire shop on the street where the golf shop was.
DH bought his golf cart and we got on the road. We decided to have lunch at Cracker Barrel since we had only eaten there once on this trip, in Amarillo TX way back in November when we started this journey. Now if you know me you know I love Cracker Barrel.
The great thing is you can have breakfast all day which is what we opted for.
We had an uneventful drive through farmland.
After some discussion we decided to make a stop at the Football Hall of Fame in Canton OH, as it is a running joke between us. We had gone there in 1992, however years later DH claimed we had never been until I produced a photo of him standing in front of a display.
1992
2013
They are in the middle of an expansion but it was still a great place to visit.
We stayed overnight at the Hampton Inn in Akron OH.
This Hampton Inn was bracketed by a Holiday Inn and a Marriott. The Holiday Inn had an upscale steak restaurant chain which was within walking distance. We had had prime rib the night before and as our server confided this wasn't the place for prime rib. DH had a beef us jus and I ordered ahi tuna and we shared a huge order of roasted brussel sprouts which was a highlight for us as we were missing our vegetables. I know, sad....
DAY 12
Sad to awake on our final day of our amazing four month trek. We were in Akron OH and only a few hours from home.
We drove through Ohio to Pennsylvania, stopping in Erie PA at Quaker Steak and Lube because we had enjoyed it the first time in October 2011.
Yikes! There's snow on the side of the road!
OOPS almost missed it!
Now the dreaded border crossing, not many cars and we breezed through after answering the questions regarding how long we were away, where were we and what did you buy for how much?
We stopped at my sister's for dinner and finally arrived at our condo after missing our exit LOL!!
The view the next morning!
And then it rained for 40 days and 40 nights, kidding, but felt like it. It only rained for nine days!!
WEEK 16 MEAL PLAN
Our first week back in Toronto and it rained all week! No signs of spring in the air!
Since we're home lunch has been salad all week.
SUNDAY
Lunch -
Dinner - Roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, mushy peas, roast and mashed potatoes and homemade gravy
MONDAY
Lunch -
Dinner - with friends at The Brogue Inn, I had liver and DH fish and chips
TUESDAY
Lunch -
Dinner - leftover roast beef
WEDNESDAY
Lunch -
Dinner - pork chops and colcannon
THURSDAY
Lunch -
Dinner – chicken piccata with carrots and mashed potatoes.
FRIDAY
Lunch -
Dinner - beef stew from the rest of the roast beef
SATURDAY
Lunch -
Dinner - NEW RECIPE shrimp creole with rice
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