Walking. Gossip. Travel.

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  • Las Vegas – The Venetian

    I always see something new in the Venetian every time I visit, and the interiors are some of the best in Las Vegas. The hotel is of a ridiculous size, it’s the second largest in the world and has just over 4,000 rooms and just over 3,000 suites. I’ve never stayed at the hotel, it’s always been too expensive, but maybe one year.

    It’s though the shopping areas, decked out to look like Venice, which are the star of the show for me. The painted ceilings which makes it feel like you’re outside and the gondoliers floating around carrying passengers. All excessive, but so very Vegas.

     

  • Las Vegas – Betting Statistics

    My final betting statistics….

    Video Poker

    Spent $7

    Won $6

    Keno

    Spent $1

    Won $0

    Although bear in mind that (other than the tip) the drinks are free, so this wasn’t a bad result for the week. I must be on the verge of being classed as a high roller with this level of betting.

  • Las Vegas – Raising Cane’s Chicken

    And with my last post being about fine dining in a French restaurant (or if not fine dining then close enough) it meant that the next meal needed to be one which I could tick off my fast food chain list. And this was Cane’s, a Louisiana based chicken restaurant where they claim that their chicken fingers are always fresh and never frozen. They have, according to Wikipedia, 432 locations across the United States which have mostly opened over the last few years. They’re started an international expansion, although there aren’t yet any in the UK.

    The four piece combo meal, although the lovely staff gave me five pieces of chicken for reasons unknown. I like to think it was because they thought I deserved it, but they probably just miscounted. The chicken did seem freshly cooked and was moist and tender, with the coating being crispy and flavoursome. The crinkle cut chips were sufficiently salty and the American style coleslaw added texture, taste and some colour to the proceedings. The Texas Toast, which seemed to be some form of soft garlic bread, I wasn’t so excited by though, although I later realised I could have swapped it for more chips. Anyway, always worth trying…

    Service was friendly, although it’s one of those places where you give your name and they call it out. I prefer numbers, avoids any issues with spelling names, although it all worked out on this one. The restaurant was surprisingly cold in terms of the temperature with a gale running through it from the back door to the front, but I like cold, so this suited me. The drinks were self-pour and unlimited refills, as with most of the US, which again suited me as I like binge drinking sugary soda drinks.

    Anyway, as fast food chains go, this gets my seal of approval. I don’t actually have a seal to make an impression to give to the restaurant, but I liked it and it all seemed well managed and clean. The quality of the chicken was excellent and this is another restaurant that is much better than KFC, perhaps one of the most inconsistent chains that there is (especially in the UK). I hope that they open in the UK in due course…..

  • Las Vegas – Mon Ami Gabi

    Time for a decent French meal….. This is the Mon Ami Gabi, located at the Paris Las Vegas casino on the main strip. The restaurant was larger than I expected and the service was attentive and professional, with the entire operation seemingly well managed. Actually, to run a restaurant that is this popular with the efficiency that they did was quite remarkable. For those who wanted to eat inside (me) that was an option, but there’s also a patio area externally where you can sit in the heat with everyone watching you.

    The baguette and carrot, er, heap is compliments of the restaurant. Both were excellent.

    The beer selection wasn’t particularly impressive with some rather generic options available. The on-line menu was better than the one that we were presented with, with no decent dark beers available. This is the Evocation Saison from Crafthaus in Las Vegas, which was acceptable, but they didn’t have the Belching Beaver peanut butter stout they mentioned on-line.

    The chicken Caesar salad with frites, all very lovely. The chicken was not quite as firm as I’d have ideally liked in terms of the texture, but it had a decent flavour. The salad itself was excellent, lots of flavour and evenly coated, all tasting feeling authentically French. The pommes frites were crispy and firm and were deliciously salty, I like them seasoned like that.

    The prices were moderate given the location and the portion size was more than I expected. The restaurant was generously staffed and so service was never an issue. For the perfect visit, I’d have wanted a better beer selection though, but since it’s a French restaurant they have perhaps focused on the wine. However, all rather lovely.

  • Las Vegas – Photos of the Strip by Car

    OK, the photos below aren’t the best I know…. But since Richard was in Las Vegas and he had hired a car, this was the first time that I’ve been driven down the strip itself. And here are some photos of it.

     

  • Las Vegas – Haribo

    Where have these been all my life? Best Haribo I’ve yet had and full of fruit as well…

  • Megabus (Las Vegas to Los Angeles)

    The bus was ready around thirty minutes before departure time, although we couldn’t board for around another fifteen minutes. The temperature in Las Vegas by this time was hot, so at least there was a canopy to stand under. The process seemed a bit long-winded to board with the driver telling everyone they couldn’t sit in some of the downstairs seats, but nearly everyone was heading upstairs anyway.

    However, on arrival upstairs, a problem emerged. The bus was like a sauna, which was helpfully noted by the driver when she passed through the coach to count everyone. However, despite some complaints, the driver said that the policy was that the coach drivers were banned from idling by the company. I’m not sure why Megabus have come with this solution, but it wasn’t entirely comfortable for the fifteen minutes or so we were waiting.

    Yet again, like my last Megabus trip, there was someone trying to pay on boarding. There was some discussion about this before the passenger gave up and said they’d try and book on the next bus, although that was around seven hours away.

    The inside of the coach. Megabus are very proud that they have their own entertainment system for passengers, they e-mailed me twice about it and it was also on the booking e-mail. However, the wi-fi on the coach didn’t work, which was most inconvenient, which of course meant that the entertainment system also failed. I was less concerned about this than I had no access to e-mails or anything else during the five hour journey.

    I thought that the lack of wi-fi would be solved by the bus’s stop during the journey. This has always been a McDonald’s, which is very convenient as it allows for not just the purchase of food, but also the use of the restaurant’s wi-fi. However, since my last trip on this journey Megabus has moved to Love’s, a petrol station which charges customers for wi-fi. They had food at the Chester’s Chicken which is part of Love’s, but this didn’t have wi-fi no doubt as Love’s policy to charge for everything they can. In irritation I refused to buy anything and was pleased I had snacks and drinks from Walmart….. The state of the toilets in Love’s was also unsatisfactory, so hopefully Megabus will move to somewhere rather more suitable again in the future.

    Oh, and the bus driver counted everyone and realised someone was missing. She ended up running inside to find the passenger and it transpired they’d decided to stay in the petrol station and not continue with the journey. It didn’t occur to them to perhaps tell the driver that, but I have to give credit for the driver noticing, they don’t usually count everyone.

    Photos from the journey, which went through some marvellous scenery. It wasn’t of course quite as impressive as the Grand Canyon scenery from the previous day, but nonetheless, the wide expanses provided excellent views which passed the time given the complete lack of wi-fi.

    The driver was always friendly and the quality of her driving was excellent, the journey was smooth and we also arrived a few minutes early. This normally wouldn’t make much difference, but on this occasion it allowed me to catch the Pacific Surfliner to San Juan Capistrano. Given that my ticket also only cost $1 the value for money was of course excellent.

    And one more comment, just for Dylan, this means that I’m in California!!!!!

  • Amtrak Pacific Surfliner (Los Angeles to San Juan Capistrano)

    I’ve taken the route of the Pacific Surfliner before and the section between San Diego and San Juan Capistrano is perhaps one of the most beautiful in the world as the train glides along by the beach. The section between Los Angeles and San Juan Capistrano is still intriguing, although rather less so in the dark….

    I only just caught this train as I was fortunate that the Megabus arrived in just a little early into Los Angeles. The Amtrak ticket desk also fortunately had a short queue and then so with a few minutes to spare I was able to take a seat on board. It’s a double decker (Dylan would like that) and as spacious as the other Amtrak services that I’ve taken. There’s a cafe car and there were no shortage of seats on the journey, although it was still relatively busy.

    I did wonder whether customers are allowed to buy tickets on board, but I decided against risking that. However, I found out the answer as the passenger in front of me hadn’t purchased one, and apparently the answer is that these tickets are twice the usual cash price. The conductor phoned Amtrak customer service to discuss something about the ticket price, although I unfortunately couldn’t hear enough to work out the solution.

    The one downside is that the train’s wi-fi wasn’t functioning, it would connect but not actually let me reach the log-in screen. Fortunately I discovered that there is some public wi-fi in Irvine which I could connect to for a few minutes, but otherwise I was unlucky with the access to the Internet today, given this and the Megabus technical issues.

    The Amtrak train pulled into San Juan Capistrano on time with its horns blaring out as usual as it goes over a crossing which cars and pedestrians use. The town was much busier than I’ve seen it before, it felt like a friendly Prince of Wales Road at night….

  • Grand Canyon – Photos

    Lovely to spend a day at the Grand Canyon today, here are some of the photos…

  • Omaha – Flags

    One thing I do like about the US is that they fly their flag a lot. This was the entrance to what otherwise just seemed a normal business, they certainly like to keep the flags flying…