Tue 24th Oct
It was a beautiful sunny and warm morning for our one full day in Vegas. We headed out for a morning walk but that’s easier said than done. Navigating from the hotel down to ‘The Strip’ is a lengthy and complex process due to the battle-axe nature of our hotel location. Even once we made it down to ‘The Strip’, walking the route involved a lot of ‘uphill and down dale’ with escalators crossings needed over the busy intersections. So much so, that by the time we reached ‘The Strip’ and walked for a block we’d done about a 30 minute walk and then needed to turn back!
There were no real plans for the day other than to collect our hire car and do a bit of shopping at the Vegas outlet. We took an Uber out to the car hire place and that all went smoothly except that Mark left his main phone and Sat Nav gear in the Uber. This story had a happy ending though after our initial panic; Jeremy, our Uber driver, dropped the bag back to the hotel later that morning.
The stress of this event did not impact Mark’s shopping though. He excelled once again and accumulated multiple bags all to himself by lunch. He even found more items to buy at Banana Republic; he surely must be a specialist for this store by now!
Our break for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory took longer than expected and this may have impacted Mark from achieving a PB. I did pick up some sand shoes at the last stop so I have no complaints.
We arrived home by about 4pm so as to rest up and shower before our 7pm session of the Cirque de Soleil ‘O’ show with dinner being a quick affair at one of the Bellagio restaurants prior to the show. We’d previously seen the Michael Jackson Cirque de Soleil show and, whilst ‘O’ was entertaining, we consider Michael Jackson to be the better of the two.
Wed 25th Oct
We were heading to Santa Monica today but squeezed in a morning walk and even a quick stop at Macy’s to buy some perfume and a new suitcase for all of Mark’s shopping. The shopping centre was rather high end and on par with that of Waikiki’s Ala Moana which is something to keep in mind if ever back in Vegas.
The weather was, again, sunny and warm making for good driving conditions. We got away from Macy’s at about 10.30 am and the trip took us just over 4 hours. We stopped for lunch at Lola’s Kitchen at Barstow, being roughly half way between Las Vegas and LA and having good reviews. It was a strange location though being a small shop set off the road in a strip of seemingly commercial units. Anyway, we gave it a go and the Mexican fare was good.
When we finally arrived at Hotel Shangri-La Santa Monic we felt light we had landed in heaven. A beautiful long beach, blue skies, no clouds, warm and salty air and the casual vibe we’re used to at home.
Link: http://www.slh.com/hotels/shangri-la-santa-monica/
We settled into our room and then headed out for a walk via Johnny Was and the Tesla store. I left my shop with three items but Mark left his empty handed. Our hotel offered complimentary wine and cheese on a Wednesday night so we headed back to the hotel to watch the sunset over the beach and then for a glass of wine and cheese plate by the pool. We were tired after our big day of driving, Mark behind the wheel and me hoping he stuck to his lane, so we skipped dinner for an early night pledging to make the most of tomorrow, our last full day on US soil.
