Leaving San Francisco and Arriving at Las Vegas

Today we leave San Francisco. After breakfast I go up the road to do the washing so that we have clean clothes when we get to Las Vegas.

On the way down in the lift a rather irate women grumbles to us not to lose our key as the cleaning staff are most unhelpful and she has to go down to the desk to get another.  I bit my tongue as I do quite often these days. But I would have thought that as an adult it is your responsibility to put your key in a safe place, and I know I would be most unhappy if the cleaning staff let me into my room without any security checking, after all how would they know who I am.

As always our checkout experience at the Holiday Inn Express and Suites is flawless and the receptionist is friendly and efficient.

We have a short wait for the shuttle to arrive. It is not the shuttle company used by the hotel but we found the driver to be pleasant when we arrived and are quite happy to use them again for the return trip which only cost us $12 plus tip as against the $16  plus tip when we arrived.

Now for the fun part:

At the United check in we are unable to use the electronic check in device as they need to check our documents. So we move from queue 1 to queue 2, which of course is much longer.  A number of passengers are complaining because they have just found out that there is no free baggage allowance and they have to pay for every checked in bag. I am not too happy myself but when we finally reach the check in counter, we don’t have to pay as we are overseas passengers, having first boarded in Sydney.  So with smiles all round we head off for queue no 3.

We are then separated from queue 3 and taken to queue 4 to have our documents checked again. The young man behind us remarks that he thinks that we are being taken to the strip search queue. LOL all round but a few aren’t so sure this is a joke.

A young woman gives each of us the once over and makes lots of squiggles on our passes in hot pink pen.

And onto queue no 5. I point out to Val the benefits of arriving early when traveling overseas.  Now its time to remove our shoes, unload the laptop and place everything in the trays to go through the scanner. I know straight away what is going to happen and sure enough I am not disappointed.  My gold bangle that I have worn since my grandmother brought it for me when I was 10 years old, sets off the alarm.

So I am sent to stand behind a cordoned off area while a female attendant is called to deal with me.  I explain it’s the bangle and remark that after setting off every alarm in the US last time I was here, I had meant to have it cut off.  We have a rather jovial conversation as I already know the drill and she asks what happens in Australia. I tell her that I very rarely set off the alarms back home. “But what if you were carrying a gun”, Oh dear! I tell that I believe the sensors are able to have some metals tuned out, gold being one of them.

Then its off to the aircraft. Boarding, the flight, the landing and leaving the craft are all relatively easy and without incident.  So if you are an overseas traveler or don’t mind paying for checked baggage then the service with United is fine. We pick up the baggage, catch the Showtime Shuttle for $6.50 one way and we are off. I didn’t buy a return because we haven’t decided where we are going to stay for the last 4 days as yet.

We arrive at the Paris and I am so thrilled I chose this hotel. After walking from the drop off point, through the Casino we arrive at the Reception area.  The receptionist asks if would like an upgrade to a room with a view. Having been through all this before I decline saying thank you, I am sure all your rooms are lovely. She proceeds with the booking and tells me she has upgraded us anyway.  Thank you very much.

Our room is on the 25^th floor looking straight out to the Eiffel Tower and directly across to the  Bellagio where we can watch the fountain show every hour. The room is just lovely. Will give a more detailed review of the hotel in a later post.

After fossicking around for a short time we head off out in search of food, not having eaten since breakfast.  At that point a Deuce bus comes along that says ‘Downtown’ so we hop on and purchase a day pass for $7.00. This way we can use the buses to take us up and down the strip to the other casinos, rather than walk everywhere like Paula and I did last year.

Once we are settled on the bus I remember reading on the net that the Deuce buses don’t run to Fremont St and start thinking. “Ohmigod! what will we do if it stops nowhere near Fremont St.”  Well we will just stay on the damn thing and ride it back of course.  I tend to have panic thoughts followed immediately by completely rational and logical ones so I am used to this kind of thought process happening .

Well I am absolutely delighted to tell you that the Deuce buses now go to Fremont St.  The bus goes straight down Las Vegas Boulevard and stops at Fremont St East. From there it is a short walk up to the Fremont St experience.

The noise is amazing; this whole area has had an uplift over the past year. I am loving it.  They are celebrating the ‘Sounds of Summer 69′; it’s the 40 year anniversary of  Woodstock and there are a number of excellent bands belting out the music of my era. I want to stay and dance but we are hungry.

On the way to the Plaza we stop off at the Golden Nugget to see the Worlds largest golden nugget and the shark tank with the enclosed slide that goes through the tank into the pool.  Then its off to Lucky 7’s.

But what’s this Lucky 7’s is no more, I am stunned, I have been hanging out for their fried chicken and chocolate cream pie for over a year now.

But wait, the restaurant has had an uplift and a name change, its now called “Stuffed” at the Plaza.  And of course its no longer $7.77 for the meal but $12.50 plus tax.

I am sooo disappointed, the chicken is undercooked and I just can’t bring myself to eat raw chicken, the next piece is dried out. But I will try again another day, after all it is after 10pm and they are ready to close.  I do score a piece of chocolate pie though and it lives up to my memories.

After eating we head off to watch the Fremont experience.  We stop to listen to a couple of the bands while we wait for the 11pm show.  And I find a Wheel of Fortune machine at Binion’s, Just like the one at the Gold Coast Hotel. I lose $20 to start with but then win $40 so we are okay at the moment.

Then the  Fremont St Experience show starts and it is KISS, one of my favorite bands. Val has decided that we should spend the last 4 days at Downtown, however, he has yet to see what else is on offer.

Then its back on the bus.  We are at the wrong stop, but this is obviously common as a lady dressed in a psychedelic ‘Summer of 69′ t-shirt points us in the right direction. She says it is a mistake that everyone from out of town makes.  You think you would pick up the bus where it dropped you off but you have to go to the next street down, no big deal.

On the bus I get talking to a group of Angels – Avon ladies who are in Las Vegas at a convention. The first couple of ladies I talk to are from Kentucky and what beautiful accents they have, I could listen to them all night.

And so here it is 1am and I am writing up Day 1 in Vegas.  Val is sensible he is in bed asleep. Me I am just so happy to be here once again, I have to admit that I may have left my heart in San Francisco but I am fickle and I am having a love affair with Las Vegas.

Filed under: America & Canada • Las Vegas

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