Monday, June 3, 2013

28th May to 31st May - New York, Vegas & LA

We didn't have to leave New York City until lunchtime to head to the airport, so we had a wander around until then.  We walked around the Bryant Park area, before heading towards the Macy's area.  Wade couldn't leave New York without having a hot dog, so he picked one up on the way back to the hotel!!

Our flight to Vegas was about 5 1/2 hours, and surprise surprise, we were put in the back row on the plane again!!  Thankfully though, there were a few spare seats on the plane, and the other guy sitting in our row ended up moving not long into the flight, so we had three seats to spread across, which was good.

After arriving in Vegas, we headed over to our rental car company to pick up our car.  We had hired a mid-size car here, but got swayed by the up-sell on arrival at the rental counter and ended up with a convertible Mustang (it wasn't a hard sell, seeing as we weren't able to get one in Orlando, and Wade had been itching to drive one)!  After this we headed over to our hotel to check in, and once we had gotten sorted, it was straight across to the Bellagio to hit the buffet.  We had to wait about 45 minutes before we got a table (which wasn't too bad).  The only problem was at this stage it was 9.45pm Vegas time, which was actually 12.45am New York time, which is where we had come from (so a very late dinner for us).  The buffet did not disappoint though!  We managed a few plates of prawns between us, plus plenty of other great food.  I think I ended up having 5 desserts!  That was pretty much all we could manage between the tiredness and the fullness from all the food, so once we were done we headed back to the hotel for bed!

We were up pretty early the next day as we hadn't slept that well.  Our room was right on the lift well and it sounded like trucks going past our room all night!  We ended up getting our room changed for the second night which helped.  Today was shopping day!!  We headed out and grabbed some breakfast, while we waited for the North Outlets to open.  We did a bit of shopping here, before heading to the Fashion Show Mall on the strip.  A bit more shopping happened here and lunch, before heading to Town Square for more shopping.  After this it was onto the South Outlets, for some more shopping!!  We came home with armfuls of bags so it was a successful day.  Tonight we did a bit of wandering up and down the strip, before ending up at Caesar's Palace for some extra shopping at the Forum Shops and dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.  After dinner we watched the Bellagio fountain show before heading to bed.

The next day was our road trip day from Vegas to LA.  Before we left though, we headed to Walmart to pick up an extra bag to be able to bring all our purchases home in, as well as buy some mega bags of lollies!! The drive to LA would take about 4 hours, and of course we started of with the roof down.  It was getting pretty hot, but going at 110km/hour it wasn't too bad.  Not far out of Vegas is a place called Primm which had more outlet shopping.  We stopped here and had a look at the shops and also grabbed some lunch.  We then took off for the next part of the trip, with the roof down again.  Seemed like a great idea, until it got to 39 degrees.  Stupidly we forgot to buy water for the trip, so after what seemed like an eternity, we finally came across a service station, we pulled over so we could re-hydrate!!  After this the roof went up and the A/C on!!  Other than a little hold up just outside of LA due to an accident, the trip and traffic was really good.  Must have been a good day or something though, because the next day the traffic was terrible, everywhere we went!  After we checked into our hotel, we walked over to Universal Citywalk.  We had a wander around, before heading to the Saddle Ranch Chop House for dinner.  At the end of the meal, we were provided with a mega Fairy Floss for dessert.  I had already decided we were having mini donuts from one of the other shops, but I couldn't leave the fairy floss there, so we ended the night on a sugar high!!

We woke up on Friday for our last day of our trip.  We had booked a VIP tour at Warner Brothers Studios, for the morning.  There were only 8 people in our group and it went for just over 2 hours.  Our guide (who actually worked on the Ellen Show) had a lot of knowledge on all things Movie and TV.  I like trashy shows, and alot of them seem to be filmed at Warner Brothers, so it was pretty cool to see different sets and houses and be able to link them back to shows that we watch.  We were able to walk around the lot in different places and see them setting up/decorating the houses for filming.  We also went through the prop house, sat on the couch in the real Central Perk from Friends, saw a bunch of cars that have been used in different films, visited the museum which housed alot of costumes from movies and tv shows, and also went onto two different sound stages (Big Bang Theory and Mike & Molly).  All in all it was a great morning.  We still had about 12 hours before our flight left, so we had to find a few things to do to kill some time. We did a bit more shopping, found a Walmart (in a not so good area) to buy the last of our supplies to bring home, and then headed across to Santa Monica.  We spent a bit of time here, and had a wander along the beach and the pier.  After this we found a Westfield close to the airport so we could grab some dinner.  We got lucky on the flight home and ended up in the emergency row, so had heaps of legroom for the trip home.

We had a great 3 1/2 weeks away - and experienced alot of new things, but now it is back to reality - off to work tomorrow!

Here are some photos from the last few days of our trip.

Last hours in New York




On our way to Bellagio Buffet



Extra large bottle of Corona


Vegas sign - photo taken by "Elvis"


Our car for the end of our trip


Pawn shop from "Pawn Stars"


The Mirage and duck in the pond!




The view for most of the way from Vegas to LA




Our fairy floss dessert


WB VIP Tour

This has been used in a lot of shows/movies but currently used as the Rammer Jammer in Hart of Dixie, Merlots in True Blood and the scary Hotel from Pretty Little Liars


Hannah's house from Pretty Little Liars


Streets used as Stars Hollow from the Gilmore Girls (and many others)


House getting setup for Halloween episode of Pretty Little Liars


Suki's house from Gilmore Girls


Gazebo from Gilmore Girls


Facade streets



Central Perk from Friends




Basketball court on the lot that George Clooney petitioned to be built


Various Bat-mobiles (all cars are working vehicles)




Our view from the car for most of the last day in LA (endless traffic)


Santa Monica