travel diary – Home here and there

Las Vegas Day 2

Because the sun was out we decided to take a walk around the strip. We stopped by at a sweets Shop to the delight of the kids and saw the fountains in front of the Bellagio.

There was still a lot of scaffolding up from the car race the weekend before so we had to cross the street or bypass through Casinos to get where we wanted to go.

In the early afternoon we headed to our friends’ House for Thanksgiving dinner which was excellent as always.

We finished the evening with a Feuerzangenbowle. It’s basically mulled wine with a bit of extra alcohol and sugar. You have to have this special tong which holds a sugar cone. You soak it with rum (at least 54%) and light it on fire so that the caramelized sugar drips in the warm punch. I found this recipe in English if you want to have a closer look. It also has all the links to the ingredients you need. It’s tasty but I haven’t had any this time since I was the designated driver. Funnily enough the sugar cone was eyed with great interest during the security checks at the airport. It was always passed the drug and explosive tests since it is really just sugar. You can also get it here but is much cheaper in Germany. Would you give this a try?

Las Vegas Day 1

So, what do we do in Las Vegas? Most of the time we come here to visit our friends, but this time we also came because BIL and SIL like going to Las Vegas. There was a visit to the Outlet Mall on request so I and the kids dropped off the rest of the party and made our way to yet another game store in another part of town with a pit stop at the Boba shop. Game stores seem to become a new theme whenever I want to make the kids happy. We also had time visit the Writer’s Block. It’s an awesome bookstore my friend introduced me to and now we come here almost every time. By the time we got back to the hotel it was almost time for heading out to our dinner reservation where we met up with our friends.

The restaurant Buddy V’s is in the Venetian and with a little extra time we walked through the canal streets. The first time I saw the artificial blue sky I did a double take.

The main attraction of the day was a visit to the Sphere. It’s that big dome with projections all over. You probably came across one of the gigantic Smiley faces before? Inside is an event space/movie theatre. We had tickets for Postcards from Earth. It is shown on the world’s largest high Definition Screen and provides an interactive experience. That includes temperature changes, wind, chair vibration and smell. It was really something. I did not care much for the story (humans send in pairs to other planets to populate them because humanity destroyed Planet Earth) but the images were stunning. The entrance area reminded me of a space port in science fiction movies. Everyone left impressed.

Into the desert

Abandoned house on hill in Calico Ghost Town

It surprises me every single time how long the drive to Las Vegas is. We started in Tehachapi in the morning and arrived in Las Vegas in the dark. To be fair we did do a road stop at the Calico Ghost Town. It does not really feel like a ghost town since a lot of the abandoned buildings in this old silver mining town are occupied by touristy shops now. It’s quite the production.there are parts that still have the abandoned charm of lost places but most of it feels more like a tourist trap. It was a place to stop but one time was enough in my opinion. We walked around, took some pictures and headed back out. The lunch we had at Peggy Sue’s Diner beforehand was way more worth it. It has fun decorations in each dining room and the food was quite good for the price.

When we arrived in Vegas we still had time to try out the hotel pool and the kids got a pizza dinner while the adults took a walk along the strip. This city is a bit crazy, loud and sparkly. I do like looking at all the lights for a bit but don’t care much for the casinos. We missed the Bellagio fountain but had a look at the new Christmas decorations in the botanical gardens. I kept wondering how many poinsettias there might be.