Leaving Las Vegas

The visit to Fantasyland is over.  It's Friday and time to go home.  As a final fling, a visit to the Paris Breakfast Buffet was in order.  Special made omelettes, crepes, and assorted other delights were all to be had for the taking.  I paced myself, enjoyed the many selections, and still left room for some French pastry.

Driving back home and going through the town of Boulder City, we had often passed by a place called St. Jude's Ranch, a place for abused children.  The sign there mentioned an auto museum, so a stop was in order.  It was a small museum with a few classic cars on loan from a local collector.  There were a couple of Ford model T's and a Duesenberg along with some other oldies.  The volunteer at the museum was very friendly and helpful with a number of anecdotes about the cars.  There was also an attractive church on the grounds.

Just before Kingman are a couple of old buildings called Santa's Land.  Many years ago this was a tourist stop with a gift shop, restaurant, and gas station.  It was abandoned long ago and is falling apart and loaded with graffiti.  It's for sale now if anyone is interested in starting it back up again.

And of course in Wikieup, there is a rocket ship with Snoopy and his brother Spike.

And speaking of Snoopy, if you go further south from Wikieup (just beyond Nothing, in fact), there is a pile of rocks that resembles Snoopy's profile.

The Joshua Trees are just starting to blossom.

Arrived home safe and sound.  Back to reality.

Paris to Wynn on the Strip

It was a beautiful day today.  High of 66 degrees and the sun was shining.  The Imperial Palace is continuing its transformation into The Quad although the sidewalk scaffolding is still in place and the look is quite messy.  There were a lot of people out and enjoying the sights but it was not too overcrowded.  Bill’s Casino is now closed and in the process of being upgraded to a boutique casino within Harrah’s fold.  One more night at Paris and then it’s back to home.

 

From Luxor to Paris

Wednesday was the day to check out of Luxor casino and check into Paris casino.  Since there was a bit of time in between, we went to an outlet mall north of the strip to do some shopping.  This mall is located near one of my favorite buildings to photograph in the Vegas area – the Cleveland Clinic.  This building has a wild curving shiny exterior façade.  You have to see it to believe it.

After that was a lunch buffet at the Riviera casino and a walk across the street to Circus Circus.  Both of these casinos have seen better days but there is some new construction going on nearby so maybe things will improve.

Then we checked into Paris, a nice upscale casino hotel.  Walked over to the Planet Hollywood casino with an attached shopping mall and had dinner there.

 

Day Trip to Valley of Fire

Took a day trip to the Valley of Fire State Park, about 50 miles NE of Vegas.  This is a large, beautiful area full of red rock formations.  It has nice facilities and a good paved road that takes you to the major viewing areas.  From there you can take either short jaunts or extended hikes around the huge boulders and outcroppings.  Some of the rocks are softer and there is a lot of localized pocket erosion that look like mini-caves.  The temperature was in the upper 50s with the sun shining brightly (no cloud photos).  It was very comfortable in late February but likely not very pleasant in July.

We came back to Vegas along the highway that goes along Lake Mead.  The road was in excellent shape, very winding, and hardly any traffic.  There were a few interesting areas along the road, but nothing to compare to the beautiful area we just left.

We stopped at Riviera Casino to make use of a 2 for 1 coupon, but found out they had just discontinued doing supper buffets.  Guess they just don't get the tourist traffic in that area anymore.  Had to settle for a Denny's Slam Breakfast instead.