USA & Hawaii

Itinerary: 

London - Los Angeles - Las Vegas - Oahu, Hawaii - San Francisco - London

Now this trip was not scheduled like this but kind of evolved by chance. My intention was merely to attend the ATA conference in San Francisco but when chance combines factors like your boyfriend leaves you, your ex-husband looses his job and has free flights and your kids need a break too, the most amazing trips can be organised 'Helena' style...

So I put my little blond head to work and came up with this fab idea... and off we went...

 

After a cool 11h flight where I watched all the films available on BA flight entertainment I landed in the US of A…

First stop LA... I ended up in a suburb, staying at a Days Inn travelodge by Randy's Donuts... if you know where I am please tell me... lol...

  

After breakfast at the local Diner we decided to rent a car. You cannot see LA on foot or public transport. So we walked like aliens to a nearby rent-a-car...

Now, having chosen to wear a long turquoise dress that day I was automatically drawn to a car of the same colour... no it was not the fact that it was a beautiful shiny blue Chrysler Sebring convertible, of course not... and what did you say was the price per day? ohhh that is fine, I hope my card covers the insurance through...

Needless to say the kids were over the moon, felling like a million dollars worth of celebrity driving straight down to Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, Santa Monica, etc. There is nothing like driving a sexy car in the sunshine.

Before you think I am a millionaire let me tell you that these beauties can be rented for the humble amount of $32/day, yes 32… the worst part is the insurance…but hey why count the pennies when we are having so much fun...

So we shopped till we dropped…mainly window shopping ;-) thankfully, and in the evening we had dinner at Gaucho in Santa Monica. I guess I could not resist an Argentinean steak…

To be honest I was expecting a lot more glamour out of Hollywood but apart from Rodeo Drive and Beverly Hills, which look exactly like what we see in the movies, I did not give the thumbs up to LA. Having said that I found a gem of a product here. I bought a drying potion to use on those horrible red spots that appear on the days you do not really need them and it turned out to be a fabulous find.

We drove around Pacific Heights and missed on Malibu due to the fires.

So, a bit disappointed, we decided to drive to Las Vegas… well I should say we tried to drive to Las Vegas. Unfortunately because of the fires Highway 15 was closed and kept us waiting 3h in traffic until we managed to speak to a police officer and he said the best thing was to wait till the morning. We decided to sleep in a Motel nearby and think about it … so in the morning drove to a nearby airport – Ontario – and got on a plane to Vegas. Luckily there was a drop off location for my rental and the staff there were very accommodating with the situation.

WOW! As soon as you come out into the arrivals hall you feel you are in Vegas, more especifically in a casino... darkish, lots of billboards with promotions... I looked at the board and chose a promotion for the Luxor (the black piramid shaped hotel). For obvious or less obvious reasons... Piramids, Egypt... my name El Masri which means Egyptian... you get me.

Las Vegas is an amazing place and should be put on the list of things to do before you die, maybe it is already. I was surprised that I loved it so much. I imagined it tacky and cheesy, but in fact it's glamorous and impressive. Obviously I did not leave the Strip. The back streets are probably the real Vegas but I did not venture there.

Nestled between the Mandalay and the Excalibur, at the beginning of the Strip, I was chaffed with my choice. We took the Inclinator (not elevator, because it climbs the sides of the piramid) to our massive room. Not wanting to waste any time we set off to see the sites. Hopped on the Deuce, the local bus that rides up and down the Strip = Las Vegas Boulevard, and checked a few places. To get out of our hotel on to the Boulevard we had to take a sky shuttle, that is how far every hotel is from the next. We hopped on the Deuce in front of MGM and clicked our cameras away at the Belagio, the Venetian, Ceasars Palace, The Parisian, Treasure Island...

Soon we realised we could not see everything in a day... we were back in time to see the fountain show at the Bellagio, and off to dinner at the revolving restaurant up at the Stratosphere. What a first day … 

The next day we started the day at the Shark Reef at the Mandalay, then Excalibur, New York New York, exotic cars at the Ceasars, lunch at the Venetian, an hour in the Fashion Mall and back to the Luxor. That evening I gave myself the night off and dressed up to go and see the 'Zumanity' show, an erotic show by Cirque du Soleil, only showing in Vegas. Sometimes when you look forward to something you start having expectations and I think that happend to me on this show. It was Ok but not extraordinary like I hoped.

The following days we tried to take in the rest of Vegas, the Cirque de Soleil Ka at the MGM, which took us 20min to cross from the Boulevard to the theatre on the opposite side of the Hotel. We took the Duce Bus everywhere because to walk the 7km boulevard up and down would be cruel for the kids. 

No trip to Vegas would be complete without a trip to the Grand Canyon. As we did not have too many days I looked at flights over the canyon. The tour I wanted was fully booked so I opted for an helicopter flight over the Grand Canyon with a visit to an Indian reservation for lunch. What a beautiful ride... the helicopter takes you over to see the Hoover dam first and then flies between the ridges, coming closer to some of the most magnificient formations. 

The day flew by and soon was time to leave, not only the Canyon but Vegas too...


San Francisco awaited me...