December 7, 2005

• a non-vegas vegas?

  During the roughly 2-day (one full
  day and two half days) Vegas segment of my trip, I spent about 85% of
  it doing "Non-Vegas" activities, mostly with trinz and company.

  Unfortunately, pictures are minimal here. When I'm around friends, I
  have a tendency to forget my camera as well as forgetting to take
  pictures.  I'll try to make up for it with more descriptive prose.

  the weather

  During the daylight hours, temperatures were actually cooler than I
  expected; upper 60's to mid-70's. The sun, however, caused it to feel
  as if it were 5 to 10 degrees warmer. At night, I needed to add the
  lining to my jacket due to the temperatures in the 40's. However,
  because of the lack of wind, my skin couldn't really feel it, unlike
  the bone-chilling conditions that cause it to feel like it's 10 or even
  20 degrees cooler in the NYC area.

  day four: wednesday nov 16

  - Left San Diego for Las Vegas at around 9:45am.

  - Stopped at Riverside, CA for lunch at 11:15ish. I ended up eating a "chicken noodle bowl" at Flame Broiler
  at University Village, a small strip mall serving mostly UC-Riverside
  students. $4.50 for a simple bowl of noodles, chicken, and veggies.

  

  -
  The drive was marred slightly by about 15 miles of construction.. and
  about 100 miles of the same exact scenery; after the drive, my eyes
  were literally bugging out from staring at the same thing for 1 1/2
  hours straight lol

  

  - Arrived at the Barbary Coast
  hotel. Tried to revert my eyes back to the normal state by taking a
  nap, but I probably slept only five minutes. I really wouldn't
  recommend this hotel if you want a good night's sleep. The room was
  clean but the windows were not properly sealed, thereby resulting in a
  lot of noise from the cars moving along the strip. To make matters
  worse, the heater also sounded like a motorcycle engine.

  

  - Met up with trinz and her person-of-unknown-status-so-I-shall-call-him-a-friend Kevin .
  We started off with a short tour of the now-revamped downtown area,
  with Kevin briefing the two of us with the past five decades or so of
  Vegas history.

  - We started with ice cream at the California Hotel and Casino. I got my usual mango-flavored ice cream, which I give an 8 out of 10.

  - They then took me to see perhaps what is the mother of all Vegas
  tourist traps, the "Fremont Street Experience," which I saw as nothing
  more than a full-color commercial for the Las Vegas Speedway shown on
  an giant LED lightboard similar to those found in baseball stadiums.

  -
  To be fair, however, there was also a rather impressive performer that
  Trina calls the 'Saxophone Dude,' who apparently spends the entire day
  playing tunes with the sax as well as other horns. Honestly, that man
  must have had surgically modified lungs as I have no idea how he could
  play like that. Too bad I forgot my camera in the car; otherwise I
  could have recorded him .

  -
  Went to an off-the-beaten-path casino near North Las Vegas for dinner,
  and had a very oddly cooked steak. It tasted extremely strange; I still
  can't identify why, though, lol. Trina ordered medium-well but got
  bone-dry instead, haha. Kevin ordered rare, and it seemed fine to him.
  Odd...

  - Headed for the desert lands of the Lake Mead
  Recreational Area in the dark for a unique view of the stars. The sky
  is so clear over there that the full moon was able to supply us with a
  relatively bright, unobstructed light source. (shadowy figures are
  Trina, left, and Kevin)

  

  - Went to a neighborhood bar that Kevin frequents often. It
  admittedly was in a not-so-nice neighboorhood; you actually had to ring
  a doorbell to gain entrance. (Yeah well, I guess that's not any
  different from the bulletproof glass windows at the White Castle and
  Checkers here in Jersey City.) There was this weird lady who was
  clearly under the influence, singing the songs played on the jukebox
  out loud, lol. Of course I had to sing along with her when 'Hotel
  California' was playing, and as Trina pointed out later, I wasn't even
  drunk .
  I found it very humorous when the bartender came up to us and said,
  "You are the first normal people I've seen come in here today." lol

  day five: thursday nov 17

  - For some reason, I had a weird craving for one of those microwaved
  breakfast sandwiches that are available at Dunkin Donuts. After hours
  of trying to search for a place with such sandwiches available, I
  finally stumbled upon a 7-Eleven about a ten minute walk away.

  - Of all places, I went to a Costco after breakfast in nearby Henderson, lol. <geek>I needed this item
  so that I could hook up my mp3 player to the car. I did have Sirius
  satellite radio in the car, but even their stations repeated songs like
  there was no tomorrow. I figured I was planning to get it anyway, since
  the one I had in my own car had a malfunctioning display. </geek>
  Honestly, I had just as much fun hauling over to a new town, even if it
  was just 15 minutes away.

  - <touristStuff>At around 12:30, I went out for a walk along the strip, stopping at the Bellagio to check out the decor inside and snap some pictures.  </touristStuff> (yes, this picture is an indoor pic)

  

  - Had lunch at some Java cafe at the Flamingo at around 2:30pm. It
  simply consisted of a pre-prepared sandwich with cold-cut turkey,
  lettuce, and tomato. At $7, I probably should have taken the effort to
  find a Quiznos. Oh well... that's what happens when you're lazy. The
  food was unimpressive, so I didn't take a picture of it. However, I did
  get a close-up picture of this bird that perched on the chair in front
  of me
  

  - I also briefly checked out the Wynn and noticed that it was very disorganized, decor-wise. It wasn't even worthy of any pictures.

  - Trina gave me a call, and I got utterly confused trying to
  find the area in which she lived. I didn't arrive until after 5 (I
  think), so we did an attempt to hike at Red Rock in the dark. We
  couldn't see much, unfortunately.

  - To kill time before dinner, we ended up going to a local Frey's Electronics
  store, which I've never seen before. Haha, Trina said that the look on
  my face upon entering the store was just like a kid in a candy store. I
  think my look was justified, though. The place was absolutely huge and
  even included a coffee shop. A bookstore I can understand, but a coffee
  shop in an electronics store? Weird stuff.

  - Coming out of the store, we noticed that the moon was not yellow or white, but ORANGE.
  

  - We then went to Sedona,
  a bar/lounge/restaurant, for dinner, during which Trina's sister,
  Bianca, met up with us. I had this king salmon dish, which was
  excellent. I forgot my camera AGAIN, so I couldn't take pictures of the
  food or the decor. However, the decor was an odd hodgepodge of elements
  that I've found in various places in the city; these elements just
  happened to be in one place.

  - After that, Trina and I got ice cream once again at the Wynn. I
  got this rather odd triple swirl variety that mixed raspberry, banana,
  and some other flavor (forgot what it was). I forgot to take a picture
  of the ice cream once again...

  - In the car, I had suggested something that I haven't done in a while myself, doing karaoke . So
  Trina, in turn, suggested a place that had recently opened in Vegas's
  Chinatown area, which she had been meaning to go to but never got the
  chance. We rounded up her friend, Mark, and met up with her sister at
  the place. It was basically identical to the Korean places in Fort Lee
  and Edgewater that my Jersey friends and I are accustomed to
  frequenting, except that they sold alcohol as well. CHEAP... $20
  per hour with a 1-drink minimum for the 4 of us, compared to $35 per
  hour in Edgewater. (Too bad this place doesn't give you the option to
  record yourselves, that would have been better.) I messed up on
  the high notes, lol, but Trina and Bianca were definitely on their way
  to Carnegie Hall Mark didn't sing, but we'll force him to use those pipes next time, haha.

  - 1:30am came and passed, and we were all exhausted after a night of killing our throats

  day 6: friday nov 18

  Last day in Vegas...

  - Packed up my stuff to go back to Cali...

  - Picked Trina up, and we headed back to Red Rock to do a little
  hiking before she had to head for work. The scenery there was the most
  unique I have ever seen; I surmised that you can't see anything like it
  on the East Coast.
  

  
  I could see why Trina set aside this area, which is only 15
  miles from the Strip, as her personal retreat, just like Bear
  Mountain is mine. Next time I'm in the area, Red Rock will definitely be a place worth coming back to.

  - Stopped by an Albertson's, a large supermarket chain, to pick up
  some lunch, then headed back to her place, where we said our goodbyes.

  - I realized that I had no place to eat my roast beef sandwich, so I
  stopped in this bank  parking lot on Sahara Avenue, lol. It
  actually tasted pretty good for $3.49, hehe, but I FORGOT TO TAKE A
  PICTURE AGAIN!!!

  - I took the 6 1/2 hour drive back to Long Beach, CA. To be continued in the next entry....

  Trina, thanks again for dragging this tourist around Vegas .
  It was great finally meeting you after over a year of chatting and
  hanging out with you and your ppls.. Hopefully, we can do it again
  soon.. So when are you coming back to Jersey??!?? lol

  • 12:23 am
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