Friday, March 11, 2011

Home, Sweet Home...

Days 34, 35 and 36, Mar 8th, 9th and 10th

Safely home. We left Harvey's on the 10:45am shuttle on the 8th and walked in the door at home at 10:45am on the 10th.

We checked out of our hotel in the morning, using up all our rewards points, not that there were many left after Diane and Lorraine waged war on the hotel gift shops. Breakfast was at Cabo Wabo for the 7th straight day where we were certainly on first name terms with our waiter.

The shuttle arrived and we were met by a sour bus driver who was obviously not having a good day. A 90 minute odd trip to Reno airport saw us check-in and prepare for more than a 2 hour wait for our plane. Clive and Lorraine decided to check-in at the kerbside check-in where Lorraine tipped the guy a few dollars to overlook her overweight bags. It worked...lol

At 3pm we were in the air and headed for LAX aboard a Southwest Airlines flight. A pretty smooth flight saw us land at LAX and collect our baggage and leave the terminal about 4:30pm. It was at this stage that we said our goodbyes to Clive and Lorraine who were headed to Pasadena for a few days before flying home on Thursday, arriving on Saturday in Sydney.

Diane and I took a terminal shuttle to Tom Bradley and checked in. Even though the flights to Sydney and Melbourne don't leave until 22:30, 23:00 and 23:50, the check-in process opens at 2pm. I guess it is to accommodate passengers who have to check out of their hotel by midday and need to leave their baggage somewhere rather than lug it around Los Angeles for the day. If so, that's good customer service.

By 5pm, we had checked our baggage through, even though our flight wasn't leaving until almost midnight. We had time to go somewhere, but we still had our hand luggage and I had my laptop etc, so we decided to just suck it up and sit out the 7 hour wait. After having a snack and a coffee, we thought we may as well clear security whilst there were no crowds and spend the time at an eatery/bar or some shops once inside the terminal. Big mistake. When we went thru, we found 2 or 3 VERY small shops with almost nothing to sell and no restaurants at all. From memory I thought there was a heap of shops and bars inside when we had been waiting at LAX previously, but obviously not the case. I finally worked out that it was more than likely when we connected from LAX to New York from another terminal. As it turns out, Tom Bradley is a ghost town once you get thru security and immigration.

Well, there was no way we were not going to go stir crazy stuck in here for 6 hours, so we asked somebody could we get out. To our mild surprise, it was no problem at all and we just walked out back into the terminal itself. We had a light dinner, Diane had the worst noodle dish she had all trip and I had bagels and cream cheese, just OK. We then had a drink and waited impatiently. A quick wander thru the duty free without purchasing and we decided to head back thru the security checkpoint again.

Once inside we waited in a vacant lounge until the QF12 was due to leave at 22:30 where we then made our way to that gate, which was the same gate that our flight, QF108 was leaving from. We were then treated to a bit of a show as one passenger hadn't shown for the flight. They made multiple announcements over the PA, different staff went different ways to try and track him down. It then got to the stage where they had to remove his bags from the plane, but this was not going to be an easy task, finding unknown colour bags from a full plane, but they cannot leave a passenger behind without offloading his baggage, for obvious reasons. It was getting quite comical as at least 10 staff went out to look for this guy. He was eventually found in the 'oneWorld lounge' and the call came thru the radios that he was located. This led to the bag search being abandoned and finally this guy turns up, escorted by about 6 staff members and seemingly oblivious to the commotion he had caused. The plane eventually left about 20 minutes late.

It was then our turn to sweat. Because we had checked in at 5pm, 7 hours before the flight, we didn't get seated at check-in, not even an economy seat, our boarding pass was marked 'SBY' for standby, allowing us to pass thru security and immigration, but not guaranteeing we would actually get on the plane. Our 'contact' in Sydney assured us we would be fine, but it would still be nice to have that seat number. Diane went to the counter and was told that the staff seating sheet had not come thru yet. He agreed it was pretty late, but there was nothing they could do until it came thru. They began to board, boarding first class, business and premium economy first. They then called for rows 55 thru 75 to board and still we sat in the waiting area with no boarding pass!!!

Some guy came near the counter and spoke to a woman who was checking and directing the premium passengers. She went to the counter and we heard her say 'Standby passenger MrX' and grabbed his boarding pass which was sitting on the counter. This made Diane jump up and see the same woman who kindly grabbed our passes which were just sitting on the counter waiting for us to be called but it appeared all too much for the staff. We were not seated together, one in front of the other, but up the pointy end so all good. When we boarded there were empty seats galore in business and it's hard to work out why we were just not given a boarding pass, if not at check-in but when we first went to the gate. I've read on some airline staff forums that the staff at LAX like to make other staff sweat for amusement purposes, perhaps that was there motivation, but whilst we got a tad concerned, we were never really sweating as our 'contact' had given us the 'you'll be fine'.

We boarded the plane which was one of the 747's with the indigenous paint job. I soon noticed the huge difference in the amount of room on the 747 and the A380, the latter being much roomier. This was more than made up for however by the friendly cabin crew. We both recognised one of the older guys as someone we had flown with before. We were looked after splendidly. I was plied with copious amounts of Shiraz followed by 2 'generous' Cointreau and ice whilst Diane's sleeping pill of choice was cognac. Both worked fine and I got 5 or 6 hours before waking and watching 'The Kings Speech'. It was a fine movie, but I think maybe didn't transfer well to the small screen on the plane, some very dark cinematography and scenes made it difficult to see.

We arrived ontime at 09:20am, walked off the plane at 09:25 and walked straight thru the automatic line. Our bags were waiting for us as they were still marked standby and got offloaded first (they would have been put on last) and we walked into the arrivals terminal at 09:40am. Almost a record surely for touching down and walking to the taxi rank!!!

A friend had looked after the car for the 5 weeks and he was soon there to pick us up, we dropped him back at work and we headed home and as I said, arrived home at 10:45, exactly 2 days after we had left Harvey's to come home, less time difference of course.

So that's it, nothing much more to say. Soon enough we will be both back at work and working to pay off the credit cards and start planning our next trip which at this stage looks a fair way off, but will more than likely be Europe, using a combination of cheap flights and train travel to commute between Priceline hotels in major European cities.

Thx to all who took the time to read my ramblings and I hope you enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed bringing them to you.

Until I see you in the flesh...

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Last day in Heavenly...

Day 33, Mar 7th

We woke to a slightly overcast day. It had snowed during the night, an inch or two in the village but a foot reported at the top.

We had breakfast at the usual, Cabo Wabo Cantina, where we had the usual, 2 eggs over medium, sausages and a double serving of sourdough toast.

Clive and Lorraine then headed to the mountain, I piked it and Diane was never going anyway. Diane and I arranged to meet Clive and Lorraine at 2:30pm at the bottom of the gondola where we would buy a foot passenger ticket and take a trip up the gondola and have coffee at mid-station and a look from the viewing platform.

I played a bit of poker online for a few hours before we headed out at 1pm to do some shopping before meeting Clive and Lorraine. On the way, I passed a familiar arcade game. Does anybody remember the very early Tom Hanks movie 'Big'??...



We went to the big supermarket in the village where Diane stocked up on pills, potions, lotions and some cosmetics. I have no real idea of prices, but the girls assure me they are way cheaper then back in Australia. I took a look down the grog aisle and looking at those prices, I have no doubt that what they say is true, things are much cheaper. We noticed it earlier in the trip that some of the grog prices were ridiculously cheap. I took a few photos to prove the point...

Wild Turkey, less than $20 a 750 ml bottle...

Jim Beam, a 1.75 litre for less than $30...

Hendricks Gin, 750ml for $32...

...when I got back to the hotel, I looked at the Downtown Duty Free website and those prices were between 20% and 40% better than the duty free price in Australia.

We met Clive and Lorraine and we went up the gondola. Here are a whole lot of short videos I took on the way up and when we cam back down...













We jumped off at mid station where they have a viewing platform, a small retail shop and what we thought was a cafe. Unfortunately we only found out when we got there that the cafe only opened on weekends. The view was spectacular from a raised metal walkway which winds itself around a small summit for about 100m. Here are some of the shots I got off the viewing platform and from the gondola and a few shots of the trees, splendidly covered in snow...



























We made our way back to the hotel after coffee and a donut at a 'Seattle's Best Coffee' outlet in the village. When we got back, the girls decided to go down and do some souvenir shopping and pick up a few things for special family members and friends whilst Clive and I readied ourselves for dinner. While I was getting ready, I noticed a now sunny mogul run up on the mountain...



The sun was also playing some nice tricks on the lake and the clouds as it set...




We had dinner at Harrah's in their 5* restaurant which was very, very nice. The bill was also pretty nice at over $300 + tip. Fortunately it was all covered by our rewards points, except the tip of course. We have now eaten for the past 4 days for nothing, including two posh dinners at bona fide 5* restaurants with $300+ bills. We still have a $50 coupon left which will pay for breakfast in the morning.

It's after midnight and I'm ready for bed. We check out in the morning and are booked on a 10:45am shuttle to Reno airport for a 2:55pm flight. That means we have the best part of 3 hours in Reno. After we arrive in LAX at 4:30pm, we have a 7+ hour wait until our plane leaves at 23:50 for a 15hr flight back to Australia. It looks like it will be one hell of a day, but should make it easy to get some sleep on the plane, providing we are at the pointy end, fingers crossed.

This will be the last blog entry until I get back to Australia where I will finish it up with all the happenings of the 30+hr travel day we have tomorrow. Thanks to everybody who has taken the time to read and leave comments. I've enjoyed bringing you the happenings of the trip, but I'm now REALLY tired and looking forward to coming home.

Until I'm back in Oz, later...

Monday, March 7, 2011

A little bit of exploration...

Day 32, Mar 6th

We think we finally have the bus system sussed, so we decided that after breakfast we would do some exploring of the other 2 main base stations, California Lodge Base and the Boulder Lodge and Stagecoach Lodge Bases on the Nevada side.

Breakfast was the usual 2 eggs over medium and sausages for all of us. Diane opted out of the bus run so Clive, Lorraine and I headed to the transit station at the Gondola Base where we jumped aboard the 'orange route' bus which took us to the California Base. At the base were a few shops and a nice big cafeteria where we had coffee and a look around. We hopped on the next bus back to the transit station where we changed and waited for the 'blue route' bus to take us to the Nevada base stations.

The blue route bus arrived and off we went. This was a much prettier and interesting ride as the bus climbs high into the mountains via the 'Kingsbury Grade' before coming to the Boulder Lodge base area. This was not a huge base, but had a very slow moving chair which serviced a beginners area which came back down to the base area underneath the chair. The non beginner accesses another lift when they alight the slow lift at the top, taking you further up the mountain to more advanced terrain. The bus continues from Boulder Lodge to Stagecoach Lodge base, further up the mountain again. This is a large area surrounded by condos and impressive looking apartment blocks set high in the mountains at about 7,500'. There appeared to be a few shops, but nothing worth actually getting out for, so we stayed on the bus for the return journey to the transit station at the Gondola Base. Reasonably solid snow falling also made our decision to stay on the bus a relatively easy one.

Once we got back to the village, we decided to got to the movies, again. Third day straight for Clive and Lorraine. We went and saw 'Just Go for It' with Adam Sandler, Jennifer Anniston and Nicole Kidman. It was a very enjoyable, lightweight comedy and we all thought it was a good movie. After the movie we wandered back to the hotel and it was about 4:30pm. We had a few hours in the room before heading off for dinner at Harrah's.

Once at Harrah's we decided to make tomorrow, our last night together and for Diane and I, our last night of the trip a special one, so we went to the 18th floor and booked a table for tomorrow night at Friday's Station Steak and Seafood Grill, an upmarket restaurant at Harrah's on the 18th floor with a lake view. We went back downstairs and headed for the 'American River Cafe' for dinner. It is a burger, soup and sandwich type place at Harrah's. We each had $5 off vouchers which they let us use, so after that we had a smallish balance left over which we paid using our Reward Points. We headed back to Harvey's where I drew stumps early at about 10pm with Diane, Clive and Lorraine heading to bed not long after.

Just a few quick pics...

Last nights sunset with the sun straining thru thick cloud...

This morning with clouds covering all the peaks on the horizon...

Some pretty pics of the village and nearby holiday units covered from a light dusting overnight...


The natural 'median strip' formed by the snow building in the centre after being pushed aside by traffic...


I'm not sure what tomorrow will bring ski wise. I tried my boots on but it was too uncomfortable and I've totally lost the passion to get out there, so I'm unlikely to get up the hill, not to ski anyway. Lorraine is going to try her boots again and hopefully will get out for a few hours with Clive. Providing it is not clouded in, I will be going up the gondola as a foot passenger, hopefully with Diane, to take some pictures of the magical view and also a video.

Until then, later...

Another relaxing day...

Day 31, Mar 5th

Today, being Saturday, was always going to be an easy one avoiding the crowds on the hill.

Diane is feeling a bit better, but still finding it hard to stomach food. She elected to skip breakfast so I joined Clive and Lorraine at our usual breakfast haunt, Cabo Wabo Cantina in Harvey's. After breakfast Clive and Lorraine left to explore the other casino properties in the close vicinity, Horizons Resort and MontBleu. Their prognosis...don't bother. Diane and I headed to the laundry where we did a couple of loads of washing. It seems to be our typical Saturday now, last week in Chicago we spent the evening at a laundramat...lol.

Clive and Lorraine went to the movies in the afternoon to see 'Hall Pass' and Diane and I spent a lazy afternoon in the room after coffee and a snack for lunch.

In the evening we decided to dress a bit more upmarket for our dinner at the 'Sage Room Steakhouse' just off the gaming floor at Harvey's. Before going to the steakhouse, we attended 'Kitchen 19', another upmarket restaurant and bar on the 19th floor with sweeping views of the lake and mountain, although being dark we did not get the opportunity to enjoy those views. We went to the bar and used some coupons to receive 2 for 1 $12 Martinis. I'm not sure any of us really enjoyed the Martini's we ordered, but you'd get pretty trashed trying them all until you found one you liked.

We went back down to the steakhouse and despite the 3* location off the normal gaming floor, the service and ambiance was absolute 5*. We had about 5 different waiters. A drink waiter, a wine waiter, our normal waiter, a waiter for this and a waiter for that. Of course Clive's reaction was 'I hope they all don't expect a tip'. The hardest part was not getting run over by all the trolleys of food flying down the aisle between tables. All the meals are brought to the table on a trolley where the waiter prepares each meals sides. If you have ordered a baked potato, it is split and semi-mashed by a fork in front of you, then you can get sour cream, chives and bacon added in any quantity you desire. The deserts and coffees were flaming and exploding on trolleys all over the place, there was always something happening.

We finished the evening with a few beers and drinks at the slots whilst the girls had a play and it was close to midnight by the time we headed to bed.

No pics today, but hopefully I can get the pictures and video from the gondola before we leave. Later...

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Relaxing day...

Day 30, Mar 4th

Glorious sunny skies greeted us as we woke this morning. I took these shots from our room on the 11th floor...




With the weather so nice, Lorraine thought she may head up the mountain and have a ski. Unfortunately, whilst trying to put her boots on, she found it too painful due to a nasty bump she gave her leg back in Big White. On the morning we were leaving Big White, I heard a scream/obscenity fly from Clive and Lorraine's room. My first thought was Clive must have walked naked out of the shower, but Lorraine hobbled into the living area, having banged her shin on the very solid steel base of the bed. Within minutes she had a rather large 'egg' forming on her lower leg which was obviously painful. It was this area which started to 'burn' when she put on her boots this morning, so that plan was put on ice.

Clive called from their room and we arranged to go for breakfast. Diane opted out because she has picked up a bug or something and has been getting nauseous and unable to keep food down for a few days. In fact, at Hard Rock last night Diane ordered a chicken dish which she barely touched. When the waiter took away the plates he inquired as to whether there was something wrong with the food. Diane explained she had not been well and thought she would be able to nibble on a chicken dish but was unable to do so. To their credit, they did not charge us for Diane's meal, so that was nice. Of course, as Clive rightly pointed out, it was in the waiters best interests to ask the manager to waive the meal cost as it was he who would get the subsequent generous tip. Little did he realise he was dealing with Clive...lol

The three of us went to breakfast and I got into trouble because I forgot to bring the vegemite tube we brought over with us. We also learnt something at breakfast that I was unaware of about ordering our eggs. 'Sunny side up' is obviously eggs cooked but not flipped, that part we knew. I was under the impression that when you flipped the eggs, it was called 'over easy' and that was it. Lorraine asked for her eggs to be 'over easy', but not too runny, so the waiter said 'You want them over medium?'. We then established that you can have them 'over easy' = runny, 'over medium' = not runny but not hard and 'over hard' which cooks the yolks until they are hard. So Karmen, remember to order your eggs, 'over rocks'.

After breakfast Clive and Lorraine headed out because Lorraine wanted to show Clive some artistic 'pieces' her and Diane had seen the day before. We arranged to meet at 11:30 at the local 'Village 6' to see Matt Damon's new movie 'The Adjustment Bureau'. This we did and although we all agreed it is not a must see, the movie was OK, just. We then headed to a pharmacy and Diane described her symptoms to the pharmacist who told her to take 'Pepto Bismol'. It's the pink stuff that gets mentioned often in American sitcoms when they do gastric, farting and vomiting jokes. We also found out where the local Medical Centre is if her condition doesn't improve in the coming days. We wandered around a few more shops before heading back to the casino. An hour or two on the gaming floor and it was almost time for dinner.

I went and checked my 'Rewards Points' balance at the desk. Now here is the Rewards Points story. On our first night, we went and signed up at the host desk because we thought at the end of the week we may have enough points to get a T-Shirt and a pen or something. The very friendly lady at the desk explained the good deal we get as 'new members'. If we accumulate 100 points within 48 hours you get a $20 gaming credit. 250 points gets you a $50 dining credit for use in the restaurants and 500 points gets you $150 in credit to spend anywhere in the property, dining, merchandise, whatever you like. Diane and Lorraine stuck their cards in the machines and started hammering the buttons. It soon became evident as there points tally climbed that the first level would be almost reached by the time they go to bed. To cut a long story short, both Diane and Lorraine reached their 500 points easily and received all 3 rewards. So they started to play with my card inserted. Within the 48 hours I had reached 300 points, so I got my $20 and my $50 dining credit. The lady told me to come back tomorrow (today) and check to see if I reached 500 points. I knew that was outside the 48 hour limit, but who am I to argue. When I went to the desk a different lady was there and she told me I was outside the 48 hours cutoff. I said I understand and it was no problem, but Maria had told me to come back today. She told me Maria starts in 20 minutes and if i wanted to see her, go for it. I waited for Maria to start and went and saw her. She smiled and then said 'Oh, we are outside the 48 hours' I said I understood that but she had told me to come back tonight. She made a call to her boss and within 30 minutes I also had the $150 credited to my card...woohoo

We had dinner at the Chinese restaurant in Harrah's where our Rewards are also valid. We had Peking Duck and a few other dishes and when the bill came, Lorraine used her $50 voucher and paid the balance of $66 off her rewards balance which was over $170. All we had to do was throw in the cash tip. Tomorrow night we are booked into the Steakhouse at Harvey's and Diane will use her voucher and card for another free meal. My voucher and card will be used for Sunday nights meal and we are going to sign Clive up tomorrow morning, Diane and Lorraine will use Clives card when they play and we'll use Clive's card to pay on Monday. Breakfasts from now on will also be paid for by reward points, so we should be eating free from now until we leave on Tuesday morning. Any unused rewards can be used at the casino merchandise shops, so we should have enough for those T-Shirts and pens after we are finished...lol

That's all for today, but here are a few more shots from our hotel window...

The Village...

The gondola...

No, it's not the cemetery, it's a new casino complex that was being built next to Harvey's on a huge block. Apparently the developers went broke at this stage of construction and the current economic environment has failed to find anybody willing to take it on. It may stay like this for a long time...



Later...