First a 4 night visit to the lovely Kelly, Archie, Gracie and Dave in their new home in Stamford, Connecticut. A rather larger and more luxurious abode than I was expecting, I realised I was clearly going to be getting a very gentle introduction to living out of my kit bag. A great 4 days dressing up little Gracie whilst she is too young to stop us, playing cards with Archie and catching up with Kelly. Other highlights were going to the basketball at Madison Square Garden, followed by a birthday dinner treat for me (yey!) at Balthazar in Manhattan (Soho, I think), strolling along the beach where New England starts.
New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden
Dave, Kelly and Archie at Balthazar
Archie teaches Dave how to play American football
Beautiful New England beach stroll
I didn't want to leave but more good things awaited me in Manhattan so I hopped on a train, knowing that Rachel (from Manchester) was on a plane heading in the same direction.
When I arrived at our NYC hotel, The Mondrian Soho, a very friendly chap said hi and reached for my bag. It took me a moment to realise that this was not the most polite mugging ever but that in fact the boutique hotel we were staying in was too cool for staff uniforms. We later realised too that the staff were not hankering after tips which made tipping a rather more pleasant experience. I'm sure the standard tipping rate was 10-12.5% last time I was in the USA but it's now a whopping 20%.
Rachel turned up, we oohed and aahed at how funky the hotel was and promptly trundled off to the very cool hotel bar for dinner and drinks. It had a real Alice in Wonderland feel to it and the crystal glasses in the bathroom were rather posh. Again, this did not seem to be preparing me much for my upcoming overlanding trip. :o)
Walking nearly 60 blocks on our first day may have been a bit overambitious but took us on a walking tour of many of Manhattan's districts.
View from our SoHo hotel
Rachel's best impression of a squirrel (she's the one on the right)
Central Park
Drinkies at Club 21, NYC
I fancy staying in the Meatpacking district next time I visit as that seemed pretty cool and we weren't able to spend much time there. A real highlight of NYC was Club 21 with Rachel. An odd little fairly high end restaurant with all kinds of transport and sports paraphernalia hanging from the ceiling, low lighting and oak panelled walls giving it a real speakeasy style vibe. I think this was where Rachel and I discovered that a $75 bottle of wine will get you very pleasantly tipsy with no morning-after side effects.
Next stop 4 nights in Las Vegas, staying at The Cosmopolitan with a balcony view of The Strip and the famous Bellagio Fountain.
View from our room of The Strip
Daytime view with Bellagio fountain in action
Again, Rachel had pulled it out of the bag with yet another very stylish hotel. I have never stayed in such a huge hotel and wasn't surprised to be given a map of the interior when we checked in. It was instantly clear that nothing in Las Vegas is done on a small scale. We were told that Las Vegas has something like 170,000 hotel rooms, which is more hotel rooms than in the whole of Europe! The breakfast buffet was so big and so varied, it would have merited a few pics but it took all our concentration to work out whether to have steak, sushi, ice cream or more traditional fare.
I was ready for Las Vegas being a warmer, more over-the-top Blackpool, full of trashy shops and generally sleazy. I was pleasantly surprised. I believe the older parts of Las Vegas are like that but 'our end' of The Strip was very stylish and there were far more people dressed casually or in evening gowns than platform shoes and mini skirts.
We recovered from the crazy hot dessert sun by letting the mixologists at the Cosmopolitan's Vesper Bar show off their skills with our drinks;
haven't got the foggiest idea what was in these but they tasted goooooood
we sampled the restaurants of the Cosmopolitan and the Venetian; we supported a troupe of Aussie gents by visiting their show (ahem!); and, I took my first ever Helicopter ride.
Hoover Dam
stopping for champagne toast
The Grand Canyon
A bit nervous at first, I absolutely loved it. I still don't believe those things glide down if power is lost, although I was told this once by a chopper pilot. I'll believe it when I see it.....and I'd rather I wasn't in it at the time. The helicopter trip was into the Grand Canyon, landed for a champagne toast, then took off again for a sunset return to The Strip. Fab.
me wrecking the poshness of our posh Las Vegas suite
Cheese croquettes served in a rather surprising way!
,
A surprising highlight of the trip was seeing Guns N Roses at The Joint at The Hard Rock Hotel. As a lifelong fan, Rachel had chosen VIP meet-the-band tickets and treated me for my birthday. Thank you Lady H. :o) I shall look fondly upon memories of Rachel telling the non-Axl Rose element of the band to "cuddle up boys, don't be shy" when it was time for our photo with them. Ha!
up close and personal with DJ Ashba
cuddle up boys, don't by shy!
Meeting the band did make the show all the better, but even without that it was a cracking performance by all on the last night of their Vegas residency, and a venue that was pleasingly smaller than I anticipated made it an excellent night. The band wrapped up the show at 3am but jet lag prevented us both hanging around the hotel for the inevitable after-party. Thankfully my newly developed crush on DJ Ashba has subsided a bit, enabling normal service to resume.
#Note to self to get in (eating, drinking, walking, crazy sights) training before my next visit to Las Vegas.
## Second note to self not to wear flip flops by the hotel pool.........luckily I landed on my bum, so no permanent damage done. ;o)
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