Third Time's a Charm PTR - May 2012 - I should give up on planning trips.

[Leshaface]

That last update: Totally Rocks!

^this

 

[franandaj]

Oh, you're just the bedrock of humour!

Sadly, I'm pretty sure you sed-it-(and) ment-it!

And now you'll be under all that pressure to come up with more! Don't you just lava it?

^this

You all are a barrel of laughs!

Very cool formations. It almost looks like blocks of silly putty in some parts.

You weren't kidding, I thought you meant just a few others thought it was a good idea, that was a packed road!

It was mainly that one stop that had so many cars, but the Visitor's Center was like that too.

 

[ACDSNY]

Nice pictures of Red Rock Canyon, very pretty. I wish we would have drove the loop when we did the Grand Canyon trip last Oct.

 

[bangzoom6877]

Awesome updates! Happy New Year to you and Fran! May 2012 be filled with everything that makes you happy!

 

[franandaj]

We returned from our trip that rocked at about 3PM. Arline wanted to take a nap, Fran rested for about half an hour while I posted a trip update, then we went down to the casino for a little Black Jack. We weren’t very successful and ended up down for the whole trip, but we had fun and got lots of bottles of water and a couple wines as well.

Our reservation was for 6:45, but it turned out that it didn’t matter when we got there, the place was practically empty. We headed over to the strip about six o’clock. This restaurant was at Crystals, a new mall at City Center which is a complex with hotels/casinos and shopping areas. We parked the car in the massive structure. It took us forever to find a parking space (we wanted a handicapped spot near the elevator).

When we finally figured out how to get over to the shopping area, we walked across a massive bridge from the parking structure to a tram. The concept was similar to the airport at MCO, but much different in application. I stood on this platform looking around and I could not help but think that I was standing in the beginning of The Jetson’s, Total Recall or that futuristic city in the new Star Tours ride.

These buildings just scream to me that the future is here.

These are blurry, but they also show the futuristic nature of City Center.

And the trams seemed pretty ultra modern too

Here’s Arline and Fran riding the tram

So we arrived inside the Crystals Mall and wandered around until we found a directory to point us in the direction of Todd English’s P.U.B. (Public Urban Bar)

Once we were seated at our table, I got a kick out of the placemats

This was served to our table while we contemplated the menu.

Some shots of the restaurant

They were offering a special of dollar beers, I’m pretty sure that this was not a Guiness, but it was good, some sort of hearty ale.

This is the sign for the potties

So we sort of split a few things. We all had some of the Fish & Chips

Fran got some clam chowder, she said it was OK, but a little thin

She also got some Welsh Rarebit, which was very good, she shared it with me.

This was supposed to be a picture of Bangers and Mash, but Fran took it and I didn’t bother to look at it. Don’t know what happened.

We were completely stuffed after this and headed back to the room. Oh yeah speaking of room, I snapped this picture when we came back from Red Rock Canyon as I realized it would be the only time I could get one with the bed made!

So we hit the sack, getting ready to make the what would become an awful drive home.

 

[Pinkocto]

Are those buildings models or big buildings? They're pretty all lit up. And the mall looks beautiful, with the wood floor and decorations.

I shouldn't be hungry, but the fish and chips look fabulous!

 

[franandaj]

Nice pictures of Red Rock Canyon, very pretty. I wish we would have drove the loop when we did the Grand Canyon trip last Oct.

Thanks! I really wanted to get there, Fran thought we had some thwarting of our plans going on, but actually they fell right into my hands!

Awesome updates! Happy New Year to you and Fran! May 2012 be filled with everything that makes you happy!

Thanks! And Happy New Years to you and everyone else following this PTR. I hope that 2012 proves to be a better year than 2011 and everyone else is prosperous as well. Especially Leshface in her quest!

 

[franandaj]

Are those buildings models or big buildings? They're pretty all lit up. And the mall looks beautiful, with the wood floor and decorations.

I shouldn't be hungry, but the fish and chips look fabulous!

The Fish and Chips were Fabulous! No those are giant buildings, and that mall was insane, all high end shops that we can't afford to shop at.

 

[rentayenta]

Great update. Love the menu, might have to swipe a saying from the menu for my FB status.

 

[rentayenta]

Oops, double post.

 

[franandaj]

Great update. Love the menu, might have to swipe a saying from the menu for my FB status.

Which one?

 

[franandaj]

On the morning of our last day, we decided to do the buffet again since it was cheap, in our hotel and quick. I didn’t take pictures of the stuff that I posted on the first morning, but here are a couple pics of the pastry station, the buffet room and mine and Fran’s plates.

I opted for an omelet that I split with Fran. It had ham, green onions, spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes and cheddar cheese. The donut was really yummy

On our way out, they had a Gingerbread house display that I thought was cute.

We returned to our room via the Mystic Falls area in the center of the hotel.

So we packed up the car, we threw the bellman for a loop as he had no idea how to get all our stuff into the car. We got on the I-15 and before we even got out of Las Vegas, we hit bumper to bumper traffic. It continued like that for the next two hours to get to Stateline. This drive should normally take 30-40 minutes! We made a potty stop and switched drivers. I drove the next hour or so to Baker, and that was about the only part of the drive that we were going faster than 15 mph. By the time we reached Baker, we were ready for some food, so we stopped at the Mad Greek. This place has great food but the décor is pretty tacky!

Arline and I split a Gyros

Fran got a Cheeseburger

I’ve never actually been in here, but I see their signs all along the road and it intrigues me!

Well, I’d like to say that we rode off into the sunset, but it was already dark and we still had another 5 or so hours to go, so we would find out! Traffic was bumper to bumper all the way until we reached Victorville when it finally started to open up. We got home around 9:30PM and were completely exhausted. So the next day we pretty much slept in and relaxed all day. Thanks for coming along!

 

[Leshaface]

Ugh! That Gyro looks sooooo good! That's one thing I miss about living down south. I used to go to this greek restaurant in Seal beach and they had phenomenal gyros. Haven't had a gyro in 3 years.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Oh Goody! Two updates with food for me to catch up on. I think I need to get on my see-food diet soon!

Love the pictures of the food, and that futuristic city. Wonder how long it will take before we see that as a movie set?

 

[Pinkocto]

What a bummer about the traffic. Not a fun way to end the trip. Thanks for taking us along for the fun!

Next trip here we come!!!

 

[Hawleys]

Great updates!

Red Rock Canyon is so beautiful. Thanks for sharing your pictures.

 

[usnuzuloose]

Trying to catch up! That Gyro and burger look really big. Oh ceramic snake, got me good.! The food looks so good. I am trying to get ready for our trip and havent even made it to the suit case yet.

 

[skiingfast]

I think the Tacky Greek was only tacky because of the extra decorations for Christmas.

I couldn't help but notice a lot of bacon at breakfast before checkout.

 

[franandaj]

New Year’s Eve at Disneyland is mayhem. Ordinarily I would avoid a place like this like the plague. However since we had a special exclusive party where we would not be subject to the awful crowds,(or so I thought) I was all up for it.

We checked into the VGC at around 3PM.

The place was still decked out for Christmas.

Our room wasn’t ready (as expected) so we headed out to DTD to get a little food. I always walk these hallways, but never take pictures.

I was quite impressed with Naples Ristorante when I went to the VGC for my spa day (which I still have one left) and Arline was interested in going there, so even though I knew Fran really didn’t want to go there, we did. We didn’t want a lot of food because we knew that tonight there would be plenty, however, we were ravenous and needed something. I suggested that we split a pizza or a Calamari appetizer. Arline wanted a Caesar Salad, so we opted for the salad split between us and a Calamari. They also brought us bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

While we were at “lunch” we got a text that our room was ready. Since we had this room before, I didn’t take new shots, but will just recycle my old shots from the past stay. This is room 1514 (or 1512) the HA 1 bedroom villa.

I think this particular room is a little larger than the other 1 br villas. The master bathroom certainly is, and I think the Island is a little longer.

There is a bed under the TV. You pull it down and someone short can sleep there. This is where Arline picked to sleep.

However, this couch also pulls out into a sleeper double or queen. I haven’t actually used it.

This is the second bathroom.

The master bathroom

The Master bedroom

Since it’s on the ground floor, there’s no balcony, but there is a patio.

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[franandaj]

[Continued from Previous Post]

It was about 5:00PM and the party started at 8:00. We figured that it would take at least an hour to navigate into the park. It would be full and they would be running those silly one way paths, so we would have to go well out of our way to get where we were going.

As we approached the bag check, the first thing we saw was this:

However, I knew that we had guaranteed entry (for what we were paying, we better have!)

The tree on Main Street looked so pretty!

This gives you an idea of the crowd level.

But after being pointed every which way, we made it to our sanctuary.

And it was all dressed up for the evening!

Even a silver disco ball!

Arline had bought a pair of Mickey ears, and wanted her picture taken.

We always get a “gift”

I opted for the complimentary head adornments, and I wanted my picture taken too.

Now they have quite a lavish buffet which we started with almost immediately, but not before ordering a Belvedere Gibson Up. Sorry no picture.

I started off with the seafood course. Sorry these are blurry, but if you can’t tell this is all sushi.

My first plate.

Next I went on to the made to order pasta bar. Around this time I think I switched to wine. I sampled all three of these different offerings at some time during the night, ending up with the red for the duration.

I chose the cheese tortellini with Alfredo Sauce, garlic, shallots and fresh tomatoes.

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