November 2010 Road Trip Part 1

So I just got back from a road trip to some cities in Western United States. I basically flew out from Vancouver to Las Vegas on November 8, then I spent 3 nights in Las Vegas. It was a great second visit to Las Vegas (I went to Las Vegas about two years ago with some friends who lived in LA and SF).

Welcome to Las Vegas! (@McCarran International Airport)

Unlike last time where I only had time to go clubbing at TAO and strolled down the Strip for only about 3-4 hours, this time I had enough time to stroll The Strip both at daytime and at night. It was crazy!!! I love Vegas, I always love the casino atmosphere..... not sure why though....

Wynn

Some highlights of my Las Vegas experience are:

1. I got the chance to watch the incredible stunning show of Blue Man Group

2. I went to Grand Canyon West Rim and tried the skywalk (read: COOL)

3. I was staying at one of the top hotels in Las Vegas >>>> THE VENETIAN!!! :) :)

Yes! I went to see The Grand Canyon!!! Another nature's world wonder conquered! :)

Guano Point

I was basically pretty happy with my time spent in Las Vegas even though I wish I have watched more shows that Las Vegas has to offer.

Before, we left Las Vegas, my uncle wanted to check out the golf country club at Wynn. We had a peek and wow it was pretty spectacular!!! A store attendant, who is eventually an Indonesian, at the country club store, said that it costs about $500 to play there which is more costly than any other places. The reason is it's very very hard and costly to maintain a golf course in a desert like Las Vegas. Indeed!

Wynn Country Club

After Las Vegas, I then rented out a car to depart for San Diego on November 11. I didn't drive the car, my uncle did! A bit of background, my uncle comes right from Indonesia, had no experience whatsoever about driving in North American highways, had no knowledge at all about the road signs and etc (Indonesia has road signs everywhere but NOONE pays attention to them there, including me haha), and was completely not used to driving in the right side of the road. Hmmm...... That's why I was constantly nervous and kept on checking the speed on the speedometer.

November 2010 Road Trip Part 2

On our way leaving Las Vegas for San Diego, we stopped by at a McDonald restaurant since we hadn't had lunch. What I like about McDonald in the US is the ice sweet tea which is not served in any Canadian McDonald (as far as I know). Hitting back the highway, we proceeded with high speed (approximately 100 miles/hour of speed) and again, I was constantly nervous and kept checking out the surrounding to make sure no police was around. As we almost reached the greater San Diego area, I explained to my uncle how the speeding ticket works. As I was explaining, a police car was behind us and honking on us to pull over. Oh great!!! Finally we got caught. Long story short, we got a speeding ticket with an unknown amount since it's not stated on the ticket. The ticket doesn't even have the website on it. We ended up having to go to Civil Court in Beverly Hills to find out how to pay for the ticket.

On our way from Las Vegas to San Diego, we stopped by a big and famous factory outlet, Cabazon. We shopped for about 2 or 3 hours and then we continued out road trip. I'd have to say Cabazon was alright (I rate my shopping experience there 7/10).

As we reached San Diego, we checked into our hotel, Doubletree Club Hotel San Diego. After that, we were very hungry for food and finally had dinner at nearby Cheesecake Factory restaurant. Then, we went to see how downtown San Diego looks like and then headed back to hotel for a rest.

The next day, we did a quick visit to San Diego Seaworld. It's nothing special except the Shamu Show.

I have to say that San Diego was just OK and nothing much to do except visiting the beach. I didn't have a chance to visit San Diego Zoo since my travel buddy didn't want to go. We ended up trying to go to the border between Mexico and the US. As we reached the border we didn't really have a gut to cross the border. We ended up shopping at the factory outlet near the border which was probably the highlight of our shopping experience in this trip since we shopped the most here (shopping experience 9/10).

The next day, we tried to visit a beach in San Diego, la Jolla Beach. The view was awesome! I feel that I should have visited more beaches in San Diego. Oh well, probably next time!!! We had to leave San Diego and continued our journey to the next destination, Los Angeles!