No finer place for sure, Downtown.

Another Day on the Strip anyone?

Day 5 – First stop Peppermill Restaurant, ever since my cousin recommended it we’ve returned here ever year. The service is great, the coffee free flowing and the portions are massive. Bellies full we waddled on to a place many people have an opinion on, Circus Circus. I will always be grateful for the Fright Dome at Circus Circus where they change the Adventure Dome into a horror filled group of haunted houses and mazes with jump scares aplenty. Think Universal Halloween Horrors on a smaller scale and more intense. It was returning in 2021 but not sure if that’s been put on hold. We decided to let our breakfast go down and take the time to watch a Circus show, gamble a bit and use more MyVegas free drink vouchers. We had a show booked in the afternoon at Planet Hollywood – Miracle Mile so for lunch we chose Ocean One with their - everything for $5 lunchtime menu, 3 cocktails for the price of 1 and $3 beers deals. The food here is nice, decent portions and great for a lunchtime snack, again it’s a place we like to go to when we’re in Vegas.

The show we had booked to see was the Nathan Burton Comedy Magic Show and I’d managed to get pretty good seats. A sucker for magic shows, I was really looking forward to this and it didn’t disappoint. It was lively, funny and thoroughly entertaining, we’d seen Mike Hammer at Four Queens before and his Comedy Magic is more adult orientated with Nathan Burton definitely geared to be more family friendly but we enjoyed both. The only thing that spoilt some of Nathan Burton’s show was someone had drunk too much before the show so in the middle of a full audience participation trick they had to run to the toilet. That idiot was me.

This year would be the last time the Hard Rock Casino would be operating under that name after being bought by Virgin so it would have been stupid for us not to have a look around and buy some merchandise. We got in there and we really liked the look of the place, saw a B52 slot machine, ran straight to it and a few spins in at $1.20 a bet I got the Love Shack bonus and won over $55. The problem with machines like this is YouTube will nearly always flag up for copyrighted music so I thought by singing over the bonus I’d be ok. It kind of worked so I didn’t have to remove the music but couldn’t monetise the video which isn’t a problem because I don’t qualify for monetisation yet and I’m a long way from doing so but it’s not a priority of mine.

Continuing with our new tradition of walking off Strip we walked from Hard Rock to Ellis Island. They have a popular 10oz Top Sirloin Steak Special that comes with a jacket potato and garlic green beans with soup for starter all for $12.99 (£9.50), it’s even cheaper with a player card where if you play $5 slots you get $2 off your meal. The food was very nice and it’s something I’d order again, there’s other deals there like Taco Tuesday and Whisky and Wings Wednesday, all well worth it.

Last stop would be Twilight Zone golf at Bally’s Casino. We had done the Kiss Mini Golf at Rio before and really enjoyed it. This one is run by the same people so I’d got ourselves a Groupon and gave it a go. Personally I preferred the theming and the music of the Kiss Mini Golf but this was a lot of fun.

The following day consisted of us going to the Strip and having Afternoon Tea at The Waldorf Astoria, it used to be known as the Mandarin Oriental but luckily nothing had changed with regards to the quality of the afternoon tea. Even the staff was the same from previous years and you can’t beat a high quality afternoon tea with unlimited mimosas with beautiful views of the Strip.

For more beautiful views we did the Happy Half Hour Linq High Roller, a favourite of ours especially as the drinks are flowing fast and ‘free’ during the half an hour it takes for the High Roller to do one complete revolution. Considering how expensive drinks are in Vegas if you buy them with no offer or deal attached, the open bar on the High Roller is great value for money, just don’t make the novice mistake of ordering a beer, it’s spirits all the way!

If we hadn’t drank enough already it was a short trip to Flamingo to the Bird Bar, once known as the 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar they have a Happy Hour deal from 5pm to 6pm with beers for 50c (37p), I could only order 4 at a time and the beer served was Coors Light, fine for us but not to everyone’s taste. All this alcohol needed absorbing so we jumped in an Uber to the Rio for food at the All American Bar and Grille for meatloaf (that they no longer serve). It’s a much smaller menu than it used to be but we still it here, you’ve got your classics like your Steaks, Burgers, Sandwiches such as French Dip and Reuben. Have I ever told you the one thing that Jane has always been thankful to America for? It was Orlando and at the Longhorn Steakhouse I ordered Steak with a side of Mash (I love Mashed Potato). It came and the potatoes hadn’t been peeled so there was the added texture of the potato peel that I thought was great so now any mash Jane makes means no messing about peeling them, just a clean and a cook and a mash. Sadly the food did not sober me to the point where I wasn’t going to leave my Sunglasses there and not realise until the next day.

Time for a more relaxed day, starting with breakfast at Magnolias in Four Queens, another place we really like. It’s making wonder if there is anywhere we’ve been I’ve not liked, closest I guess is Chayo Mexican Kitchen on the Linq Promenade. We really like Mexican food and Gonzalez Y Gonzalez in New York New York is very nice, especially the Guacamole they make fresh at your table. We’d kind of hoped Chayo would be as good or maybe even better but the service was really not good and the food was a poor mans Chiquitos which was disappointing.

For November the weather was an absolute scorcher and it was the day I’d got us tickets to the Lost Vegas : Tim Burton Exhibition at the Neon Museum so we’d have the pleasure at looking at all the exhibits in the sweltering hot sun. We’d been to the Neon Museum before and it’s a place I definitely recommend especially at night when some of the signs are lit up. This new exhibition encompassed Tim Burton, the Neon signs and his love for Vegas, admittedly I’d misread the brief and was expecting a lot from the likes of Beetlejuice, Nightmare Before Christmas, Edward Scissorhands, all that kind of stuff. There was some Mars Attacks stuff and one Beetlejuice thing but the rest was original artwork and designs by Tim Burton. As you’d expect the exhibition was weird and wonderful and a joy for any Tim Burton fan, I was only slightly disappointed but that my own fault for expecting something that was never going to be there. There was however a Tim Burton ‘Movie’ Exhibition that toured around the world 2018/2019 that I sadly missed.

Despite the hot weather we walked from the Neon Museum to the Container Park, at night it’s adults only at the Container Park but it’s a free for all in the day. We went for something to eat and drink at BIN702, the mini sandwiches there are very nice and the fresh meats and cheeses are excellent for those who like a high end Delicatessen experience. We found the Container Park a unique, relaxing place to be, even at night it’s not a wild or hectic as the Strip or Fremont so it’s nice to come here, watching the giant Preying Mantis and there is a large stage hosting live music with a large picnic area. I’ve posted a link to the website so you can see all it has to offer – very impressive for what is basically a number of shops and restaurants/bars set up inside shipping containers.

We stayed Downtown and just chilled and gambled until the evening when we decided to pay homage to a few YouTube vids we’d seen and compare Pizza from a number of different places around Downtown. Now remember, this was us paying homage and in no way were we copying them. Joking aside we were intrigued to see what one’s we preferred and to see if we agreed with others. We’d be trying Pizza Rock, Evel Pie and Naked City Pizza at El Cortez. Pizza Rock was just over the road from Downtown Grand so that was simple enough – we’d order a slice of a Margarita pizza for fair comparison at each place. You can eat inside Pizza Rock but we just had a take away slice and ate it outside, next stop Evel Pie, Cheesy Rider Pizza and we sat inside for that one, it’s quite a small place and we sat at the bar and munched away. Next was Naked City Pizza, we got to El Cortez and walked around and around, I could swear I knew where it was. We’d gone there with my cousin and his wife so where the heck was it? I spoke to a woman at one of the bars who told me it had closed earlier that week. Doing a comparison of just two seemed a bit pointless but we carried on for the vlog and then we went back to Pizza Rock for more pizza. Evel Pie serves up a very nice pizza but Pizza Rock just took the edge for us just in case you wondered.

It’s been a week and we’ve not had any Donuts or anything from White Castle so the day started with a trip to the Donut Bar. Tasty, large donuts with a great range and a good price. The toilet is decorated very interestingly too. With Breakfast sorted and the flight back being later tonight we packed then went for a long walk (2 miles/45mins away) to the new Downtown Vegas Sign that’s down by the Stratosphere. I really like the sign and the surrounding area and now there is a new archway spanning Las Vegas Boulevard near the Downtown district too. Catching an Uber back we got to the Downtown Grand and I went and got us a few White Castle sliders. The last day is always a bit of a downer but it had been a good eventful trip with fun, memorable experiences. Little did I know there was still plenty of time for it to still be eventful whether I wanted it to be or not.

For the trip to the airport I booked a Lyft as it was cheaper, it turned up and we got in.

Lyft Driver : “I’ve just got to pick up another couple”

Jane looks at me, I look back equally as confused. This has never happened before but I’m sure it’ll be fine. The driver is going through all the back streets and picks up the couple; he then says he’ll drop them off then us to the airport. Jane looks at me again, I look at the time and we won’t be there as early as we’d like but it’ll be fine. Now, wherever the heck we are there’s now a problem, there’s a big Monster Truck thing going on nearby but it’s ended and people are leaving and I think a Police situation too so the traffic grinds to a standstill. The colour drains from my face, we express our concerns to the Lyft driver, and he asks the other couple if he can drop us off first. They’re reluctant at first but they agree, the driver tries to find any way around and as fast but as safely as possible. Eventually we get there and I thank and tip the driver, these things happen. Annoyingly they happen to us a lot but we’re at the airport and it’s time to check in. Looking at it, the reason the trip was so cheap is I’d chosen a trip that was rideshare where it’s cheaper because you pick up other people along the way. I can tell you know, I’ll never make that mistake again. The one positive thing was Virgin was doing kerbside check in and the lady must have seen our sorrowful faces and after seeing our allocated seats, made a phone call and got us seats with extra leg room. Thank you Virgin, we genuinely needed that.

The number of things we had seen in and around Downtown Vegas meant there was even more things to do and we were already planning places to visit in 2020. The Retro Vegas shop we’d come across in the Arts District, another trip to the Gamblers General store – a place full of gambling books and equipment from card packs to complete roulette tables. So many places to visit, so little time. My brother bought me the American Casino Guide 2020 for Christmas so we had those coupons to use, we still had lots of MyVegas points and were still playing the FourQueens and Binions Apps for freebies and money off deals. I’d become more confident with being in front of the camera so it was just a case of seeing what deals we can get for the casino and flight.

Then on 31st December 2019, WHO reports a mysterious pneumonia-like illness affecting dozens in China……..