My Trip To the West Coast

♠Dustin and Maiju’s Road Trip♠

Our trip to Sin City and California was absolutely fabulous. This post will be mostly visual due to a failing ability to redact some of the photographs. It’ll be more of a picture book than a blog post. 🙂 Some of you may prefer pictures to my snarky and opinionated posts.

On our first day, we (my wife and me) drove from Utah to Las Vegas. We got a room at the Caesars Palace. As most of you may know, this picture is in the Forum Shops at the Hotel.

This next picture is of our bathroom. The main reason I am posting a picture of the bathroom we had is because there was no bathroom door separating the bathroom from the rest of the room. I found this very odd. It did however, take my marriage to a new level. Rushing into the bathroom when I had to fart was no longer an option.

Not gonna lie, the mirror in the bathtub was great, but I would’ve traded it for a bathroom door.

The view outside our window. Not the greatest picture but this was the first time I had seen the new attraction “The Linq”. It is the mega ferris wheel in the background. Each sphere/cart is like a small bar/dance floor. How crazy! And of course the dreamy Donny Osmond plastered all over the adjacent casino wall. I was a bit disappointed at the swamp cooler and duct-work view until I saw Mr. Osmond. That brought it back up to par. Have any of you ridden on The Linq?

On our 2nd day, we drove from Las Vegas to California. These pictures are taken on “The Strip” of course.

Buffalo Bills Hotel and Casino off I-15. Has any of my followers stayed at Buffalo Bill’s or rode the roller coaster? I’ve heard the coaster is pretty rough. The traffic was stop-n-go for almost 2 hours in this picture. Luckily I had good audio books and the brilliant mind of my wife to keep me from going ballistic on careless and inconsiderate drivers.

This was at a gas station about 150 miles away from anything resembling life. Unfortunately, I had no choice but to fill’er up! Gas prices back home ——> $2.20/gal

This was an old abandoned motel. It was creepy so we stopped and got a closer look. Would you stay one night here if you got paid $100? How much money would it take for you to stay a night at the old Royal Hawaiian?

 

We don’t have palm trees in Utah and they are my favorite tree. This street was right by our hotel in California. Not to be confused with Hotel California. Had we went there, we couldn’t have left…so they say. And no, that is not a UFO in the sky. That is a dead bug on my windshield. 😉

DISNEYLAND – DAY 1

This was Maiju’s first time at Disneyland. That’s us standing under the sign. The lines were long but they moved rather quickly. She woke me up before the sun came up. I think she was excited. 😀

Here is a short clip of us walking through Disneyland. She pays the price when she walks ahead of me. 🙂 https://youtu.be/rkuoRYCBh7I

 

Space Mountain

HERE IS A VIDEO LINK OF ME AND MAIJU RIDING THE TRAIN ROLLER COASTER AT DISNEYLAND

https://youtu.be/Hkaq-SYL_lU

ADVENTURELAND – DAY 2

I gotta say, the new Cars Land section of the park is phenomenal. They did a great job recreating Radiator Springs. We spent a lot of time in Cars Land. The only down side was Adventureland only had two places to eat an actual meal. Cotton candy, churro’s and ice cream is tempting to eat all day but a hot meal is always a good thing to throw in there at some point.

Cars Land – Flo’s Cafe (they have delicious breakfast)

Maiju in front of Radiator Springs souvenir shop. “Come to the geek side…we have pi”  🙂

REAL-TO-LIFE LIGHTING MCQUEEN & TOWMATER

Lightning McQueen and Tow-Mater are full-size vehicles complete with animated facial movements and voices. They are actually giant remote controls operated by a remote control that is worn around the neck of the operator. I know what I want for Christmas! (hint hint)

Von Lightning Mc-Q

Tow-Mater the lady-killer

Radiator Springs Racer’s race car attraction is one of the most expensive theme park rides in the world. It cost over $200,000,000 (200 million) to build. When it first opened in 2012, the wait to go on the ride was 6+ hours. We rode it twice and waited about an hour, to an hour and a half each time. Well worth the wait. By far the best ride there.

Radiator Springs Racer’s

TO GO FOR A RIDE ON RADIATOR SPRINGS RACERS,

CLICK HERE—> https://youtu.be/HgE7B01XD4M

My wife thinks I may have been on the coaster in this picture. It’s hard to tell so lets say that I am.

HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS – DAY 3

I turned 36 or 37 on this day. I always forget how old I am. I think I’m getting old too fast. The time just keeps flying by. Anyway, the day was a bit cooler than the previous days. I thought it was going to rain but it never did. Maiju had enough of the jarring rides and so did my neck. We spent most the day walking around the park and enjoying the views.

The worlds largest 3-D motion simulator where King Kong rips T-Rex’s jaw in half. Dinosaur spit literally hit me in my eyeball.

One of the original “JAWS” filming locations.

WhoVille

The Jurassic Park ride was the only ride my wife was looking forward to going on. It was closed for renovations. That was a bummer. Guess we have to go back now. Shucks.

CRYSTAL COVE – BEACHCOMBER RESTAURANT – DAY 4

I was informed of this place by a fellow blogger so my wife and I put in a reservation. This place is absolutely beautiful. The next few pictures are all taken here.

HOLLYWOOD BLVD – DAY 5

We walked down Hollywood Blvd, took pictures, ate, and went to the Museum of Death for the first time. This place is absolutely nuts. For anything gruesome, dead, jack-the-ripper, murderish, morbid, death cults of the past… this is the place. They have actual memorabilia/weapons from the most well-known serial killers. Way cool but EXTREMELY CREEPY! It costs $15/person and its an unguided tour. No photography allowed- that is probably best for all of us. 🙂

The Museum of Death

Capitol Records Building

DAY 6 – BACK TO LAS VEGAS

This was somewhere between California and Nevada. Southbound traffic was a lot lighter. My road rage was at a fairly reasonable level.

Back in Sin City. I have always loved the bright flashing lights of a moon lit Vegas. Here is the Eiffel Tower Restaurant at the Paris Hotel and Casino. If any of my followers have eaten at this restaurant, how was it? Is it worth it? We have never been inside. I am interested to know what you thought. It’s a beautiful tower- no doubt on that.

I KEELYOU!! – BALLYS

When we finally settled into Vegas, we stayed at Treasure Island. We both agreed that Treasure Island was a far better place to stay compared to Caesar’s Palace. The bed was far more comfortable, the room was nicer, the bathroom had a door, the view was better and the in-room dining was the best $60 I’ve ever spent. It was heaven. I was hesitant to spend the extra money for room service food but it was by far a memory that will last me forever. It was just fantastic to sit on the bed with my wife, relax, chat and eat impressively good food.

You can tell by how much fun I was having in the dork-fest reflection pic below. What little you can see past my reflection, was the view of Vegas from our window. I always request our room as high up as possible because I go wild-crazy over silly things like that. I think we was on the 27th floor or somewhere close to that.

This street performer was floating in mid-air right in front of us. I was so fascinated with this ability, I had to google how she was doing it. Isn’t it just awesome?!

This was so mind-blowing for a street performance, I had to throw down some cash. The ability to float in mid-air!

Here’s one more angle just because it’s that cool!

HOMEWARD BOUND – DAY 7

Hope you enjoyed! Thank you for following. 🙂