Saturday, September 2nd, 2006

After waking up and showering we finally found a place for good breakfast in our hotel, Raffles. While nothing really special about breakfast, it was just good.

Our rental car – a Mercedes CLS-500 – was supposed to be dropped off for us at noon, although ended up not getting to the hotel until an hour later. We were slightly aggravated, but once the car got there the aggravation was replaced by excitement. Wow, what a car!

We head out of Las Vegas with Red Rock Canyon as our destination – with Josh behind the wheel (yes, he’s in love with the car) – although got sidetracked at Bonnie Springs, Nevada. Bonnie Springs is setup like an old Western town with daily shows and old “stuff” displayed around. It’s a cute stop for parents with small children, although I think most of it was lost for us as most of the shows and displays were targeted towards children. We did enjoy the little train ride between parking and the entrance, it was a nice touch. So after Bonnie Springs we hopped back into gracefully entered the car and headed out towards Red Rock Canyon. While the drive to Red Rock was very uneventful, the surrounding scenery was absolutely beautiful.

Arriving at Red Rock Canyon we decided to first visit the Tortoise Sanctuary as, well, you should know why. I think it is best to say that we were both a little disappointed. In our minds we were expecting a huge area with tons of tortoises walking around and playing and having fun and what not, but in actuality it was just a small area that had a total of nine tortoises. Megan was lucky and got to see one of these guys, while Josh stared at a rock thinking it was one… After walking through the small gift shop and grabbing some $5 Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, it was time to enter the park.

A single road takes you on a self-guided tour around Red Rock Canyon, with many little rest areas located on the way. At these rest areas you can get out of your car and walk around, taking pictures and, if you so desire, take one of the many trails through the canyons. At the first stop we decided that we would like to walk a small (short) trail although decided to wait until one of the later rest areas as there were a ton of people at the first stop. Well, little did we know, but the “red rock” part of Red Rock Canyon ended about 3 miles into the 13 mile tour. After that, it was basically regular rock and while beautiful as well, not nearly as impressive after 10 miles plus of it.

Leaving Red Rock, we decided to take the long way back into Las Vegas hoping to have a chance to see Red Rock Casino Resort Spa – the newest Casino in Las Vegas and one we had originally thought about staying at. While very beautiful, one of the things that stuck out to us was how there was an Oyster Bar located right off the casino floor. Who wants to smell raw fish while gambling, not us! Think maybe in time that will be one of the less crowded gambling areas! We walk through the casino area and make our way to the hotel part of the resort and ask one of the concierge ladies about “Heather’s Restaurant” (remember we watched Hell’s Kitchen and Heather won her own restaurant in The Red Rock Casino). A little disappointed to learn that Heather hasn’t signed on yet at Red Rock and in fact has been offered the position of Executive Chef at an existing restaurant, when we were under the impression that she got her own restaurant that she helped design.

Since we had the car and were saving so much money on cab fare, (he he he) we decided to head to Fremont Street, aka Old Las Vegas. Megan had never experienced Fremont Street, and boy is it different than the part of Las Vegas most of us are used to – the people you see there are a little less flashy, but still a fun area to experience. The whole street is shut down to traffic, and you walk right in off the street and there is a slot machine right there!

Since we hadn’t eaten since our Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream we thought maybe we could grab dinner, while both very unfamiliar with what dining is like in Old Town, we ask a bartender and he suggests a steakhouse which is on the 24th floor of the hotel. He continued to tell us that tank tops and shorts are not permitted as we are both standing there in shorts. We pointed this out to our friendly bartender and he lets us know that we are fine and they aren’t that picky with attire. So we head to the steakhouse. Waiting for the elevator we both noticed a few of the other couples who were waiting along with us, they were dressed a little bit more upscale than we were, but we thought “Hey, who knows”. We reach the 24th floor step off the elevator and Wow, what have we walked into! We both make a circle in the elevator lobby and step right back onto the elevator, no steak dinner for us. While they may have seated us and waited on us, neither of us felt appropriately dressed. We decided that we would instead head to the Hofbrauhaus House for some good German cookin’ (so we hoped).

Hofbrauhaus House, what is that you may ask, good rather authentic (for in America) German food, atmosphere, and entertainment. As we enter the Hofbrauhaus House, we are greeted by friendly little hostess’s dressed in German attire, so fun! We are asked if we would like to dine in the Beer Hall or in the Beer Garden. The Beer Hall was rather packed, but looked to be a lot of fun! A live band plays while you dine and enjoy the entertainment of the live music and the people around you for you share a table with others. The Beer Garden is a little less noisy and a little more intimate. While you can still hear the music from the Hall, you can enjoy each other’s company and have a table to yourselves. Since it was evening we were able to enjoy the trees within the Beer Garden that were lit by small lights. Opening our menu we have such a variety of German food to choose from, nothing American here! First came the choice of what beer to have along with what size! We both went with the liter of beer – BIG VERY BIG! We then ordered soft pretzels with mustard, which oddly enough we both thought were very good, maybe we were just starved and used to not so great food, but we loved the pretzels. Josh ordered Schnitzel Wiener Art while Megan having a hard time choosing because she is not familiar with this type of food went with Jagerschnitzel, a dish that most people end up getting when they don’t know what to get (she fit in perfectly).

Upon returning to the Mandalay Bay we were both craving Ice Cream. Can you believe that we had to ask someone where we could get ice cream! The place that we had seen open all week, was closed. We were given the recommendation of you’ll never guess, McDonalds! Neither of us were up to that, and just as we were about to say “thanks” and walk away, once again disgruntled with the food issue, the girl did suggest a place in Mandalay Place (the shops connecting Mandalay Bay to The Luxor). We make our way to find out that our ice cream is in fact Gelato, but yum was it good!

Both wanting to get changed out of our clothes from our hot day in the sun, we make a quick pit stop in our room, only 30 floors up, and then head out for some cocktails. Now if you know us well enough, you are very familiar with the fact that we love to people watch. Anywhere and everywhere, whenever we can we love the art of watching people! So, we decided to get a cocktail “to go” and take a seat in Mandalay Place and observe. After a good (not really sure how many) drinks each, we call it a night, but only after a shot of Tequila (for Matt) at the Luxor! To You Buddy!