What’s New in Vegas

Posted on March 25, 2014March 25, 2014 by Dusty Roads

Like I said yesterday, I haven’t been to Vegas in a long time so I thought I’d poke around some of the web pages and see what’s been happening and what we might want to see.

First of all, I looked for FREE things to do. Free is always good! XD

I don’t believe the Silverton Hotel was there when I last visited. Certainly the Aquarium wasn’t. I wonder if this is one of the ATM Aquariums from the Animal Planet Show Tanked. ATM is based in Las Vegas and they installed a huge aquarium where they do a mermaid show.

And guess what! There’s a mermaid show at the Silverton Hotel’s Aquarium. We will just have to check that out! I have seen a mermaid show before in Florida at Weeki Wachee Springs State Park.

I think I need to compare the shows.

A little more poking around and sure enough, this Aquarium is the ATM aquarium featured in the Tanked series! The review I found was written by a big Fan of the show and she gave the aquarium rave reviews. and included pictures!. Now it’s definitely a must see…cameras at ready.

Up next in the Free department is the Bellagio Conservatory. The Bellagio was under construction when I was in Vegas last for more than a change of planes and that was back in 1998. I told you it had been awhile. Anyway, this looks amazing.

The exhibit in the conservatory changes according to the season. They even have live musical performances daily. I bet this would be even more amazing during the holidays!

Of course while we’re visiting the Bellagio we have to see the dancing fountains. That was actually what I thought the Bellagio was known for, not the Conservatory. The Bellagio fountains were designed to “romance” the senses.

In a show of water , music and light the fountains strive to mesmerize the views. This is the most ambitious, choreographically complex water feature ever conceived and it amazes against the beautiful backdrop of Las Vegas’ lavender sky. (My tripod is going on this trip for sure!)

So far in my quest for FREE entertainment I think I’ve found 3 amazing options. But I’m not through digging. Let’s see what more I can find.

What Happens In Vegas…

Posted on March 24, 2014March 24, 2014 by Dusty Roads

Stays in Vegas or so the saying goes. Las Vegas is not a feature destination in my mind. I’ve been there several times. You walk the strip. You oooh and ahhh at the casinos and massive hotels, you eat too much, enjoy a show and gamble. Well, I don’t gamble but most visitors to Las Vegas do.

Anyway if you don’t gamble once the sight seeing is done it’s pretty boring, at least it was for me. But I haven’t been there in a number of years and I’m sure it’s changed a lot.

One of the perks of timeshare ownership is you get put on many, many vacation destination lists. You get calls from vacation clubs, other time share resorts, and cruise lines all making a pitch for your vacation dollar and some of the incentives are pretty sweet. Most of the time I say no but once in a while one comes along at the right time.

That happened just this month. I was wracking my brain for a suitable gift for a longtime friend that just hit the big 5-0. Yes , he’s taking it hard. When he turned 40 several of us took him on a cruise to Nassau, Bahamas.

This time I was the only one trying to come up with a memorable gift. It was in the middle of those musings that my phone rang. A vacation/ travel pitch.

When the agent said Las Vegas my first response was to say no, not interested but ‘Iris” asked me to just listen as it was a good deal. Well, I’m not going to tell you how much it was because my friend might be reading this and it’s tacky to leave a price tag on a gift. But let’s just say that even on my limited budget it was very affordable. In fact it will probably cost more for the plane fare.

So my friend received a 4 day and 3 night stay in Las Vegas. The trip includes a dinner for 2 (me and him) 2 show tickets and $100 for slot play (He can have that). The only thing is he has to go with me. I can’t just give it to him to take anyone. We have 24 months to use it. (That’s so we can save up the plane fare- just joking)

I’m not sure when we’re going to go. We haven’t talked about it too much except that he said he’s never been to Vegas but I’m going to start looking into some of the more unusual things to do..like maybe Hoover Dam, a visit to the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop (from the TV show Pawn Stars) or a drive to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. It is his gift so I suppose he’ll have a say in what we do too. 😉

Travel is Like A New Car

Posted on March 22, 2014March 22, 2014 by Dusty Roads

Have you ever bought a new car and then once you start driving it around you see the same car everywhere? You’d swear that you’d only seen 1 baby blue Prius in all the time you’ve been driving until you bought one. Now no matter where you look you spot another baby blue Prius.

Well I’ve noticed a similar phenomenon with vacation planning. I remember the first time I went to Sedona, Arizona. That trip was a “leftover”. I needed to use my time share points or lose them and time was running out. Everything I tried to get was booked. Then I looked for vacancies and Sedona not only popped up but it was on sale. It cost me half the points it normally would so I was able to squeeze in Sedona and Florida for the price of one.

About a week after I booked Sedona my Intervale International Magazine came with featured locations. Right there on the cover was Sedona! Red Rock Country! And it was the feature story inside.

A couple of weeks later I was reading another magazine and the travel section in that one also featured Sedona.

When we planned our Alaska vacation the same thing happened. I ran across articles about Alaska everywhere even when I wasn’t looking for something.

Now I just booked my vacation to Tennessee and along comes my magazine Travel 50 & Over. I love this magazine. The cover didn’t give it away but inside I was reading the article about 50 Fantastic Hikes and there it was, Trillium Gap Trail, Great Smokey Mountains National Park, 3 miles.! Yes! I had read about this trail in my research. There’s a waterfall on it and the trail goes right behind the falls. It is one of the trails I want to try if my hip is feeling up to it.

So it’s starting again. I wonder how many more times Tennessee is going to come to my attention before I leave for vacation!? I love these surprise tidbits of encouragement.

Picking a Destination

Posted on March 21, 2014March 21, 2014 by Dusty Roads

Anyone who has been following this blog for any time knows that my travel goal is to visit all 50 states and not just as a layover on the way to someplace else. No I want to spend quality time in each state.

I was watching a travel channel program today and it hit my why I have such a problem with that goal. I mean , really, I set it. Why should it be such a difficult thing to work toward? The reason, because each state has so much to share. You just aren’t finished with a state with one vacation. Each state needs time to get to know it. Like a person… you don’t get to know someone by sharing a drink at a cocktail party.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been to Florida. I don’t always spend the time at Disney either. That’s a nice visit but not a priority for me.

But as I watched them talk about the Coral Castle in Homestead, FL I realized that I’m not done with Florida yet.

I haven’t ben to the Coral Castle, or the Miami Zoo.

I want to return to the Everglades and explore it in a lot more depth.

I haven’t spent any time in the northern part of the state or Panhandle and only touched on the sights in St. Augustine.

I’ve been to Hawaii twice but really want to get back there again. I haven’t been to Maui or taken the “Fast Ferry” between islands. I need to snorkel off Molokai and see Kilauea pour lava into the sea at night.

I can’t forget Alaska. My first visit was on a cruise ship . A nice trip but too tame for my taste. I want to set up a “base camp” maybe in Anchorage and explore out from there. I want to visit Fairbanks and see- no not just see-the northern lights, but photograph them.

One of the best trips I’ve done was with my sister to South Dakota but we didn’t get to see a pow wow or visit Sturgis or many other old west towns and there’s the whole eastern side of the state.

It’s hard to turn away from unfinished business. Every state I’ve visited needs a return visit to finish the exploration started on that first visit but if I always do that I’ll never get to the rest of the states. What a huge amazing country we live in!

A Plan for Getting There

Posted on March 20, 2014March 20, 2014 by Dusty Roads

Now that the activities for Tennessee are planned and my time off approved I have to make sure I can get there. I’ve been watching the airfares and they are all over the place. Up one day and down the next!

I think it’s time to commit. Southwest doesn’t fly to Knoxville, the closest airport. There are a couple of nice flights and connections but they are out of Logan and I avoid Boston and Logan airport like crazy. I’d drive to Hartford, CT first!

Finally I found a flight from Providence to Knoxville for under $400.00. Yup $380.00 to be exact for round trip so I grabbed it. I don’t have to get up in the middle of the night either! The flight leaves at 9:23 am. There’s a layover in Washington D. C. so I’ll have time for lunch then arrive in Knoxville just before 3pm where I have a rental car reserved.

I can’t check into the resort until after 4pm so this works out perfect because MapQuest puts the drive from Knoxville to Gatlinburg at 59 minutes.

The return trip wasn’t quite as perfect but still not bad. Check out is 10 AM but my flight isn’t until 6pm so I’ll have the whole day to poke around in, take my time driving to Knoxville and finish up sight-seeing. Even with such a late flight and a layover in Washington again, I will still be in Providence by 11:30 and home by midnight.

The cat sitter is lined up and ready to go. She’ll make 2 visits everyday except the first day when I’ll only need her to stop in for the afternoon. My kitties will be in good hands.

It’s so nice to have everything in place…and paid for. I love paying for everything ahead of time. Then I don’t have to count pennies while I’m away.

Now I just have to make myself relax and wait for the big day to roll around. 🙂