End of our Stay In San Diego

It has been a few weeks since we have posted our activities here in So. Cal. so here it is. As we come to the end of our stay in San Diego we would like to tell you about our Thanksgiving weekend and our other activities. Sharon and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at a local restaurant called the Butcher Shop. It is about 10 minutes from our apartment.  We were met in the parking lot by Valet Parking. There was a doorman to open the door into the restaurant and we were quickly seated by the maitre'd. Our waitress got us our drinks and proceeded to tell us about the all you can eat buffet, located in a separate room. The restaurant was very elegant with nice leather seating and chandeliers everywhere. When we walked into the buffet area the was every kind of food known to man available. A full salad bar, a seafood raw bar, fruits and melons of all types,  four types of potatoes, several vegetables, various sauces and the meat, this is what they are known for. There was hand carved ham, prime rib, veal and turkey. There was stuffing (dressing) etc. You name it, they had it. Of course after you are completely full, there are the desert tables with pies, cakes, a chocolate fountain for the fresh strawberries and so much more. When we left we felt full with a great Thanksgiving dinner, but it just isn't the same without family.
     We went back to the apartment, jumped in our bathing suits and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the pool and the hot tub. Tomorrow would be a day of travel for us.
   We got up Friday morning, nice and early, jumped in the car and headed to Las Vegas, about a 5 hour drive. Neither of us had ever been there. It was a nice drive up through the San Bernardino Mountains and out into the desert. Traffic was light and a very enjoyable drive.

   We had reservations at the Golden Nugget, one of the older casinos in Vegas in the downtown area. Binion's, Golden Gate and several other casinos are all there. They are located on Fremont Street, which used to be the main drag for all the old casinos.The hotel has a huge swimming pool with a shark tank inside the pool, so it looks like you are swimming with the sharks and sliding through the shark tank. With the expansion of Vegas since the 80's, they have made a new road called The Strip where all the new casinos are. In order to get people to go to the older casinos the created the Fremont Street Experience. It is a half round cover over the entire length of Fremont Street, about 5 city blocks long, that is a video screen and it has shows every hour from 6 PM until 1 AM. A really unique item. The shows last between 8 to 12 minutes and feature different performers every hour, quite a light show. I am glad we stayed here, that gave me something to do every hour while Sharon was breaking Vegas at the slots (haha). In between the hourly shows there are several stages that have live performances, one musical, one magical, motorcycle Sphere of Death, etc.

   We went to a so called burlesque show at the MGM Grand Hotel on The Strip on Saturday night, it was probably the worse show I have ever seen, that includes elementary school shows. The only thing good about the show was two guys did a couple comedy skits and they were very funny.
    Sunday we got up and headed home, about 10 miles south of Las Vegas we realized we screwed up, traffic was all backed up, everyone going home from Thanksgiving weekend. Good old Gary isn't sitting on the highway in traffic, we jumped off the highway and went back roads, what few there are out in the desert. We saw some more desert and finally we started seeing snow on some cars coming the other way. Saturday night they had a storm and it dropped over 6" of snow in the San Bernardino Mountains, so we got a chance to see that too. 10 hours later we got back to the apartment in San Diego. It was a long day.
   We can check Las Vegas off on our bucket list, been there, done that, don't see a reason to do that again.

We head home to New England on Sunday, December 13. We actually will get home on Monday, late morning.  Not looking forward to the cold, but can't wait to see our friends and family.