Back to Sin City again...
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| Iconic views of Vegas from Bellagio Fountain |
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| Bellagio fountain |
It's always fun, easy to drink too much and no lack of good food.
Went with another couple (Dave and Jenn) who booked the Grand Hilton Vacation Club Elara and invited us on the trip. So off to Vegas again!
This is the room/living room/kitchen in Elara. Very trippy red tinted windows that is fun to look through, but everything starts to look green after a while outside the red zone. We have the view of Paris and Planet Hollywood on one side and Aria & Cosmopolitan on the other.
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| Elara room and view from the room |
Before checking into the room, we went straight to a birria place that was on Tacos Chronicles Season 2. El Campo Birria. https://www.facebook.com/birriaelcompalv/
Great Jalisco style birria, fall-off-the bone meat that make great tacos. Good consommé too.
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| Birria at El Campo and lamb tacos |
After that we tried to walk around the art district and poke our heads into the different art gallery/Artists studio in the artist factory. There are a lot of places not open, maybe it's winter season and maybe it's too early.
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| The art district area in Vegas |
I think they still have more to develop in the area esp in the day time. But it's nice to do something in Vegas that's not related to Fremont or the Strip and involve drinking.
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| Some art and paintings and photos in the Art Factory |
That night we went to Fremont and listened to concerts, watch the street performers and hang out at "Don't Tell Mama" piano bar and had a good time. It's the first time that i had Tokyo Tea. Twist to Long island tea with the Japanese melon liqueur.. I need to make this.
https://www.liquor.com/recipes/tokyo-tea/
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| Having a good time at "Dont Tell Mama" |
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| Street performer balancing on 1 finger in Fremont |
We had pizza first at a bar call Evel Pie. Turns out it's a memorial to Evel Knievel so they shows his stunts on tv and a logo "Live hard ride fast eat pizza" lol.. But they have very good pizza including a vegan one with mushroom.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evel_Knievel
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| Had Evel Pie that is a restaurant named after evil |
The other entertaining thing about Fremont is how frequently people got stuck in the zip line. And need to be rescued. This time there's a rescuer that needs to be rescued. So a 3 person tow line =)
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| Anybody else need a ride? |
The next morning we went to Hoover Dam via Lake Mead.
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| Panoramic view of Lake Mead |
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| The hike is quite cold.. Brrrr... |
It turns out Lake Mead is a national recreation area and has a marina. So we went there for brunch before heading for a hike to Hoover Dam from Lake Mead.
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| Decent brunch, view priceless, dead bodies - didn't find any |
Lake Mead is at one of the lowest point in history and it's interesting to see how low the water is. There are news of dead bodies being found as the water level keeps getting lower.
We also think the marina has to shift every time the water gets lower.
The hike is interesting as we go through 5 old train tunnels that used to bring building materials.
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| I love the perspective of 2 train tunnels behind me |
But it was certainly a good 8 mikes round trip hike that took over 3 hours. Great view of the lake too.
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| Not ready to give up yet! |
The hike ends at Hoover Dam and we can get a good view of the dam and the bridge.
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| The view at the end |
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| Random pics of the hike, including hat on car! |
After the hike, we went to Buddy V restaurant in Venetian as we were quite impressed with the food when we did the last food tour. So wanted to try more of their normal menu
https://www.venetianlasvegas.com/restaurants/buddy-v-ristorante.html
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| Great dinner at Buddy V |
Bellagio has their xmas decoration up this year and it's fun and super crowded. Looks like a toys theme this year and a train running around their huge Xmas tree.
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| Bellagio Xmas Decoration |
The next day is World Cup Finals! Woke up early to catch the game and it's a pity that France played less stellar but Argentina certainly deserve to win the game.
After the game we went to the Mob Museum before heading back home.
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| The entrance of the museum which used to be an old post office |
I was half distracted by the extra time into the soccer game so didn't take as many pictures. But the museum is interesting that it tells the story of the rise and fall of organized crime in USA with the Prohibition increasing the profits of alcohol smuggling. Subsequently they came to Vegas as casino is legal and a "cleaner" profit.
We ate a quick lunch at Pizza Rock before heading home.
