the great american road trip is on!
after a lunch meeting in chinatown, we were off. this was around 1:30 pm.
seven hours later, we were in this small town in utah called cedar city. checked in a fairly decent quality inn by the freeway. $71 with AAA card. dinner at teriyaki stix along main street (very American!), $20. finally getting a decent amount of sleep, priceless.
or maybe not. spent two hours shredding and shredding old documents and bills. yup, i brought them all, and since i had no more time to do the shredding in LA, i am doing it during this road trip. and since utah is one hour ahead, i sorta "lost" an hour already. it's actually 1 am and i am quite sleepy. but i can't sleep yet...
even if my body aches like crazy. the past week has been crazy, very crazy.
i began packing about 10 days ago, putting my stuff in small bags, boxes, paper bags, any container. i've also been having lunches/dinners/coffees with my friends who have been so wonderful to me. then over the weekend, my bosses asked if i could join the trip to vegas for the wowowee event (oh no, not again!).
i couldn't say no, despite plenty of reasons i had. among them the fact that i haven't exactly packed all my stuff, and the three days lost would be, well, three days lost. and i wasn't exactly in the mood for a vegas road trip because i was already doing a new york road trip. and a friend of mine scheduled a sorta farewell party (on the side of a bigger party, a friend's birthday).
the opportunity to travel with a couple of friends beckoned because i know that it would probably take years before it would happen again. sigh. and a lot of my co-workers were also joining us. (the office rented a 15-seater van!)
the thought that i was leaving los angeles began to sink in on our way back. then i felt pangs of pain...
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
cedar city, utah
Saturday, April 21, 2007
spinning, and not the exercise kind
and it's also not the washing machine kind. it's my schedule and my world.
i'm in las vegas right now to cover an event. whew. went around the red rock hotel/casino/resort and i have to say i'm quite impressed with the way the hotel was done - from the ornate ceiling to the well-planned floor. its interiors are tastefully designed and it really looked pretty.
the hotel has 2 starbucks cafes, lots of restaurants, a bowling alley (with 72 lanes!), a cineplex with 16 cinemas, an arcade and lots and lots of well, space. nice!
but that's not where we're staying. boo-hoo. we're at the trusted marriott courtyard because the trip was last-minute and most of the strip hotels are booked because of some conventions and if ever there are available rooms, the prices are quite prohibitive. like almost $500-prohibitive. not good.
i love marriott courtyards because their beds are great; they have free internet access in the rooms and parking is free. hahaha. i hate hotels that charge $9.99 to $14.99 per day for internet access. that's just not cool.
by the way, had dinner at the casino's (red rock) buffet resto and had a really good dinner. i had some rib-eye steak and so much gelato i could still taste the espresso flavor i had. and they had a bulalo-type oxtail soup. and lots of no sugar added desserts.
Friday, March 30, 2007
awed by 'O'
Had a bit of free time last night and I went to a couple of casinos to check on their offerings. First up was Caesar’s Palace to see if they still have tickets for Celine Dion. Newspaper announcements have trumpeted that this is her third and last year on the strip.
Wow. Three years have passed and I have not seen the show yet. So I went to the box-office and c hecked if they had single tickets available. Turns out Celine’s on vacation and will be back by April 12. They had Elton John’s “Red Piano” show but will be available only Friday and Saturday. Boo-hoo.
I trekked back to the Bellagio and I saw this stand-by line for tickets to the 730 pm show. It was a long line and obviously, I was the last. The line was moving slowly and I was losing my patience and my hope. One young-ish looking guy approached me and asked if I was looking for single tickets.
“Yes,” I replied and he fished out a ticket from his pocket. “I can’t watch the show so I am selling my ticket, face value,” he responded.
I asked how much. He told me it was on the third row, almost center. “$165, face value,” he said.
Thought for a while and I told him that I’ll take my chance on the line to see if there are cheaper seats. “$130,” he offered. I didn’t budge. I fished out my hundred dollar from my pocket and said, “This is my budget, sorry.”
He left and few minutes later, he returned. “Okay, one hundred bucks,” he said.
Then it hit me. What if this guy was a con man. What if the ticket’s fake? I’ll have no way of finding out and no way as well to hunt him down. He sensed my hesitation. “Hey bro, this is real. I won’t screw you,” he said. Not the exact words I wanted to hear. I was sold.
I rushed to the theater and I was ushered to my seat. This was going to be a freaking good show. I’m on the third row!
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
off to arizona!
two words: road trip!
it has been awhile since i ventured into a road trip. last time was a couple of years ago, when my friends and i went to the grand canyon. this new year's las vegas trip or even long drives to san francisco do not count. driving from california to another state (except nevada!) is a road trip.
i don't care if this is an official trip. i don't care of i am going to this trip with a couple of co-workers. i. don't. care. all i know is that i am due for a nice road trip and i am so looking forward to this one.
we're leaving in less than 5 hours and i haven't even packed yet. surprise, surprise. j & s had a little tea time at urth cafe in beverly hills and before we all knew it, it was already around 9. when i got home, i had to watch my recorded prison break and 24. i had to turn my computer on and update this blog. hahaha. skewed priorities.
so we're off to phoenix & scottsdale in arizona. we'll probably make a quick trip to tucson, then pass by tempe, mesa, gilbert and chandler (nice names for their cities, huh?). then by thursday, we're driving from arizona to las vegas. i've been to arizona before but this is the first time to drive from az to nv. excited. babaw ko.
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
food trippin' in las vegas, part 2
okay, the second buffet in as many days, and thankfully, the last for this trip.
j won a hundred bucks playing the slots for about five minutes. this was his treat. thank goodness, i wasn't about to fork 30 bucks for another meal. but then again...
welcome to paris hotel's le grand buffet.
i love their french pastries. it's just too bad that they stopped making the thin, flat wafers perfect for ice cream and coffee. sayang. what else did i like here? the grilled beef and lamb, the sumptuous crepes,the new zealand mussels, the portuguese sausage... ahhh, life. hahaha.
their seafood offering paled when compared with wynn's. the alaskan crab legs were kinda short, and it wasn't cut in half so effort must be exerted. i'm lazy, what can i say.
paris, not in france.
i love me some apples. not. i hate apples.
food trippin' in las vegas
hah! another dining adventure!
welcome to wynn hotel's grand buffet.
this better be good. $32.95 ($38.95 with champagne) for brunch. at 3 pm. we were starving to death and traffic along the strip didn't help. wynn's buffet is good. or maybe we were just very hungry.
the best alaskan crabs i've ever tasted. long strips of meaty crab legs dipped in lemon butter sauce. ahhh. heart attack. hahaha. thank goodness i have no allergies. :D
prawns galore. plump shrimps. yay!
happy campers pause to pose. the company i kept for four days in las vegas, just in time for the new year's eve countdown. and this was just our first official meal in sin city.
dessert was also yummy. crepe plus creme brulee plus fresh fruits (not pictured). there was no more dinner after this. my tummy was full until around 10ish. then it was all (alcoholic) drinks from then on.
a loooong day
yesterday was the first day of the year. happy new year everyone!
it was a very, very, very long day for us. we partied until around 3 after the countdown by the strip. slept around 4, and i woke up around 9. check out was 11 and i wanted to have time to hit the shops at the desert passage. by 11, we were out and waiting for the car. it took the valet almost forever since there was already an influx of people checking out.
took the 15 north exit towards salt lake city. we went against the traffic since we wanted to visit the new outlet stores by downtown. shopped a bit. hehehe. yeah, just a bit. had lunch at the food court there and i had some philly steak and fries.
left the place around 4. next stop was primm, nevada since traffic was already bumper to bumper, it was hopeless and we thought it would be better to just kill time in primm and let the others go. a stretch of only 27 miles from the las vegas strip to primm (stateline between nevada and california) took us forever: 2 hours to be exact.
wasted 5 and a half hours at the outlet store and the casino/restaurant in the area. left primm at 9:30 and 3 hours later, we were in barstow. half-way mark, baby! this was already half past 12 midnight. 2 and a half hours more and we were in LA.
my back's aching.
