Las Vegas & beyond!
The Encore is an amazing hotel with fantastic use of natural light in the casino area which you don't see often and the Resort Suite (room) we were allocated was very large with floor to ceiling windows and a great view towards to airport and golf course one way and the Wynn hotel and "the Strip" the other way. Tim, my husband, discovered that if he played on even the lowest stake machine the casino hostesses would come round and offer him a drink of his choice free of charge which he thought was just great! The hotel has a beach club (no beach just a day time nightclub with pool), nightclubs, bars, restaurants, shops, golf course, spa and Ferrari dealership so everyone is catered for.
Opposite the hotel is the Fashion Show shopping mall that contains several large department stores and smaller retail outlets and most of the larger hotels have their own shopping areas including the Forum at Caesars Palace and Tim's favourite the Grand Canal at the Venetian which has recreated St Mark's Square and the Grand Canal inside complete with Gondaleers singing and street entertainers. If you are a qualified diver you should take divers cards with you so you can dive with the sharks in the Shark Reef Aquarium at the Mandalay Bay!
We were lucky enough to see two shows - Le Reve at the Wynn which was water based and like nothing I have seen before, the acrobatics and music were amazing and Viva Elvis at the Aria which is a Cirque du Soleil show about Elvis's life and music and great fun! We also spent a day at the Grand Canyon taking a drive out to a local ranch, via the Hoover Dam, for wagon rides, horse riding and gun fights before taking a helicopter flight through the Grand Canyon which was stunning!
Tim and I added a few days on to our trip hiring a Ford Mustang convertible for a bit of a road trip that took us through Death Valley, 119 degrees heat and 191ft below sea level. The drive and scenery were amazing, very different from anything we had seen before and a real contrast to the Owens Valley which we followed along to Mammoth Lakes, 2 degrees heat and 9,000ft above sea level - we stopped off in Bishop to visit the Mountain Light Gallery! On leaving Mammoth Lakes we headed for Lee Vining and Mona Lake (if it is open Mona Cone does great ice cream) before taking the Tioga Pass over the Mountains to Yosemite - the pass had only been open a week and there was snow on the ground and some lakes were still frozen - it was breathtaking! All the waterfalls were at full strength and spectacular in Yosemite Valley and we also saw 3 Black Bears!
From Yosemite it was across country past miles of orchards to San Francisco. We stayed in little hotel in Sausalito and caught the ferry across to Fishermans Wharf passing Alcatraz on the way before spending time walking and taking cables cars to see as much of the city as possible in the limited time we had. We drove out of the city across the Golden Gate Bridge and down Pacific Highway 1 (PH1) hugging the coast until we reached Monterey where we stayed near the Aquarium and had a fabulous steak dinner. Then it was on down the coast with stops along the Big Sur and lunch at Nepenthe (great views and wine - glad I was not driving) passing Elephant Seals and Sea Otters before hitting Pismo Beach in time for the Classic Califormia Car Show, we did not recognise many of the models of car but the noise and the spectacle made up for it. Next day we managed lunch in Santa Barbara before heading back in land again to Barstow on the old Route 66 and our return to Las Vegas for the flight home! Our only regret that the trip was not longer!