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There are many flights from Las Vegas to Seattle and I chose a late morning departure so we would not be rushed. Another interesting observation about changes in Las Vegas. Our hotel room was located over 300 feet from the elevator and it was a good block walk once you left the elevator to get to the hotel entrance. Yvonne suggested we call a bellman to handle the luggage but I pointed out to her that I had seen no evidence of such a person since we arrived here. We later learned they disappeared many years ago. Needless to say we managed our own luggage.

The flight home was uneventful and we even managed to catch the ferry without an extended wait. The trip was fun and we are glad we made it. A visit to the Grand Canyon in the winter was certainly the highlight but a revisit to Las Vegas also added to the experience. Where to next?

Christopher Kyte, the owner of Uncommon Journeys, who happened to travel with us on this trip offered to buy us brunch today at Sadelle’s Cafe here in the Bellagio. Luckily he had made reservations as the place was surprisingly busy. The restaurant is located right adjacent to the lobby and conservatory which is normally decorated for the season with flowers and artistic displays. It is always a place that people want to see as they do a spectacular job of decorating. Unfortunately today the area was a shambles as workers had already removed the Christmas decorations and were now building a scenario featuring the upcoming Chinese lunar New Year so there was nothing to see except workers constructing the new scene. The hotel was nice enough to post pictures of what the area will look like when completed.

Later that afternoon we walked the strip past the old classic hotels like Caesars Palace, Mirage and Treasure Island which still advertised the volcano but the famed pirate ship battle is no longer! The famed Flamingo is still there, celebrating its 75th anniversary recently. Also Circus Circus is here and according to the locals is still as it was 50+ years ago!

Rather than eating at the hotel we decided to revisit an old favorite outdoor venue, Mon Ami Gavin, the French bistro in the Paris Hotel located right across the street from the Bellagio. Its lure is its French bistro menu and outdoor seating with first row seats to view the Bellagio fountain show. It was on the cool side but there were plenary of heaters to keep us warm as we dined on French onion soup, salad, shrimp  cocktail and bananas foster accompanied by some good French Sancerre, while watching the music & water display across the street. Not quite as nice as eating in Paris but a good second option!

More strolling on the boulevard after dinner including a mandatory visit to the M&M store to see all the goodies they offer. Located next door to a Legoland store both places were busy with families late in the evening.

Since our last visit to Las Vegas years ago a new complex has emerged south of the Bellagio called “City Center” which consists of several new hotels and, of course, more casinos, restaurants and shops. We elected to wander over in search of something different for breakfast and settled on a place called District: Donuts in the Cosmopolitan Hotel. It was one of several specialty, high end grab & go restaurants in a food court setting. We opted for breakfast sandwiches (with a side of a cinnamon roll) not knowing that the breakfast sandwiches would be made using a donut as the bread portion. Only in Vegas! They were somewhat messy, certainly different and fun.

We wandered through several of the hotels in the area, looking at the decor. I liked the Cosmopolitan because it had that old school classic look but not the Aria which had a more modern look. With more time to kill we wandered into the new shopping mall in the area and found that one of the immerse Van Gogh exhibits now playing around the country was located there. We had wanted to experience one so decided this was a good opportunity to do so. It was as good as reviews have said it was. Located in a large space where images of Van Gogh’s painting were projected on all the walls with a musical score to accompany the slide show. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

The farewell group dinner was held at the local version of a famous (founded in 1938) LA chain, Lawry’s The Prime Rib Restaurant. We met up with our fellow travelers for one final get together. Lawry’s is one of those restaurants that has remained true to its origins. The decor is Art Deco with lots of wood and muted lighting. And the food is the same-mostly prime rib served from huge rolling carts with classical side dishes, including their famous “spinning” salad bowl, served by waiters dressed in classic fashion. It was a treat that everyone seemed to enjoy.

Before retiring for the night we made one more attempt to at least dent the bank at the casino but with typical luck. Maybe next time. Oh, by the way maybe we should have known better as my $10 Powerball investment had resulted in only 1 of my 36 numbers being picked. That should have given my some warning about my gambling luck.

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The environmental part of the trip was over. We are now heading to the bright lights and decadence of Las Vegas with a surprise stop along the way. No one had a notion of what the surprise might be. Oh, by the way no one won the previous night $400 million plus Powerball so we had to make a stop before we left town to load up for the Monday night drawing. Against my better judgement I invested $10 of my hard earned retirement funds for 5 chances to win something. We shall see what Lady Luck has to say about it.

As soon as we hit the road our tour guide, Dino, inserted a 30 minute documentary video about a now famous person from the area- a barber named Angel Delgadillo of Seligman, Az. Never heard of him. Turns out Seligman is a small town on Route 66, the now famous US highway that runs from Chicago to LA. When Interstate 40 opened in 1984, Seligman, along with virtually all the other small towns on Rt 66, began to die. Angel is noted for founding the Route 66 Association of Arizona, which resulted in the highway being named as a historic roadway. His actions gave new life to the area. Now people from all over the world stop to see his barbershop although the focus is now on Rt 66 souvenirs.  Angel is still alive (94) and occasionally visits the shop although he no longer does barbering. His family now runs the souvenir shop.

Well, the surprise stop was a visit to Seligman (population 776) and Angel’s barbershop. He was not there that day but we had a great time seeing his barber chair, reading newspaper articles about him from around the world, and shopping for unique Route 66 souvenirs. I decided to support the local economy by buying a long sleeved tee shirt with an Angel’s Barbershop logo prominently shown on the front. The Selgman visit was a fun stop-seeing his shop, some of those old 1940-50’s motels, ma & pa shops that lined the streets and Route 66.

Our lunch stop was a throwback in time-Cracker Barrel! We used to take our moms to one in northern Indiana when we lived in Wisconsin, but there are none in the state of Washington so it has been 15 years or more since we ate at one. And even better was that there was a Culver’s custard shop right next door. Again we have none in Washington so while others were shopping at the Cracker Barrel I went and had a double scoop of the flavor of the day-blackberry crumble!

We reached Las Vegas around 4:30 after passing Hoover Dam on the way. Wow, were we shocked to see how low the water level currently is. The news of droughts in the west are no joke. Joe said that they are forced to modify the turbines in the dam because there is not enough water pressure to properly operate at current water conditions.

 

Our home for the next three nights is the famed Bellagio hotel & casino. We had visited it on previous trips to Vegas but this will be first time we stay there. It has been over 15 years since we last visited Vegas. It would be interesting to see how it has changed since our last visit.

Normally we like to see shows when we are in Vegas, but most of the shows have shuttered now that the holidays are over. The one show that was available today was one featuring acts from the America’s Got Talent(AGT) TV show which we watch. I had purchased tickets for the 7PM show at the Luxor. It was a good show! An interesting aside: The host for the show was a comedian named Preacher Larson. He had appeared on AGT a few years ago and came in 2nd in the competition. The interesting part of the story is we had seen Preacher here on Bainbridge Island a few years before when he was competing in a Seattle comedy competition, which he ultimately won. He was hilarious and I was glad to see he has gained some fame and hopefully, fortune.

We quickly learned that Uber/Lyft, rather than taxis, now dominate local transportation service. There are even special designated areas at each hotel where ride share pick up & drop off. Hotels have done a nice job labeling those areas. All of our rides were quick and inexpensive.

Before retiring we did have to see if Lady Luck was smiling on us so we “invested” some money in the casino. One of the immediate changes I saw from early times was the minimum bets on tables was now $25!  And they go up to $50 and $100 a bet. Whatever happened to the $3-5 tables? Slots have gone high tech and are larger with incorporated videos and more audio. And I suspect they have cranked down the odds of winning to make up for Covid losses.

The other observation is people are suddenly showing up in casinos with dogs-not service animals, simply pets! And the dress code no longer exists. The Bellagio is no longer home to the “beautiful people”. Oh, yes, the ultra high end stores are still there (not many people in them) and prices for food and drink have sky rocketed: $18-20 glasses of wine, $20+ salads, $5.25 for bottled water and $70 entrees. Sadly the 99 cent shrimp cocktails are long gone.

Tomorrow will be a day of exploring the new areas of development in Vegas.

We awoke to brilliant sun, bright blue skies and a temperature of about 15 degrees! Absolutely gorgeous to go sightseeing. We reboarded our bus at the leisurely time of 10 AM and immediately headed 20 miles to the east end of the park that is not commonly visited by tourists. We wanted to see the  “Desert View Watchtower”, designed by Mary Colter as part of her design collection at the Grand Canyon. Indeed there is an 70 ft brick structure, built in 1932,  that was probably used as a watchtower long ago. It is also the highest point in the park -7500 feet of elevation. We were lucky, as often the road is closed after a snowfall but today it was snow covered but open. It took a few miles of travel before the canyon revealed itself to us in all it glory. Wow!  The presence of snow made it all that more dramatic. We lingered for pictures and to absorb the majestic views- all without the presence of crowds! We were the only bus in the parking area. Joe, our driver, said that during high season there might be as many as 50 buses there. Certainly this is reason enough to visit the canyon in the off season.

Over the next few hours we gradually worked our way back to the main tourist area on the south rim, stopping along the way at Grand View( it was!) and other viewpoints for more pictures. As you surely know it is virtually impossible to capture the immensity and grandeur of the canyon with a camera, even by trying to take a panoramic shot. You simply have to be there to take it all in.

We stopped for a quick late lunch  at one of the very few eateries open that day (personal pizza or elk chili) because we wanted to view a Grand Canyon sunset at the main tourist viewpoints at the Bright Angel and El Tavor Lodges. Marvelous! More pictures, along with visits of both historical lodges (and gift shops).

We returned to our respective hotels at the end of the day, marveling at what we saw and experienced. Mother Nature certainly made up for yesterday’s less than stellar weather. It was, indeed, a very Happy New Year and start to 2022!

We awoke to a fresh snowfall of several inches, providing a lovely winter landscape for a normally brown desert scene. We had to be at the local Williams, AZ train station for an 8:30 AM departure of the Grand Canyon Railroad. The rail line was built in 1901 by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad to transport people to the Grand Canyon. It thrived until the advent of the automobile caused its demise. In 1988 private investors bought the line and assets and made it the success it is today.  Approximately 250,000 people/year ride this train to/from the south rim of Grand Canyon. The rail depot here in Williams was built in 1908 and is on the National Registry of Historic Places. The depot and adjacent hotel was one of the early locations for the a Fred Harvey Hotel & Restaurant chain, with their famous “Harvey Girls” waitresses. There was even a famous 1930 movie (The Harvey Girls starring Judy Garland) about them.

I was surprised at how many people boarded the train, but it is the holiday season. We were only riding it one way while most people would be making a round trip, returning late in the day after spending 3-4 hours at the canyon. Our seats were reserved and there was an on-going dialogue provided by a person in our car. In addition, the “sheriff”, dressed in 1800s garb( hilarious as he was really from the Netherlands) , passed through as well as a cowboy singer who entertained us with a few modern day songs.

The gentle falling snowfall provided a magical winter scene for our two plus hour trip. The time passed quickly and we soon reached the south rim of the canyon where our bus met us to begin our exploration of the area. The snow had stopped but unfortunately the area was covered by low lying clouds. We drove to a nearby popular canyon view spot called Mather Point only to be met with clouds. There was no canyon; not even a partial view! It was not a good start to our Grand Canyon adventure!

Not to worry, said our tour director. We will move on to Plan B or Plan C if we have to. But first let’s go have lunch. Because of the holidays many local restaurants were not open and choices were limited and we ended up in another locally owned Mexican restaurant. We did not mind in the least, but we’re again dismayed that the quality of the food was not like “back home”.

The restaurant was located in the small (population 558) town of Tusayan, AZ located about 6 miles from national park. The rest of the town consists of motels, souvenir shops, eateries, and local tour companies. A unique offering was an IMAX theater which shows a marvelous movie about the Grand Canyon. The plan B suggestion was that we would be taken to see the movie, again compliments of the owner.

After that we asked to stop at the local chocolate candy shop for “essentials” followed by a visit to the local gas station to buy powerball lottery tickets (we had several avid buyers on the trip) with a promise that we would equally share our winnings! The last stop was at a local grocery store for those who wanted to pick up some last minute goodies or refreshments for their New Year eve celebration.

It was now time to check in at our hotel. Originally our group was to have stayed at the Yavapai Lodge in the park. Prior to leaving we learned that much of the facility was going to be closed when we were scheduled to be there, so an option was offered to stay at a large, modern motel in Tusayan. Six of the 10 people chose that option, including us. In hindsight we made the right choice, as the Yavapai rooms had previously been used a dormitories and one had to walk to get to the main lodge for food/beverage, whereas our rooms were large and modern and the facilities (including a bowling alley of all things) was nearby.

I had made early (only time available) New Year Eve dinner reservations at the famous El Tovar dining room  in the park but because of our late arrival I had to cancel them and we simply joined our fellow travelers for dinner at our hotel. Because of staff shortages the normal dinner menu was truncated but they offered a special prime rib dinner that night that turned out to be quite good and drinks were a bargain at $8!

No late night reverie for us any more. We need our rest for the touring that is to come, as the weather prediction for January 1 was spectacular- clear, blue skies and moderate (30s) temperatures.

6 AM. Winslow, AZ. It’s dark. We exit the train. We are seemingly the only ones around so we start walking to the fairly famous hotel connected to the train station, called La Posada, where we are to meet our fellow travelers and our tour director, Dino Auger. Sure enough, out of the darkness Dino approaches us and and with a definite French accent, introduces himself and takes our luggage into the hotel where we will have breakfast before boarding our bus for the next leg of the trip. We meet several more travelers and learn that there will only be 10 of us on this trip ( 4 people had to cancel at last minute), a pleasant surprise. Also, the president of Uncommon Journeys, Christopher Kyte, and a colleague were also joining us.

After a leisurely complimentary breakfast we were escorted to a brand new 40 passenger bus (driven by what turned out to be, a marvelous driver, Joe) that would be our transportation for the remainder of the trip.. So in total there were only 14 people on the bus; everyone could have a row (or two) for themselves! Nice. The seats were comfortable with foot rests, and there were power outlets at each seat for our electronics. Surprisingly although there was no on-board wireless we were able to get fairly strong cellular signals most of the time.

Our destination for the day was Williams , AZ which was only 91 miles away but  we would be making a series of stops to see some of the sights as we made our way. The first stop was at the Petrified Forest National Park. During the Triassic Period (225 million years ago) this area was hot, humid and populated with prehistoric rain forests. Trees growing  the area ended up buried in sediment where they soaked up silica from volcanic ash and in time turned into quartz. Those trees, turned into stone,  is what we see today. An amazing sight was seeing what appeared to be perfectly sawn sections of trees that, in reality were not sectioned by sawing, but fractured perfectly over time into the sections now laying in the area.

Adjacent to Petrified Forest is an area called “Painted Desert” consisting of rocks and mesas that look like someone had painted them. Their color actually comes from minerals deposited over time. It does make for some dramatic pictures. It was a bit chilly and windy so our visit was short!

Having the president of Uncommon Journals traveling with us resulted in some unexpected perks like stopping at a local attraction called meteor crater. This crater was formed by a meteor landing here about 50,000 years ago. The actual meteor is estimated to have been about 150 ft in diameter, but its impact created a crater that is almost a mile in diameter and 550 feet deep. Its energy is estimated to have been 150 times greater than an atomic bomb. We watched a video about the crater and viewed the immense hole in the ground. Oh, to have a time machine to go back in time to see what happened when it hit.

Lunch, compliments of the president, was at a local Mexican restaurant. Frankly I was a bit disappointed, having expected it to be excellent because of where we were. Our local Washington Mexican restaurants offer better fare.

We arrived late in the afternoon to our stop for the night in Williams, AZ where tomorrow we will be catching a famous train that takes people to the rim of the Grand Canyon.

It has been so long since I have created a new travel blog that I had trouble logging in to my website to start creating this travelogue to document our recent trip over New Years 2021.

In 2009 we spent New Years Eve in Yellowstone National Park. It was such a magical trip that when I saw an advertisement for a trip that would spend New Years at the Grand Canyon followed by three days at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, even Yvonne was excited about taking such a trip! The trip was put together by a new company (to me) called Uncommon Journeys (www.uncommonjourneys.com) which specializes in somewhat unique trips that includes trains as part of their itinerary. That made the trip even more appealing because we have said we would like to try some train trips in our travels.

The trip originated in Los Angeles where one would catch an overnight Amtrak train to Winslow, Arizona. An alternative option was taking an Amtrak train from Chicago to the Winslow meeting point. As it turned out one of the couples actually did that. We flew from Seattle to LA where we transferred to the LA Union Station to catch the 6 PM train departure. I had a bit of concern regarding air travel delays but it all worked out without any hassles.

Since travel to Winslow was 12 hours in duration there was no question we would not be sitting up in coach seats for the trip. I opted to pay the (huge) premium for a bedroom that included an ensuite bathroom so we would not have to “go down the hall” to use the facilities. Alas, travel on Amtrak still remains pretty archaic. Once the beds were made up (lower & upper) it was almost impossible to move about. Thankfully by the time we finished dinner (so-so, but it was included along with one drink in our fare) it was time to retire so we managed to squeeze by each other and find our sleeping positions. The train was surprisingly rocky but it did not deter me sleeping through the night.

I was somewhat concerned about getting up in time to get off the train in the dark at 6AM in a small Arizona town with a different time zone,  but a $20 tip to our bedroom attendant earned us a personalized wake up call 1 hour before arrival. She even walked us to the proper door for getting off, but you are on your own for handling luggage.

Note to self:  no more overnight train rides on Amtrak! Cheaper and much more comfortable to simply fly.