THREE MINUTE WINNERS IN LAS VEGAS

The LUXOR!

Day 227

LAS VEGAS NEVADA USA

What lucky bunnies we are!!!!

When we got to the Seattle airport (caught a bus that was in an underground under "Macy's" for $2 each! Better than paying $40 for the taxi!) and attempted to check into our flight..which was to go to Dallas then to Las Vegas....the check in lady told us weather in Dallas was so shocking we had to fly straight to Las Vegas on another flight!!

So! We got on Alaskan Airlines....and headed straight to Las Vegas and got here at 1.30pm instead of 7.30pm tonight!!

Don't ask why we were meant to be going to Dallas first (requirements of being on a round-the-world ticket!!!) but anyway..we were SO PLEASED to be going direct!!!

And here we are!!

In Las Vegas!!

And don't we know it!

As soon as we arrived at the airport..we saw the pockey machines...there are more machines than you have ever seen in your life!!

They're everywhere..at the airport arrivals..at the baggage terminal...at the hotel lobby...everywhere...

So...........after we checked into our hotel..and got settled in (had coffee and peanuts from the vending machine) we headed out to look for dinner...we were famished as we'd missed out on breakfast and most of the internal American flights, are no frills, so don't have food or snacks available unless you pay.

There was a line up at the Chicken and Ribs restaurant so we ordered drinks....(so cheap...$3.50 for a wine and a beer) and then had dinner....and that was incredibly cheap too. $15.06 for two salads and soups...2 steaks and baked potato...and beans.

In generosity we paid the guy $20 and headed to the pockeys just to have a try.

There are an assortment of machines.....from 1c to 5c to 25c right upwards...

We decided on the 25c machine...and put a gradiose $20 in to play. Me on the machine, Greg watching because he thought i'd be able to repeat our Monte Carlo winning experience...he was also so full from eating his steak, and half of mine...and i think just wanted to rest!!! He also thinks playing pocker machines are a mindless waste of time. Which they are..because really..you just push a button!!!!

But i love to push the button!!!!!

So i got rolling....

AND IN THREE MINUTUES....

I GOT TWO TWO's...and then pressed save...saved the two two's..and pressed play..and then...ding, ding, ding, DING, DING.........................etcetetc

It said..WINNER! $49!!!!

I was estastic!! hahahaha

Really...it was minus the $20 i put in...so...

I WON $29!!!!!

And my policy is...

When you're on a roll.....cash out!!

So..i cashed out!

And here we are.....

WINNERS ON OUR FIRST NIGHT IN LAS VEGAS!!

And..we have a week to go!

But gawd.....wasn't much of an allngihter when we win after 3 minutes was it?

So...we go back tomorrow...

Afterall, when in Rome....

I'll let you know if we get to pay for our trip via our winnings or not at the end of the week!

hehehe

Nighties...xxx

MT RAINIER SEATTLE

Day 226

Mt Rainier, Seattle, Washington State USA

What a beautiful place Mt Rainier is!!!!

If we thougtht we saw Autumn in Washinton DC.....then......we lied!

AUTUMN here is MAGICAL!

The colours on the way to Mt Rainier were so beautiful. Greee leaves turnin to Yellows...Reds...Oranges..Burgandy....Red.....cherry.......ohhhhhhhhh!!!

SPECTACULAR.

They call it "fall" and it is. The leaves fall and float and get carried away in the breeze.....and wisp across our faces...literally.

Autumn is so beautiful. IT' worth coming here just to see the leaves. And i've kept a few in my book. Preserved leaves!

It was an early start...and it was an all day thing going up to Mt Rainier..to see the Glacier..the lakes...the waterfalls...the leaves...

And we loved the day.

On our tour were a few aussies as well. Ours was the last tour of the season. We were so lucky to be on it. And the weather was beautiul. 65F.

OUr tour guide was a guy that was full of ecological gems. He told us about the trees, the native animals..the forest. It was great! I love it when you get a guide who knows his stuff..and where you can realy learn something about the region!

HE showed us Narada Falls as well...which he said were taller than Niagra Falls. And they are............BUT. THey're not wider..which is the charm of the Niagra Falls..and what makes them one of the Natural Wonders of the World. He failed to say that..but every guide likes to say "THEIR" monument, or mountain, or feature..is THE best and most significant in the world!!!!!

In America....it has to be the best, the largest, the biggest, the most...etc Have to laugh!!!

Once we reached Mt Rainier a few of us did the trek upwards..Apparently only 10% of tourists actually do the trek. We figured if we're not fit enough to do it now, we would never be. Got in pracise for our Peru trek! IT was so gorgeous up there too.

We took our lunch which we bought a a place called Aaron's Ark Restaurant to buy sandwiches so we were prepared to stay up there for the day. We also bought the BEST CINNIMON BUN there as well.................ohlala (no wonder we're getting a bit of cover here in the US..the food is just..well..awesome!).

While we were up at the peak we saw some gorgeous birds..one of them called the Stellar's Jag and antoher called Clarke David. SO cute. They joined us for lunch! :-)

We headed back that night...knowing it was VERY special to have been up Mt Rainer....and were glad we were able to get there. Just a bit of trivia. BIll Gates wife, Melinda..actually CLIMBED MT Rainer!!!! TO THE TOP. We got there by bus..then trekked the rest..so she's better than us!! haha

On the way back home...we also stopped at a place called Copper Creek Inn for the best blueberry pie in the world....

And....

That Night: Back to Salmon Cooker for grilled Salmon and chips at Pier 57.

Cookies and Icecream after....naughty us!

Las VEGAS TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Where we HAVE to stop eating!!!! BUT...probably just gamble our lives away!)

BOEING 777 in Seattle

Day 225

Seattle, Washington State, USA

Boeing and City Tour!

Before we headed off on our Boeing tour we headed downtown to McDonalds for breakfast because there isn't a breakfast included..and i'm' pretty sure we saw the real Seattle there.....i'd say.....we ate breaky with the homeless. We recognised a few from the night before..and it did occur to us that it's a VERY cheap meal to start the day with.

We had the Egg McMuffin Meal..and it only cost us $7.10 for the two of us to have a egg mcmuffin, a hash brown and a large coffee. Not bad really. No wonder that's the meal of the day for the homeless.

Apart from that..it was a beautiful morning. We've been so lucky here in Seattle! Such glorious weather...about 68F today!

The tour company picked us up at 9am to go on the tour..and it took about 40 minutes to drive out to the Assembly Plant of Boeing. It's the worlds largest building...472 million cubic feet by volume! Huge hey?

First, before we looked at the Assembly Plant, we went into the Boeing Museum - The Aviation Center - to look at the history of Flight..fascinating! We also went on a X - J Flight Similator!!!! And did some barrel rolls!!!

The girl said everyone could hear me scream! Greg was on controls..and me second in command..so he loved doing the spins while i screamed! It was fun!

The movie at the Aviation Centre theater was interesting too.

Who would have thought Seattle was the place where these MASSIVE 707's were assembled! What i found interesting was that they actually buy a lot of the parts from all over the world, assembly them here, and dispatch them. NO wonder the shed is so HUGE!

Boeing employs 29,000 people!

When we looked over the Assembly Centre....we had to put all our personal items into a locker....so we couldn't take camera...phone....bag....anything in....

They told us a guy took a camera in a few months before...dropped it over the edge..and it cost $250,000 to fix the damage as it landed on a plane!!!! Geepers....

We personally think it was because they were trying to prevent spies..but thier story sounded good.

In the afternoon we went on the City Tour and saw all the places we wouldn't otherwise see...without a car. Places like the Shipping canal..which had a memorial to the fishermen. 600 lives have been lost there. IT reminded me of the crabbers off Alaska..i know the seas are rough off here..and a lot of fishermen do lose their lives...sad.

We also went to Ballard Locks and saw where the salmon run.

Was good going on the tours...we met some great people.

Had fish and chips at the pier....at a place called the Salmon Cooker. YUMMY!!!!!

Weird getting there though...had to walk down the street (after watching about 10 fire engines attend a fire next door to us..took heaps of pics...how macarbe are we!) and then into Market St Pier..and down a HEAP of steps....about 5 flights...before we got to the road below...alongside Elliot Bay.

Was sort of scary climbing all those steps to get home again...was dark, cold, quiet..and a lot of beggars around.....

Again...downtown US is unsavoury at night!

But, i guess that's like any place..Northbridge is the same!

We got home safely anyway!

xxx

MOOCHING AROUND SEATTLE

Day 224

Seattle, Washington State, USA

57F here...brrr....

But! Beautiful days..not raining at all! And we were told..it rained or was overcast 180 our of 365 days a year! So...we're lucky, at least for today!

Today we basically just walked around..after sleeping in until 11am! Chicago wore us out! (Having free internet didn't help...had a few late nights!) We popped into the Moore Theatre next door...so gorgeous. And met a few of the locals...talked about their town, which they were happy to brag about. And who wouldn't. There seems to be a lot of industry going on here...with all the businesses that i mentioned in the last blog. Especially Microsoft and Starbucks. Apparently there are 100 Starbucks alone, just in central Seattle. And we noticed it...they're on every street corner! And even the one that said " Best Coffee " is owned by Starbucks!!

IT's such a great coffee..I LOVE it!!!!!!!!! Geepers, i know i will miss it when we leave that's for sure. Talk about addicted to good coffee.

Had Starbucks sandwich and coffee for BRUNNER.......breakfast, lunch, dinner combined!! haha

Then...went to the movies. Saw The Kingdom at the Regal Theatre (reminded us of the Regal at home!) What a great theatre. We got some dvd's from there. Have the latest 12 movies on there..and a few games. It was for all the customers that went so we got 5 of them! Four for the kids of course! If they want them!

Also went to our first point of call..the Tourist Centre. Which here in Seattle they call the Concierge. Was hard to find..but we finally found it..and booked 3 tours. A city and a Boeing Tour for tomorrow..and a tour to Mt Rainier on Sunday. Monday we leave..so that should show us Seattle.

We're near the pier so we can go to the Market St Pier ourselves...apparently there is good fish and chips and salmon there!!

The lady there at the Concierge told us the free busses in the city was an idea Seattle Town Planners got from Perth. Cool hey. Our clipper idea has taken off over the world!!!

Oh yeah..we were reading the Seattle Times today....there is a Dodge in there for US $20,000! A corvette for US $ 19,000 and the latest Mustang for US $16,000!!!

Talk about cheap cars for sale here!! Between the cheap cars..and cheap fuel...Americans can only be happy customers!

OH and...there are NINETY NINE channels of TV on the air...............

Amazing hey...

Tonight..we're watching Forest Gump! Already planned....love that movie.....

"Stupid is, as stupid does" hehe

SLEEPING IN SEATTLE

Day 223

Seattle, USA *TWO HOURS BEHIND CHICAGO - 15 HOURS BEHIND PERTH*

We arrived in Seattle today! And we're excited! Sleepless in Seattle and all that....

It's the second time i've been here. The first time was for the World Fishing Expo in 1995..and i don't remember a thing about it, except fishing..and being with 24 other Aussies!!!!

Seattle is near Vancouver....pretty close to Canada...so we're expecting to see the autumn leaves and scenery.....

Of course, this is also the home of Starbucks, Microsoft (Bill Gates and Paul Allen are both from here) and Amazon Books and Nordstrom.

It's also the home of BOEING. As we found out in the taxi on the way here......we saw another airport near the big Chicago one..and asked the taxi driver what that was. He said it was BOEING. Which incensed us. We wanted to find out more. And apparently there are tours around Boeing which we will go on!

Getting here from Chicago was an ordeal.

As travel from Chicago seemed to be! (And around New York as well!)

Thank goodness our shuttle only took us half an hour to get to O'Hare Airport (we changed our flight so we got a closer airport and it was only an extra $13!)...talk about SICK of travelling so far to get anywhere! Chicago and New York took it's toll on us...so in Seattle we decided to get a hotel downtown.

We arrived in Seattle via Denver (left at 10.35am, arrived Phoenix 12.24) then left Phoenix to go to Seattle (at 1.18pm and arrived 4.14pm) Exhausting! We decided we'd catch a taxi to the hotel in Seattle instead of arranging buses and shuttles (can get very sick of those!)...

And....our hotel in Seattle is GORGEOUS!

It's a hundred years old (on 28th Dec 2007) and is right next door to the Moore Theatre. It's just gorgeous...so much history..and so nostalgic. It FEELS arty and theatrical. The rooms are old, admittedly, and there is no bathroom, or coffee, or fridge..or any frills at all..but it does have view! We can see Elliot Bay from the window. We're right downtown..just near the pier..and all the excitement. It's SO cool. And it's dirt cheap (because there are no extras!)

The bathroom is down the hall..but so what. Who wants new..when you can get history!

For the first day..all we did was settle in..and sleep.

So...we were Sleeping in Seattle!

Oh - except we DID venture out to have Starbucks. Of course. This IS the home of Starbucks!!!