My Family Travels...: The Entertainment Capital of the World

Welcome! Mabuhay!

...travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living. ~ St. Augustine

Traveling to places near and far is both exciting and enlightening. Travel may be close by, within a region, or globally. Visiting a bordering city or island in where you live could give you a fresh new perspective in life. Though, we don’t really need to go so far out to enjoy ourselves and find beauty, because it is all around us… if you open your eyes, stop and smell the roses... you will get that sense of freedom. However if you are a world traveler, it opens up for a much wider point of view. How I wish someday, I will get to do that. Visiting another country and seeing how other people live and discovering their culture provides us with new understanding that we are all different and unique in our own ways, though we are all human… living and breathing on the same amazing planet, Earth…

Enjoy, travel and live life to the fullest!

Monday, November 9, 2009

The Entertainment Capital of the World

Las Vegas, Nevada... established in 1905... it’s amazing that 100 years later, it has become an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, fine dining, and entertainment. Probably known for being “The Entertainment Capital of the World”.

It is about 3 1/2-hour drive from where we used to live in Corona del Mar, California. Bill & I went there once in awhile for a weekend getaway. The first time, we stayed at Mandalay Bay when it was newly built. It really is a grand hotel (well, one of the many grand hotels in the strip). The top few floors of the hotel is actually the Four Seasons Hotel. A five-star hotel on top of a four-star hotel, interesting. The room we stayed at had the best view of the strip. Just awesome... we got to enjoy the view while sipping our morning coffee and the grand show case of lights at night time. It was August when we went there, so the heat was almost unbarrable during the day. Staying inside the hotel was more appealing than taking strolls outside in the 115-degree heat... yieks! We just sight-see while driving in our airconditioned car... seemed more fun at that time.

If ever we’ll go back there again, we’ll definitely make an effort of checking all the interesting hotels and also not go there during summer. We’ve heard that there are even more fancy hotels built since we visited Vegas several years back. It would be interesting to see it again.

Mandalay Bay

the beach...

outside Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino

me @ the casino slot machine... trying my luck :))

view from our room... (digital cameras were not popular back then) we could have had better photos :))

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Another time, my husband & I got intrigued by Lake Las Vegas, which is a 3,592-acre lake, located 20 miles east of the Strip. The movie “America’s Sweetheart” was shot there when it first opened. At the time, it was the only hotel in the area and some houses being built around it and golf courses... The Ritz-Carlton resort & golf course was still being built. Last time i checked, it’s all done and functioning now. I’m sure the place looks like an oasis in the desert.