A Big Adventure

(this happened on) Tuesday 28th July, 2009  In Las Vegas

Gold Coast, Off The Strip Is Not A Bad Thing

Moving On Day

Everyone was up, dressed and packed, it was time to leave hooters, luckily the woman took our card to pay for the room bills and I hailed two cabs, the girls got in one and us three boys in the other.

We drove convoy style to the Gold Coast. It is Much, much, much nicer altogether, quieter and less crowded.

The girl at the front desk was totally organised and had our rooms ready, as our cards did not work we had to give her $100 for each room in cash as a deposit. (We paid for the rooms on line).

We went up to our rooms, nice and modern well put together and clean, the kids have two queen sized beds in their room so they can sort out there own sleeping arrangements.  We have a nice king sized bed.

Once settled Sofia and I walkabout around the casino floor, there is a TGI Fridays, two Chinese restaurants, a brasserie, an Ice Cream parlour, a coffee shop and a gift shop, we also found the 70 lane bowling alley and the small bit nice warm pool with a hot, hottub and a gym.

We called the children down to have a late breakfast at TGI Fridays.

Sofia and Sasha had porridge, Stefan had cereal and Basty and I had a cooked breakfast.

We also decided that we would all go ten pin bowling this afternoon.

After a while resting in the room I left Sofia napping and went for a walk to the casino next door, the Rio, it’s a Vegas thing that next door is actually a 15 minute walk away (Especially before you learn where the short cuts are) and the temperature was way north of 110F on the way. The Rio is the new home of the WSOP (World Series of Poker).Back in the Gold Coast and it was time to go bowling.

The Rio seen from the Gold Coast Car Park

When we turned up at the bowling lanes the place was empty but by the time we finished it was full, it looked like all 70 lanes were in action, amazing.

I won the first game and then I won the second game with a score above 160 so I was very pleased with myself, Sasha was second, the boys need some practice.

For supper as the boys were fairly hungry we all went to the house buffet

the Port’s of Call buffet, which at $12 per person is amazing value  especially as you have so many options and the food is pretty good which led to some serious over eating.

The salads on the salad bar were all so good and the puddings were amazing.  Some stuff may also have been smuggled out of the place to eat later! Very good value all around.

Sofia and I sat in the Casino after sending Basty back to his room and got a couple of cold beers and played Kaluki together, not what we expected to do in Vegas but hey it’s free.

The children were all tired, Alan and I went to our room and watched an episode of Wire in the Blood and then went downstairs for a walk and a swim before the pool closed, Basty joined us, we hoped it would help the dinner go down, compared to most pools on the strip it’s a fairly low key affair but guess what, it’s also clean and not over crowded, so it’s probably better than 90% of the strip ones which tend to be heaving with people and some even charge you entrance.

Sofia and I sat in the Casino after sending Basty back to his room and got a couple of cold beers and played Kaluki together, not what we expected to do in Vegas but hey it’s free.

The Palms seen from the Car Park of the Gold Coast

world travel, gap year, holiday, las vegas, hooters, gold coast, gold coast hotel and casino, the rio hotel and casino, WSOP, world series of poker,  TGI Fridays,