Pre-Las Vegas trip report - Part I of III (January 17-January 21)

TRIP REPORT USA January 17-February 2, 2003

Part I – pre Las Vegas.

Costs:
Airfare: Oslo-Copenhagen-Seattle $450 per person.
Rental car: Buick LeSabre, 16 days, all inclusive, total of $773
Gas to rental car: $183 for a total of 3751 miles
16 nights at hotels (total of 2 nights comped): $1073 (incl tax, and some food/roomservices)

The 2 of us, my friend and I flew from Oslo via Copenhagen with SAS to Seattle on Friday afternoon on January 17 this year.
Luckily I was able to sleep on the flight from Copenhagen to Seattle, so I was quite rested, and the customsprogress and pickup of car went very smooth. We were on the road before 6pm local time that Friday.
It didn’t take long though, before we got tired, stopped by a Wendys and grabbed some food and went quite early to bed. We stayed at Park Motel in, uhn, actually I forgot the name of the place, but it was 2-3 hours south of Tacoma airport, I think. The rate was $47,20 incl tax, it was value from money.

Day 2, Saturday, our main goal was to reach San Francisco as soon as possible, we started at 3am or something, obviosly because we went to sleep very early the night before.
A delicious breakfast at a local Dennys put fuel in our stommaches, and we we’re on our way.
Arrived San Francisco quite early, and had dinner at Mels Drive In on Lombard Street, stayed for one night at the Days Inn at Lombard street, $96,75 incl tax. A nice, huge room that well could fit 4 adults.
I really liked that locataion (on Lombard street), last time in San Francisco I stayed near Market street, and I didn’t like it much there, the neighborhoud was quite rough.

And this time we wasn’t going to stay more than 1 night in San Francisco, our plan was to go back after Las Vegas, and spend 2-3 more days. We went to some bars on the Saturday evening, and had the WORST chicken noodle soup I have EVER had at the so called “best noodle bar in the world†(don’t remember the name) on Lombard Street.

Got on the road quite early on Sunday (after some sightseeing), and hit the I-5 towards Los Angeles. Listened to the American football divisional finals on the radio, also stopped for a couple of beers just outside Valencia, CA, to catch some live football, but the sportsbar we chose was way to loaded with “strange localsâ€, so we left soon.

We were going to Anaheim Mighty Ducks vs Minnesota Wild in the Pond on Monday at 1PM, so our goal was to find a decent hotel very near the arena.
After some wrong exits we managed to find the Best Western Inn at Anaheim Sportstown, and after delicious Italian food at “Marri’s pizza†nearby we bought some beers and watched some tv. All the driving has made us a bit tired, but it wasn’t as bad as it might seem.
The rate on the Best Western Hotel was $57,45 incl tax.
Woke up quite early on the Martin Luther King Jr day, and decided to go for a walk. Went to the Pond, passed the Pond, and went over to see if we could catch an early movie on the cinema nearby. The earliest movies wasn’t on until 11.15am, so we realized we didn’t have time, since the game started at 1pm.
The hockeygame itself was quite boring, both teams were very defensive, but I think it was a steal when Wilds grabbed a 2-1 overtime victory.
I have been to 7 or 8 hockeygames in NHL now, and I STILL haven’t seen a REAL fight, grmble….

After the game we hit the rush traffic in to Los Angeles, and headed to a hotel I had stayed on in Hollywood at an earlier occation – the Guesthouse Inn, located just 4 minutes walk from Mann’s Chinese Theatre. The rate was $51,28 all incl.
Went to Fatburger, best burgerjoint in the world and grabbed a burger, did some sightseeing, and found a “whole in the wallâ€-bar just around the corner for Mann’s.
Hadnt expected to find a place like that in Hollywood, but I am glad we did. The bartender was an attraction in himself, didn’t want to start a fight with that guy, he literally barked to his customers, but he was very friendly, and we enjoyed a few beers there.
My travelmate decided that he didn’t want to go to Universal studios (and I have been there twice), so this opened for an earleier arrival to Las Vegas.
On Tuesday morning we hit the Highway 1 northbound from L.A, almost up to Ventura, did some shopping at some outlets and headed towards the I-15.
Stopped for a burger at In-N-Out-burger, my first experience with those, and the double-double was really a nice burger, but the fries didn’t impress me at all.

Arrived Las Vegas early in the afternoon, 1 day before schedule, and decided to stay at the Las Vegas Club for the first night, to “check out the placeâ€, since we had booked 3 nights there later in our vacation.

To have the first night at Las Vegas Club was a good decision, I will come back to that in part II – 6 nights in Las Vegas.

To follow:

- Part II – 6 nights in Las Vegas – whats the matter with the service at Las Vegas Club?

- Part III – post Las Vegas, getting ticketed in the dessert, the journey northbound.