Every year we plan a trip for our anniversary and Vegas is somewhere on the list of cheap places to visit. This year was a year of firsts, we traveled via Allegient Air lines, drove a Jetta, stayed at the Palms, saw a canyon, saw a dam, watched the sunset over Vegas from a private plane, ate at a fully gluten free restaurant, made some custom apparel, and made some fruit explode…………..
Needless to say our trip was full of adventure looking for new experiences. Vegas still has a lot to offer outside of The Strip, shows at casinos, and casinos/resorts. If you have been to one of the casino resorts, you have been to most of them. They all are set up with carpeted gaming areas which also allows for smoking to take place. We stayed in an Air BnB in the Palms place which was a little tricky getting to the first time around. We didn’t make it to our hotel until about midnight due to the late Allegient flight.
If you don’t know, they are budget airline akin to Spirit. They are not as bad as the latter but, They don’t offer many creature comfort like other airlines. The simplest one was a charging port to charge a phone during flight. The seats are just shy of a plastic shell with a strip of leather for a seat bottom. The flights were cheap and you get what you pay for. We did get lucky in the end because we were seated by another fun group of people on both flights. It almost made up for the seats. The flight crew was awesome on both flights as well.
Harry Reid Airport was a mess trying to ride the shuttle to the car rental station. It was quite a few flights getting in at 11:00 pm with most of the people traveling there needing transit to their rentals. The line for the free shuttle was over one hundred and fifty people deep. We found out later that there was only two shuttles running at that time of night and road construction going on. After waiting about fifteen minutes we ordered an Uber and headed up to the ride-share area. We had a cool local resident shuttle us in a Telsa. He gave us a lot of insight into the state of the local area. Car break-ins have been happening more frequently to people with California plates. Outside of that he gave us some pointers on cool places to go.
Getting back to the Palms Place hotel, is the bigger of the three Palms towers at the resort. How it is arranged on the structure, the entrance is tucked in a corner of the property. The casino entrance is more prominent and is easier to find. We skip paying for valet as the parking garage was empty for most of our stay at Palms Place. The lobby area of the hotel is dimly lit and built out in marble. Check in was seamless and the two Black women (I didn’t remember their names, it was late when we checked in) need a raise! Working late night at a hotel is a different beast. We enjoyed talking with them as we checked in and cracked jokes about leaving the kids at home. I mean kids do need breaks from their parents just as much as we need a break.
The room was a bit dated……..while trying to have a modern look. It felt like the 70’s trying to be cool again. It contained a decommissioned electronic mini bar that was a second refrigerator, a refrigerator with a small freezer box. 3 coffee makers, a few pots and pans, two low back bar stools, one low chair, a sectional, and a low to the floor bed. The bathroom had a toilet on one side, sink with small counter space to house your toiletries. A jetted tub (we didn’t use) and a shower with an overhead shower head and regular height shower head. The living room / bedroom had two Panasonic television not more than 8 feet apart. These two televisions appeared to be from the late 2000s early 2010s. At the time of original installation these may have been some of the better televisions, but in this day and age 4k televisions being the norm these televisions showed their age. The television in the bathroom did not work. The bed was not as bad as beds in The Lexi the last ime we stayed in Las Vegas. The room served the purpose of housing our stuff and a place to sleep.
One thing that has not change for Vegas is going to a resort and there is one late night / early morning place open to get food. Most of the food places were closed by the time we arrived at the Palms Hotel. We ended up ordering food from Serrano Vista Cafe. This place was a life saver as we did not want to have to venture out into the early morning hours to find food. They have an all day menu and quick bites that are ready most of the time. We opted for sandwiches and fries. They do have a few gluten free options and made care to inform us that the fries do contain gluten. If you are looking for a late night food option and you are staying in the Palms, this a perfect place. You do pay a little more for resort food by a few dollars. Anything close to the Vegas strip is a little higher. We stopped in a Terrible’s to use the bathrooms and buy something small for using the bathrooms. We needed gum and it is usually cheap. Not paying nine dollars a pack………that bag of sour cherry balls will do for three dollars.
Day one was all about finding new stuff to do outside of the Vegas Strip. We decided to search for gluten free options. We found a place called Starburst Parlor ,which is a keto, gluten, and sugar free bakery. They have more than baked goods, they also have coffee, sandwiches, and other drinks. I ordered the Blueberry “French Toast” Sandwich with the hot honey syrup. Vanna order ed the breakfast sandwich with Italian bagel. We picked up 2 coffees, a cookie, and a chocolate peanut butter brownie for our anniversary cake. This bakery specializes in making things gluten and sugar free goods. They do use dairy products, so if you are vegan this may not fully be the place for you. The place had a 50’s-60’s feel to it with the console tv, classic car out front, booth and wall decoration, and the owners even looking the part. On the wall leading to the baking area they had a few pictures of their family history. Even the receipt from the purchase of a wedding ring. The food was great! Everything was fresh and even fluffy. Hard feat to due when making things gluten free, most things just crumble when flexed. If you are in Vegas and are looking for something different give this place a look!
After eating we decided to see what we could find in Las Vegas and the surrounding areas. Last time in Vegas we traveled East to see the “Simpsons House” in Henderson, so we decided to head West to find new places. Red Rock Canyon was our destination, we quite didn’t know how to get there yet. We were dead set on not using “Skynet” aka Google to suggest things to do. We saw the mountain range to the west. You cannot help but see it anytime you look to the west of Las Vegas. It is towering over the city of Sullivan. Apparently this is the area of that contains lots of gated neighborhoods, we drove around trying to find a direct route to Red Rock Canyon. As we traveled towards the mountain range we stopped to take a few photo of the mountains in the distance with the city as the foreground. It is a beautiful image in the morning sun with little haze and you can really see the striations in the sandstone.
During the middle of the day it is a lot of haze and heat waves that make the range look fuzzy. We trek on westward in hopes of getting close to the mountain. Nope! A road that you looks like it will run up to the base of the canyon is gated off and only open to the residents of that neighborhood. As you get closer you start to see more gates with active security details, some armed and unarmed. We got caught on one of those roads that leads to an armed gate and made a quick turn around after the gate. We found out a lot of this has to due with the recent uptick in property crimes and theft. So now most places have cameras watching while the more affluent places have people and cameras watching their stuff. Even though we did not see the canyon this day we still saw plenty of sights along the way.
In continuing to try new things not in our area, we stopped by a Wienerschnitzel to get some lunch. We passed by one earlier in the day headed to get breakfast and giggled like little kids at the name. When we pulled up the place was decked out in the standard fast food colors; red, yellow, and an accessory color. They had a 2 corn dog combo with a drink and fries. You can’t mess up on a corn dog right? That they did not. It is a beef hotdog coated in a cornbread batter that came out nice and crispy with a light to golden inside. The hotdog was HOT! The fries were better than expected as the picture of the advertised fries did not provide much hope or excitement. They had enough salt and were not soggy. They were also not burnt to a crisp in old oil. For a large drink, fries, and two corn dogs it came to about $14 which beat paying for resort food.
We did get to do a fun fly over Las Vegas as the sun was setting. We ended up going to a private airport on the north end of Las Vegas. It wasn’t too difficult to get to and it felt like we spent more time waiting at stop lights than we did driving. When we arrived at the meeting point he had a limo come pick us up to take us to our private plane for the evening. The driver felt bad because the limo did not cool off and would not cool off by the time we get to the airport. No big deal, we were really here for the flight. The limo was an extra touch. We get to the tarmac and meet our awesome pilot Kuilani. She was in charge of making sure we had a smooth ride in the air. The plane was an older model but was comfortable for the two of us to watch Vegas pass under us. If you ever get a chance to fly over Vegas it is definitely worth it.
After our fun filed flight, we decided we were going to make it out to Red Rock Canyon to see it up close along with going to Hoover Dam. We got up early to avoid much of the haze that sets in by 1:00 pm, plus Vegas was going though a heat wave with temps in the hundreds. Red Rock Canyon shines when the light comes from the east to cast a softer light on the canyon. The park charges a small fee for cars, busses, bikes, walkers, and motorcycles. $10 covers a car of 4 people to travel about 10 miles though the canyon on paved roads with spots to pull off and take pictures. They advise you bring water and to make sure your AC is working as there is no water or shade in that area that is readily accessible. We got to see a group of guys taking pictures of their cars in the canyon along with guys on sport bikes ripping through. After the drive out of the park was just as nice as the drive in. It was time to refuel with some coffee.
When you are in a “nicer” area you at least have to see what coffee is offered. We ended up going to Better Buzz Coffee Roasters on West Sahara Ave. It feels like a jazzed up Starbucks. Feels less yuppy and more hipster. No “Vente” or “Grandes” here, instead you can order a Cookies and Cream Cold Brew drink loaded with enough caffeine to keep you going throughout the day. They also offer yogurt bowls with fruit, matcha drinks, teas, cookies and other various baked goods. The one on West Sahara Ave just recently opened and was packed. The drive through did move at a nice pace. There was no information on the type of beans used to make their drinks, so you got what ya got.
When you get to Las Vegas you always have to do one big attraction, that could be gambling, shows, expensive dinner, Bobby Brown concert, UFC…….We went to see the “Wizard of Oz” at the Sphere with one goal in mind…….well technically two. 1. Have fun at the Sphere and eat some gluten free pizza. 2. Catch an apple. If you have never been to the Sphere and have a hard time walking stadium seating, you might want to bring a friend to help you walk. Your mind will play tricks on you. We strike out on the first goal of finding gluten free pizzas as everything is pretty much made as listed with no alterations. We ended up getting burger and fries from one of the other burger places. We did score collector’s cups by ordering Starry, It was a win as we brought them back for the Gremlins. We make our way to our seats or what we thought was our seats. To the couple sitting in their correct seats, we are sorry! We make our way down to our correct seats and settle in for the showing. The presentation of the movie was shortened to make it not drag on. If you have seen the movie you know there are some scenes that carry on that are not needed. You also can tell were some of the cuts are. Up-scaling on old films that had character, grain, and distinct shadow textures has caused some weird looking images at times. You can see an actor move throughout a scene and go from textured to smooth like and
AI generated image. Is it off putting? No as the movie was made years ago and has been remastered many times prior. Is it jarring the first time you see it? Absolutely! There are added scenes to the movie just for the Sphere which is pretty cool along with the drones flying though the place. Speaking of flying, well falling. Vanna did accomplish goal number 2. When Dorthy makes it to the orchar she takes an apple from the tree. The trees become upset and drops apples on her. Cue the apples falling from the air. Remember those apples being sold for hundreds of dollars? Well Vanna got one and for all intents and purposes, they are not worth $10. Not saying they do not contain value, They are just not worth the frenzy of buying them at high prices. They run the show many times and drop apples at each showing. Is it cool to catch one? You bet it is. We could have had two apples but I gave the one to a 78 year old woman who only came to Las Vegas to see “The Wizard of Oz.”
One of the coolest things we were able to do was design our custom shoes in Las Vegas. We did this at Major Wavez located in Resort World. Check out our time at Major Wavez as we made the Turtlemelon’s 1 with the help of Omar.
The evening did not end there! We had a great dinner from SNS Diner. We ordered the half chicken plate and man did it hit the spot. Plus their cornbread was the perfect blend of buttery goodness. The chicken had a nice dry rub that was mix of smokey and sweet. We
Before we went home we had to stop by Union Biscuit for a hearty breakfast. To walk it off before we returned our rental car, we decided to get lost in an IKEA. IKEAs are packed to the brim full of stuff. Almost too much. Two floors of too much. I see how people get lost in there. They should give you a map and a compass. Maybe a scavenger hunt. Hell they had a childcare center in there so you could not worry so much about your little one getting lost.
To see some of the fun stuff we did while in Las Vegas, check out our video review
