On the Road Again...San Fran for the second time

'Oh, I've just passed the exit for the rest area. You need to pee, right?! Well, you should have said something.' 

This view is slowly becoming familiar. Well, sometimes I am the person behind the wheel. Honestly, even though it might look the same at the first glance, the nature around us changes.

As we are slowly leaving the Mojave Desert, long stretches of sand slowly transform into fields of shrubs and lines is Joshua trees. Still, the drives are long and tedious. The long grey line of freeway which stretches in front of us seems to have no end.

We're traveling up to San Francisco again. I had forgotten to book tickets for Alcatraz in advance and when we looked before out S.F. trip it was too late...this is the second attempt:) Well, I actually do have the tickets now:) First we thought we would drive from Indio, but then we went to Vegas...plans change. I booked us a room a couple of miles from San Fran, so we can get decent sleep for a reasonable price and after we're done at Alcatraz, we'll drive south to Bakersfield, hopefully to catch some zzzzs. And that's the end. We're going home on Friday... Damn.

Viva Las Vegas

Driving to Las Vegas from Indio is a wonderful journey through the Mojave Desert. We made it in a late afternoon/early evening so we got to see all those bright stars which leave you totally speechless and feeling humbled...lost in the vastness of universe. Night skies is one of the things I love the most about this place. 

We arrived to our hotel-the famous Luxor around 11pm and found the place busy and swarming with people. I wasn't feeling well the whole day and the drive was quite tiring so we took a noce long hot bath and called it a day.

One of the cool things about Las Vegas are the tinted windows and thick curtains. You can shut yourself completely out of the day and convince your body it's a middle of the night. I woke up at 10pm to almost completely blackness and had to shake Michal awake. We got plenty of rest and headed out to buy tickets for Zumanity. 

The heat is hard to describe. You gay used to the temperature, but the air in Vegas is so hot it makes your eyes water and burn. However, you get used to it quickly. 

The Strip is a mix of everything that is great about US. You've got here a giant Coke bottle right next to an enormous M&M and guitar of Hard Rock Cafe. New York New York hotel and casino takes you to the Big Apple and Paris or Venitian to those European hotspots. Vegas is a one gigantic kitch with lots of glitz and flare. It's American in its opulent best. 

Walking down the streets here, you are wrapped not only in the desert heat, but also in the attitude that really spells out 'whatever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas'. The carefree attitude is palpable in everything. Anything goes. This is the place with cup holders in bathroom cubicles and shows like 'The Menopause: The Musical'...nothing is too shocking or too taboo.