First of all a huge apology is required for the extremely late entry of this blog post. The delay has been due to the fact that we have both come home to incredibly busy times; John moving into his University accommodation the day after returning from the trip being an example.
Our final day in California began with one final glorious breakfast served at Café Alicia; this time the obligatory bagels and cereal were joined by succulent strawberries (mmmmm….). Once all had been consumed, we made the necessary pre-event preparations for the 1st ever ‘Tri-State Tour Tri-Bag Packing’ contest, taking place at Alicia’s house in Orinda on that very morning. Representing Great Britain were expert pack artists John ‘Compress Head’ Coxhead and Joe ‘Squash Slave’ McCrave. Unfortunately, no other countries were represented as none of their athletes achieved the qualifying score set by the CBPA (Competitive Bag Packing Association) at the recent AGM held in the Himalayas.
The contest got off to a slow start with both ‘Compress Head’ and ‘Squash Slave’ making very careful decisions before placing an item. As the pace picked up, Compress Head started to open up a bit of a gap following a nice display of one-push packing. However, you can never rule out the Squash Slave, and with seconds remaining he threw in some speedy side-arm squashes to draw back level. The contest finished a tie, with both athletes agreeing to share the gold medal.
With the bags bulging, we said farewell to Chloe (Alicia’s dog) before getting into the car for the drive to the airport. On the journey, we took two slight detours. The first was up to a high viewing spot on a hill in Berkeley, which provided magnificent views of the bay despite the fog. The second was down at the waters edge on the bay for a spot of lunch in the form of a picnic with Alicia.
Upon arrival at the airport, we said goodbye to Alicia and thanked her for being such a fabulous host to us during the spells of time we have spent with her. Whilst in the airport, it occurred to us that the US Open final between Andy Murray and Roger Federer was to start very soon. We located a café/bar with 2 large screens, neither of which were showing the game! Outraged, we made an enquiry at the bar and it turned out that the staff members were not even aware that the game was taking place (?!!). However, they passed over the remote and allowed us to change the channel. Something they should have thanked us for greatly, as within just a few minutes of us doing so, at least 10 more people had given the bar their custom purely to watch the match. Sadly, it wasn’t Murray’s day… he was clearly fatigued from two hard days of tennis against Nadal, whereas Federer had had the chance to rest. Federer took the title but it’s still been an incredible tournament for Murray who has now truly become one of the top few players in the world at only 21 years old.
The flight to Las Vegas with Virgin America was an experience in itself. It’s definitely the ‘fun’ airline, with coloured lighting all over the aircraft, jolly cabin crew members who have nicknames such as ‘Special K’ and ‘The Silver Fox’ and an interactive screen for each passenger with all sorts of entertainment options. One of these options that deserves a mention is the in-flight chat function. The J’s decided to begin a conference chat which included several random passengers from around the plane: two of whom who discovered that they were travelling to the same impromptu wedding that they had been invited to that very morning… one being the groom’s sister and the other being the bride’s best friend (Congratulations to the happy couple Jeremy & Rachel if you’re reading!).
We landed in Nevada (the secret fourth state of the Tri-State tour) full of excitement for the next few days in Vegas. We were staying on the world famous Vegas Strip in the Riviera Hotel & Casino (every hotel on the strip is also a Casino), and were taken there from the airport in a shuttle bus. The driver of which was a complete legend… he didn’t stop talking over the loudspeaker once… giving us all sorts of information from prices and times of every public transport facility available, to details of future development plans along the strip. Our initial impression of Vegas can be summed up by one word… wow! The hotel was huge and provided us with a very nice room… just like in Ventura, we were each supplied with a Queen sized bed. The only complaint is that the swipe card system to get into the room was nothing but an apology for an entry system. The first cards we were given didn’t even work at all, and the replacement set wasn’t much better. On average the door usually opened between swipes 15 and 20, when it was clearly supposed to open the first time round. That aside, the hotel was very swish, just walking through the casino was an experience… never before had one seen so many slot machines, bright lights and gambling tables in one room.
For our evening meal, an important event on any Tri-State tour day, we headed over to Circus Circus (the Hotel/Casino/Theme Park directly opposite the Riviera) in order to try out one of the infamous Vegas buffets. The idea is that you basically pay a set fee of about $15 and then have as much as you can possibly eat/drink from all areas of the buffet. We had been warned that you always come out of these things uncomfortably full and we soon discovered why. Let’s just say we each had a full plate from the starters area, before we’d even thought about the monstrous main course area or deserts bar. As gold medal winners in the earlier Tri-Bag Packing contest, we applied a few bag packing concepts into cramming as much food as possible into our stomachs (although you’ll be pleased to hear that no speedy side-arm squashes were used this time!). The first tactic was to pace ourselves (we ate over a period of 2.5 hours in total) and think carefully about what to choose… it’s all about self-control. For the first time this trip we’re not going to list everything that was consumed as it would probably be quicker to list what we didn’t eat, but we can safely say that we didn’t need any supper that night.
After a quick night time stroll at the northern end of the strip (which looks fantastic in the dark with all the bright lights and flashing signs), we made our way back to the hotel for some well-earned sleep.
Over & Out,
Special J and the Silver J
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