Gary and I went to Vegas for our annual vacation at the end of 2007. After two days of flight delays, we arrived in Vegas on December 27, 2007. For our first two nights, we stayed at a hotel that we had never stay before, Bally’s Las Vegas. This former MGM Grand hotel is adjacent to Paris, Las Vegas. Unfortunately, that is where the buck stops. The hotel is old, old and old. We were more than happy when we moved to the Rio Casino Hotel. Our suite at the Rio had the entire view of the strip which was beautiful when we watched the firework from our room. That is right. We decided not to dress up in our “Gay Mafia” ensembled and spend the evening eating crab legs and then hanging out in our suite instead. My friend, Leslie, had flew in from Tokyo to be with us for a week. POOR SOUL.
It’s So Creamy!
After watching the travel channel and hearing about it from Gary for a decade, I decided that we were going to visit Solvang, California. This tiny town 2 1/2 hours north of LA and 30 minutes east of Santa Barbara was founded by Danish settlers and is now considered one of the most beautiful city in America.
First we drove from Vegas to Los Angeles where we stayed at the Mariott Downtown for only $65 a night (tax included) via priceline.com
This hotel is near the famous Disney Symphoney Hall. After checking in, we walked to Little Tokyo for a mediocre but cheap dinner and then walked to the famous frozen yogurt shop, Pinkberry at the 332 E Second Street location. This frozen yogurt is not like the horrible sweet icecream impostors that American are subjected to. This was pure ecstacy. It was the best frozen treat I ever had. The flavor reminds me of the Viet/French ice yogurt, but the texture was creamy. It blew away every Asian icecream/desert place that dominates Houston, Texas.
There were many toppings to choose from, but the best is to eat the yogurt plain.
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The Danish’s Schweaty Hot Balls
On the second day in LA, we left our hotel to spend an afternoon at Solvang. The drive from LA to Santa Barbara was easy and uneventful, but from Santa Barbara to Solvang, the road was mountainous and full of curves. With a thousand cars tailgaiting you, the drive can be stressful.
Solvang was beautiful and full of tourists like us. After parking, we walked and visited the many tourist shops ranging from bakeries to t-shirt stores. Samantha Brown of the Travel Channel did a piece on this city and suggested that all tourists should visit the Solvang Restaurant at 1672 Copenhagen Drive. We walked in and was quickly seated in a booth. The food items on this menu resembled an overpriced Denny’s. However, I was here to eat the famous Danish pancake, aebleskiver. The three puffy, hot and rounded pancake was served with a sprinkling of powdered sugar and sat on top a bed of raspberry jam. I was dissapointed. The pancake had a texture similar to my beloved beignet from New Orleans, but it did not have much taste and to make matter worse, I am not a fan of raspberry jam. Gary had a combo plate of Danish meatballs and sausage served with cabbage. The meat dishes had no flavor at all and if you were blind folded, you would not have known what you were eating. Leslie had a boring Danish hotdog. Neither big or long, it left the mouth wanting something else.
Gary bought a giant box of pastry from one of the many bakeries and after tasting three items of Napoleon, haystack and a bavarian cream filled donut, I declared them overly sweet and unimaginative.
The drive back to our hotel was fine until I hit traffic 5 miles before downtown. It took me almost 50 minutes to drive from an area near Hollywood Blv to Downtown LA
Jimmy HACHA!
When you have three men who are independent thinkers, there will be cat fight! As much as we love and care for each others as friends, I was guilty of doing several “DIVA EXIT” . On our final day in LA, after several of my “DIVA EXITS”, Leslie did one of his own and left me and Gary to explore the Hollywood BLVD. We decided to get free tickets to see the Jimmy Kimmel Show and Les soon rejoined us to stand in line at 5:15 PM. It was raining and very cold and we were wet from head to toes. The show was quickly taped around 7 PM and the guests that night were Ice Cube, Carrie Ann Inaba and a singer from Australia. With the exception of Ice Cube, the rest was more on the D list. Everyone looks much younger and thinner in person than on TV. After the show, we rode the wonderful subway and walked four blocks back to our hotel in the freezing rain.
The Final Stage
I drove us back to Vegas and checked in at Harrahs on January 5 and Gary and I gambled for the next few days. Gary would take Les to the various Harrahs’ casino property high roller lounges and left him there so he can drink, eat and hang out all he wants.
We mostly spend our time eating. I must have eaten a hundred pounds of crab legs during my two weeks vacation. We did take a cab to a nearby Vietnamese restaurant, Pho No. 1, on 4745 Spring Mountain Road. This place serves great Vietnamese beef noodle soup. We also had some pho soup at the Pho restaurant right inside Treasure Island Casino. The selection was few, but the soup was good. However, keep in mind that this is Vegas, not Houston or LA.
I was glad to come home. I had an uncle who was very ill and I am glad that I was able to visit him several times before he passed away. Like me, he loved to travel. His most recent trips in the past few years included Vietnam, Europe, Africa and several trips to Vegas.
Thank you for reading my article.
Carl
