Overdue Road Tripping! Part 1

Knowing me as you do, you're probably not too surprised that before we even went on our mid-November New Mexico excursion, I'd already planned another big RV trip for us, to occur in mid-February.  We had a great route planned - we'd drive to just west of the Las Vegas strip to camp near Red Rock Canyon, stay for a few days, and then drive through Death Valley National Park on the way to Paso Robles, California for some wine tasting.  After a few days in Paso, we'd head south to Malibu, as there's an amazing RV park there, perched right above the Pacific Coast Highway/US 1 (overlooking the Pacific Ocean) where we've always wanted to say.  After one quick night in Palm Springs, we'd head home again to reunite with our monkeys.  

Well, as I mentioned in last week's blog, Arlene the RV is currently out of commission due to a bent axle (boo!); however, we decided to still go on our road trip anyway (hooray!).  After the January we endured, we were more than ready to take time off work, get out of town for a short while, and wander through this area of the southwest/west, seeing what shenanigans we could get up to.

Viva Las Vegas!

Since the original itinerary I'd planned out still sounded like fun, we followed it pretty closely, mostly making modifications for lodging and extent/time of stay in each location.  We started our adventure with a two-night stay in Las Vegas; instead of camping out by Red Rock, we voted to stay near the strip.  While we've stayed in the big, casino-adjacent hotels in the past (before the pandemic), it's gradually become less enjoyable for us; they're so huge that there are TONS of people wandering through them, you always have to walk through a confusing maze of gaming tables and slot machines to make it anywhere (we don't gamble, so there's no upside to that for us), and at least before smoking bans were common, your room would often smell like an ashtray even if you were in a non-smoking section of the hotel.  In searching for other options, I found a good deal for a room at the Signature at MGM Grand on Booking.com; the Signature is one of MGM's time-share/condo options, and it would allow us to bring food to make breakfast and lunch there, as well as give us the space to spread out for a few days (given that we'd now be staying in much more expensive lodging than campsites, we planned to hold costs down a bit by making most of our breakfasts and lunches, going out just for dinners).  

Because, as the saying goes, man makes plans and God laughs, I received an email from a Booking.com Customer Service Rep around 5am the morning we were leaving, saying that the room we'd already paid for was no longer available, due to plumbing issues; the Rep further reported she'd found us another hotel, 6 miles from the strip at a 2 star option, and while I sincerely appreciated her help (she was overseas, so she was likely working with the best info she had), I declined the offer, asking for a refund instead (as you might imagine, we're still waiting on that.  Hooray.).  Instead, I hopped onto the MGM's direct website and found a nicer room, still within the Signature, for a lower price than I'd originally paid.  Yes, please!  Around 7:30am when Chris awoke, I explained to my sleepy husband, that yes, I had been up for several hours now, but in this case, my trip induced excitement/anxiety/insomnia was actually a GOOD thing, as we had lodging in a nice place versus a fleabag motel in Boulder City, where there might not be free breakfast, but there would surely be as many bedbugs as could fit on our bodies (and he's tall, so that's a lot).

With that settled, we packed up the truck, checked the kids into doggie daycare when they opened at 9am, and by 10, we were on the road heading northwest!  The trip up was uneventful, which is always good; we stopped at the rest area just south of Wickenburg to eat lunch, then again outside of Kingman on the 40 West to fill up on cheap AZ gas and switch driving duties.  I took us over Hoover Dam on the handy flyover (seriously, this has cut Vegas travel times by 30 minutes on a good day and multiple hours on busy ones) and into Henderson, where we stopped at Starbucks for a mid-afternoon caffeine break and for Chris to take over driving once more.  We checked into our room at the Signature without a problem - we even got upgraded to the 25th floor! - and before too long, we were relaxing on the couch in our living room and eating some snacks.

The view from our balcony...of the airport.

It wasn't the most scenic, but we enjoyed the breeze.

Our main entertainment for the evening would be a visit to Lost Spirits Distillery, an LA-based spirits company that recently opened a much larger facility and "experience" in Vegas.  We visited the original location in DTLA when we lived in Long Beach, and it was so much fun; when we found out there was one in Vegas as well, we couldn't miss it!  We got ourselves gussied up into our evening clothes and headed out on the town!

Elevator lobby selfie

The Lost Spirits in Vegas is part of the entertainment complex known as Area 15; it's a giant set of warehouses just on the west side of the 15 freeway offering all sorts of experiences - eating, drinking, games (they had an Army of the Dead-themed escape room.  Hard pass, friends), and the like.  They also have tons of cool art installations, and we grabbed shots of a few as we made our way inside.

Before I could even say anything,

Chris went, "yup, I see the owl.  I got you."

He knows me.

That's the entrance to the main building

behind the dragon

We made our way inside to the ticketing counter and were redirected to the actual Lost Spirits building, which was across the parking lot (this place has a lot of stuff, guys).  Once we made it there, we were officially checked in and given a playing card to designate our tour group.

Posing with my ticket - 

each one got you tastings in five different

locations inside Lost Spirits.

In case you're wondering,

mask usage was about half and half

throughout most of Vegas.

This was before the CDC had officially

changed their guidance on wearing masks,

so we used them, even though we're both triple vacc'd.

We had a short wait (10 minutes or so) before our tour group was called inside, into a moodily lit waiting area where our guide described the way things worked.  Instead of being taken on a guided, stop by stop tour, like at the original location, we'd spend a short time with this gentleman.  Once he'd done his spiel (telling us how the spirits were made, etc), he'd turn us loose and we could find the other tasting rooms on our own, spending as much or as little time inside the facility as we'd like.  We followed him into the main part of the experience, took a few turns...and within about 60 seconds, 3/4 of our tour group was totally lost.  Yes, really.  If it had just been me, I would have completely understood, but when your whole job is keeping an eye on tourists, and you lose most of your group almost immediately, it makes one wonder.  I don't know if our guide was powerwalking like a maniac or what, but we could discover neither hide nor hair of him.  Using kindergarten logic, all 20 of us stuck together, following each other in a single-file line around the facility, until another guide took pity on us and brought us to where our leader was waiting.

Having heard the "here's how we make it" speech before, we didn't learn too much new info, but it is still pretty cool the way Lost Spirits creates their wares, taking only one week to age their rums and whiskies.  Upon being cut loose by our guide, we made our way back into the madness, attempting to navigate this maze on our own.

The building is a warren of rooms and hallways, 

only some of which actually lead anywhere.

While coming around a turn,

I encountered an employee who could clearly sense

that I had no idea where I was.

He went, "it is called LOST Spirits after all!"

There are tons of little seating alcoves throughout

the building, so most folks get their next tasting

and then hustle out to the main throughfare

to sit and sip.

We found this comfy spot outside the door

to the Submarine Tours

and sat for awhile.

This looks like a lot of people,

but everyone ends up pretty spread out.

When we first entered the building,

I wasn't too psyched, not loving large crowds

(that's always been my deal,

but it's become particularly notable in the past few years),

but I didn't have any problems.

Looking through some seating areas toward

one of the pouring bars.

Lost Spirits was a great time - we ended up bringing home three bottles of spirits (one of those for a friend), including a delicious cherry cordial, something we normally don't drink (it was that good!).  We grabbed an Uber back to the Signature, dropped off our purchases, and then headed out onto the strip to walk to our dinner destination, China Poblano, inside the Cosmopolitan.  Every time we go to Vegas, we end up on the strip at some point in time, wandering along inside the crush of every possible facet of humanity, wondering why on Earth we do this; that was this part of the trip.  Finally making it into the Cosmo, we hunted for the restaurant, and once we discovered it, we collapsed into our seats in relief.  I didn't take any pictures of my own (too busy shoveling food into my face hole), but here's a few from the internets:

Inside the restaurant - 

we sat at one of the small tables way in the back,

under the wall of masks.

China Poblano is a creation of Chef Jose Andres,

who we think is absolutely outstanding,

both as a chef and as a human

(check out his amazing humanitarian work

with World Central Kitchen,

and give them some money while you're at it).

The concept is Asian/Mexican,

sometimes a fusion of the two ideas,

but sometimes just a good version of either one.

(Chris called it a fancy Chino Bandido,

a local Phoenix spot).

(It was way better than Chino.)

We loved everything -

we had ahi empanadas,

chicken siu mai dim sim,

dan dan mian noodles (pictured above),

and some tacos.

Here's the menu from when we went.

After eating everything that wasn't nailed down and enjoying every bit of it, we took the lesser populated, non-strip walk back to the Signature (much more peaceful and about the same distance).  So very full of good eats and drinks, it was off to bed for us, for we had plans the next day!

On the next blog, we take a hike!

Later!

Amy