Digital Nomad Summer - Part 16

Don't miss Part 15!

In the last blog, we arrived in Las Vegas at the Oasis RV Resort, and we took the girls to see the lights of the Strip!

Getting ready for our awesome dinner at Lost Spirits Distillery

After our drive up the Strip on Tuesday evening, we took it easy on Wednesday.  The girls were starting to get acclimated to the heat, so they were a bit more active; as a result, we took them for more strolls than in earlier in the week, but the weather helped us out - Wednesday and Thursday turned out cloudy and not as hot as Sunday through Tuesday, although it was on the humid side.  There was still plenty of this, though:

That's Zoe, sound asleep, wagging her tail while she dreams

We also had our normal after-work pool and hot tub soak; during our afternoon lounge sessions, we've had a great time watching the local grackles romp around, squawking at each other and scrounging for food and water from the RV park's residents.  We have them at home as well, and their personalities are always a source of entertainment.  During our first pool day, on Sunday, we overheard two visitors (who clearly did not live in the desert) watching the grackles cavorting and telling someone on the phone that there were roadrunners all over the place here.  Quick comparison time - here's a roadrunner:

"Meep, meep" and all that

And here's a grackle:

Yeah, not really close.  Hey, if it allowed them to check off one more item on their "I went to Las Vegas and Saw Cool Stuff" list, we figured there was no harm in letting them continue thinking that this park was absolutely infested with Wile E Coyote's nemeses.  

Anywhoo, here's a grackle in the trash can at the pool:

He just emerged from inside the can.

A bit later, a friend joined him, and he sat atop the can,

screaming at the other bird while it rummaged around inside.

Thursday rolled around, a day we'd been waiting for the entire trip.  If you're a regular (or even semi-regular) reader of this blog, you know that we love food.  We love fancy upscale food, we love offbeat regional delicacies, we love greasy/cheap/quick food, we pretty much love it all.  We love eating fun food at home, but we love it even more when we travel, as it allows us to explore another facet of a spot we're visiting and experience something different.  To this end, we knew we couldn't stay a week in Vegas without having one great meal somewhere in the city.  Being a major metro area, we easily found a doggie daycare/boarding facility to stash the monkeys for a night, which is a win for everyone; they get to see a new spot, romp around with a bunch of other dogs, and wear themselves out, while we get a night on the town without worrying that the AC in the camper has crapped out and bad things are happening without us there.

Right after they opened at 8am, we dropped the girls at A-V.I.P. Pet Resort, only a few miles away from the RV resort.  Everything went smoothly, and before long, we were back in the camper, continuing our work day.  

We did take the girls to the dog runs before we dropped them at daycare.

Here, Bea is enjoying chewing on the wooden décor inside the run.

At lunch, I ran out to get a pedicure from CJ Nails, in the plaza across from us; I normally do my own toenails, but I didn't want to pack all of the polish, removers, and tools that takes for our epic camper trip, so going to a professional shop for some quick pampering was a great treat (and they were awesome - they gave each customer a cup of fresh fruit and a water, the whole staff was friendly and knew what they were doing, and my toes look awesome).  Eventually, work ended, and it was time to hit the town!

An Uber picked us up at the entrance to the resort's clubhouse, and we headed to Area 15, the nearby entertainment complex which houses the Vegas location of Lost Spirits Distillery.  During our most recent visit to Vegas, last February, we toured and tasted at Lost Spirits, and since then, we'd read that they started offering themed multi-course meals as well.  When we were looking to pick a spot for our nice dinner out, they were immediately on the top of our list.  Dinner started at 5 with an arrival time of 4:30-4:45; of course, we were early, so we took some time to wander through Area 15 and see what was happening there.

The main Area 15 warehouse has low lighting, lots of neon,

and all sorts of shops to visit, food to eat, and things to do

(people were zooming above us here on a roller coaster track thing).

There are also lots of interesting art pieces -

this skull is a 3D projection onto a large sphere, which was a giant flower when we arrived

Eventually, it was time to head to dinner, so we did the short stroll over to the Lost Spirits building.  We waited in their misty front area before Dylan, one of our hosts for the evening, checked us in and led us into the Submarine Room.

Getting ready to bloom

The 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Room -

the chandeliers gentle sway from side to side

Each seating area has a large picture window, through which, you can see...

...fish and other undersea residents "swimming" by

(they're on a hanging track that loops on each side).

We received our welcome cocktails, a mix of rum and fish sauce simple syrup with a spicy ginger salt rim.  Sounds weird, but it was delicious!

Cheers!

After we finished our drinks, we were escorted to our main dining area; our seats were assigned, and we were placed between a foursome of gentlemen from the same family and a couple from Germany.  Ze Germans were also celebrating an anniversary (25 years to our measly 20), and we wished each other good fortune for many more to come (they were delighted when we toasted them with "Prost!").

Some of the décor in the dining area -

that's the female half of the German couple we met.

More décor

Chef Taylor came out to say hello and welcome us to dinner; it would last around 2 1/2 hours, over which we'd eat 16 courses of absolutely outstanding food (most of them were small bites).  She reappeared several times to tell us about our food, and other chefs and servers gave introductions as well.  Each course (or set of courses) had themed music, to help set the mood; honestly, the whole experience was truly incredible.  Our serving staff was incredibly attentive; when I mentioned ahead of time that I had a slight intolerance to milk and non-cooked milk products, one of the maître d's ensured that I was accommodated - one course came with a black tea, for example, and while everyone else's cups had cream in them, she made sure mine did not.  Of course, we also had incredible drinks, designed to perfectly complement the food, including a sparkling rum clarified through a milk wash (the maître d made sure to tell me about the small traces of lactose in that one), a rum punch, complete with pineapple juice and a boozy fried donut, served in gigantic tiki bird glasses, a homemade midori-style melon spritz, and a peated whiskey latte mixed with duck fat crema (the last was served with the final dessert course, which was an uni crème brulee).

Our bread and butter course, a brioche roll served with a duck fat candle -

as the candle melted, it became the "butter" for the bread

Macarons - because life is short, so eat dessert first!

Eggs in eggs in eggs -

caviar placed atop a boiled quail egg, served inside a Faberge egg

Grilled octopus served on a tiny sword,

our utensil for scooping up the butternut squash puree that accompanied it

(you may have guessed that "Octopus's Garden" was the music here).

The rum punch drink - this dude was really top heavy!

As our time drew to an end, we thanked the kitchen and dining room staff for their incredible work, wished our new German friends a great time (they were spending four weeks traveling from Vegas through Yosemite, then up to Yellowstone, back to Napa, eventually flying home through San Francisco - what an incredible voyage!), and headed back into the Vegas heat.  We called an Uber and took it back to the Strip, to the Bellagio; one of my favorite things to do in Vegas is visit the resort's Conservatory and Botanical Garden display, just beyond the lobby.  It's seasonally themed, and it always looks and smells amazing.  The current setup is "Majesty: The Grandeur of Nature," and it was just as gorgeous as ever.

Just one of the lovely creations on display - he was about 30 feet tall

After wandering through the flowers (and using the Bellagio's bathrooms), we headed back outside and across the Strip toward the Linq. We planned on riding the High Roller, the largest observation wheel in North America, and in navigating our way there, we found ourselves somewhat lost on the casino floor of the Flamingo.

Ru wasn't the only reason we ended up in the Flamingo -

see, it says the High Roller right there!

On the way to the High Roller, we went right past the RuPaul Werk Room store,

and of course, I had to stop in for a souvenier!

These are heads signed by the queens who have been in the Vegas reveue -

Top to bottom, left to right:

Latrice Royale, Heidi N Closet, Derrick Berry, and Yara Sofia,

Jaida Essence Hall, Naomi Smalls, Daya Betty, Yvie Oddly, and Kameron Michaels,

Roxxy Andrews, Kimora Amore, Aquaria, and Kihanna Montrese.

I'm derping so hard here with excitement.

We eventually made it to the ticket booth at the High Roller, where we decided the $35 tickets were a bit rich for our blood on this particular night.  We were also bushed from wandering the Strip in the heat for the past 30 minutes, so we called another Uber and headed back to the RV resort.  Arriving without incident, we sacked out pretty quickly.

Chris took Friday off, but I still worked; I was up earlier than planned, so I started my work day at 6 and got all sorts of things accomplished while he slumbered.  Once he finally awoke, we had coffee/tea, and then he went on a breakfast run to a nearby Einstein's (the part of Vegas we were in was mostly chain offerings, otherwise we would have picked a local spot) for bagel sandwiches.  After eating, he headed to pick up the girls from their big night out.

While we were out on the town, a new neighbor moved in -

this one's almost our twin!

A wee sacked out Bea paw

They partied hard at daycare.

While the place looked fine and the folks were nice,

we ultimately weren't totally happy with their service.

Zoe was okay, but Bea came back covered in yick.

She has a tendency to flop down in grass, dirt, whatever,

but she came back with her belly and rear end crusted with something gross.

She also had gnarly poopers for a solid day, including some with traces of red, 

so she must have been eating all sorts of things she shouldn't.

We got her cleaned up and processing things appropriately,

but it wasn't super great.

The rest of Friday was pretty normal - since Chris was off, he took the truck to get an oil change (it had been screaming at us about needing one since Eastern Oregon, and we didn't want to put it off until we got home), while the girls and I stayed at the camper and worked/napped (you can guess who did what).  When he returned and my day was over, we hit the pool area one last time, saying goodbye to our grackle friends.  We'd already packed up most of the outside stuff, so we made pasta with pesto sauce for dinner and watched tv before falling asleep (we actually started a movie on Netflix, but had to pause it while Chris ran to the store to buy canned pumpkin for Bea, because of the issues noted above).

Although we'd set an alarm for 7, we were all up by around 6:15, so after Chris ran to Starbucks to grab us breakfast food and drink (are you sensing an increased level of eating out this week? We were finally close enough to easy access takeout and we were taking full advantage of it), we started breaking camp for the final time.  By 8:30, everything was secured, and we started on our last push home.

The drive was the shortest so far - just around 300 miles in 5 1/2 hours - and most of it was easy going (the new Boulder City bypass is great!), although the roads needed repaving in spots.  We crossed the Hoover Dam flyover, and before too long, we were back in Arizona once more.

Getting close to Hoover Dam

On the Dam overpass -

the overpass really saves so much time, it's truly awesome.

I do miss the days when you drove directly over the Dam, though.

That was super cool.

Welcome back to State 48!

We stopped for gas along the 40, east of Kingman, and then did one more stretch/bathroom/lunch stop between Wikieup and Wickenburg, at a roadside table in the Joshua Tree Forest.

This area is neat - tons of Joshua trees, but also a handful of saguaros mixed in, too.

After that, it was just 90 miles to home, and we knocked those out without issue.  We arrived in the early afternoon and spent the rest of the day washing dogs, washing laundry, unloading the rig, and eventually, washing ourselves, too (the first shower in our normal bathroom after seven weeks in the tiny box in the rig?  Oh, so amazing).  We asked the kind folks at Joyride Taco House to send our dinner with an Uber driver, and we finished out the evening watching the Netflix movie we started the night before.

Happily home and sacked out!

Overall, we had an amazing time on this grand adventure, and we're already planning our route for next year; since the whole point of this was to avoid as much of the Phoenix Summer heat as possible, it will likely be for a bit longer in 2024, maybe ten weeks or so.  We saw so many amazing things and had a chance to visit with family and friends along the way.  We also learned a lot, and there are some things we'll change on our next go-around.  

Only one more blog to go - where we describe our favorite experiences, locations, and the like, and we discuss what we learned!

Later!

Amy