After Thanksgiving, we took a road trip to Las Vegas with the main goal is to visit Grand Canyon West which is about 2 hours from Las Vegas. This time we stayed at Luxor Hotel.
About Luxor: The lights are very dim in this hotel which I don’t really like; and it smells! lots of smoke that I could not stand in the lobby for too long; we could smell smoke even inside the room (and the room is non-smoking!). Worse part is the parking: its parking lot is so small: one day the parking attendant re-directed us to the Mandalay Bay hotel parking because this parking was full! We are not familiar with the area so we had so much trouble first to find the Mandalay parking entrance; and then to walk from Mandalay Bay hotel to our hotel is quite a bit, especially it’s late at night! we arrived at the Luxor’s parking lot around 11 PM; and by the time we could park the car at Mandalay Bay and found our way around to get back to the Luxor hotel, it’s 12:00 AM. Unbelievable! I don’t think I’d stay here again.
After Thanksgiving, we took a road trip to Las Vegas with the main goal is to visit Grand Canyon West which is about 2 hours from Las Vegas.
We left for Las Vegas on Black Friday; never seen so much snow along the freeway like this. We took a quick exit on 395, stopped by the gas station for William to play with the snow; he totally loved it. Luckily we brought the slide. Then we stopped by Fashion Outlets next to Primm Casino for lunch, this outlet is dying: halves of the stores are closed. Grandpa went to the Primm casino while we went to have lunch at the Outlet (Grandma did not go with us this time). Note that the Mc Donald here is always crowded, the line was so long!
We arrived at the Luxor hotel around 1:30 PM; our room was ready because we checked in on-line as soon as they sent us the email providing the instructions to email; which I received around 1 AM in the morning. As always, William’s favorite part is to jump up and down on the hotel bed! Too bad it was cold, the pool was closed so William did not get to swim but he seemed to be ok with it.
After waiting for our sisters and brothers to get their room, we went to Pho So 1 for dinner. Then we went to Bellagio to watch the Water Fountain. It was so crowded so we took a detour to park at the other hotel and walked to Bellagio. After a long walk we finally got to the Water Fountain but William refused to go out to watch: he covered his ears. The music was so nice but he found it noisy. So he ran around the Bellagio hotel, I ran after him, and we ended up at the Garden, where we meet the rest of our family. The garden was so beautiful but William refused to stroll around the garden so we had to leave early. It was a long walk in a cold night but William was ok; he kept complaining that “I walk too much” but that’s about it: no crying or kicking!
We left Bellagio around 10:30 PM but when we got to our hotel room, it was 12:00 AM! I totally hate Luxor hotel for not having enough parking for its guest! (see below comment about the parking).
This time we did not explore Las Vegas much because the next day we went to Grand Canyon West, then we left Las Vegas the next day.
About Luxor: The lights are very dim in this hotel which I don’t really like; and it smells! lots of smoke that I could not stand in the lobby for too long; we could smell smoke even inside the room (and the room is non-smoking!). Worse part is the parking: its parking lot is so small: one day the parking attendant re-directed us to the Mandalay Bay hotel parking because this parking was full! We are not familiar with the area so we had so much trouble first to find the Mandalay parking entrance; second is to find the entrance to the Madalay Bay hotel from the parking structure: the parking was so huge! and then to walk from Mandalay Bay hotel to our hotel is quite a bit, especially it’s late at night and the casino is crowded! we arrived at the Luxor’s parking lot around 11 PM; and by the time we could park the car at Mandalay Bay and found our way around to get back to the Luxor hotel, it’s 12:00 AM. Unbelievable! I don’t think I’d stay here again.
With the help of Facebook, we know more about the events around Orange county without having to search other places. So you guessed it right that we knew about the Festival Of Flight from Facebook. Knowing William loves airplane, we decided to take William here. It’s taken place in Long Beach airport, which is only 25 minutes from our home. The Long Beach airport celebrated its 95 Years with lots of people coming to the event.
We arrived around 10:30 AM; and there was still lots of available parking space. From the parking lot, it’s a short distance to the event. There were a few small helicopters and few big airplane on display. William wanted to get on the big airplane, which is used to deliver gas and passengers (it can hold 75 passengers maximum). It took about 40 minutes to get in line; William was running around while Tim stood on line waiting for our turn. Lately William seems to be ok with waiting in line, which is a good thing. Even though he’s not actually standing in line to wait, but he understands the concept of waiting for his turn. Of course I’m always the one to run after him and redirect him back to the line.
Waiting for our turn to get in the airplane.Still waiting ….. and waiting, almost our turn.
He got so excited to get up the stairs but when it was our turn to get into the pilot seat, he got scared and tried to go back down the stairs. I had to redirect him to the exit way. We managed to take 1 photo of him in the pilot seat (and me too :)).
Pilot seat; he got scared and wanted to get out.Passenger seats
There’s a lower level inside the airplane; at first he did not want to go down but later on he changed his mind: “I want to see the mirror!”. I had no idea what he was talking about, then I realized that there’s a mirror beneath the the lower level which we saw when we were walking under the airplane. So somehow he knows that if he goes to lower level, he’d see that mirror. William is such a smart boy; and he pays attention to things more than I realize.
There’s a lower level inside the airplane; at first he did not want to go down but later on he changed his mind: “I want to see the mirror!”. I had no idea what he was talking about, then I realized that there’s a mirror beneath the the lower level which we saw when we were walking under the airplane. So somehow he knows that if he goes to lower level, he’d see that mirror. William is such a smart boy; and he pays attention to things more than I realize.
In the back of the airplane
It took about another 30 minutes to get to the lower level because it’s very small down there: only 5-6 people can go down at a time. There’s a small stair to go down; and there was another young pilot seating there to introduce us to the airplane and to answer any questions. And there it is, a big window in front of the pilot seat. From outside, it’s a mirror which reflects our images but from the pilot seat it’s just a window where we can see people down there. William loved it, he pressed his face against that window!
Done with airplane tour, we got in line to get some freebies; 1 of the things that he liked is the plan pen.
It was 1:00 P.M.; time to have lunch but the lines to those food trucks are so long and it’s hot so we decided to leave the event and stop by the nearest Mc. Donald for lunch.
On the way home, he kept playing with the plane pen and the little airplane that Tim assembled for him with his name on it.
It was a fun day for all of us.
He especially loves this one so much that he refused to check out the other helicopters.Here’s the plane dad made for you!Young at heart!
