With love from Bob & Delores, Dean & Jean, and Grant & Jane. x
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Bob'O'Link Lane
I have not been this excited about a street name since Candy Cane Lane.
It's like a pixie from an Enid Blyton book must live here - or a tinker at the very least.
Glamour Pad Day
Peter is snoozing the day away after the rigours of the road trip, so we are back to our glamorous glamour pad glamorisation programme.
First stop - garbage sales -oh em gee ... the first one is on Bob'o'Link drive on the golf course ... and they have santa hats on their cactus! Oh double triple happy days. I heart this goofy town.
We are still thinking about wallpaper for our poo brown bedroom so we pop out to MModern to rifle through wallpaper books - the MModern boy is LOVELY and we sit on his white ostrich leather couch flipping through wallpaper books and being offered bottled water like we are Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. Eventually all the wallpaper starts making me seasick so we moonwalk away and pop out to the Gene Autry Plaza (pinch me!) to look for some sheers for our cabana project (the sun shade cabana - not the popular cured meat)
We (and by "we", I do mean "Grant" ) are painting the middle bathroom from its current gusset colour to a pristine white with one Ralph Lauren orange wall. Darling, it looks FABULOUS. We have switcherooed some art work in there, and of course, it now has a view of Bruce the shark in the hall, so all in all ...... fabulous!
As the sun goes down I enjoy my favourite view of Grant - hiss butt up a ladder.
good times - great classic hits
fabulous night
After the horrible day I am sooooooooo happy to be back in my beautiful Palm Springs. Grant starts to turn around the horrible day by stopping at Shields Date Farm on the way home. We HEART Shields Date Farm - It's like one of those old mom and pop roadside attractions you'd find on a driving trip to queensland in 1962.
They even have an all white vintage counter and stools inside to enjoy your date shake (I had a date and mango shake actually - best. thing. ever) and all served by a lady in white uniform and matching hat - adorable! And if that's not enough, of course they do have a little vintage theatre showing continuous screenings of the fascinating epic "the sex life of the date".
kookiest place ever - plus delicious DATES!
We make it back to the glamour pad with just enough time to drop Peter off and have a quick costume change because Grant and I are off to the Walk of the Inns tonight. Best. night. ever.
We turn up to the Palm Springs Art Museum at the appointed time, and we are given maps and little torches. We assume about six people will be participating, but there are groups of people with maps and torchlight bobbing about the streets everywhere! It is so much fun.
Basically, all the little vintage, elite, obscure or historical hotels in a four block radius of the art museum have opened their doors for the evening for us and our torches to wander through!
Each hotel opens up at least one guest room or suite for you to peek in as well as all the hotel grounds and main areas. Each hotel also offers us a little christmas treat - eggnog here - cookies there -warm cider - hot chocolate - christmas cake etc
Also most hotels have some kind of entertainment for us - a band or carollers etc
It is a lovely balmy night and everyone is in a good mood and full of cookies and eggnog.
We are picking and choosing our buildings as there are sooo many! We visit the Viceroy Hotel (darling), the Tennis Club (super sixties), Spencers (eggnog for all!), The Del Marcos (mid century gone wild), the Orbit Inn (mid century gone wilder), the Palm Springs Womens Club (oh dear - they're putting on a SHOW!), Casa Cody (movie star hideaway) plus one weird place that smelled like pee.
best. night, ever.
I love it here and never want to go home.
Well, I guess.....
... if you're visiting Lake Havasu City you should take a peek at Lake Havasu - zzzzzzzz - and .... scene
London Bridge
London Bridge view from our sexy hotel room - jeebers - it's RIGHT THERE!
And strolling back from breakfast in Lake Havasu City, via The London Bridge ..... as you do.
(PS - if ever you see a breakfast menu featuring WORLD FAMOUS POTATOES O'BRIEN, and you feel your vacation to Lake Havasu City will not be complete until you have tasted WORLD FAMOUS POTATOES O'BRIEN, I, and my fellow diners can report that WORLD FAMOUS POTATOES O'BRIEN are a cross between frozen potato gems and cold scraps, and having them for breakfast is disgusting)
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Ciao Vegas, Aloha London (bridge)
Peter is having a slow morning after his big night on the tiles, so Grant and I pop out for breakfast and a trawl of Ballys. We take him a coffee up to our brown floral SUITES, we steal all the mini shampoo's, we jump on the beds one last time, we play the GIANT one armed bandit for a while, and we roll out of town.
First stop: the atomic testing museum.
Sounds .... boring
Is ... interesting
Should ... be called the Atomic propoganda Museum
Still -we did enjoy it, and their special exhibition is of Vintage Vegas and here we find the remnants of the sadly deceased Liberace Museum! I have out - gayed the gays again! (as Tom and now Peter like to say about every second thing I say or do...)
A quick Starbucks stop and we are on the road, past the Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, and on and off route 66. We cross from Nevada into Arizona, and stop in Kingman, Arizona on Route 66 for a seventh inning stretch at a fabulous vintage diner called Mr D's Our waitress Leah is SUPER friendly and efficient y'all.
Eventually in the early evening we hit Lake Havusu City, home of the london Bridge! (its a long story - google it) and check into the uber chic HEAT hotel looking right out at the bridge. We are staying in the Inferno suite (darling) and it is GLAMOROUS - all white with Eames chairs, a huge balcony overloking the bridge, and the biggest fluffiest bed of.all.time.
We head down to the lobby for a smart drink and then agree we are a) pooped 2) still fairly full of our Mr D's hamburgers and) all we all want to do is sink into those fluffy beds and watch bad Christmas telemovies.
The next thing I remember is zzzzzzzzzz
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Monday, December 19, 2011
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Vintage Vegas
Thankyou Bally's for including breakfast that cannot be room serviced, and must be eaten before 9am. That's 3 breakfasts to you - it seems the house does always win.
Yours truly can be found breakfasting in Starbucks at Planet Hollywood about 2 hours after the Break'o'Dawn Ballys breakfast expires where my husband, my gusband and I plan our day.
Grant and I want to do a downtown old school day so we offer to let PAR off the hook in case he'd prefer a bucket of buffalo wings at hooters but he delightfully agrees to come along, a decision he will instantly regret as I accidentally spend 30 minutes in the Betty Page store buying gorgeous frocks.
First stop post Betty Page is out to the Vegas sign for our photo op, and to Mandalay Bay to pick up our Lion King tix.
Second stop, the El Sombrero, the oldest restaurant in Vegas. I have read about it many times and want to go for its vintage neon sign, and its famed Mexican food. Unfortunately my google mapping skills are not of Amazing Race standards and Grant and I have to almost get divorced three times trying to find the freakin thing.
Its well worth the trials and tribulations though -the El Sombrero is GOLD, the food is fabulous and costs a cent, and we soon become best friends with Mrs Sombrero who tries to give me her salsa recipe but my eyes glaze over as soon as she starts grilling me on what type of chillis we grow in Australia - what? there's more than one kind? now chillis are the little red things, right?
From there we trawl all our favourite downtown vintage stores. Of course Bob at Retro Vegas has the PERFECT mid century screen for our living room at only about three times the amount we have budgeted for it ... but its three times more fabulous than anything else we've seen ... hello... is this thing on?...
Peter has been VERY patient so we head to Starbucks at the Fashion Show Mall to re-caffeinate and to stare in awe at the amount of shopping people have, (and to visit American Express to CASH UP baby!!)
As the sun goes down we head back to our brown floral SUITES to glamorise for The Lion King. I am wearing my new leopard print Betty Page frock of course. As I twirl around the room loving myself sick i fall on my ankle and SNAP - the archilles injury I have been nursing for six months instantly goes back to square one. I am devastated and grumpy as hell. And then as we head to the car i realise my new frock has static electricity! What next!? I'll tell you what next ... The Lion King is the WORST. SHOW. EVER>>>>>>>>>>> soooooooooooooooo boring. kill. me. now. The only highlight was that the champagne was served in a cup the size of a milkshake cup! no regrets.
We discuss leaving at interval but the tickets cost a bomb and there are some cute chorus boys so we continue our self induced coma until the bitter end. zzzzzzzzzz Circle of life people, circle of life ....
We (i) hobble back to the car on my ruined dancers pins - god bless Grant for choosing valet, and then we go to a FABULOUS dinner that the three of us have sworn never to speak of .... I can't say any more ... I've said too much already....
Back to Paris to play Dean Martins wild party for a while, and then the boys head off to Ballys Jubilee bar while I head off to change into my orthopedic Kumfs and out of my static electricity torture chamber (now my hair is standing on end - what the hell!?)
I join the boys for a nightcap and then Grant and i head to the brown floral SUITE as PAR whiles the wee small hours away with his favourite cocktail of dollar beers and Grinder.
Have I mentioned Vegas is SUPERB in every way.
Viva Ballys, Viva Elvis & Viva The Vegas
Helloooooooo Ballys!
Upon check in I make the mistake of admiring the deranged check in ladies diamond ring. Here's some inside info - after she brushes her teeth each day she scrubs her ring with her used toothbrush before rinsing it off. I still love the ring but I've gone right off her teeth.
Then out of nowhere she asks "have you ever been to Western Samoa? ummmm .... "no"
"My brother owns a little hotel there" ummmm ..... "how lovely"
"I've never been there of course" ummmm ..... "so is this my room key"
We moonwalk away from Miss Dental Hygiene and head to our rooms to jump on the beds and press all the buttons -oh em gee, we are in SUITES. Brown floral suites, but SUITES! We are across the hall from each other. If we crane our necks and balance on one leg we can see Ceasara Palace out of our window. If Peter does the same he can see the dancing fountains of the Bellagio. Hello glamour my old friend.
We seem to have taken two hours longer than expected to hit town so we have to DASH over to half-tix to see if we are too late to see something tonight. Oh happy days, we have tickets to Cirque's "Viva Elvis" tonight and to "The Lion King" tomorrow. (our secret shame - none of us have ever seen "Lion King")
The bad news - even though I have seven glittery costume changes in my bag we have to run in our travelling ensembles to get to the theatre. I am so ashamed. I am not wearing a single sequin.
We get to the Aria box office to collect our tickets in the nick of time and then have an hour before show time. We choose the Aria buffet (its Vegas people), and its quite the glamour dinner, staring with a giant pile of crabs legs and ending in Hurricane Peter devastating the sugar free dessert cart.
Viva Elvis is one of my favourite shows EVER and I am very excited to be seeing it again. It is just as FABULOUS as the first time. I am stealing choreography and costume ideas left, right and when Elvis and Priscilla get married (spoiler behind) ... HAPPY TEARS!
By the finale we are all on a high and to make things perfect Peter is tossed an Elvis scarf at the end - superb!
Grant hails us a Larry Cab to take us back to our side of the Strip, and we end up in DJ Sally's disco bar at Paris drinking Long Island Iced Teas. There is a wedding party AND a hens night busting moves on the dance floor. I heart Vegas.
Eventually I hit the wall, and Grant and I head to our brown floral SUITE, leaving Peter with the hens and a night of trawling Grinder and the Strip.
Good times. Great classic hits.
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