We left Santa Barbara just after 7am for the drive to Las Vegas. We followed the lovely coastline for a bit before hitting the LA freeways & then heading east. The desert was really boring after the coastal scenery that we have had. But, it was an easy drive and we arrived in Vegas 5.5hrs later. There seems to have been some road improvements made since we were last here. There are also new hotels/casinos. We are staying at Bellagio.
Bellagio has a conservatory which they have decorated with reindeers, toy soldiers, polar bears made of white carnations & a huge Christmas tree. There is also some decorations behind the check in counter and at the other end where the shops are. But, the casino that you have to walk through to get anywhere has no decorations at all. In fact, Vegas is quite unfestive. There is a lot of people around & I expected all the trashy t-shirt shops to be selling ugly Christmas sweaters & hats but there is practically nothing around.
After checking in we went across the road to the Miracle Mile shopping centre. Just about every store had a sale. We went over to the shops at Crystals because I had read they had fabulous Christmas decorations. They had an enormous tree & some other crystal trees which were pretty but nothing spectacular.
We have missed our opportunity to go to a Christmas tree farm now. We passed some where you cut your own tree down back when we were in Oregon but didn't stop.
Next door at The Cosmopolitan we saw one of Liberace's cars. It was a Gatsby era car but completely covered in bling. Gorgeous!
We walked along the strip a bit & ended up at MGM Grand. By the time we got back to Bellagio it was nearly 6pm so we waited out the front & watched the fountains do their dance. It looks fantastic & is set to Christmas music at the moment.
We had decided that we would eat at the Bellagio Buffet tonight. We knew it would be busy with a long wait. I got in the queue at 6.10pm & we were seated at 8pm. But, it was nice - plenty of prawns & crab & turkey. The desserts all looked delicious but looked better than they tasted. After dinner we walked around the hotel to see what was there. We found Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Tiffany & Prada. Looks like we can just shop here rather than go to the Outlet Centre!