Viva Lost Wages

Flying seagulls - wind farm on much larger scale than in NZ

The fountain show at Bellagio

Midlife crisis - He's always wanted one of these

Excalibur Castle - very pretty at night

Lost wages - actually he's winning

This road went forever!


A view of the Mojave Desert and Joshua trees

Morro Bay and poor planning - a gorgeous spot with a power plant on the foreshore

Morro Bay and view from our balcony

Richard here again and I'd like to backtrack briefly on my visit to the Googleplex and our stay at Morro Bay, before describing our time in Las Vegas (sometimes referred to here as "Lost Wages"). The Googleplex is the HQ of Google, the search engine people. They have a really interesting workplace culture, intended to foster innovation and creativity. It feels like a cross between Disneyland and a Uniuversity campus. The staff are pretty young and the turnover is quite high - our tour guide Ben had been there four years and he was pretty much a google veteran. Click here for some more information about the Googleplex and Google culture.

Jumping ahead, Morro Bay was really pretty and our hosts, Molly and Jeff Anderson were absolutely amazing people. They are brother and sister, and run the Inn with their brother Roger, who we did not meet. Here are a few reviews from other people who have stayed, and we had an absolutely amazing experience and endorse every single word. Our great hospitality experience continued with breakfast at Frankie & Lola's on the seafront at Morro Bay. Then, under the careful eye of Sandy the Navman (NavWoman(?)) we travelled east from California's west coast inland through the Mojave desert then northeast to Las Vegas. we were warned it was a long and boring drive through the desert but we found it fascinating. We passed through irrigated areas that grew almonds, cashews, pistachios, dates and pineapples. We passed Edwards Air Force base which has a famous past in America's space programme, we saw Joshua trees, hundreds of trucks, speed limits "enforced by aircraft", and a speed limit of 75mph (that's 120 kmh but most of the traffic was driving at 140kmh with no apparent difficulty. The road was l-o-o-o-n-n-n-g-g-g and straight and a lot of it was three-lane freeway with a dedicated truck lane which really helped the traffic to flow.

Sandy guided us faultlessly to the door of the Excalibur Hotel, ably assisted by Floss who was my extra set of eyes for lane changes on six-lane freeways which are a l-i-t-t-l-e more challenging than Thames Highway, Oamaru on a Sunday morning. We checked in and hit The Strip. Anyone familiar with Vegas knows that they have the shortest building and planning codes anywhere in the Western world - just two words - "anything goes". It is outrageous, it is vibrant, it is unashamedly in your face and living it LARGE! Neither of us are big gamblers, but the people watching, the architecture, the attractions - Vegas is a must do - and we were out and about till around 2am. It is a city that never sleeps. Check out the pics for a flavour of this town. We were serenaded on a faux venetian gondola by Antonio, an ex-serviceman who did his military training in Missouri, sacrificed his knees to ice hockey and does a passable Dean Martin. We saw the fountains at the Balaggio, the volcano at the Mirage, posed for photos on Harleys, shopped at the Hard Rock cafe, met a living statue and played "spot the hooker" - which became easier as the evening wore on. There were some persistent men (and women) handing out publicity material for the sex industry while people walked along with their children. As I said, in Vegas, anything goes.