Hi all,
Nancy is currently catching beauty sleep again as I type this.......
Another 'couple of days' catch up here for anyone following this trip.
We are currently in San Rafael CA - drove here today from Vegas - a 9 hour drive including 3 decent stops and the roads here are so damn good we were on freeway the ENTIRE 950km ++ trip - just about door to door.
We are currently in a Travelodge that Tony booked us into as we got here a day earlier than planned so we can check out SFO city tomorrow before attending the PPE 'pre-opening' function tomorrow night
That will hopefully allow us time on the games with few crowds
. The check in lady at the Travel lodge handed us free bullet proof vests and the room has a hotline direct to the local cop station - nice area !
We went and checked out the Embassy Suites where we will be staying for the next few nights at PPE and it looks stunning - clearly I will be posting a lot of pics over the next few nights and will include that........anyway - we need to step back in time a few nights.......
On Monday night we headed for Downtown Vegas - Fremont St.
As I said last time this place is a MUST SEE if you visit Vegas - Tony was completely blown away by it , the atmosphere and the general 'feeling and liveliness' of the place and ESPECIALLY the canopy music shows, there were also 2 or 3 bands on tonight too .......the casinos are MUCH older and inside not as flashy but it is nice to see the old Vegas in them.
This is the entry to Fremont St...I drove here this time and there is super chaep parking at the back of Fremont St - at no time did we feel unsafe ( refer the UFC pics hey guys
)
Here is another shot for you Darren - we are taking this shirt on a US tour !
Life is tough down here let me tell you.....
Excuse the focus but something was making my hand tremble when I went to take this shot.
I always take pics of drummers .....this guy was tight !
No seriously - I was taking a pic of the drummer.
Around 10pm we heard the un-mistakeable intro to Rock and Roll All Night by KISS - the lights all went out and the canopy above played this......
Then this came into it - complete with game sounds
You have to understand that this canopy is ( I guess ) around 300 metres ( more ? ) in length and has 12.5 MILLION lights making the images up.
To play pinball for 2 days and have it end with this was pretty damn cool.
On Tuesday, our last day in Vegas, we went back to the PHOF - I dropped Tony off and did my own thing for a few hours ( no, not the hookers ) and then came back around 1.30pm to PHOF and we left around 4pm - we had an excellent time at PHOF this time around, although Tony did get to 'experience' the arrogant little kid that I copped here in May this year , without knowing it was the same kid Tony asked me if I had copped the ATTITUDE from the kid at the counter - see how people notice these small things.
We HAD to try a FATBURGER and tonight was the last opportunity to do so.
Thats Chili Cheese Fries right there - mmmmmmmmm
If you get through one of thier 'Bring a Wheelbarrow' ( to carry it in ) burgers, they give you a certificate and a photo !
After a feed we caught up with our old gang mate from the night before - Yo YO.
We then went into the Gameworks acrade - downstairs under M&M World - there were 3 games in there - Viper Night Drivin, POTC and Soprano's - ONLY VND was working , the other 2 were switched off with 'broken' signs on them - MORE great advertising for pinball. Other than that it had all the modern arcade games you would expect to see......the place was pretty well done though - it looked excellent.
I had never seen one of these before - or even heard of it - a 4 way / 4 play at once PacMan
We then headed down to The Venetian Casino to see The Blue Man Group - what an INSANE show - it isnt for everyone BUT it is VERY VERY funny.
It is 1 hour 40 minutes of 3 guys on stage who dont speak, they are percussionists and use PVC piping , colour , paint and AWESOME graphics and sound effects to just blast you through an hour and a half of musical mayhem. They have some GREAT drummers up top behind them and they also do heaps of funny stuff with food and digital effects - it cannot be described it has to be seen and it was just fantastic.
They said no pictures allowed - but Tony pushed me into it
Todays car photo comes from our breakfast stop at Denny's in Baker on the way out of Las Vegas.
Obviously rego checks are done every 47 years here.
Tomorrow we head to San Francisco wharf area as we have a free day before the main event, PPE starts for us
