California/Las Vegas Trip - Day 3 (Jinky's, Vegas, MGM Grand, Diablo's, Wolfgang Puck's)

Day three. I feel like I've been here for five since we're doing quite a bit every day. Today is a "travel day" to get to Vegas. I wake up at 7am to the sound of Rob's roommate leaving for work, so I'm up. I shower, read and check some e-mail until 8:30am and decide I'm doing breakfast at Jinky's solo. I pack up my bag and head out the door.

Jinky's - a strip mall breakfast joint that's been open for decades and is locally owned. They specialize in breakfast and the food is quite tasty. I opt for a carafe of coffee, eggs, sausage, toast and some oatmeal. After another carafe and then another, my gauge is over FULL and I'm ready to go. I got a lot of work done on the laptop/cell phone so I jet.

I get back to Rob's apartment and we finally get out of town around noon for Vegas. We head down the 101 which turns into several other highways and finally into I-15 which brings us all the way to Vegas. Two stops for food and fuel (Hesperia, CA and Primm, NV, respectively) later and we're looking for a parking spot in the MGM Grand self-park. Sweet.



We get checked into the room (15-441) and relax for solid five minutes before heading out. After navigating our way through the casino area (all 500 acres of it), we find ourself out of Las Vegas Blvd (a.k.a. "The Strip") and walking towards the week old Mexican restaurant in front of the Monte Carlo known as Diablo's Catana. We scarf down some chips and drinks and make our way further down The Strip.

We make stops in front of the new casino being built, the Cosmopolotin Resort, watch one go of the fountains at the Bellagio, walk through Paris a little and then head to some wacky little Aloha Village which is a low-budget outdoor stripmall. After a little hanging out there, we head back to the MGM Grand where we take in some pizza at Wolfgang Puck's Bar and Grill. I maintain that they have some of the best pizza anywhere. I had the garlic chicken, roasted peppers and parsley pizza. Yum!




We were both beat after this and headed back to the room to crash. It was around 10:30pm.