Leaving Las Vegas

Our flight out of Las Vegas left at 10pm on New Year's Eve, so we spent the morning and afternoon strolling down the full length of the now familiar strip to the Stratosphere casino. Not having the time or spare cash we didn't bother with the trip up the observation tower, or the impressive-looking thrill-rides at the top. After waiting a good bit for a bus back up the strip we kinda decided that we must have missed the last one that day (as the strip was being closed to traffic for the New Year's Eve celebrations later that night), and so we had to walk all the way back to the Wild Wild West. The streets were getting pretty crowded (there is construction along parts of the strip, and in other parts the sidewalks are very narrow), so it was a bit stressful rushing back to our hotel.

We managed to push and shove our way through the crowds and had managed to get back in time for a last pasta special in the hotel restaurant before retrieving our rucksacks and making our way towards the airport. We knew the main roads would be closed for New Year's Eve, and so had planned on walking beyond the blockades and getting a taxi from the far side. As it turned out the blockades started early, and the cops prevented us from crossing the main road (you really can't talk to American cops the way you often can with the Guards back home - they really are like robots sometimes, just following orders no matter what). Anyway, after getting a bit stressed out and hopping over barriers a couple of times, the cops changed the barrier layout and we could cross the main street. We got a taxi no problem and made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare (and this time the guy didn't even try and rip us off!).

The airport is all very new and snazzy, and was practically deserted. We were flying Virgin America, which is a new airline that had the fanciest plane I've ever flown on. It was all very sleek with subdued lighting and very modern personal entertainment systems (even a charger socket for our camera, which was the first time we'd been able to charge the camera in America!). So the flight to San Francisco was effortless, and we arrived on time, picked up our bags and strolled outside to await our shuttle bus direct to our hotel.

It was actually on board this shuttle bus that we celebrated New Year's itself - not so very exciting really...