Today we got up much earlier than we would have liked. That was probably the jet lag. After going to sleep at about 2 AM last night we were up just after 6. The only thing positive about this was that we were able to get a pretty good picture of the sunrise. We lounged around for a little bit before taking showers and getting outside. The temperature outside definitely cooled off since last night, it was only 88 when we got in the car around 8. We first headed for breakfast, hitting a roadfood.com place once again. We went to the Hash House which was a nice place for breakfast with what appeared to be only locals inside. That is always a good sign. Besides really good standard breakfast fare this place also had really big cinnamon rolls and a very large assortment of jellies which they brought out in little cups with your toast. Jackie opted for a strawberry jelly while Chris got the apple butter. They were both great! While we were eating we noticed a sign on the door saying that the restaurant had been featured in a magazine and on TV as well. It was definitely worth it.
After breakfast we headed for the Neon Boneyard, which is an outdoors museum featuring old neon signs from hotels and casinos around Las Vegas. The museum is slowly restoring each of the signs, all of which are donated to them, and placing them around town. The last time we were in Las Vegas a few years ago we wanted to take a tour of this museum but the place was closed. This time we planned a little better and made reservations for a tour. The tour, all outside, lasted about an hour. The heat was unbearable. Even though our tour started at 10 AM, the entire tour was outside with the only shade being provided by the signs on their property. Temperatures, even at 10 AM were over 100 and the sun was very strong. Thankfully, they supplied us with free bottles of water to help keep us hydrated. We drank 5 bottles in that hour. The tour guide told us the history of the signs, which was pretty interesting. We highly recommend this tour to anyone coming to the city who wants a break from the madness on the strip.
After the neon boneyard museum, we headed for the porn museum. Actually it was called the Erotic Heritage Museum but it could have easily been called the porn museum. The good thing about this place is that it is run by a non-profit organization so we were able to view all kinds of porn and the admission is tax deductible! We were considering deducting our travel costs to the museum as well but Jackie says we’d get caught. Actually, this place was quite interesting. According to their website their mission is to preserve erotic artifacts, fine art, and film. They had artifacts alright. Some of the more interesting ones included a penis made out of 100,000 pennies, porno movies from the early 1900’s (they haven’t changed all that much), and a piece of pornographic art supposedly drawn by Walt Disney. This place probably sounds sleazy but it was actually done kind of tastefully. After getting an eyeful we headed back to the hotel for some showers to rinse off the sweat from walking around in the sun all day.
Later on we decided to torture ourselves some more, but not before treating ourselves to $2 margaritas and $2 tacos at a place appropriately called the Tequila Bar. We actually were able to eat dinner and have several drinks each, all for under $20! This is another cool thing about Las Vegas. They make their money on the casinos which means food and drink is very inexpensive. After filling up we headed outside to go to the Hard Rock café. We collect magnet/bottle openers from Hard Rock cafes in cities we have traveled to, so we had to get our Vegas opener. We drove past the Hard Rock last night and we swore it was only a block away. After walking in the now 110 degree heat (at 5 PM) for about a half hour, we finally arrived. We got our magnet and instead of walking back through the heat we took the monorail back. The $5 ticket was a small price to pay for getting out of the heat.
We finished the night at Napoleon’s Dueling Piano Bar. There are two guys on pianos who take requests from the audience. They claim they can play any hit from the past 55 years. Tonight they played just about everything from the usual piano songs (Elton John, Billy Joel, Jerry Lee Lewis, Journey) to some odd stuff for a piano (Lady Gaga, Metallica, AC/DC, Muse, Red Solo Cup). Chris made them play Angry Young Man which they claimed was the hardest Billy Joel song to play. They did alright. The only bad thing about this place was our bar tab. It was more than our hotel room and we’re not even buzzed. Not cool. Nevertheless, we had a good time.
Tomorrow we drive to hopefully, Reno. From there we will easily be within striking distance of Santa Cruz on Saturday morning.
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