West Coast Chronicles: Last Day in Las Vegas and Return to California

Our third and final day in Las Vegas had arrived and there are still a few more unchecked must see items on our list. Check out is lunch time, so we had to move fast!

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We had been exploring the northern areas of Las Vegas Strip (relative to our hotel, MGM Grand) for the past two days so for our final day we went south. To be honest there weren’t that many things to see south of MGM Grand compared to the north, but a must see landmark is located here: The Welcome to Las Vegas sign. But first, we explored the pools of MGM Grand (which unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to enjoy).

This one leads to some sort of lagoon flowing through the area

Moving on to The Strip!

The Las Vegas sign isn’t really that far from MGM Grand (about 1.3 miles or 2.1 km) so we decided to just walk to get there. There are various alternative options like the bus or Uber, but nothing beats walking when it comes to sightseeing.

Mandalay Bay and Delano with a train running

So yeah, there’s a gap between the Las Vegas sign and the hotels so it gets a bit dull from here…

These palms grow tall everywhere and is perfectly adapted to the desert weather

And then, finally…

I saw the sign: “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada” 😀

We still had enough time to do one more thing before we checkout and that is an early lunch. We could still walk back to our hotel but in the interest of time, we took the bus. And after arriving in our hotel, we decided to have our last meal in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Buffet.

One of the several rows of dishes at MGM Grand Buffet

Chilled section for fruits and other items

MGM Grand Buffet is a pretty affordable buffet, relatively speaking, especially when compared to Bacchanal Buffet of Caesar’s Palace. As such expectations were lower but to be honest, it’s not bad. It’s a no-frills buffet and there were quite some good dishes. Not a bad choice if you want to get stuffed without breaking the bank.

The actual Emmy trophy of David Copperfield who was having a show at the MGM Grand at the time

Afterwards, we went through checkout (which was quite a breeze compared to the check-in) and took an Uber ride back to the bus terminal—the same way we arrived.

Now, the long journey back to California begins…

I’d like to believe that we’re lucky to have witnessed rains in the desert 🙂

This is one of the strangest road names I’ve ever seen

Our bus on our stopover in Barstow (California)

The sun slowly sets over the desert as we gradually get near the end of our trip…

Finally arrived at Riverside Downtown…just one more Uber ride to home

Now that my Las Vegas trip had come to an end, it dawned upon me that my vacation on this side of the world is drawing to a conclusion. The last part is coming near—my return back home.

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West Coast Chronicles: