This trip seems pretty complete with nature, architectures and shopping all in one. My favourite place will still be Yellowstone. The geysers were fascinating and the colourful pools were beautiful. And there's consensus on this, so I had not lured my friends to a condemned place. I have enjoyed the shopping too.. The prices are alright.

Day 1- Las Vegas

My trip started with Las Vegas. After my 16/17 hours flight in a SQ plane, I finally reached San Franscisco airport. The flight has been more comfortable than my flight to UK (via Qantas). I arrive on the same day as my departure date since San Francisco is 15 hours behind Singapore time. The first day is all about flying as we took the domestic flight to Las Vegas after our international flight. We arrived in Las Vegas at around 5 plus in the evening. When I arrived, I truly knew that I was in Las Vegas as I was greeted by the slot machines. It's a true gambling city. It's a short cab drive to our hotel, planet hollywood. In fact, I could see the strip from the airport. That's how close the airport is to the main streets.

(Slot machines in Las Vegas airport)

(Sign greeting us at the airport ... )

Our first stop in Las Vegas is the Bellagio hotel as we wanted to try the buffet which is ranked the highest among the buffet category on tripadvisor. As we walked towards the hotel, we saw the Bellagio fountains. It's beautiful!

(Bellagio fountains with the 'Eiffel tower' in the background)

It's a long queue for the buffet which is not surprisingly as we had read about the long queues on the tripadvisor. The buffet comprises of Alaska crab legs, snow crab legs, Kobe beef (I am still puzzled whether it is the authetic Kobe beef), Prime ribs, Sushi and some Asian crusine. It also has a pretty wide range of desserts and ice-cream. The Alaska crab is sweet, but I will love it more if it's in a hot pot just like the crab I had in Hokkaido. Overall, it's not a bad meal but it doesn't fall into my top 3.

(Alaskan crab legs and the dessets)

After dinner, we went straight to the Bellagio fountain as our intention is to view the musical fountain at night. They played different genre of music each time. We stayed for 2 or 3 shows which were around 15 mins apart. It's a peaceful feeling as I watched the musical fountain.

We wanted to collect our shuttle bus tix at MGM Grand so we walked to the South strip, but the walk was surprisngly long. MGM Grand is really a big hotel. The walk through the casino to reach the hotel concierge is really painfully long.

(Paris Las Vegas hotel with its iconic replica of the Eiffel tower)

(Monte Carlo in the South Strip)

Day 2- Las Vegas

We walked to MGM Grand to take the shuttle bus to the Fashion Outlet of Las Vegas. I bought a coach bag at this outlet as the bag only cost USD 65 after a 50% discount! Besides coach, I also bought quite a few clothes and a Polo Ralph shirt for my dad. C introduced Charlotte Russe to me. I would say I quite like this brand. As the 6pm bus was full, we had to take the 3 pm bus back to our hotel. After a short rest, we decided to venture to the Casear Palace which is also on the Center strip where my hotel was located.

(The deep blue sky and the Roman decorations in Caesar Palace.)

Caesar Palace is of Roman theme. As we walked around the shopping mall, we saw Cheesecake factory and we decided to have our dinner in this famous restaurant. The cheesecake is not bad, but it pales in comparison with the Baileys cheesecake I had in Sunshine coast. We didn't like the buffalo wings which is coated with blue cheese and has this sour taste. We had ordered another pasta which taste quite good. The table next to us were looking at what we ordered and they replicated our choices.

After dinner, we decided to walk to another shopping mall and as we walked, we saw the Volcano show. It's not too bad with the fire spurting out from the "Volcano" outside the Mirage.

We decided to take the bus Deuce back to our hotel. The journey is short but it took at least 25 mins to reach as the traffic was horrendous and the bus was fully packed. The bus driver would stop at every stop and asked the various tourists to move in as much as they could.