OLA: Leaving Las Vegas 2

Wendell and Angie and Tony and Bernie finally met at the Annual Fiesta
of the National Federation of Filipino Associations in Las Vegas!

No, no, no…there’s no sequel to the Nicolas Cage movie! This is my second post about leaving Las Vegas (please see the first one on http://rvcruisinglifestyle.blogspot.com/2011/09/ola-leaving-la-vegas.html ). The first time was when I spent a few days with my gal pals, Ann and Jingjing. This time around Bill and I spent almost 5 weeks in this Entertainment Capital of the World. And so it was harder to leave. I thoroughly enjoyed all the eating, the playing, and loving! On this last week we decided to see the new Star Trek movie in 3 D since we had thoroughly enjoyed the Iron Man 3 in 3 D on our first week (please see http://rvcruisinglifestyle.blogspot.com/2013/05/ola-eating-playing-and-loving-in-las.html ).

I found Bill enjoying a book at Boulder Station Hotel and Casino
 when I came back from played slots! 

We should have left earlier but I won a free one-night stay at Boulder Station Hotel and Casino with our Boarding Pass. We also got a free lunch buffet so we only had to pay for one! I had 5 plates: Asian, Italian, Mexican, American, and desert. I even played slots for all of $2 and the free $3 slot play that I won. I ended up taking home$4.56 and having fun for almost 4 hours at Dangerous Beauty! We also won a one-hour free bingo play but we did not win any prize there nor at the cash raffles held every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Camping World in South Las Vegas

We added 2 days to our stay at Boulder Station to give Camping World enough time to make some small repair jobs on the RV: the microwave alignment, the electric element for the hot water heater, a plumbing issue, and the trim on the slide-out flooring. So instead of May 30, we left Las Vegas on June 2 after buying some of my supplies (ensaymada, red eggs, pan de sal, hopia, bihon, and gulaman) the previous day from Seafood City, a grocery chain catering to Filipinos in major urban centers with huge Filipino population. 

 

Wendell and Angie having tea with us after dinner at our RV

Tony, the chef, with the kitchen mural he painted as background

And, if we had bienvenidas, we also had despedidas! Angie and Wendell had chicken barbeque, fresh lumpia, and buko pandan at our RV. We spent almost 7 hours bonding beautifully with all our stories, Angie and I in Tagalog and Bill and Wendell in English! And we had another 7-hour marathon at Tony and Bernie’s lovely 4,500 sq. ft. home in North Las Vegas. Tony was both the master chef dishing out endless trays of bratwurst, bruschetta, glazed ham, liver pate, brie and blue cheeses and barista, too, serving us with overflowing glasses of champagne, red wine, white zinfandel, beer, and single malt whisky.

the grand entrance to Tony and Bernie's lovely home

Angie and Carol in front of the Philippine Consular Outreach
at the Annual Fiesta in Boulevard Mall

The day before we left the two couples finally met each other at the Annual Fiesta of the National Federation of Filipino Associations at the Boulevard Mall. Angie had an appointment with her orthodontist so we had our final goodbye with her and Wendell, then we had our final goodbye with Tony and Bernie at Chinatown where we had Vietnamese cuisine. The huge statue at the middle of the Plaza told the fictional novel about the Journey to the West. And, as usual, a large Chinese Pagoda heralded the entry to the Las VegaS Chinatown.

a nice despedida at a Vietnamese restaurant in Chinatown

The Journey to the West Monument
with the Pagoda at the background

Leaving Las Vegas was sad for me! The 4 ½ weeks we spent there had been full of merry-making, of superb food, amazing shows, fun casino plays, box-office 3 D movies, gorgeous nature escapes, and relaxing hotel stays. But, most of all, the visits with Angie and Wendell and Tony and Bernie were heartwarming and unforgettable. By the way, although Bill does not eat them, we passed by Ate Tesing’s home before picking up the RV at Camping World. She had a fresh batch of ‘tulingan’ for me!

Oasis Las Vegas Resort

a luxurious campsite at Las Vegas Motorcoach Resort

As a closing note, let me just say that we haven’t closed our eyes to the possibility that emerged during this trip: that Las Vegas could be a place where we could settle. As a matter of fact we visited two awesome RV resorts that may be candidates: Oasis Las Vegas Resort and Las Vegas Motorcoach Resort. Oasis had a man-made beach/pool area and LVM had cabanas and entertainment areas built on each site! Both had Texas Hold Em tourneys twice a week and karaoke sessions, too!

the refreshing backyard pool of Tony and Bernie

But we did not cancel our reservation at Phoenix’s Viewpoint RV Resort. Although entertainment and friends are pluses for Vegas, Phoenix ranks as 5^th best in the country in terms of health care. Also, winter temperatures are warmer by 10 degrees! It is happy to know, however, that we will always be able to visit Vegas on the way to and from our visits to our children and grandchildren from Phoenix! In this sense, we are not really leaving Las Vegas! It will always be a temporary home! Never will it be Last Vegas!