Tuesday - September 7th, 2010
Drive to LA
Up early to shower and start repacking luggage for our journey. Snapped this shot from the hotel room overlooking the backlot of the property. Noticed the roads were wet, it rained earlier that morning... in these desert environment, rain doesn't come too often. Look at the skies... is someone trying to tell me (us) something or I'm just imagining.
We left the hotel close to 9AM with Florence and PCC who dropped us off at the car rental building. After saying our goodbyes, I went to one of the kiosks and retrieved the papers for our rental. We chose another silver Camry that has Illinois plate. Didn't want to waste much time, or rather didn't have much appetite for breakfast so we just headed straight for the freeway heading back to LA.
About an hour into the journey, our stomachs started to make known of its emptiness, so we were on the lookout for restaurants and I believe it was in Primm that we saw one of the casinos with billboard flashing great deals on their breakfast: $3.99 for 2 pancakes, 2 eggs and choice of 2 bacons or sausages. Without the slightest hesitance, we pulled over toward the casino for refuel.
Each of us had a plate of the advertised platter, Papa had bacon with sunny side up eggs with the pancakes, Mom and Sean Ee each had bacon with scrambled eggs with pancakes, and I had sunny side up with sausage and pancakes as well. Initially, I thought all that wasn't going to enough to satisfy our hunger. But after wolfing down everything, we, or at least I felt quite content, almost to the brink of fullness.
After heading back onto the freeway, I let Papa take over the driving because Mom was saying he could boast about it (that he's driven in the US) and because the freeway was just one straight road and also one way, I did not find any harm to it. Besides, it's not like Papa didn't know how to drive, just on the opposite side. I think Papa did pretty good except he wasn't really comfortable in speeding! He drove for about an hour or so before I took over the seat again as we approach to exit Barstow.
Barstow is about halfway between Vegas and LA and the only reason for this stop is because of the Factory Outlets. Since the trip has been cut short, I thought we might as well take the opportunity to utilize whatever remaining time we have, besides it was on the way anyway. So, Mom and Sean Ee went into the Coach store first while Papa and I went into the sports outlets. Papa bought a couple of shirts and when we returned to get Mom and Sean Ee, they were nowhere to be found! After walking up and down the whole court of stores (thank God it wasn't that big of a place), Papa finally found them. Well, they weren't done yet, and by they I mean Mom, Sean Ee and Papa hehe they were in shopping haven. Oh, Mom and Sean Ee didn't get anything from Coach because they were way overpriced.
After shopping, of course, we were famished, well, at least I was with all that walking. So, we browsed around for meal options and ended up at El Pollo Loco. Cheap, tasty and not junkie. We inhaled those deliciously grilled chicken along with the two sides of rice and pico de gallo, guacamole, cilantro, onions as condiments. Once hunger is taken care of, we resumed our journey.
Remainder of journey was uneventful mostly until we reached the LA county line where traffic starts getting heavier, thanks to GPS, it was able to get us through different freeways, avoiding heavily traffic areas. We reached home after 6PM. The journey should have been about 5 hours, took us all day to complete but it was well worth the time because everyone get a taste of Outlet shopping.
All I remembered after reaching home was I sat on the couch to watch some TV and passed out.
We left the hotel close to 9AM with Florence and PCC who dropped us off at the car rental building. After saying our goodbyes, I went to one of the kiosks and retrieved the papers for our rental. We chose another silver Camry that has Illinois plate. Didn't want to waste much time, or rather didn't have much appetite for breakfast so we just headed straight for the freeway heading back to LA.
About an hour into the journey, our stomachs started to make known of its emptiness, so we were on the lookout for restaurants and I believe it was in Primm that we saw one of the casinos with billboard flashing great deals on their breakfast: $3.99 for 2 pancakes, 2 eggs and choice of 2 bacons or sausages. Without the slightest hesitance, we pulled over toward the casino for refuel.
Each of us had a plate of the advertised platter, Papa had bacon with sunny side up eggs with the pancakes, Mom and Sean Ee each had bacon with scrambled eggs with pancakes, and I had sunny side up with sausage and pancakes as well. Initially, I thought all that wasn't going to enough to satisfy our hunger. But after wolfing down everything, we, or at least I felt quite content, almost to the brink of fullness.
After heading back onto the freeway, I let Papa take over the driving because Mom was saying he could boast about it (that he's driven in the US) and because the freeway was just one straight road and also one way, I did not find any harm to it. Besides, it's not like Papa didn't know how to drive, just on the opposite side. I think Papa did pretty good except he wasn't really comfortable in speeding! He drove for about an hour or so before I took over the seat again as we approach to exit Barstow.
Barstow is about halfway between Vegas and LA and the only reason for this stop is because of the Factory Outlets. Since the trip has been cut short, I thought we might as well take the opportunity to utilize whatever remaining time we have, besides it was on the way anyway. So, Mom and Sean Ee went into the Coach store first while Papa and I went into the sports outlets. Papa bought a couple of shirts and when we returned to get Mom and Sean Ee, they were nowhere to be found! After walking up and down the whole court of stores (thank God it wasn't that big of a place), Papa finally found them. Well, they weren't done yet, and by they I mean Mom, Sean Ee and Papa hehe they were in shopping haven. Oh, Mom and Sean Ee didn't get anything from Coach because they were way overpriced.
After shopping, of course, we were famished, well, at least I was with all that walking. So, we browsed around for meal options and ended up at El Pollo Loco. Cheap, tasty and not junkie. We inhaled those deliciously grilled chicken along with the two sides of rice and pico de gallo, guacamole, cilantro, onions as condiments. Once hunger is taken care of, we resumed our journey.
Remainder of journey was uneventful mostly until we reached the LA county line where traffic starts getting heavier, thanks to GPS, it was able to get us through different freeways, avoiding heavily traffic areas. We reached home after 6PM. The journey should have been about 5 hours, took us all day to complete but it was well worth the time because everyone get a taste of Outlet shopping.
All I remembered after reaching home was I sat on the couch to watch some TV and passed out.
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