Halloween is a big deal for Grant and me. We travel from coast to coast going to haunted houses to find that next big scare. This year we did not need to leave our home to be scared with all that is going on in the world, but being the thrill-seekers we decided to go out anyway. With Las Vegas “unofficially open” we rolled the dice and took a chance for a fun time.
Our Saturday morning flight out was normal. Grabbed our rental car and headed to our hotel. Grant procured a reservation for $18 a night at Stratosphere because our Halloween events were on that side of the strip. We won’t talk about how much the resort fee was... That’s where they get you.
The first stop was Mon Ami Gabi; the French bistro at the Paris Hotel. Grant loves the caesar salad at this place and constantly rants and raves. We had a very nice meal and then headed out to the Hoover Dam.
Having been to Las Vegas a million times and seen the signs for Hoover Dam tours everywhere it’s strange, but I have never been. Grant went as a child so he was excited to see it as an adult. The tours were closed, but we got to see the bridge and stand on the dam. Travel Tip: don’t park on the Nevada side. Keep going across the dam and into Arizona to save yourself the $10 parking fee Nevada tries to charge people.
We drove back to the hotel and got freshened up for our evening Haunted House. Our first stop was the Haunted Ride. This was an offshoot of the now de-funked Fright Doom at Circus Circus’s Adventure Dome and the Saw Escape Room. The premise behind this was that you would enter a haunted medical facility with doctors carrying cattle prods and usher you to a golf cart. You would then be personally chauffeured by this doctor through a maze of zombies, demons, clowns, that would chase you in the golf cart. Considering the limitations and social distancing guidelines— they did a stellar job hiding behind the fog, strobe lights and being able to sneak up on you.
Haunted houses rarely get my heart going, but it gets my stomach. Grant scored major major brownie points for getting a reservation at a restaurant that has long eluded me— Lotus of Siam. This unassuming Thai restaurant in a strip center off of the Vegas strip is anything but average. This restaurant has been featured in multiple television shows and has even been visited by the Queen of England. Grant is not a huge Thai fan so he had no idea what or how much I was ordering. I somehow managed to slip 2 appetizers, 1 soup, and 3 entrees for the two of us by him without objection. We also somehow found a way to eat all of that food. Highly recommend the Nam Kao Tod (crispy rice with sausage appetizer) and the Chef Special Crispy Duck Panang. Everything we ordered was $15 or less beside the duck, which was $30 (but the duck is usually expensive).
After licking multiple plates clean enough that they didn’t need to go through the dishwasher— Grant wheeled me out to our next haunted house. This was a new haunted house called Asylum and Hotel Fear that was found at the Meadows Mall.
There were people everywhere, but we had reservations so we were confident that we would not have to wait too long. However, as we parked and started walking to the event a gunman in a hoodie pulled out a handgun and began shooting. Bam. Bam. Bam. Bam. Bam. We had a perfect view of the guy shooting five shots away from us and others. We were close enough to see the red and orange glow of the barrel of the gun. Screams ran out and people began dispersing in every direction. We turned around, ducked our heads, and ran for the car. Grant got us out of there as quickly as he could. As we got on the highway and looked back police lights were already flashing. A bit shocked by what just happened —we returned to our hotel and called it an early night. We turned on the local news thinking that there would be some mention of the event, but there was nothing. The top story was far more sadistic and as the movie Nightcrawler put it best “if it bleeds, it leads.” So we took the non-mention as a positive that no one was hurt.
The next morning I scoured the news to see if there was any mention of our eventful evening and it didn’t even register as newsworthy in print. If Las Vegas wasn’t going to make a big deal about it neither were we. So we lounged around our room for a bit and then got up to try a restaurant Grant wanted to eat at called Firefly Tapas Kitchen and Bar. The food was spot on and continued our trend of having excellent food. Give me a bacon-wrapped date and you won’t see it for very long.
As we finished lunch, we realized we had nothing else planned. Our flight wasn’t until 7 pm so we needed something. Having looked up some side trips we kept seeing Red Rock Canyon come up over and over again. We had been to Red Rock Casino before with the Newmans, but never to the conservation area. So we jumped in our Kia Soul and set off for our next adventure highly unprepared. As we pulled off for the entrance for the scenic route there was a line of cars trying to get in. We also saw a $15 price tag and started having doubts. I was all set to turn around and leave when we saw a one-way sign that gave notice that exiting would pierce the tires. We didn’t need a clearer sign that we were going in.
Not realizing what we were in store for we were pleasantly surprised that it was a hike/climb on boulders and dunes. The one downfall of not knowing what we were doing was that both Grant and I were climbing with leather sandals, not tennis shoes. We somehow made it up pretty high with limited traction issues, snapped a few photos, and only had one little mishap where Grant slipped while leaping from boulder to boulder. The poor nearby hikers heard lots of expletives as Grant peeled himself up off the giant rock and limped the rest of the way. There were other places to stop and get out of the car for more climbing but for some reason, Grant wanted to keep driving.
As we were leaving the reserve we received notification that our flight was delayed by over two hours. This was disappointing as we were already ready to go. We went back to the hotel room and took a nap. We woke up hungry after our big day of exploring and ended up going to Las Vegas’s Town Square. I am not sure how long this has been opened, but it’s a high-end shopping and restaurant area right by the airport, which is a perfect place to waste time. We ate at Brio Italian and split some dishes. The only thing that Grant refused to eat was the beef carpaccio, which came out on a plate wider than a foot-long sub from Subway. I gobbled up everything on the plate including the last caper that fell on the table. Yummy.
We returned the rental car and then waited at the airport. The winds were extremely bad which explained why our flight was delayed. Take off was a bit rocky but the landing at home was smooth. Now to go to the scariest house of all— our own where our dogs have been left with minimal supervision for the last 48 hours. Yikes!