Roundup: Vegas deals and snow; Obama inauguration; Mammoth ski flights

Good morning, travelers.  Did you hear about the snow in Las Vegas? Amazing. And so are the hotel deals there. We’ve got fresh news too about Barack Obama (including some two-wheeled fans, above) and flights to the Mammoth Mountain ski area.

Snow on the Strip: As a freak snowstorm blew into Las Vegas Wednesday, New York-New York’s faux skyline looked like the real one on the East Coast, dusted with flakes. Not so charming were the delayed and canceled flights at the city’s McCarran International Airport (LAS) and elsewhere across the nation. Flight traffic at McCarran was still snarled this morning, although problems eased elsewhere, according to Flightstats.com.

Deals on the Strip: As the economy sputters, Las Vegas is a discount factory. Among the latest offers are rooms from $36 at the Excalibur, $50 at the Luxor (code LDCRISS) and $169 at the upscale Signature at MGM Grand (code PKG011, with $100 resort credit).

Obama stars and spokes: Aretha Franklin and Yo-Yo Ma are among the celebrities who will perform at Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration next month. For details, see Times staffer Mary Forgione’s post. Plans to include Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., who backed California Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriage, have stirred up a storm of protests from gay-rights activists.

Meanwhile, Ryan Bowen, an Occidental College graduate from Highland Park, Calif., is bicycling 4,000 miles to the inauguration. He’s had plenty of travails along the way, including knee problems, broken spokes and navigation glitches. Check out the great photo gallery by Times’ photographer Kirk McKoy, Pete King’s story, and and Bowen’s website. He was in Texas Wednesday.

Fly ‘n ski at Mammoth: Long-awaited flights from LAX to the Mammoth Mountain area start today. Times blogger Pete Thomas has all the details.

—Jane Engle, assistant Los Angeles Times Travel editor

[Photo: Ryan Bowen, riding across the country to Barack Obama's inauguration, with friends. Credit: Kirk McKoy]

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This entry was posted on Thursday, December 18, 2008 at 9:21 am by Jane Engle and is filed under Airline travel, Business Travel, California, Celebrity, Deals, Frequent Flier, Good Morning, Hotels, Lake Tahoe & Eastern Sierra, Las Vegas, Luxury Travel, News, Tips & Advice, Northern California, Outdoors & Adventure, Sierra Nevada, Winter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.