Las Vegas Baby!
Trip Start
Aug 10, 2007
1
75
92
Trip End
Dec 27, 2007
Las Vegas,
Nevada,
United States
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Dad had a list, and we had to find as many as possible. This noble hunt did not involve dogs, horses or foxes, so we thought it safe to venture out into the vast metropolis of Las Vegas, armed only with our Lonely Planet guide book and Dad's list.
I pointed North and off we went, three intrepid explorers, going where no man had gone before ....... on foot! We soon discovered we would need a cab, as the biggest CD store in LV was further than I had anticipated.
The cabbie took us to the Boulevard Mall, on Maryland Parkway, where there is a huge "Best Buy" store. We even managed to convince Dad not to drive this time!
We exited the cab and watched in amazement as Dad, with sweaty palms, ran into the shop, pushing aside an old lady and sending a guy in a wheelchair flying into the wall, in his rush to begin his hunt.
We picked up the old lady and helped the guy in the wheelchair to get into the shop at a more sedate pace. We found Dad scouring the rows of country music CD's and helped him find some of them. It was necessary to wipe the foam off his mouth every now and then as he was so excited to see so many country CD's.
Dad's excitement began to wane as he could only find about 16 of the CD's. So, to console him, he wondered into the mall and went to look for lunch. Dad and I had a huge plate of Chinese food, while Jules had some Mexican tacos.
We marveled at the enormous portions of food we each had and we were able to solve America's obesity problem there and then ...... how about a serving for one person, and not a family of 4?! If a serving is sooooo big, the person eating it will surely end up getting big - simple? We thought so!
Before we solved any other problems, we decided to head home and enjoy listening to some of the CD's.
In the evening it was the Country Music Awards show on TV, so we settled down to our Chinese food left-overs in front of the box. We were especially excited when Sugarland won "Best Duo"!
Dad had a good win at the Flamingo Casino but our supper at Denny's was a bit crap. Dad felt like shrimps and steak, so when we saw an ad for that at Denny's, we went to eat there. Dad could not understand a word the waitress said, so that just added to the fun and games (especially when he commented on this with the waitress still standing at the table!)
We then headed to the Toby Keith pub to listen to some country music - another disaster! The band playing were very poor and it took us a while just to figure out that the high pitched singing was in fact the cow "boy" and not his cow girl companion!! However, the fact that the singer's nuts had not yet dropped was the least of his problems, because he could not sing!
We endured the poor singing long enough for Dad to have his draught and Jules a shandy. The best part of the evening was watching the wannabee cowboys and cowgirls strutting their stuff on the dance floor.
So we headed back to the Jockey Club and had some coffee, looking at our view of the FL Tower, as we contemplated leaving for Nashville the following day.
Returning from Nashville, it was time for the souvenir hunt! Jules and I had done a few recci's, so we took Dad to the shops we thought had the best value and best goodies.
A Christmas decoration for each family was easy. The hard part was what to get after that. Anyway we managed to help Dad buy gifts for everyone.
We had a late lunch, and while Dad had a rest from all the walking, Jules and I went to do the laundry and some shopping. We headed back to the Boulevard Mall and put in the washing, then we went to Best Buys again, but this time to get an Ipod.
My Ipod was broken and the 40 gig replacement Ipods at Best Buy were perfect. I got my Ipod and then we spent some time in the mall at American Eagle and Old Navy.
That evening we went up the Strip to see the casinos we had not seen yet, The Luxor, Excalibur, Mandalay Bay, MGM and New York New York.
It was brilliant, we walked to the New York New York casino and went inside to have a flutter. While Dad did his usual (winning) Jules and I were over the moon to walk away with a $200 win! We had supper at an Irish pub in the casino, sitting outside on the Strip.
The meal was OK, but we have certainly had better Irish stews in our lives, however we were quite content as we had won!
New York New York has huge replicas of the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, the Brooklyn Bridge etc. As we walked past them we came upon the medieval castle casino called Excalibur. We caught the mono rail from inside Excalibur towards Mandalay Bay.
The mono rail goes past the Luxor to Mandalay Bay, and then you can travel back to the Luxor. So I left Dad to gamble and Jules to watch Dad gamble at Mandalay Bay and I went back to take some photos.
The Luxor has a giant Sphinx outside the casino, and the casino itself is enclosed inside a huge pyramid.
After a few pics I joined Dad and Jules. We all had a Starbucks latte and donuts (while Dad gambled) and then we took a stroll home. I was using the tripod to get good night shots of the casino's and eventually I was left on my own as "I was taking too long".
And that was that, we had come to the end of our Las Vegas time! We would leave for the Grand Canyon in the morning and then we would have an overnight stay at the "Circus Circus" casino before leaving Las Vegas.
VIVA LAS VEGAS!
