What happens in Vegas...

gets posted on my blog








Tuesday morning we got up and packed up the car. Lilly was getting nervous because we were packing up her things as well...this couldn't be good as far as she was concerned. But she loves to go riding in the car and went to the car willingly.

We get about 1/2 the way to MIL's house when DH asks if I remembered to pack his tennis shoes...."ummm I packed the dog, the kid and myself and now I'm supposed to remember to pack for you as well?"
So we stop at a Kohl's on the way to get him new shoes and apparently for the dog to embarrass me too because she decided to defecate on the sidewalk outside the Kohls store...two feet from a nice patch of grass! So I got to go find something in which to clean up her mess with.

At MIL's we get Darly & Lilly settled and then head for the airport. I started feeling weird about leaving Darly behind. This was our first ever trip without her. I got over it by the time we landed in Vegas. The flight was uneventful.

1st lesson learned in Vegas... Never use the ODS shuttle service! The AC doesn't work on the van and it was a very hot ride to our hotel... more about them later.

We arrived at our hotel after 6pm and DH leads me to the VIP check in. Woo Hoo! We then learn that the room we had been booked in was not yet clean. WHAT? Check out is at 11am. But they booked in another room asking DH which room he preferred...we really didn't care, but later learned that we should not have chose that room. It faced the pool (would have rather had strip view) and it had the access to the pool in the same location as our elevators...so it was always crowded.

When we checked in, DH got a VIP pass that entitled us to a lot of free stuff and allowed us to cut in line at any place with a line. cool! So we decided to have dinner at Sir Galahad's. We are small people and usually share a meal when we go out because most places serve way too much. So we ordered one of the queen cut prime rib dinners. It was an extreemly nice dinner. They roll up this huge cart that has a ton of prime rib in it...carve the meat off and serve it with mashed potatoes, creamed spinach and Yorkshire pudding. YUMMY! We had more than enough food to eat. Oh and our waiter was kind enough to explain how our VIP pass worked. He didn't do much of the work that evening...I felt that the gal Nadia should have gotten our tip...she brought the drinks & the bread and made sure we were happy... maybe they split it.

I was kinda tired and overwhelmed by our trip so I went up to our room to plan out the rest of our stay while DH went to try to win some money. I had one of those What's On Magazines to help me plan everything. So I went threw and found all the shows that I was interested in and found a lot of coupons too.

Wednesday morning we had breakfast at Sherwood Forest Cafe. There was a line to get in, but with our line pass we zipped right up to the front. I'm sure that folks in the regular line were upset, but it couldn't be helped.

Lesson #2 learned in Vegas...It is good to be a VIP! :D

After breakfast, which wasn't all that great, we went to get DH registered for his tournament. They gave him his gifts, a shirt and two watches with motorcycles on all of it. The shirt is way too big so we'll be giving that to BIL who loves motorcycles. Then we headed down the strip to see some stuff.

We walked over to the half priced tickets stand to see what they had. I noticed pretty quickly that they were quoting the most expensive seats for what the regular price was and figured they must actually be giving you the cheaper seats. So like for one show they said the regular price was $182...so if they sold you the ticket for $91, you felt like you were getting a deal... but if you looked at the magazine, it said that the tickets start at $90... and they didn't even have tickets for what we wanted to see... Penn and Teller.

So we had lunch at Wienerschnitzel because I wasn't that hungry and DH really loves their chili dogs...again we shared.

Next we headed over to the Bellagio to see the inside & shopps. We also went by the Monte Carlo and finally the Venetian...where we caught the Deuce for our trip to Fremont Street and we heard the guy you hear singing on that website. He's a really good sax player and he wrote the theme song for the Fremont Street Experience.

We had dinner at Vic & Anthony's , which was nice...but I'm soooooo glad that we had a coupon for dinner. OUWCH! Again we shared and the waiter thought that we were cheap...ha! It was still too much food for us to eat.

Thursday was the first day of DH's tournament. The hotel provided us breakfast that day...WHAT A SPREAD! It was very very very nice and yummy too. DH had scheduled himself for the first round, so after we ate he played & I looked around the shops. The rounds are only 15 minutes, so I didn't get much time to spend money. But after his round he went to play in the casino and I went over to the Tropicana to see the Titanic exhibit. Click on the image galery (go ahead, I'll wait). When you first enter the exhibit you are given a boarding pass that has the name of a passenger who was actually on the Titanic. You learn the name and what class they were in. You get to see the accomidations they stayed in (recreations of 1st, & 3rd class rooms a picture of a 2nd class room) and you get to see items recovered from the wreckage. At the end you can touch an "iceberg"... sheet of real ice in the shape of an iceberg and finally you see a master list of all the passengers to see if your passenger survived. Seeing how my passenger was in 3rd class, I didn't hold out hope for her and I learned that she and her two children perished.

I returned to our hotel to have lunch with DH...we had Quiznos at the food court. It was good, but I was shocked at the price. Vegas sure hikes things up. We later learned that we could have had our lunch for free at the tournament. They didn't tell us that when we registered.

I think that we went back to our room after that.

We had tickets for the Tournament of Kings for dinner. Here, that doesn't do the show justice. Let me see if I can find a better link...Ah, much better! I didn't know I was drinking Dragon's Blood! It was quite tasty. They served us way too much food! I couldn't share unless I sat in DH's lap which would have made it hard to see the show.

After dinner we went over to the Bellagio to see the fountain show. We stayed for an hour and saw 5 shows (they go off every 15 min after 8pm). DH was hoping that they would do a fast song, but we saw mostly ballads. The second one was really cool with mist on the water. A great show.

Friday we had the tournament breakfast & lunch. I bought a bunch of stuff and got one of those Aquamassages...just the massage, I didn't buy the machine. :) It was quite nice, but I think I prefer a human massage.

Friday night's dinner was a buffet provided for the tournament players. Since the theme was a biker theme, that was also the theme of the food. They served, buffalo wings, quesadillas, collard greens, yams, blackened corn on the cob, potato salad, sausage, barbecued chicken, ribs & brisket. Not their best work. They then started the entertainment...which was 3 gals dressed in skimpy biker gear dancing like show girls...the one stripped down to her bikini. I was not impressed. Dh & I speculated that if the show had been after the awards that no one would have stayed for it.

And of course they had the awards for the winners of the tournament. Dh did not place in the top 4, who got $1,777; $2,777; $4,777 & $20,777. However, this tournament had a lucky 7 to it and everyone who's place ended in a 7 won $777. DH placed 17th! and yes the IRS already knows this.

We returned home on Saturday. Oh, I said I would have more to say about ODS shuttle service... the receptionist told us to meet the shuttle at the front door of the casino. But we were supposed to be at the back door and missed our shuttle. But the bellman called us another shuttle who was there before I could bother to sit down.

I had Slots of fun in Vegas. Darly & Lilly had a good time at MIL's house. I learned that MIL had not given my child a balanced diet while we were gone...so I'll have to try extra hard to make up for that.

DH mentioned at on point during our stay that we should find someplace to go dancing with some good music. So when I got home I started asking my friends where I should go. When I told DH Monday night that one had suggested that we check in a newspaper that he reads at work, he was confused about what I was talking about... I explained and then learned that what he meant was that we should find a place to go dancing while we were in Vegas. Silly me! I thought that he wanted for us to have date nights... I may try for it anyway, it just means that I'll have to figure out where to go and arrange the child care... wish me luck!