Las Vegas

April 7th
We arrive in Vegas with our rental car and checked into our hotel at the Monte Carlo.

Our room was on the 28th floor. We had requested non-smoking and one King sized bed (opposed to two Queens). In order to meet our request they put us in the handicap room. The room had the biggest bathroom, but of wasted/wide open space. The room window faced into the construction site of the new City Center complex. (The two slanted building with yellow are residential buildings - who wants to live on the strip? The building in the center of the photo is a hotel that is smoke free, all suite and casino free. To the left of that is Aria, the usual hotel resort casino place. And the building on the very left is the executive hotel.
Through the buildings you could see the strip to the north, the Flamingo, Venetian, Treasure Island etc.
We had our first dinner at the Buffet in our hotel (with a two for one coupon that we got room rate). Then out on the strip.

The first stop (and the casino next door) was the Fountains of the Bellagio.

Inside the Bellagio we found a Spring Tulip Display. It was pretty cool, and very spring inspiring. This is a snail with a shell made of roses.

We ended our evening fairly early with drinks at Brand the steakhouse and lounge in our hotel. Our second coupon with the room, 50% off cocktails (if only I had remembered to use it).

April 8th
We headed out to Tix4Tonight to find half price tickets. Our hope was to get tickets to Cirque's Ka or Mystere. Neither were available (because the rest of the Cirque shows were dark this week). We also wanted half price to Bodies (the science exhibit) and The Price is Right. The only one that was available was The Price is Right. The guy wanted to help us find something to do, so he encouraged us to purchase a 50% off reservation to a restaurant - we agreed and he chose one for us.

I really wanted to see and wanted Logan to see a Cirque show so we walked over to MGM to the Ka box office to see if we would purchase tickets for the next night. They had 8 pairs of tickets left for their two shows, the rest were singles. I felt that even thought they were expensive at full price I figured that we wouldn't regret it - more on that later.

Then back on the strip for some lunch. We stopped at the little street cafe type thing between MGM and Planet Hollywood.

Then to Bally's for The Price is Right Live Show. We had a great time. Kendra and Aaron had gone while on their trip and recommended it. Especially because Kendra was called and won! Maybe because Kendra won, maybe because we were practicing Price is Right on our Wii, and maybe because I had no hope for the slots - but I thought we were going to win! We did not get called, but had a great time anyway. My favorite moments were during both the Hole In One game and Plinko. Both times the audience was quiet as we watched that putt or that last plinko chip, and they got it - and the whole audience erupted! It was a great time!
After the game we headed further down the strip (past all those weird, kinda skeezy casinos: Casino Royale, O'Shea's etc). The Venetian is so beautiful. Me with the Rialto Bridge behind me.

The inside of the Venetian is also very beautiful. Trompe loi painting is very cool.

We didn't see the Blue Man Group, but their billboard was everywhere. This is Logan's impression.
The Venetian seems to just turn into The Palazzo. It has a very similar feel. This is Logan in front of a the huge water fall. He is making a wish on a penny.
Outside The Palazzo.

Back inside the Palazzo Casino we found an Original Star Trek penny slot machine. Logan put $3.15 in and we walked away with $26.35. It was a great machine with many bonuses - shooting things with phasers and such.
We left that slot machine (and our great cocktail waitress that was very attentive and brought us two drinks in the short time we sat there) because we had reservations for Mario Batali's restaurant Enoteca San Marco in the Piazza San Marco of the Venetian. It was a great meal. The ambiance was beautiful, as though we were on a patio at sunset. The food was great, Logan had veal meatballs and I had an eggplant, tomato, ricotta cheese pasta. Delicious. And great wine!
After dinner we crossed the street to Treasure Island.
We got our first really big drink - margaritas in our new friend "skully".

Back down the street toward home, with a quick stop to watch the Volcano of The Mirage.

Then into Ceasar's through the Forum shoppes. I stopped at the Victoria Secret with the promotion card the received from the store in Palm Desert. I won a gift certificate of $10
and had a great, kinda drunk, time with the sales lady.
April 9th
We started the day with a trip down to the pool. In this photo you see the Lazy River. It is not so lazy, the current whips you around. Behind that is the wave pool. Not pictured is another pool and a hot tub. The Lazy River was heated, the other pools were not. It was sunny and warm, but not hot enough to be in that cold pool.

We weren't there very long because there were so many kids! To many kids! It was wild to hear over the loud speaker the play by play of a beer chugging contest while the kids swim around.

We headed the other way down the strip to New York New York for lunch. Another coupon, two free drinks from Nine Fine Irishman with our lunch. Logan had the largest corned beef sandwich I have ever seen and I had a turkey panini with cranberry chutney and spinach. Very nice.

Logan was feeling a little under the weather but we pushed on. We checked out New York New York, got a really big drink from Coyote Ugly - they called it "the ugly stick". It was a great afternoon. Logan felt a little ill so we headed back to the hotel to sit for a bit. We had to be well for our big night. (We also cheaped out with Subway in our room for supper, gotta save a buck somewhere.)

We went to Ka. We were not impressed. Don't get me wrong, the technical aspects of the show were very cool. The huge rectangle that turned in every direction, that they did everything on. It was very cool. But nothing happened for a whole hour. There was so much story they were trying to tell without words that I was bored. There was a demonstration of martial arts, and then another, a baton solo and shadow puppets. Don't get me wrong, I twirled baton for years, I know that what she was doing was difficult, but... come on. At the hour mark we saw a trapeze act where they have the "ribbon" that two people hang onto. And then the men that run in the circles on either end of the spinning arm. Yes, they were more of what I had expected and wanted - but having seen "O" live and "Corteo" and "Dralion" on DVD I have a certain expectation for these acts. I am not saying that it is easy, but I would rate their level of difficulty at a three. On the way out of the theatre I heard a number of people comparing it to other Cirque shows and feeling the same way I did.

After the show we met up with Kenn at the lion habitat of the MGM. We grabbed our second big drink of the day from Fat Tuesday as well as a Jello shot. We then hopped into the car Kenn had borrowed from a friend and went to Freemont Street.

Here is Logan with his big drink with Kenn.

We were there quiet late at night so we had missed all of the light shows in the sky.

April 10th

By day ten we were tired. It has been a fantastic holiday but we had done a ton. So we decided to take it easy. We walked through Excalibor into the Luxor to go to the Bodies Exhibit. This is the exhibit where they have real bodies on display to teach you about the body. It was fasinating! Especially the fetus section. To see the development of a baby, and how much they grow and change in a week of development. I learned a lot.

After sitting in the Luxor to relax, seeing the exhibit and sitting some more we headed back to New York New York to people watch.

After sitting, and playing a bit, we walked over to Planet Hollywood. It was the one casino that was new and I wanted to see. We spent most of our time in the Miracle Mile shops. On my last trip with mom and Stef we walked through the Desert Passage shops while it was the Aladdin many times - it was our gateway from our hotel to the strip. The picture shows how they aren't finished their renovations from Aladdin to Planet Hollywood. One one side of the arch it was shiny black tile floors, white tiled walls with red accents. On the other side it was still arabian nights.

We took in two of their free "shows": the indoor rain storm, which we watched from our table at lunch; and the laser show. Which was pretty lame.

Then we headed back to the Monte Carlo and sat around a bit waiting for our shuttle to the airport. And home we went.

We had a great time! But were happy to be home!