Vegas, part deux...

Sunday in Vegas, we had a good day I’d say. Busy, but good, no, make that great.

Started off with another stellar buffet for breakfast, and this one was cheap actually. $13 for some outstanding food. You name it, they had it for breakfast there. Made to order omelets, crepes, blintzes, pastries, flaky buttery croissants, eggs, bacon, sausages, fruit, salmon, capers, and many other delicious treats were to be found at this place. And, to top it all off, since we slept so much the day before, we beat all of the crowds to the joint, and got in pretty easily. Once we were stuffed, we took off for the day to explore other parts of the Strip that we hadn’t seen yet.

Moved South down the road to check out New York – New York, mostly because we wanted to ride the roller coaster there. In Vegas, they put in a new monorail system, with no charge to the taxpayers (I’m sure that the casinos paid for it because it stops at all of the major ones, and you have to walk through them to get to it, and you have to walk through them when you get off of it), and for $15/day you can ride all you want, we being fans of the mass and rapid transit systems of the world decided that indeed, that would be much better than walking all the way down the strip when it’s 100 degrees outside. Even with the monorail, there was still plenty o’ walking to be had, so much so, I probably should have been wearing the old running the shoes the entire time, of course, me being me, I decided to wear flip flops, which by the end of last night were tending to hurt my feet a touch. But anyway, we made it eventually to New York – New York, and made our way to the roller coaster which winds itself around the outside of the casino, and whips and loops, and drops and swoops, in other words, it was a pretty kick ass roller coaster, and I’ve been on a few of them in my time after all. The first drop on that thing was pretty sweet. Nice steep climb going up, and a long steep drop coming down the back side. Corkscrews, loops, and all sorts of other good stuff. It was actually a pretty rough ride even for a steel coaster, but it still kicked ass. I love me some roller coasters. I think that the fiancé and I need to head down to Tampa (her hometown) in the near future to spend some quality time at Busch Gardens and ride the roller coasters there. I forgot almost really how much I liked riding those things.

Post coaster whiplash, we headed back North on the Strip, but first we walked through the MGM Grand, and we were in luck, they had the lions out in their little habitat. Essentially, 3 lady lionesses sitting in the enclosure, basking in the sun, sitting around for “the people” doing some performance stuff. Meaning their handlers were tossing balls at them, and they were swatting them around, without moving too much. From what I’ve read about lions, they were behaving as normal. Sitting around, basking in the warm sun, not paying too much attention to anything other than their leisure time. Of course, they being lions, and we being people, they were mobbed and the star attraction, think Mr. Alex from Madagascar (if you’ve seen it). Then again, there were no other animals around, but they were just cool to see, since it’s not really often that you get to see such huge powerful animals so close. Which reminds me about the Carnivore Preservation Trust out in Pittsboro North Carolina, and I need to go out there and see the big cats that they have hanging around out there, which I hear is a lot of them. Something about big oversized cats is cool, even though they could tear your head off with a smooth swipe of their paw, but hey, that’s why they’re top predators right? Heading back towards our stomping grounds of Ballys and Paris we decided that it was time to take the open container laws of Las Vegas into account and more seriously. Large frozen drinks in hand, ice cream headaches on board, we were hammering back Margaritas and Pina Colodas in fine fashion while riding back on the monorail, and I mean, those things were big drinks. They were the plastic yards of frozen drinks, which on a hot day in Las Vegas tasted pretty good. The downside, the alcohol of course all pooled at the bottom, and before you finished, it was more of a slushy than anything else. When the contents were emptied though, it was hard core alcohol time. And that shit hit like a ton o’ bricks.

Somewhere in our thought process, we thought it a good idea to go to Circus-Circus to ride the roller coaster there, as we had heard that that coaster was pretty good as well. Looking at our old reliable monorail map, it said take a few stops North on the Strip, get off at the Hilton (were Barry Manilow resides and performs – talk about some cheese). Looking at the map, it looked like Circus-Circus was “right there”. Walking outside of the largest Hilton Hotel I’ve ever seen, it was nowhere near there. It looked like it was a mile away, so we being sort of drunk and sort of not wanting to walk that far just to ride a roller coaster, hopped back on the train, came back to the hotel, changed into the old swimsuits, and went back to the pool for more sun, and more large drinks with large amounts of alcohol in them. More swimming. More drinking. Ah, the good life right there.

Now, we were getting ready to head off to see the show that we had gotten tickets for. The Blue Man Group. Yes, I know you’re thinking, man that is some pure crap right there. But seriously, you’ve got to see it. This show honestly kicks ass. It’s funny. It’s different. It’s good a beat you can dance to, and best of all, it’s very different. Essentially it’s a few guys with blue masks on, with a kick ass backing band consisting mostly of a lot of percussion doing some performance art, that really isn’t performance art at all, but more of a stand up act with little or no words, well, at least coming from the guys wearing the Blue stuff. They don’t talk, but play a bunch of different percussion instruments made mostly from PVC tubing and other normal everyday stuff. There’s a bunch of audience participation, and the finale consists of a lot of paper being streamed over the crowd to a very loud and hard techno beat. The light show is good, and the show in general was just awesome. If you ever have a chance of checking it out live, do it, just do it, and don’t ask questions about it. You’ll like it. Only the most jaded of us out there wouldn’t like this show. The audience was filled with people of all ages, colors, and creeds, and the place was going nuts at the end. Although, there was a woman sitting next to me who asked the small child sitting in front of her to sit down, well, she asked his mother. Which, even if that had been me, as much as I don’t like kids, this little kid was getting into it. He was bouncing up and down, yelling a little bit, dancing around, having a great time, and this old fuddy duddy behind him rained on his parade just because he was bouncing into her view every once in awhile. I mean, this kid couldn’t have been more than say, 4 or 5, maybe 6. Give the kid a break. There is a good beat, there are funny guys in blue masks, and he’s having a good time. Other than that though, as far as I could tell, all was well, and everyone was having a great time in there.

We cruised around the Venetian after the show was over, and checked that place out. It was amazing really. The place looked like the pictures I’ve seen of Venice before. The canals, the streets, almost everything. It was amazing in there. I got some good pictures. Lots of fake frescoes, fountains, and other neat looking stuff in there. I like how they painted the ceilings as well, and lighted them, they made it look sort of early morning, or late afternoon, where the skies are still blue, but the sun is starting to go down, and if you don’t look too close, the clouds look like they’re moving in the fake skies. They’re not, but they do look like it, sort of. Post Venetian, we came back, the fiancé was tired, and a little worn out from having the hiccups, and from a migraine headache that was coming on, so we headed back to the room, hung out for awhile, and then she went to bed, I went to gamble some more of my money away. Yeah, I’m not good at gambling, so I think I’ll just not do it anymore. It is kind of fun though, as long as you know where to draw the line I think. I think I know where to draw it, as when I start taking an ass kicking, I just stop and walk away. Which is better methinks. Lose a little bit of money instead of a lot. Much better of course. It is fun to play though. I could see how it would be addicting to some people for sure. I remember being in high school playing cards with my friends for hours on end on a Saturday night at the house. Sure, we were playing for quarters, which was still a good time, and when a bad night of gambling meant losing say, $10, maybe $15 if you really took a beating. Good times. Good times.

Me, once again, being a raging insomniac from way back, decided that instead of being able to fall asleep on Sunday night / Monday morning, it was time to lay awake and look at the dark ceiling in the hotel room, and listen to the hotel elevator go up, and then down, and then up again, and then down again. Knowing almost immediately that I wasn’t going to sleep anytime soon, I got dressed again, threw the shoes back on, and went wandering around our little section of the Strip where we were staying. Walked over to the Bellagio which is right across the street from where we are, waited for the fountain show, but after waiting awhile, I decided that it was probably not going to happen since it was sort of late. Got some good pictures of where we’re staying, the joint across the street from us, Barbary Coast, which has some good old fashioned flashing lights stuff going on, and then over to Caesars again to walk around there, and get some more pictures of the fake sculptures, fountains, and things like that they have tossed all over the place over there. The reproductions of the art that they have over there is really incredible if you ask me. Whoever did the castings of those things knew what they were doing. They looked like they should have somewhere on the streets of Rome, or in the museums over there. After wandering around there for a bit, I got caught on the moving walkways heading back towards Ballys behind what I like to refer to as “annoying girls”. Girls, and make no mistake about it, they were girls, who were most likely not much older than 21, who had come to Vegas for a good time, and were now heading home from clubbing, because, they couldn’t get in. Ha! This is funny to me. They got all dressed up, put on their best sorority girl wear, and they still wouldn’t let them into the club. How do I know this? Well, I got stuck behind them on the people mover walkway thingies, so I know. I heard them gripe and complain about it the entire way back to Ballys. What I wanted to do was to throw something at them, but I didn’t. There was a lot of “woo-hooing” going on though on the way back as well. As well as just about any guy who passed them was checking them out and undressing them as they all walked by. It was pretty amusing to see actually from my perspective of a few feet back. These flock of girls approach, boys approaching from the opposite angle, they cross, and the guys just keep gaping, making rude ass comments, and the girls just keep on walking. Do they hear this stuff? I’m betting that they do, and just brush it off, which is something I can respect, at least just a little bit. They were still annoying though. I hope that I wasn’t that annoying when I was aged 21-26.

Anyway, I kept walking around different casinos for about 2 hours before I decided to head back to the room to try and sleep some more. I finally got to sleep around 3 or so in the morning, maybe it was closer to 4, I don’t know. We were supposed to take off and go ride ATVs in the desert this morning, but my fiancé had a severe migraine this morning, so we had to knock that trip off the schedule, which is OK. A major headache, and a turny stomach, not good things to have when you’re riding 4 wheelers in the desert outside of Las Vegas, so we bagged the trip. Maybe next time we can get that one in there. Overall, we have crammed a lot of stuff into a very few short days really, and we’ve had a really good time doing it, that’s for sure. I think maybe we’ll be back, but next time, we’ll stay at one of the nicer and or newer hotels I think, like Caesars or something like that. Ballys is a good place to stay on the cheap though, and the location, couldn’t be better. It is front and center to most of the larger places and better known places around here. Like I said before, the Bellagio is directly across the street, Caesars is off to the left just a little bit, the Flamingo is right nearby, the Rio is a short walk through Caesars, and just about everything else is a short tram ride away, and Ballys has its own tram station, so it all worked out for the best. I think when this placed opened, like 30 some odd years ago, sure, it was top notch then, but times have changed of course, and it’s not the top o’ the heap anymore. Although, it is what I would call adequate. I could use a less noisy room, but now, the moving elevators sound more like distant thunder than, well, elevators, and that, I can sleep with.

We’re heading back tomorrow, and then back to work on Wednesday. I mean, I can hardly wait… Yeah, right.