Viva Las Vegas

So, this is a continuation of my trip to Vegas. Hopefully this one will be shorter than the last.

On Thursday, I hit the strip (Las Vegas blvd.) early. I took a cab to the MGM Grand and ended up at Circus Circus. Essentially, I started at one end and ended almost at the other.

Now, let me explain why I was starting at one end. When I booked my hotel reservation, they threw in a ticket for the LV monorail. Now, I thought it was a day pass thing, which meant I could hop on and off all day which actually would have been a lot of fun. However, when I redeemed it, I found out it was a one time thing. I could get on somewhere and get off somewhere else once and that was it. So I had to plan out my walking/monorail ride. My original intent was to start at the MGM where they start the monorail and just go from there. No such luck, but I wasn't too depressed about it.

In the area of the MGM, there is that casino (obviously), New York New York, Excalibur, Luxor, and Mandalay Bay. I hit all of those and took a free tram from Mandalay back to Excalibur, which saved me the trouble of walking back. This was all before about noonish. Excalibur is also where I had my second & last drink on the trip. The souvenir glass was pretty nice, so I got a drink in that.

That's when I discovered M&Ms World. Keep in mind, I visited Vegas in January but I hadn't been to M&Ms World since before that. My last trip to Vegas prior to this year was sometime in high school. I had a blast. It's always cool walking around the casinos, but when I got to the World that was the most fun I'd had so far that day. And in deference to my die-hard Coca-Cola friends (or at least die-easy), I visited the Coke store which was maybe two doors down. The museum part was undergoing remodeling, but I did buy a bottle of Coke w/a cool label on it just so I could say I did things properly.

I hit part of Planet Hollywood next. I was getting tired and the awesome slice of pizza I had from the NYNY was wearing off. There was an indoor "rainstorm" thing at one of the fountains so I sat and watched that. It wasn't much, but it was still a break. And since I borrowing the table of the Ben & Jerrys right there, of course I was obligated to buy ice cream from them.

From there I meandered towards the Venetian, hit that, and the Palazzo, and made my way across the street. I made sure to catch the water fountain show, otherwise the trip across the street would have been wasted. I was originally trying to catch the pirate show at Treasure Island, but that didn't start until 7. I shrugged and went my merry way on the tram from TI to the Mirage. I had never checked out the Secret Garden (where the white lions & tigers are) (no white bears, sorry) so I figured I may as well. By the time I was done with that there was no way I could catch the TI show, so I went to the monorail station between the Imperial Palace and Harrahs. I rode it from there to the Hilton, and from there walked to Circus Circus. I caught a couple of the 15 minute circus acts going on, then decided I should probably get dinner and go back to the room. It was about 9:30 when I left Circus Circus via taxi, and I still had packing to do.

On Friday, my bus left for Bakersfield at 9:40. According to the ticket. We actually left about 10 minutes late but we still made excellent time. Although it was an adventure trying to get down to the first floor. There were about a baker's dozen worth of people all waiting for one elevator. The other 5 elevators were down. And of course each time the elevator went down there was people in it, so I ended up waiting about 30 minutes to get from the 11th floor to the reception desk. I lucked out though because the service elevator was working and one of the maid service ladies finally said "come on, go ahead and check out." I thought that was pretty nice of her. That and some of the the people I was with were complaining to her but I wasn't. Have I mentioned I'm a firm believer in karma?

Well, I hooked up with my friend in Bakersfield and pretty much chilled on Friday evening. "Chilling" included air conditioning, pizza, and a Miyazaki movie so that was fine. Saturday we hit a couple stores (father's day shopping) but that was about it. After almost a week in Vegas I wasn't going to complain about taking it easy. Met up with my parents Saturday afternoon, and came home.

That's pretty much the highlights of my trip. Obviously there's the more detailed version but you would have to get in touch w/me for that. Car update: the bodywork is done, and it should be repainted this week. Of course, I won't be able to get it until next week at the earliest due to parental unit full-time schedules, but I will at least have my car.

"Viva Las Vegas"-Elvis Presley