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Published: July 14th 2007
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Day 15
Today we decided to have a bit of a rest in the morning, but the light woke me up early. It was already hot outside & the air conditioning in our ‘apartment’ was loud, trying to keep up. After messing around for ages we went down to the Victorian Rooms, this nice (casual) restaurant in the lobby, & had a giant breakfast which was awesome. Vaughan insisted on having a play on the table games as he worked out how to cash in & out of them, so I kind of messed around for a while on some of the machines. The casino at Bill’s was small but kind of nice & not over-whelming - even in the morning they were coming around with free drinks, but I thought it was a bit early to start (drinking alcohol). From there we finally headed out of town in the car, towards Hoover Dam. On the way we passed Lake Mead, which looked to be busy already, as traffic mounted at the popular area. It was already lunchtime, & well over 40° C - our air conditioning in the car decided to pack up on us, so the slow
moving traffic certainly seemed to take an age. When we (finally) arrived at
Hoover Dam we realised that the slow traffic had also been affected by large road works - there were huge (absolutely gigantic) pylons being driven into the ground to create a new route for the interstate over the river near the dam, rather than traffic having to merge into one lane & crawl through the windy road over the dam itself. The wonder of modern engineering - it was certainly a place to marvel over just what is possible!
We managed to find a car park & ventured out to see the dam. It was so hot that we already knew we wouldn't be stopping there for long. Of course, having been there before I know that the dam is impressive, so I just let Vaughan have a bit of a walk around. He seemed to enjoy standing on each side of the state line which splits the dam in two (Nevada/Arizona). We walked across the dam to the other side, but the water levels were quite low, so it wasn't the same as when I last went (in 1995) - the water was a nice shade
of blue though, & with the intense heat I could see a lot of people looking at it enviously. We decided not to do a tour right down into the belly of the dam, as the heat was actually quite overwhelming, so we quickly raced to the Pumphouse where there is a cafe. We had been hanging out for slushies (ice drinks), but it was so hot that their machine couldn't keep up & we just got regular drinks instead. It was time to leave - no point sitting around all day, although the cafe had a nice view out over the dam. We headed back to Vegas, looking forward to some effective air conditioning on our return.
We parked the car at the hotel & headed across the road to Caesar’s Palace, a huge complex with several sections of hotel (high rise rooms, apartments, summer houses), as well as the casino, various Greek architecture (columns & statues, fancy fountains, small sports arena, etc) & the Mall. Caesar’s Palace is famous for the interior roof of the Mall area, which changes from dawn/day/dusk several times a day - the whole complex is probably the largest in Las Vegas &
it’s certainly impressive. Vaughan insisted on stopping for some machine games on the way through, before having a quick look around the Mall. It’s full of boutique stores, which interest me less than they used to after seeing them so often in London. Perhaps I’d feel differently if I actually had enough money to shop there! We ventured back into the casino & spent some time there, eventually heading back out onto the street & up the Strip in the late afternoon heat, past the Flamingo (next door to our hotel), the Venitian (a Hotel based on Venice, complete with canal & boat rides), among many others. We walked past Treasure Island, the hotel & venue for the pyrotechnic ‘
pirate ship battle’ (of course), a show which occurs several times a night involving actors dressed like pirates aboard their pirate ship. Past the fountain at the Mirage (which turns into a volcano display by night), & up to the slightly tatty (soon to be pulled-down) New Frontier Casino where we had a buffet dinner. There is a lot of choice & competition in Las Vegas so you can get some good meals & deals out there. Vaughan enjoyed his 3 steaks (!!)
at the buffet, which he had to cut into little pieces of course, because of his tooth. When we went back outside it was still fairly hot but mostly dark, & we ventured up the Strip just watching & listening to all that was going on, as Friday night was just revving up. There was quite a lot to do - heaps of bars, karaoke, shopping, casinos, outdoor shows, indoor shows (sorry Celine Dion - I’m not in a hurry to see you). Vegas seemed to be a city of extreme change, with whole casino complexes being built to replace old ones (rather than just a restoration of the current buildings) - the cityscape of Las Vegas must change so frequently! We just kind of milled around & enjoyed the atmosphere, before heading further uptown to see Circus Circus. The downstairs casino was a bit smaller than I remembered, but the kids area upstairs was packed with people watching the various circus shows & playing all the carnival games. It’s really good to see that a lot of casinos are catering to families & that the kids are able to have a good time too, rather than sit around waiting
for their parents. Vaughan also got to see the revolving carousel bar which is in the film Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas.
From Circus Circus we headed back downtown to Bill’s, where we were staying. First we went up to our suite & made sure we put the bar to good use, with some cocktail-makings we had bought earlier (cheaper than buying them in the casino), before heading back downstairs. We had planned to end up at Bill’s on our last night, just relaxing in the small casino, listening to the live bands & enjoying a few rounds of free drinks (which were actually possible to get because the casino was much smaller & more functional than many others). It was still quite busy & Vaughan ventured out again on the table games, as Bill’s also has lower limits than many of the other casinos, so it was more our kind of place. I just sat on the gaming machines, but switched around every so often. At one point I accidentally bet ‘all in’ on the machine I was on, but managed to win heaps of credits which paid (again) for the whole evening’s expenditure, minus $5 -
pretty good really. Not large amounts, but enough to enjoy yourself without coming away broke. Eventually it was time to get to bed, which we could have easily ignored if not for the long day of travel ahead of us the next morning. Shame! Las Vegas was a really fun experience despite the heat during the day (it's much easier if you just stay inside in the air conditioning unless you are going swimming somewhere), & I know that Vaughan especially looks forward to getting out there again sometime soon & try his hand at some more Texas Hold 'Em. Maybe I will even eventually have a go - nice!
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Kelly
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Shiny shades to reflect the vegas lights... at least you guys went to vegas just to play and gamble ;) hee hee not the American reason to run away to Vegas lol!