Sunday in Vegas

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Sunday was a good day in Vegas.

We didn't do too much before noon today. Lunch was at Gordon Ramsay's Burgers here in Planet Hollywood. We had noon reservations. There are no menus. You use your phone to scan the code on a small card they give you so your menu shows-up on your phone. The options are basic but nice. We both ordered a burger (Dubliner, 3 cheese for me and I'm not sure what he ordered) and we also got some parmesan truffle fries to split. I ordered a white sangria with pear Prosecco and Chardonnay with a hint of cinnamon. It was okay. My burger was fine, nothing amazing. Kamie's was medium and it was raw in the middle - not pink - raw. He barely ate half. We thought the fries were okay. The meal was fine. The service was quick and nice. The ticket showed items $1 more than the menu which I found interesting. Just the burgers and fries was nearly $50. In our opinion, you can get a fresh (not frozen) decent burger and good fries elsewhere for less than a third of that price. Also, the burgers are from a wood-fired grill (like they were cooked outside on your own grill) which some people love but not me. As with anything, overall, it was supposed to be an experience but not too much of one that I would recommend someone try this place.

We then decided to brave the weed and the people and walk outside. The weather was in the low 70s and nice but felt warmer. It wasn't dead outside but it was a lot calmer today and we really enjoyed that throughout the hotel, casino, and the strip. We walked all the way down to MGM Grand. There is another small mall-type area just to the left of our hotel. Lots of good and interesting things inside that mall (Rain Forest Cafe, a climbing-type gym for all ages, inexpensive yard drinks, Sugar is coming in April, etc). We then had to walk through this strip-joint type area to get to the MGM Grand area (or at least closer to it). It was nothing but t-shirt shops and weed dispensaries. Everywhere. We counted 5 dispensaries in one block. Some of them were very busy. Others looked empty. In a 10-minute stretch of walking, there was probably 10 places to buy weed. Across the street is MGM Grand Eataly and shops like Tiffany & Co, Tom Ford, and Louis Vuitton. Day and night. We also noticed there was a Taco Bell that had a big sign showing it sells cocktails. We saw an ad on TV here showing you can use your Taco Bell app or go online and do a "make your own $5 box." We don't have that in Missouri.



We got to Coke World and there was a huge line waiting to go inside the store. We decided to go checkout M&M World. The line for M&M World was three times as long and full of kids. We walked back to Coke World and the line had moved and we were inside in less than 10 minutes. Lots of interesting items in this store and we aren't Coke fans necessarily. We went through a que and upstairs where we did a "Coke Experience." You get 16 small cups of various Cokes which are or were sold in other countries. You can choose from 5 or 6 different experiences but we chose the International Experience. Kamie would read what the drink was called and where it was from and we would try it. I loved the Coke from Germany - it was clear and tasted like pears and chardonnay (like my drink at Gordon Ramsay's I had for lunch). His favorite was the Coke from Sweden - it was clear and tasted almost coconut-like or maybe like a Pina Colada. We both liked it. We both were disgusted by the Coke from Italy that was named Beverly. It was SO gross. It tasted like you were drinking acid. It was HORRIBLE. After we drank it, some guy came buy and warned us not to try it. We were grossed-out by an Asian Coke that smelled and tasted like Smoked BBQ - like a liquid Daddy's Ray's in a cup with some Coke added. Bleh. The Coke from Brazil tasted like berries and Ginger Ale (it was blackberries) and it was good. There was a gum-flavored yellow Coke from Peru which was okay but Kamie called it Yak's piss. The experience was fun and Kamie kept talking in different foreign accents so we had a blast. This is something you do at your own pace and I think it was $11 for the tray of drinks? Lots of fun!

It was getting a little too warm outside (maybe 77?) so we walked back to our hotel and decided to sit in the cool casino and gamble a few small dollars. We had SO MUCH FUN today. Kamie found a machine he really liked next to a machine I liked too and we setup camp. The casino was nice and mellow today - a more mature audience it seemed and yes, it was busy but not packed and crazy. We liked this slower atmosphere. Drink service was excellent. Free drinks while playing pays off. We were both playing 1-cent slot machines. Kamie was playing 1 line, 1-cent a line No kidding. He did that for hours and never lost his $1 he put in the machine! At one point, he was up to $5. We are such high rollers. Really though, you are paying for the fun and getting free drinks so this is the way to do it. Kamie was playing the "Stinkin Rich" skunk game and I played my Chihuahua game. I like the sounds of the little dogs and all the noises the machine makes. I only did 5 cent bets today but initially, I put in a $20 bill and was up over $30 and then I saw how good Kamie was doing on his $1, I lowered my bet to 5 cents at a time (5 rows). I was a bit tipsy and we were tired so we decided to try Pin-Up Pizza outside our hotel. We got our pizza and came to our room. We watched TV for the first time today - Stanly Tucci in Italy. We were on vacation watching a show about vacations. I think I may have fell asleep for a bit. We were pretty relaxed after a couple of hours and Kamie suggested we had 2 hours until we needed to go to bed so why not go play slots again....and so we did! We got our exact same two machines again and we got free drinks again (I drank water this time). I only played $2 and he played $5 this time. We made them last for about 2 hours and then it was time to get upstairs and pack. I packed almost everything and we decided to go to sleep by 9pm/10pm. It's around 4:30am as I type this. I'm awake and have not slept well tonight. I have a new iPhone and it doesn't tell me if my alarm is set or not and I've worried about missing our flight home all night. I should have just called down and requested a 5am wake-up call. We fly home today/Monday. For now, I'm awake so I'm getting in the shower. Can't wait to see our sweet boy Arthur this afternoon. I'll write one more blog post with some notes about Vegas and add pictures to everything later this week.

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