the traditional yearly pilgrimage to Las Vegas

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Gambling is a big deal in my family. It's almost a religious thing. You don't get between a man and his slot machine. Personally I think it's a waste of money but that's just me. Fortunately, this always leads my family and I back to the beautiful Las Vegas. I've been there every year since I was six. So to me it's kind of a home away from home. A home I actually prefer to the ugly, boring, void of personality - Phoenix, Arizona. Not to start off on a rant or anything. This entry will tell the tale of Las Vegas visit number brazillion (y'all remember that joke right?) in March of 2006. Now, this visit was particularly scary because it was the WHOLE family going. My family, bless their souls, does not get along very well. It's not really mean spirited. They're personalities just tend to clash a lot. So there were a lot of fights. My uncles against eachother, my grandmother against my mother, me against my step father, my brother against my sister, my other sister against my sister. Luckily it was only a 3 day trip.

We stayed at the Fitzgerald Hotel and Casino. The Fitzgerald is a downtown property with an irish theme going on. It's a green building and at night the front entrance is illuminated by a large neon rainbow with a leprauchan and a pot of gold. The rooms were nice considering how much we paid for them. The buffet was average. Although it beats the McDonalds in the casino. The next day we spent exploring some of the strip hotels. Well, I explored. Since it was my birthday that day we got to go to the Mandalay Bay (my favorite) first. It's also my mothers favorite because she once won a whole $90 (!) there. She's won higher amounts before but she always manages to lose it all in the end. Mandalay Bay has a tropical theme. Upon entering you can smell the scent of coconut in the air. We quickly headed towards the big shopping mall area (predictably named Manadaly Place) which contains plenty of stores to entertain those with budgets far greater than ours. It's a tradition to stop at the Chocolate Swan to get ice cream while the adults throw their money away on the non-edible. The next stop was the Luxor which connects right to Manadaly Place. There's a small area with comfortable seating where you can rest and enjoy the view of the Luxor pyramid and the tram. There used to be a gift shop there too but it's gone now. I'm guessing it wasn't very proftiable. Ah, Capitalism. The Luxor has a very obvious ancient egyptian theme. They actually do a fairly good job at being consistent with it. The place is sprawled with replications of various egyptian treasures. There's even a store called "The Treasure Chamber". The most amusing part of the Luxor visit was the bathroom thing. The family people get lost easily. They wouldn't have a clue if it weren't for me. I'm excellent with finding my way around the mega-resorts. It just so happened that while we were at the Luxor my younger siblings needed to go to the bathroom. At the time we were in a shopping center called the "Cairo Bazaar". I knew exactly where the bathrooms were but ye of little faith were skeptical. They went along anyway but they cried half the way through. We did get to the bathrooms. Quite efficiently I must add. On the last day we went to the Flamingo. It doesn't exactly have a theme but the color pink and flamingo imagery are rampant. In the Flamingo there's this large outside area that contains many different types of birds. They had penguins, flamingos (of course!), swans, and some other birds I can't name. They also had some fish and turtles thrown in for good measure. Later we went by the Barbary Coast. There wasn't much besides the casino. Only a small coffee shop and an obese Elvis impersonator. The last stop was the Venetian. I didn't have an opportunity to look around but it's difficult to do so even with time. It's one of the most crowded, congested places on the strip. There's a big food court there but I think the prices are a bit much for fast food. That concludes my account of last spring's visit to Las Vegas.

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