Visit + Vegas

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So on Thursday the 26th, I got 2 visitors to my humble co-op: Maddi and Kate. I had a great time showing them around Austin, though unfortunately we only had a day, so there was only so much we could fit in. During the day Maddi and I subjected Kate to a trip to Austin's Girl Scout HQ so we could check out the gift shop. The HQ happened to be on the interstate highway, but luckily my public transport and navigation skills know no bound. As every time I walk into a Girl Guide gift shop I spent over $100- but I have some very cute T-shirts, a Girl Scout jumper and a million badges so it was definitely a worthwhile shopping trip. To make matters even better, I asked at the front desk about whether there was anything I could do to volunteer with Girl Scouts while I was living in Texas (because the forms were saying I needed a social security number, which I couldn't get, to join). Someone came out and took my details to try and find a unit near me and said as long as I get a police check she didn't see why I couldn't volunteer. Very exciting! Fingers crossed.

That night, Maddi, Kate and one of my Australian friends from the co-op went out to see a quote-along version of the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory at the Ritz, which is a really kitchy cinema I'd been wanting to go to for ages. We were just expecting it to be a screening where people could quote-along if they knew the lines, but it was so much more! Firstly, each row in the cinema got its own waiter, so food and drinks were delivered to you whenever you want. We got to our seats and found a goodie bag- kind of like you'd have for a midnight screening of Rocky Horror Picture Show. For example, there were candy buttons to eat while singing 'Candyman', laundry wipes to wave in people's faces when Charlie's mum sang him that song in the laundromat, chocolate to scoff as desired, and bubbles to blow when they're in the bubble room (they also had automatic bubble machines going during that scene so the whole cinema was full of bubbles). They'd gone to great lengths to subtitle all the good lines, and all the songs, karaoke style. It was such a great experience!

The Ritz cinema happens to be located on Austin's 6th street, which is basically just full of bars. A lot of the other international students that I'm friends with came and met us after the movie and we spent the night on rooftop bars and dancing. It was definitely a night that put Austin in a good light!

The next morning, Maddi, Kate and I woke early to go to the airport. 2 flights later we were in Las Vegas. Because we had a Grand Canyon tour very early the next morning (shuttle was picking us up at 5.30am), we didn't go too crazy on the first night. We had, however, booked tickets to see a show- Cirque du Soleil Elvis- which basically told the story of Elvis's life through song, dance and crazy circus routines. It was definitely a lot of fun! As was a lot of the crazy stuff in the gift shop afterwards. To get to the strip we had to walk through the Bellagio (setting of Ocean's Eleven). We were marvelling at all the gorgeous furnishings and chandeliers (oddly offset by a lot of American tourists in singlets and thongs lazing around), when suddenly we hit this room full of giant sculptures and beautiful flower displays. It's hard to explain, but it was absolutely gorgeous.

After that we went for a wander around 'The Strip', which largely abounds with Mexicans trying to give you cards for 'adult services', tacky hotels, and bars. It was smelling like rain and was pretty windy, so when it started spitting and we saw some lightening we ran into Maccas (my first McDonald experience since entering America) and a had dinner, then got a taxi back to the hotel for a relatively good night's sleep.

Just a note about our hotel: I was very pleased to see that close to the elevators that took us to our room was a tattoo parlour, and a mere 2 store fronts away- a wedding chapel. Vegas is certainly set up for people to make a lot of bad decisions in one night.

Anyway, as I said, Saturday morning was a very early rise. Our tour took us through the Hoover Dam at the Nevada/ Arizona border, but it wasn't quite the view I was expecting- it kind of looked like any other super large scale industrial site. But the drive through Arizona was absolutely gorgeous- especially with all the mountains (I guess that's what you'd call them), and Joshua trees. Some of it was green, but what I liked most was that a lot of the view was brown- reminds me of home.

The Grand Canyon was of course beautiful. Once you arrive at the West Rim, there is a shuttle bus that can take you to 2 different sites. The first stop was where the sky walk is- which is basically a giant half oval sticking out over the grand canyon, with a glass walkway so you can look at the drop as you walk over it. It was an extra $US 30 over the quite extravagant money we'd already spent to go on the tour which was a bit disappointing. But it was pretty cool- it would definitely would be worth doing if it didn't cost so much money- they don't even let you take cameras out there which a further annoyance. A cool thing to do though is to look at your feet as you're walking over the glass bit. Lying down and looking through the glass wasn't as cool as I thought it would be, but getting down to a lying position certainly gives you a bit of vertigo. Poor Kate has a bit of a problem with heights, and was certainly getting a lot of the thrills that Maddi and I were disappointed we weren't getting.

The next site I reckon had a better view. We got a free lunch there as part of the tour, and sat eating while looking over a view of the canyon that included the Colorado River (which was disgustingly brown). Because the tour gives you 4 hours to explore the canyon (which I think was about an hour too much), we went climbing up a formation that was kind of attached to the pathway. That was pretty exciting, and it was nice kind of sitting at the highest point for miles looking around. Inevitably though we got a bit bored and kind of bummed around the gift shop waiting for the buses to be ready to take us back.

That night we had a lot of fun getting ready for our big night out in Vegas. The first thing we did was go to an all you can eat buffet that was recommended to me by one of my New Zealander friends at the co-op. It was at the Wyatt hotel, and it was $US35, but dear god the food! And you could eat as much of it as you wanted! The best way to describe it is if you went a fancy restaurant and were allowed to try and little bit of everything off the menu. My favourite things were the onion soup, gnocchi and risotto, but all of it was great!

Actually, on that note- I have to mention that the taxi driver that drove us to the Wyatt had met Olivia Newton-John. Apparently he used to be a security guard for some hotel that had a lot of big name vegas shows. One night Olivia tried to get into the backstage of someone else's show (apparently it's standard that celebrities do this if they're in town) and he wasn't letting her in. Exasperated she huffs "don't know who I am?", he looked at her a few seconds and then instead of saying "Yes, I'm just joking, I love your work" he dropped to his knees and sang "I got chills, they're multiplying!" He was a great taxi driver.

After that we went to a few lesser known casinos along the strip. Roulette is my favourite game at the casino, and unfortunately these places had a $25 minimum bet, so I had made 2 unlucky bets at 2 separate casinos and I was already down $50. Not to worry though, because then we went to Caesars Palace casino where I found a roulette table with a $10 limit. I was playing rather cleverly and conservatively, and won back all the money I had lost quite quickly. And the way I play I never bet my winnings, so once that was done I was quite happy to go cash in my chips, and maybe play a new round at another casino (Vegas must be the only city in the entire world where you can actually go 'casino-hopping'). As we were walking towards the cashier though, I felt the need to do something reckless while in Vegas, so at the roulette table we happened to be walking past I put all my chips (about $120 worth) on black. And it came out... black!

Unfortunately that was probably the peak of our night. We went to a few other casinos (particularly we went back to the Bellagio because we felt we hadn't gotten the true Bellagio experience), but all the roulette tables were all full, I was seeing an increasing trend of pole-dancing shows on tables right next to roulette tables, and Maddi and Kate weren't winning at the pokies either (which is the game they were playing for the night). Probably the most fun thing at this point was finding the tackiest pokie machine concepts ever- I wish I could remember some of the more bizarre ones, but there would be pokie machines with the faces of playboy bunnies as the icons, or machines based on wheel of fortune. Very odd.

At this point we were a bit sick of gambling (and I was definitely sick of having to wait around at roulette tables to get a turn), so we decided to go dancing. Unfortunately it turns out that every bar or club in Vegas (at least any that we could find) did not have dance floors, but unfalteringly had pole-dancing. Very seedy. Very male-orientated. So sadly we called it a night. It was fun, but nowhere near as fun as I was expecting my Vegas experience to be.

The next morning I had to say goodbye to Maddi, knowing it would be the last time I saw her for about a year, which a bit emotional- I hate goodbyes! Then it was 10 hours spent in airports or planes, and I got back to the co-op a bit past midnight, exhausted and ready for my first day of class the next day.

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