Day 3 - Dolphins, Tigers and Fountains

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Day 3, Las Vegas - Distance Travelled about 1 mile

Ok, so last full day in Vegas so we had to make it a good one....starting with the obligatory 'All you can eat buffet breakfast' which will mean more pain in the gym when i get home.

First up was a trip to The Mirage to see their Dolphin and Tiger habitat, usually this would mean a walk along the strip to get there, but with such huge interlinked hotels in Vegas you can usually 'hotel hop' your way up and down thereby utilising the air conditioning to the max and reducing exposure to beggars, Mickey Mouse photo opportunities and the scary 'rent a girl' brigade. Our hotel hop took us through Ceasars Palace....not quite as impressive as Crystal Palace but nevertheless worth a look.

Gaming floors all tend to look the same from hotel to hotel...lots of flashing lights, binging machines and shouts and cries of success or failure! Even at 10 a.m.! Being Sunday it's also the main game day for American football and hundreds of people rent tables and chairs in the 'sportsbook' area of the casinos which is basically a massive sports bar dedicated to gambling on any and every sport . The Ceasars sportsbook has hundreds of TVs up to the ceiling carrying live sports feeds from every game around the US (and the world) and it was heaving. From the Casino floor you pass the famous Ceasars Palace Collosseum, scene of many famous boxing fights and now home to a variety of 'singers in residence'. Sealion Dion has just finished her croaking session there and Rod Stewart is just about to start followed by Elton John....luckily we missed them all. From there it's through the Ceasars Forum shops...another painfull 'bloke torture' run of Gucci, D$G, Armani etc. but luckily Shas's hangover from the night before left her in a 'not shopping' mood.....phew!

On the way in to the Dolphin and Tiger habitat you pass the latest Mirage 'great idea', an adults only pool and bar area called 'Nude' and yes...that's the dress code. Luckily (or not) there is no way the poor little kiddies going off to see the dolphins can see in but it does make you wonder...at 104 degrees, how do you protect personal bits from the sun in that type of place without clothes....and does rubbing sun tan lotion into them become some sort of porn show?

I'm not a huge fan of animals in captivity and the tigers (who used to perform in the Siegfried and Roy show before one of them got a bit hungry on stage and tried to eat Roy) are in what can only be described as very cramped, and very small cages...a white lion, leopards and black panther are on view as well but it left me feeling that in this day and age, there really should be some sort of laws for the amount of space these magnificent animals should have in captivity, and it should be a lot more than these have.

I guess there is a similar argument for the dolphins too, but these seem to have a lot more space, three huge pools and trainers who are constantly enriching their lives. There were two one year old dolphins in one of the pools it it was hilarious watching them play around like naughty kids whilst the adults did their 'training', in stark contrast to the cats who lay in the same spot all day or repititively paced the walls of the cages, many with what appear to be sores from lying down so much.

Once Shas had had her white tiger hit, we returned back to the Bellagio pool for cocktails, a swim and rest ready for the evenings entertainment.

Being the last night Shas had booked a special surprise, dinner on the terrace of Prime, the in house steak restaurant that overlooks the fountains. As well as superb (if not slightly expensive) food we were treated to a great view of the fountains every 15 minutes as they performed to thousands of people out on the strip. When the wind got up, we were also treated to a light spray to help you cool down as its still high 880's late at night!. It was again a great place to 'people watch' as fat, old, bald russians arrived with skinny blond bimbos on their arms trying to pass the maitre'd a wad of cash to sit on this brilliant little terrace...we were so lucky to get in and two bottles of wine, some superb steaks, lobster and prawns later, we rolled back onto the gaming floor. Felt a bit like the scene where Ross and Rachel in Friends staggered round the casino pissed with pen all over their faces!

Safe to say the last night of gambling was a disaster, after some early success for us both, Shas left for bed with her winnings and some of mine tucked in her handbag. She was kind enough to leave me a small amount of 'pocket money' to play with. I soon blew that and a bit more and crawled back to bed about 3am just about with the shirt still on my back....no fire alarms tonight so a chance of a good kip before an early start at the RV hire centre in the morning. Tomorrows blog will no doubt be full of carnage as we hit the road!!

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Photos

Mummy trying to work!
Even after everyone had left she kept jumping out of the pool on her own to pose....

Comments

[Dave]

Surf and Turf?
Now THAT'S what I call surf'n'turf. Great blog again - really enjoying it.

[anonymous]

Gone all Goosey just thinking about those fountains,Breathtaking Shaz!Lucky girl!