Day 37 & 38 - 1 last day in Vegas & then home!

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So after a couple of days back in Toronto I headed back to the airport to start the final stage of my trip & back to good old Vegas!!! After the immigration nightmares at Toronto Airport when going to NYC I decided to set off in good time! And isn't it typical, the time you give yourself HOURS to get through rush hour traffic & lots of queues at the airport.....there isn't any! I'm not joking! From leaving Toronto at 4.30pm, by 5.20pm I'd arrived at the airport, checked in, gone through US immigration & gone through security! Where was the 1.5 hour queue just to get through immigration??? I couldn't believe it, there was only myself & 1 other person to go through immigration so no queues & I sailed through! Oh, there were the usual questions from the Immigration man about how I have the most long winded journey around the US...yeah, yeah, yeah...I know!!! So I now had 3 hours to kill in the airport! Which where there is food & drink available, Lou can easily fill in time. Although I did buy a book "how to save an hour every day" so when I get back to work I can at least try to finish work at a reasonable hour! If anyone wants any tips let me know!

Nothing much to report on the flight. The usual sat next to some random foreign speaking people who don't want to make much conversation. Similar to NYC, it was a night time flight & Vegas comes alive at night so was lovely to land with all the lights of the city! It was a nice feeling to come back to somewhere familiar & most importantly some good heat! It's a really hot, dry heat in Vegas & certainly warms the bones!
The benefit of Vegas is that the hotels are only 10 minutes away from the airport so it was a quick transfer back to the Tropicana hotel which is where I'd stayed before. With such a short stay I decided to go back to the same hotel as it was at least familiar. Check in was quick & it was nice that they even remembered me! Obviously that is down to my lovely bubbly, friendly personality & not the fact I changed rooms 3 times on the last visit! It was lovely to collapse into a huge king size bed!!

Now even with a 3 hour time difference, by 6am the next morning I was wide awake and ready for the day! I wanted to cram in as much as possible so by 9am I was on a sun lounger & actually waiting for the sun to come out! I'd never been up & out this early so spent the first hour sat on a lounger in my clothes until the sun came round, but it gave me a chance to start another book. I love to read & have so far got through 3 books so on a roll now!

Now 3 hours in the Vegas heat is about all you can manage so by 12 noon it was time to head back up to my room, shower & then head out for an afternoon on the strip. My god, you can spend hours walking up & down that Strip and then every so often going into hotel for a cool down in the air conditioning! Apart from lots of walking I went back to the Venetian to my favourite restaurant, Grand Lux Cafe for my chicken & tomato pasta dish and then onto Caesars Palace to walk through the shops for some last minute purchases.

I'm not a big fan of H&M but the one's over here are pretty darn good! Well it is until you give them your currency card & it gets refused! Oh bloody hell, how much have I spent today? I'm sure there was enough money left on my card! It was a bit embarressing & as I didn't have any photo ID with me had to ask them to keep the goods aside while I went to get some ID....only an hour's round trip to my hotel! Now the other thing I noticed is that Matt Goss, oh yes, Matt Goss is only going to be appearing at a Fashion Show in the hotel BUT ON THE DAY I LEAVE......NO!!!! How can I miss the man of my dreams by 12 hours....bugger!

I wanted to make the most of the last day so decided I'd check out to see if there were any last minute shows. Now it seems that Wednesday is the day a lot of the shows aren't on so left the choice very limited. It came down to a decision between David Copperfield or the male strippers...Thunder from Down Under. Now could I really admit to people that I'd gone to see some male strippers but there again I am in Vegas & anything goes! So I decided on David Copperfield as I'm guessing he's quite good & he better be good for near on £60 a ticket!
The show didn't start till 10pm so gave me chance to walk all the way back to H&M and pay for my goods. It turned out I pushed the wrong keys on the shop machine & there was enough cash on the card! Doh! Anyway, the David Copperfield was at the MGM hotel so just opposite my hotel. The theatre was set up as lots of tables so was sat with 3 guys who were lovely! They looked after me & paid for my drinks for the evening. I’ve heard so much about David Copperfield so really had high expectations for his act. I was actually more surprised that he was more of a comedian than an illusionist, always cracking jokes every other sentence. Not sure how I’d rate him……7 out of 10 probably. He was OK & can I say I’ve seen him but I don’t think he was worth $95! He must be raking it in! There must have been 200 people at $95 each & there’s 2 shows a night….that’s nearly $40,000 A NIGHT!!! To me he’s a magician & he was good but in the words of Simon Cowell, “he didn’t blow me away”! The show finished just before midnight so was a quick walk back to the hotel and there closes the final day of my trip. What a full packed day!!

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