Andy's Birthday & Famous Dave's

We got up in time to take a steady drive to the hairdressers, only to be told that he'd had to cancel the appointment as his other stylist had called in sick. So we rearranged it to Sunday when he said he'd open specially for me! Now having a bit more time than we'd first imagined we thought a celebratory drink for Andy's birthday was in order so we made our way into town, parked up and headed over to the MGM Grand. When we got there we couldnt resist going and having a look at the Lions first. The casino has a purpose built enclosure that keeps a steady temperature and humidity that the lions enjoy as well as being completely soundproof and smellproof so that the lions arent disturbed by all the people or the nearby casino with all its noises. Its pretty much a mini vacation for them really as the 40 or so lions that they actually have live 12 miles away and are chauffered in for 5 hour shifts in 2s. They like coming to the enclosure and you can see how relaxed they are with the trainers sitting next to them giving them belly rubs!! There was also a small separate room which you could pay to go in to have your photo taken with a lion cub, or you could just look through the glass like we did. The 2 cubs in there seemed very playful and content, not bothered at all by the excited people and camera flashes. Once we'd had our fill of lions we went to get Andy's birthday drink at a conveniently located Rainforest Cafe in the casino! :) This was probably the best one we'd found yet as it had all the usual trappings of moving animals and thunderstorms but due to a very high ceiling it seemed more realistic somehow. After an orange margarita and a mango mohito we thought we'd go and explore a few more of the casinos and see what they had inside. Starting across from the MGM we went into Excaliber which is shaped and themed like a castle such as Camelot might have been, only it looked somehow cartoonish from the outside. Inside was like a medieval castle with pennants, knights and somewhere a round table, there was a games room down some stairs which contained a large arcade and fairground type stalls as well as a 4D experience. We were a little disappointed as this seemed about the most exciting thing it had to offer, the rest of the casino being themed but with nothing spectacular. We continued on through Excaliber and found our way via a passage into Luxor next door. This is probably one of the most impressive casinos from the outside as its shaped like an enormous pyramid and at night has a bright spotlight shooting straight up into the sky! Inside was vast and slightly surreal, the rooms lined the angled walls of the inside of the pyramid and we spent a few minutes trying to work out how they were fashioned, whether with slanted walls or straight and if the people at the top would get vertigo looking down! The pyramid contains a fair sized sphinx and 2 of the big exhibitions currently being advertised...a Titanic one with lots of relics from the ship and one which has travelled all over the world called Bodies where people who have donated their body to science have been preserved by some new process and you can see all the muscles and tendons etc. Pretty gruesome but apparently worth seeing, we didn't as it was over $30 each to get in!! After looking round a bit more and going out the front to see the giant sphinx and towering obelisk stationed there we continued in to the casino Mandalay. These 3 casinos are all connected internally as well as having a monorail you can ride for free to get from one to the other! We ventured only as far as the shops in Mandalay where I bought Andy a birthday present before deciding it was time to head back and change ready to go out for dinner. Andy's choice for his birthday was BBQ so I had found one on the internet called Famous Dave's which looked good. We got there and were instantly overwhelmed by the delicious smells coming from the place and followed our noses in to be seated promptly. We ordered a cocktail each while we looked over the menu and decided on a 'feast for two' which is served on an upside down dustbin lid!!! It had a half rack of St Louis style ribs, ½ a BBQ chicken, 10 slices of amazingly tender beef brisket on a piece of toast, 2 corn on the cobs, coleslaw, BBQ beans and 2 corn bread muffin. Being thoroughly stuffed we decided to go have dessert later and stopped at Walmart on the way back to get a Cheesecake selection pack and a DVD to watch before bed.