Day 3 and 4

Didn't wake up on Sunday till 8.30, guess we all needed the sleep, feeling much better but still a little "hungover" from lack of sleep/travel day!

This morning I wanted to try "The Sugar Factory" at Paris, for breakfast. I'd looked online and it just looked so yummy, I wasn't going to let anyone stand in my way. Cass and Rodd seem to just follow where I lead... I really don't know why 'cos I am seriously the most directionally challenged
person you'll ever meet.



Cass wanted to go to the outlet Mall to do a bit of shopping so we bought 3 day passes for the Deuce/SDX bus, they run up and down the strip all day and night so really handy. We went to the North Premium Outlet Mall, the prices here and just so so cheap compared to what we pay at home.



Our wonderful friend, Jeanne, who Rodd met 20 yrs ago whilst traveling across USA on a bus, came down and picked us up and took us back to her place for a late lunch. It was so lovely to catch up with them again, they are such lovely people.

                                


After lunch Jeanne dropped us back at the shops, Cass still hadn't finished! It was about 6 ish when we finally got back to Bills so we just dropped the bags and headed out to Fremont Street.. 1st we took a quick walk up the strip popping in and out of casinos. Everyone you see walking down the strip has a drink in hand, certainly adds to the atmosphere!! You very quickly learn to ignore the slappers... they stand all along the footpath clicking and slapping cards and trying to force them on unsuspecting tourists. They're selling women basically.. 24 hrs a day, to your room!! NO thanks..lol



When our feet got sore we jumped on the bus to Fremont St. This is the old strip, the original Vegas so has older style casinos. The mall which is 2 blocks long is covered with a domed LCD screen which has video clips or light shows constantly showing... lots and lots of neon and sparkly signs. Cass and I played roulette for a while, then cass wandered off, Rodd was doing his own thing too. I just couldn't lose, it was great, and although I didn't win a fortune I was certainly a couple hundred up for the night.



After a few hours of that we decided to head home. Walking back to the Deuce stop we caught up to 3 security guards on bikes and of course Rodd started talking to them.... thanks to Rodd Cass and I ended up in handcuffs!!! I did make sure they had working keys first though, and they were so funny, pretending they couldn't unlock them. We actually drew quite a crowd with everyone thinking we were being arrested, well probably not for long cos we were all laughing! Fun night.




Okay I'm going to have to make this short cos I'm getting days behind and there's just not enough hours in the day!

Monday we started the day as usual walking up the strip this time our destination was the Stratosphere so Cass could see the view from the tower and Rodd could do the rides, he's been to Vegas 5 times and each time has wanted to do them. Have you seen these rides?? I think you'd have to be stark raving mad or have a death wish to subject yourself to one of these creations of some sick mind!! Look at the photos and you'll see what I mean. Now Rodd is an arms out kind of thrill rider but not on this one...his knuckes were white from clenching onto the safety bar... took him a good few hours to recover. There was this one guy on there though that was leaning his whole body out the side as far as he could stretch... weirdo!!



After that Cassie went off to the Fashion Show Mall for MORE shopping!!! She "discovered" Forever 21 and reckons she wants to live in there!! Sooooooo we lost Cass for the rest of the day. Rodd and I went to the Venetian to find the 25 ft long Dragon that they have on display for Chinese New Year. Wow, it's amazing, huge and so much attention to detail. As usual however I forgot that I wanted to do that until the bus was leaving the stop so we had to get off at the next stop and walk all the way back... poor Rodd he really is long suffering, I lead him around all over the place and he just follows patiently along!!



By this time it was about 3pm and we'd planned to meet Cass back at Bills' at 5ish so we spent a couple hours playing "slots" ( or pokies as we Aussies would say ). Didn't win, didn't lose, just had a nice quiet time.... we met a lovely English couple that were flying home in under 3 hours and were still trying to work out how to play roulette, we asked if they'd seen Fremont St..no.. Bellagio Conservatory..no and so many other things they had no idea existed!! Before we knew it it was time to meet Cass to head off together right down the other end of the strip to Luxor to see Carrot Top. I had prebooked our tickets on the internet before we left home so just had to go to Will Call and pick them up.



I had wanted to go to the Mix bar at Mandalay Bay to see the night view of the strip but unfortunately they had a private function up there so we couldn't oh well we'll have to do that another time! Just enough time for dinner before the show, I had purchased a $25 off voucher from restaurant.com whilst doing all my research, only cost me $2! Hussongs @ Mandalay Bay was the place..Mexican and very yummy. Cass and I had a pitcher of Margarita.... OMG so strong!! Dinner and tip came to $105 after discount, mind you the Margarita was $45!!! I think I remembered to take some photos half way through the meal, looked pretty awful but tasted great.



Carrot Top was awesome, from the minute he spoke the first word right through to when he walked off stage the whole theatre was in fits of laughter.

After the show we went into some bar not realizing they had a Karaoke night and lets just say we didn't stay too long, Cass left first and just sat outside the door, in the casino, finally we realised she wasn't returning so went to find her. She was itching to get to a nightclub so we gave her stern instructions to be careful etc etc and she left us to party the night away. We found a roulette table and I proceeded to once again become unbeatable! It was weird, I just couldn't lose again! Now I'm not a highroller so as before not winning a fortune and yes there were bets I lost, of course, but in the long run I won a couple hundred again.



I have to be honest... it was 4am by the time we left and I was well and truly ummmmmm sorry Mum..... drunk. Needless to say we spent the entire day in our room, room service breakfast and lunch. We did pop out late afternoon for a walk, bought Subway for dinner! Yes I know, amazing restaurants everywhere and we're having what??? Yep subway!! Oh well... I also bought some OJ for breakfast.

Observations:

We are so lucky in Australia with our smoking laws.... it's yukky here, my hair and clothes all stink just from walking through a casino.

People seem to be having a hard time understanding us.... don't know what's wrong with them... I don't have an accent!! Rodd asked a bartender for a beer.. they guy says "BEAR"?? "BEAM"?? Rodd spells it B E E R... ohhhhhhh the guy says..... a BERRRRRR. Happens all the time!!

You have to walk forever here... everything looks close but takes ages to get there.

Some people are just annoying.. I mean the footpath is wall to wall people, it's like a slow sliding mass of humanity oozing along... and then some idiot stops smack bang in the middle of it all to take a photo.. or at the top or bottom of an escalator. Silly people!!

Service here is fabulous.. even in retail every shop you go into you're greeted with a nice happy "Hi folks, having a good day"? or something similar.


Now I'm going to finish off.. I've spent about 3 hours trying to get this all done. Tomorrow is our last day here and we're going out to Mt Charleston for a look.