J: We made it to Las Vegas! We had treated ourselves to a hotel there and got a great deal online at the Stratosphere, we arrived to check in and headed to our room.... But we had booked a strip view and we didn't have one. So, we went and complained, unfortunately there was some communication problem with the booking. Unfortunately, they had no rooms with a strip view so upgraded us to one of the higher rooms which was much more of an upgrade so we came off well. We had time to prune and clean ourselves up. I had my first bath for some time and it was like the dirt all over me had melted off. And as ever classy back-packers we washed all our dirty camping clothes in the bath, the luxuries of traveling lol.

S: Oh to feel clean, what a luxury. The day before we had been talked into listening to a presentation for 90 minutes about a timeshare. Obviously, our bank balance co insides with this, but we got lots of freebies. We ended up with free show tickets, and free buffets. When on a budget that sounded a good deal to us. We did feel sorry for the guy though and we were frank and said we can't afford this, so you might as well relax. We had also gotten money off the restaurant called 'The top of the World.' It was a 360-degree revolving restaurant at the top of the tower looking over Vegas. We decided that it would be cheaper to eat there at lunch. The bread basket to start with was amazing with orange and basil butters to go with parmesan crisps and cheese topped rolls. Then our burgers were delivered, OMG, they were a proper man's burger with not just a rare cooked beef patty but with pieces of beef rib underneath and blue cheese to finish. To say the least we were in heaven was an understatement and after a couple of beers decided to head down to the casino floor at last. We headed to the roulette table and played a few hands and then headed to the blackjack table, for those that haven't been to Vegas, as long as you are betting they provide you with free drinks. We tried to learn craps but it was a little difficult for James to understand now so we headed towards the poker tournament.

J: I'm still not sure on the craps game but the dealers were really helpful. But I've always wanted to play in a poker tournament in Vegas and this was the chance. We paid our money, got our seats and it all started, it was brilliant to be playing and some players were serious with earphones, hats & glasses. I was doing ok until I had a couple of bad beats, both times I was all in but the river card killed me. But Sam was having a great game and got to the final 8! Just 2 seats out of the money which was a shame. But it was defiantly fun playing cards in Vegas.

By chance we were in Vegas for the Super Bowl, how good was that timing? The whole city was buzzing with the excitement of the game and people were in the streets pre-game supporting their team. We found a bar called Margarita Town, which was a lively sports bar on the side of the Flamingo Casino. It was rammed but a nice family (parents with daughter and son-in-law) had extra chairs and let us sit beside them at the bar. We quickly made friend with them and they were celebrating the mum's birthday while in Vegas. They were interested in our story and they were good enough to explain the Super Bowl to us. Funnily the parents supported the Sea Hawks and the kids supported the Patriots so it made for a fun game. I bought a round of drinks for them to thank them, but it turned out they were rather well off and treated us to dinner and drinks all night! They really made our Super Bowl experience a happy one as without them we wouldn't have known what was going on in the game.

S: It turned into a great night. Everyone had a few drinks and after the Super Bowl we went and played a few games on the roulette table. James suddenly realised he'd left his hat at the bar and when we returned a lady was wearing it saying it smelt lovely. I don't think her chap was too impressed when they posed together for a picture with the nice smelling man lol. We broke even and decided to call it a night and ended up getting a taxi back as James's foot was hurting him from where the horse kicked him in Aus. Although we brought a massive pizza on the way back, watching James attempt to eat it was very amusing. The next day we walked the strip, it was great taking it all in, and we even had a bet at Bellagio's and Caesars Palace, although you needed to have some serious money to bet with those casinos. We watched a 10-year-old girl perform outside Bellagio's whilst watching the fountains and she was going to be on 'Americas got Talent'. She was very entertaining and you never know how she would do on the show. By the time we got back we were absolutely freezing and I wasn't feeling very well. After a quick snooze thinking it would make me feel better, we wandered down to the Buffet. It looked great and I wanted to try so much but my body had decided that I wasn't up to eating and I had to go back to bed.

J: So as Sam went off to bed I still enjoyed the fantastic buffet, then return to Sam who was feeling faint and not well. After she slept for a few hours she felt just about well enough to make the show, it was called Pin Up which was a burlesque show. It has a playboy bunny as the star of the show, an amazing band and impressive singers/dancers, it was defiantly the best show I've ever been too. Thankfully Sam hadn't fainted through any of this so we went to the top of the tower again to see the night view of Vegas, it was stunning! We also bought a couple packs of playing cards used in our casino which make for a good memento.

S: On the way out of Vegas, we stopped at the Las Vegas sign which was pretty cool to see. There was a wedding about to take place performed by an Elvis impersonator - only in Vegas lol. I was still feeling rough and put it down to being cold in America. I think it was just a 48-hour bug.