After our late night, a late morning was only expected!! Time just seems to fly by!
We got the bus to the end of the strip and went for a mooch in Mandalay place hotel which has a shopping centre within it! We wanted to mooch at the shops and Mark got some new flip flops! The hotels are the sort which you wouldn’t need to leave if you didn’t want to; they all seem to have restaurants, bars, clubs, casinos and shops! Very snazzy!
From there we headed to MGM Grand to see the lions! When we first walked in we were taken aback as it was nothing like we expected it to be inside! It was like walking into a nightclub!! The 2 lions were in a well lit area in a huge glass habitat which was sound proofed and set to the climate that they like! They lived about 15miles away from the hotel on a massive ranch but as a treat they are brought down to the habitat in the hotel once a week or so. Apparently they really enjoy coming down and they seemed at ease and comfortable which was nice to see.
Next stop was the M&M world!! We saw something similar in the Universal city in Hollywood but this was far cooler!! Everything was M&M branded and they had clothes, to the sweets to cooking utensils to bed sheets! They had the wall of M&M’s and we bought some of the rare colours! There was a walk through section where you saw how one was made and then a 3D film at the end which was very very cool!
We then went to the Flamingo hotel as they had a wildlife habitat with flamingos, HUGE fish, ducks, tortoise and guinea fowl. This was another of those hotels which literally has everything!!
We then caught the bus back before our pass ran out and popped back to the hotel to change and eat M&M’s!!
We have since spent the evening along Freemont street which is currently Halloween themed. There are stages with people singing and doing magic tricks and lots of little stalls selling things. We found a stall where the guy could write on a grain of rice without using a magnifier and he then put it in a gel filled bead and incorporated it into jewellery and key rings. He wrote one for us for free saying ‘Amy Mark, Las Vegas 2009’. We liked it so much that we got a keyring saying ‘Amy Mark, Travelling 2009/2010’.
We have noticed how things are different here to the rest of the US. Smoking laws are similar to home, and are well enforced here. You are not allowed to smoke within a certain distance of doorways, e.g. the coach and trains. Also, drinking over here is very strict, you can’t drink until your 21 anyway, but then you are not allowed to be on the street with alcohol and in many hostels you are not allowed it in your rooms! Here in Vegas though, these rules are out the window as you can smoke and drink anywhere, anytime you want to!! We think it’s a ploy to make you spend more money!
Tomorrow we are hiring a car again and are heading to the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon for a couple of days.