We flew to Las Vegas on Sunday from San Diego- it was such a nice change to not have to get on a train!! We arrived around 3pm to what the air hostess said was a cool 106f or 42C!!! We checked into our luxury accommodation of the MGM Grand- the biggest hotel in the world and it was massive! We went straight down to the pool after we got lost trying to find it and spent an hour or 2 cooling down!

Later that evening we went across to look at New York New York hotel, Mandalay Bay and Luxor - we went for a good buffet at Luxor, then went to Excalibur for a bit of a play on the slots. Carol and me heard an almighty shout from Matt on the machines and we thought he had won a massive amount- it turned out he'd won 5 cents!!

Monday we got up and Carol and me went for a wander to the M&M store and for a bit of a gamble on the slots in MGM. We went over to Excalibur later and had another buffet!! We have a lazy afternoon as none of us could move after eating so much!

That evening we went over to have a look at some of the other hotels on the strip. We went over to New York New York again and Carol and Matt went on the big Roller Coaster- Manhattan Express- while I held the bags- i'm turning into a wimp in my old age!!! We then went over to see the fountains at Bellagio and looked around Bellagio, Caesars Palace, Paris, and Flamingo. We then went back to MGM for a gamble and I won some money!! Not much only about $10 but i was well chuffed and I think this started the whole addiction to the slots that we will explain later!!

Tuesday we checked out of MGM and went right up to the top end of the strip to Stratosphere for the next 2 nights. It was a bit away from the other hotels and it was way too hot to walk around so we spent most of the days by the pool. (although Liz snuck off to the slots during the day-getting a bit worried about her gambling addiction!!!)

In the evening Matt won a bit on the machines, the Speaks won nothing!!

Wednesday and our last full day in Vegas we again went to the pool in the day time. I went down for a little gamble and got up to $34- i was so happy. i went back to the pool for a bit and then went to find Matt in the casino and thats when it all went wrong and all $34 went in about 2 mins- (damn those hot hot penny machines!!) Carol and Matt went to have a wander to Circus Circus in the evening while I tried to win my money back!! It didn't go too bad and I won about $20 that night so overall I didnt lose that much money. I was so tempted to go and play roulette and black jack on the tables but the minimum bets were like $10 so i couldn't afford it.

As long as we were gambling in the casinos you get free drinks so although we didn't win anything on the gambling front we definately made money on all the drinks we had!! Typical English!

We checked out of Stratosphere and had 3 hours to wait so we went on the slot machines for a bit and I lost all my money but Carol won quite a lot on the hot hot penny machine!

We flew to L.A yesterday (thursday) and met Mark at the airport- he just got in from London so there are now 4 of us! We will update you on L.A soon,

Speak soon

xxxx