Day 192, 193, 194 - Las Vegas baby! Nevada - Wednesday 25th, Thursday 26th, Friday 27th April 2012

VEGAS BABY!! This statement featured greatly in our three days in the sin city - drunkenly shouted in the early (and sometimes late) hours of the morning, whenever we won a bet (which wasn't often) and just generally when the moment took us! Now, before we start this particular blog we've got to be honest and admit that large chunks of Vegas (baby) were a bit of a blur……..

Before starting our four and a half hour drive to Vegas (baby) we decided we first needed to fill up on some well needed calories and so headed straight to Denny's for a gut busting breakfast of moons over my hammy and the grand slamwich accompanied by chocolate milkshakes and chocolate pancake balls dipped in peanut butter - as they say "when in Rome……."

Five hours later with our stomachs still, full we drove into Las Vegas Blvd and was greeted by an the overwhelming assortment of sights, smells, sounds that make Vegas what it is. It's like a surreal parallel universe where literally anything goes - like an adult Disney world; we were going to like it here.

Whilst cruising down the strip Ad suggested we get the roof down but we decided against it as we were literally at our hotel; Ad followed this up by saying "although Las Vegas (baby) is huge and the chances of us seeing Kirsten and Mark are rare, we better not go out in case we see them", as he finished this sentence I turned round to see Kirsten and Mark happily strolling along the strip - can you believe it?! We quickly hid and then drove off whilst giggling to ourselves and hoping that we hadn't been seen!

We pulled into the Mirage (Kirsten had kindly paid for us to stay at the Mirage for our Xmas and birthday presents - what a present hey!) and gave the keys over to the valet parking guy and headed to check in. Once in the room, we checked out our view of the strip, did a couple of naked bed dives whilst shouting "VEGAS BABY" and then got into bed for a quick power nap - we were due out for our surprise meet with Kirsten and Mark in two hours.

After a bit of sleep we were woken up by room service; Kirsten had mentioned to the hotel that it was our honeymoon so they brought up a bottle of champagne for us! We got showered and with the bottle of champers finished we were ready to hit the Ghost bar at the Palms hotel; after a bit of faff with our ID's (they ID you everywhere here and we forgot it so had to go back and get it) we finally arrived at the Ghost bar with views overlooking Vegas (baby). We got ourselves a drink and chatted with the bar man about our plan to hid and nod at him when Kirsten and Mark arrived so he could get them a vodka shot courtesy of us and point in our direction. With our plan in action, we hid out at the corner of the bar until Kirsten and Mark arrived. With our nod the barman did an excellent job of explaining that the vodka shots were courtesy of two big VIP's who he thought maybe owned the hotel and pointed in our direction. He did such a good job that Mark thought it was all a bit weird and didn't even turn around!! With a poke from Kirsten, Mark turned round to Adam and I bounding towards him - the shocked look on his face said it all! We all hugged, shouted "Vegas baby!" a few times and got down to catching up over lots of drinks and even more shots. Now this is where the evening gets a bit hazy - we all have snippets of memory like Adam nicking some man's tie and putting it around his head, Adam nicking a cigarette out of another man's mouth, someone shouting at Adam (are you noticing the theme here) but aside from that the evening is a bit of a blur. However we took photo evidence which seemed to suggest we stayed in the Ghost bar for far too long, bought far too many shots, got really friendly with a random guy, again got really friendly with a random taxi driver and even ended up in a casino! I have a vague recollection of playing blackjack in a casino and winning back a load of money Adam had lost but aside from that there is no memory. All we knew was we woke up the next day with a banging headache!

Ahhhhhh headache…….… Now I remember the vodka shots, the tequila shots and lots of JD and coke, but I don't remember mush else! When Soph handed me the camera it was just like the film The Hangover… loads of random pictures of me, Soph, my sister and my bro-in-law all with strange new friends that we must have met!! After somehow managing to shower, dress and get out the room by 9am we meet Kirsten and Mark for buffet breakfast at the Bellagio. Wow!! Breakfast buffet at the Bellagio was something else. The amount of food was unreal, Americans love steak, eggs and pancakes with maple syrup for breakfast and they don't just eat one plate full either!! You could have Chinese, Swedish, English and full greasy 100% butter American; it was awesome! After breakfast we checked out Kirsten and Mark's room at the Bellagio and watched the view of the fountains going off. It was amazing, their room was wicked and seeing the fountains going off from a bird's eye view was great. Soph gate-crashed their bed for a five minute power kip then we walked around Caesars palace and the surrounding area in a bit of a state but just managed to check out the sights. We saw "David" - a famous Greek sculpture that we renamed "Big Dave" as he was packing some serious package! It was so funny stumbling around Caesars Palace half cut and us lot all messing around, especially when the night before we had been playing Texas Hold'em in the casino and the whole time Kirsten thought it was Texas drop'em!! Ha ha!! Then we saw some buskers and I had my photo taken with a guy holding a sign saying "Too ugly to prostitute". After walking around for an hour or so and saying "Vegas baby" at least 100 times we started to sober up from the night before and decided to hit Harrahs casino. There we played million dollar poker - on the first hand Mark got a three card straight flush and won $200 and on our second turn we had a five card full house and won $100!! Easy, we thought now we're sober this gambling stuff is so easy - however we then proceeded to lose it all…… But the croupiers were so entertaining we didn't mind; Marlene with the hilarious laugh helped us with all the games and Keith with his slow revealing cards. Soph and I agreed that the Harrahs was the best casino because all the croupiers were fun and the people there were doing $5 minimum bets and smiling, whereas the bigger casinos seemed more serious and less fun.

In the afternoon Soph and Kirsten chilled by the pool at the Bellagio whilst me and Mark had bigger plans, we had entered a poker tournament at Ballys casino. Now my mates know that my poker game needs a bit of a tweak… ok it needs and big tweak… ok I can take it, I'm not very good but I love playing it. So when we turned up and there were only 16 players in the tournament I thought I would come 15th!! As the game started they moved Mark to another table to balance the numbers but after three hands he moved back. Then he won a couple, I folded a couple and suddenly there were only eleven players left. Then Flinty the poker legend striked a massive full house and won the hand!!!!! But the next hand I was out! I think it was all the excitement of winning a hand - well that, or I'm just awful at poker (bit of both, if the truth be known). So I watched for a bit and Mark was cruising and getting stronger and stronger. Soph had taken the cash card just in case I got too excited, so with the remaining $30 I had in my pocket I played black jack table and five minutes later, with empty pockets, I walked back to the poker room to see how Mark was getting on. Oh my god, he was still in and there were only four players left. I settled down to watch with a few beers and could not believe that he actually went on to win!! I was so pumped and excited just watching but jealous too!! Mark floated back to the hotel room to tell the girls, I was happy enough with 10th! After all the poker excitement we all got ready for dinner at the Paris Hotel restaurant, this was a present from my mum for all of our birthdays, Soph 30th (8th September), mine (2nd May) and Mark's 40th just gone. The restaurant was opposite the Bellagio so we could see the fountains and a view of the strip too. Dinner was amazing and the wine was awesome too. After dinner we met up with my mate Omar from home with his girlfriend and Malin for a bit of gambling and then headed to Harrah's for some more gambling and drinking with Kirsten and Mark. Here we decided to step it up a bit so we hit the Craps table where my lovely wife won back all the money back I had lost! We played some more and drunk some more (its brilliant if you gamble you get free booze!!!) and then finally crashed and burned at 2am.

The next morning we were due to meet Kirsten and Mark for breakfast but we literally couldn't get out of bed so we instead slept a bit longer and planned to meet them at 11am for some more gambling at Harrah's. When we arrived in Vegas (baby) our original plan had been to leave today as Kirsten and Mark were leaving too, but after spending two days in Vegas (baby) we decided we needed another day and so checked out of the Mirage (couldn't afford to stay there if we were paying!) and into the Imperial Palace - a hotel not near as nice but on the strip and seeing as we hardly spend any time in the room (even to sleep!) we weren't too bothered! It was quite funny leaving the ultra-posh Mirage with our huge, scruffy backpacks on our backs though!

11am came and we met Kirsten and Mark at Harrahs and headed straight for the Triple attack and Let It Ride gambling tables - Mark and Kirsten were up again and we didn't actually do too bad either! Although this was helped by the lovely Tony (Y NOT backwards!) - he and the other croupiers were quite amused that I kept on hitting on 17! . After a few hours gambling it was time to say goodbye to Kirsten and Mark. We all hugged and said a teary farewell - it was so lovely seeing them again and we had such a great time with them! By this time our stomachs were grumbling and so we headed to Planet Hollywood for some food and after walked along to the Aria hotel. We were booked in to see Viva Elvis Cirque Du Soleil at 7pm as we'd managed to buy cheap tickets for the show. With an hour to kill we decided to give the slot machines a go and succeeded in completely confusing ourselves and relieving our wallet of $20! What happened to the old slot machines where you just pushed a button?! All of the machines had various hold options which were far too complicated for us! Our amusement however came from watching a guy cashing up from a win on one of the gambling tables - he was dressed in his dressing gown!! Only in Vegas baby.

Come 7pm we sat down to watch the show; we were both a bit dubious as although we both like Elvis's music, we are not huge fans and so wondered if we would like the show. Well after two hours we were done and both agreed it was amazing and well worth the money! The performances were out of this world - I still cannot figure out how they do the bends and jumps etc with their bodies!

After the show we met up again with Omar and Malin and headed to the Bellagio to watch the night-time fountain show - it was brilliant! We then walked to Caesars palace to have a look at the Pussey Cat Dolls gambling tables and dancers and on the way saw a guy dressed up like Alan from The Hangover shouting "don't be a reTARD!" - very funny!

Back at Harrah's we continued on with some more gambling, drinking, and then more gambling - Omar and Malin were playing roulette and by the end of the night were $600 up!! We, on the other hand were down although Ad did end the night on three queens (I mean cards not men dressed as women) at the Let It Ride table! Come 3.30pm we said our goodbyes to Omar and Malin (although not for long as they are in Miami at the same time as us so we're meeting for drinks for Ad's birthday on South Beach!) and headed back to the hotel to crash.