After exploring our overnight camp spot for the morning, we finally arrived in Vegas mid afternoon, driving the RV toward the strip in one of those around and about GPS inspired tours, mainly prompted by the fact that we weren’t exactly sure where we were going to stay. It has been intended that we’d sort that out before we got there, but with the changed itinerary, that didn’t quite happen.
We found the strip, and pulled in at one of the first hotels that we came to, which happened to be one of those that Caroline’s research had turned up as a possibility to stay at – the Excalibur.
Eventually we managed to book ourselves in, park the RV and head into the hotel. The kids were super excited about getting to go for a swim, but when we were finally ready, we found out that the pool closed at some stupidly early time (obviously to encourage people to go gambling instead). Instead we decided to head out on the town, find somewhere to eat and see if we could line up some tickets to a Cirque de Soleil show.
The lights came on as we strolled the strip and we researched the best way to buy tickets, found m&m world (where Emily had a melt down as a result of being denied her own personal tube of mini-m&m’s). We had a great dinner and continued our stroll down the strip, taking in the various sights. It was a stupidly windy night – not windy enough to stop me from buying an over-sized margarita, but windy enough to stop the volcano erupting. We had hoped to get to the hotel with the roller coaster than ran on its roof, but in the end the kids were tired and it was totally at the other end of the strip (which is significantly longer than I’d expected) so we turned around and made our way back to our own hotel.
It didn’t appear that the roller coaster at New York New York (next to our own hotel) was running – again probably due to the wind) and with four kids in tow, I was left to walk past rather than into Coyote Ugly. We had to settle for putting the kids to bed and dragging our tired butts down to the casino for some blackjack.
There were no magic millions waiting for us though, so it was off to bed before too long.
Day two we followed through on our research and bought tickets to one of the Cirque de Soleil shows (its amazing how many of them run continuously in Vegas) and then spent most of the afternoon at Circus Circus where the kids indulged in some of the rides and eventually ended up cycling through the laser tag over and over again.
I had an interview with someone from home (that’s not going to result in anything) and after that, we were somewhat rushed to get some dinner in our bellies before going to the show. We thoroughly enjoyed it and then took the kids back and put them to bed.
Caroline and I hit the tables and after initially struggling to find one with a vibe that I liked, settled down in a seat next to a girl with a rather phallic balloon on her head on one side and her friend, wearing one about her waist on the other. They were obviously well into the spirit of Vegas and more importantly, the cards were being kind to me. It turned out that the girl with the balloon on her head was on her bachelorette trip and the other girl was her bridesmaid. She was more than happy to tell me that she was marrying on the 11th of September and that they were both pilots!
It wasn’t long after that that I ordered a drink from one of the waitresses and when she brought it back, I went to give her $10 bucks for it. She kept asking if I was tipping her. I was a little confused as whilst I had intended to tip her, I thought that I needed to pay for the drink first. It was about then that the girls that I was sitting with explained to me that you don’t pay for drinks whilst you’re gambling in Vegas. Hello! Spot the newbie!
Needless to say I had a couple more after that and got to enjoy such things as the bride-to-be shouting out “Look at me Daddy!” at the top of her lungs (her father had joined us at the table). I assume that’s not a saying that’s common in Vegas with some of the entertainment that’s available, but hell, one can’t be too sure and getting told off by the croupier for not talking like a lady. By the time Caroline came over and joined the table I was winning cash and drinking from a penis-straw supplied by the bridesmaid, who was more than impressed when I kept it for each subsequent drink.
Good times indeed.
