Just before 12pm, I got a message from Rick saying he was out the front of the hotel. What a fun and gorgeous young man!!!! (We worked out we are pretty much the same age :) ) And he and Don are so cute together. Anyway, we head off to centre strip and went for a wander through The Cosmopilitan (where Rick used to work), Bellagio and Aria Resorts. Absolutely stunning - and very classy. We stopped for a cocktail and some sweet potato chips (I had a black cherry/meringue concoction which looked and tasted very much the science experiment -but very delicious).
We strolled all over and it was great to have my own personal tour guide who could point out things I would otherwise miss. There were also little stories behind certain designs that too readily apparent, such as a little bar that is in an Alice in Wonderland theme, where the roof design actually depicts the underside of Alice's skirts.
In the Cosmopolitan there is a three story bar which an amazing pink crystal backdrop made up of I think over 5 million crystals. Absolutely amazingly beautiful!!!!! We also wandered through the Ballagio butterfly and botanical gardens. I must say that spring is a fabulous time to visit Las Vegas. I finally got to see all the open-air tulips that we didn't see in Amsterdam because we were there in winter.
As Don was only visiting for a couple of days, I lefty the guys to spend their time together - I really appreciated that they took the time to show me around - and went for a further explore of the Strip. All I can say is that it was gaudy, lavish and expensive. I played the slots, drank an overpriced cocktail and wandered through the streets of New York, New York. Vegas really is a place that would be so much more fun sharing with your best friend! After an expensive and over stimulating afternoon, I headed back to home base for the most amazing southern fried chicken and slaw EVER!!! Quite reasonably priced compared to the strip and utterly delicious, I found another one of my favourite meals...
I hung out in the bar and had a few nightcaps and tried unsuccessfully again to win my millions. i met some interesting people to chat with, but pretty soon called it a night. (Go party animal, you!!!)
The next morning saw an early start and an early drive to Las Vegas airport. Yes, I got lost. Yes, I drove around the airport in circles many times. But I did manage to find my way to domestic arrivals and just as I was indulging in my tourist action of photographing the slot machines you can play whilst you're waiting for bags to be unloaded, I heard Rhonda calling out and here was my friend who had flown out from Tucson, Arizona, for the day.
Rhonda and I used to work together at Cape York Partnerships probably almost 10 years ago. It was so great to see her!!!!
First stop was breakfast at the American institution that is iHop. Very delicious, if not extraordinarily large, breakfast with bottomless cups of coffee and lots of catching up. I can't imagine anyone eating three meals a day over there - that breakfast could have technically carried me for the week!
With a whole 24 hours to play, we decided to head up to the oldest part of Vegas, Fremont Street. Of course, it was still really early and the place was pretty empty. During the night, Fremont Street would come alive with some sort of sky show projected on the roof arching over the street. Alas, time restraints permitting, we just took a stroll, encountering the Heart Attack Grill and the Oldest Working Casino in Vegas. It was still early, but that cocktail sure did taste fine!!!
When we got back to the car, we had a Holy Crap moment. We suddenly realised that we ad been there for 4 hours!!!!! Surely not possible, but it made us plan the rest of our day a bit better. We attempted to hit a couple of thrift and dollar stores, as I was on a souvenir and suitcase to take back said souvenir hunt, but some of the the places were decidedly dangerous looking, so we headed back over to the northern strip to explore the Wynn, Venetian and Caesar's Palace Resorts. We wandered through at what I thought was a reasonable pace, stopping for a cocktail. The Venetian is gorgeous, definitely one of my favourites! Anyhow, as we had to make sure we got to New York, New York in time to pick up our tickets for Cirque du Soleil and have some New York-style pizza for dinner, we were really watching the time. We looked at our phones and suddenly realised that we had managed to walk explore three gigantic hotels in a mere 30 minutes.... Surely not possible! But the clock doesn't lie, so we decided we were having some sort of time warp and as we were so quick through the resorts, we had time to head up to Circus,Circus to see the acrobats flying across the ceiling as you play slots underneath.
Word to the wise....never, EVER, think that walking any distance down the strip will be a little stroll. I actually knew this. But when Rhonda said, Lets leave the car here, it's only the next hotel up, I said 'ok'. Just remember that Nevada is in the desert. It truly felt like we were wandering lost in this said desert for three days!!! One block amounted to the distance of I'm sure the entire length of the Tour de France and when we finally reached to old, shoddy exterior of our destination, it surely looked like a long sought oasis...
We dragged ourselves to the bar and croaked for alcaholic sustenance. Rather than pay for drinks, we decided to put $10 in the slots and get complimentary drinks. The cocktail waitress took our order and I put $10 in the machine, followed by another $10 while we were still waiting. Rhonda sent me off to watch the short circus performance upstairs whilst she waited. I returned after a while, expecting Rhonda to join me with the drinks but the waitress never returned!!!! We were $20 poorer and no drinks!!!!! Stupid Las Vegas!!!!
We made our way back down the the other hotels where we had parked our car. I'm not sure what Rhonda was thinking, but I was wishing I still had my 20 bucks to shout us a cab ride back to the car.... We made it back and headed straight to New York, New York as we had now overshot our time and were now running late to do everything we wanted to do before that night's show.
I hate being late and rushing. I am the girl who leaves for work early even though it is 12 minute drive if I drive fairly slowly...and here I was slightly panicked whilst navigating the Las Vegas Strip.
The trick to driving on the Strip is not to look at anything. It is Soooo easy to get distracted by all the flashing lights and odd people getting up to crazing antics, it is really an accident waiting to happen. So with my horse blinkers on, we drove the Strip and raced to get a car park in the multi-story attached to New York,New York. As we were racing into the Hotel, I pulled out the paperwork for the show and with cries of joy, I said to Rhonda, the show is at 7.30!!!!, not 7pm as I had thought. Phew, we had an extra half an hour!!
We picked up our tickets quite promptly (the line the day before had been horrendous), and ordered our delicious New York Style Pizza. We were discussing how weird the time thing had been that day, when be both suddenly looked at each other and cried, 'The car clock!!!!!!' As I had had to swap my hire car out in Salt Lake City due to the Maintenance Required light coming and staying on, the clock on the car's dashboard was an hour ahead of Nevada time!!!! As we had been going between both the car clock and our phones all day, that explained the crazy time warp we had been living. We were now crazy early for our show. We nibbled the side of our pizza (when it came out, it was the size of a third of my dining table at home) and then headed over to a little New York-style bar where we were thoroughly entertained by a jazz-style one-man-band doing al the great hits. Really fun!
I'm glad that I can tick a Los Vegas Cirque du Soleil show off my bucket list, but in honesty I probably would have enjoyed one of the other shows much more. I wanted to be thrilled by crazy antics where people were wizzing over my head in all crazy contortions, but Zumanity, although quite exquisite in its sheer controlled athletic forms, was not quite as dynamic as I thought it would be. We did enjoy the show and it was very funny at times, but as I said, I wanted death-defying stunts!!!!
It was a fantastic day spent with Rhonda and I am so glad we caught up. Rhonda had an early flight back to Tucson the next morning, and I need to be out the front waiting for my coach at 0545, so although it was fairly late, we attempted to at least get a few hours sleep.
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