Viva Las Vegas. I had intended to get up and watch the Norwich match which kicked off at 4.30am. However I didn’t wake until just gone 6am. I managed to watch about 5 minutes before I lost the stream. I managed to do it all without disturbing Karen though.
This morning we planned to spend some time by the pool. Annoyingly the pool didn’t open until 9am, so beforehand Karen got me to phone Reception as the toilet in the room kept refilling all the time and it was quite noisy.
There are 2 pools and we weren’t sure which one to go to. We joined the queue for the over 21’s one. Even by 8.45am it was large. So we made a tactical decision instead to just walk into the Beach Grill pool instead which didn’t have a queue and found a couple of sun beds, that were partially shaded for the moment. This pool area soon filled up as well with all sorts of variety of human life. Quite loud music started up as well which I found annoying.
It had all factors that I hate. Loud thud thud music from this pool area competing with the same from the over 21’s pool area, the wrong shaped people wearing the wrong shaped inappropriate clothes, sun beds with no chairs, and the heat absolutely intense. Apart from that I was happy.
I passed the first hour reading a newspaper and watching the test match updates on my phone. Then I wandered out of the area to spend our breakfast credit. Karen had had some cereal back in the room so I just got her a coffee. I got a thing called a Bugsy which was an enormous round croissant filled with about ½lb of ham, egg and cheese microwaved to a point where it burnt my hands. I dread to think of the calorific count but it was quite tasty. I ate this in the shade before taking the hot drinks back to the pool area.
It was at 11am when the music in the other pool really cranked up initially with some live rapping. It was truly horrible as it reverberated through the sun bed. I felt I was trapped in hell. Karen managed to have a snooze which was remarkable.
Just before 12 I was given purgatory and allowed to leave. We looked into the over 21’s area and were so pleased that we hadn’t gone in. It looked truly awful. There was barely any space in the main pool, with people bouncing and drinking in time with the thud of the so called music. I maybe getting old but there never would have been a time when I would have enjoyed that.
Back in the room we had some snacks for lunch, before going out to see some more of The Strip.This time we turned left and firstly had a look around the Paris Hotel. It was very French as was to be expected. Then we went in the Miracle Mile where not only did Karen grab a coffee from Starbucks but we also watched some robots make and mix cocktails for people. Then Karen was keen on having a look in Ross & Marshalls back on The Strip which and managed to buy more tops in both of them. She also nearly bought a third new handbag but changed her mind at the last moment.
Walking along The Strip was like walking in a furnace. The heat radiating up from the pavements made it even worse. There were still weirdos on each corner and Mexicans handing out what I assumed were Panini Football cards. Karen said I wasn’t allowed to start collecting them for some reason.
Eventually we came to MGM where Karen was keen to see if they still had a Horse Racing game she has enjoyed on previous visits. I said it was unlikely as it was so old school. I was right and wrong. The old version had gone but had been replaced by a much better and more advanced new one. There were 8 horses running on a trackless course. They were able to circle each other before the race started to get into position and then swap lanes as they went along. I marvelled at it all. The minimum bet was $1 and recklessly I went for it. We picked a 5-1 winner with that first bet and that enabled us to then keep playing with more winnings for about 25 minutes. It was jolly good fun and when we were out of money I deemed it all good value for the single $1 we were down. Some people were betting for much bigger stakes and also betting on the winner/second combo and winning big time.
It was then a long hot walk back to the Hotel. We looked a few times at the half price ticket booth for the shows. But there was nothing that we wanted to see enough to pay the money they were asking for the tickets. We would have liked to see Pif the Magic Dragon but he was currently appearing at the Edinburgh Fringe as a break from Vegas. We stopped in a CVS pharmacy along the way to get some more milk, an ice cream for Karen and a cold drink for me.
Back in our room the toilet still hadn’t been fixed and so this time Karen phoned Reception. They apologised said they would have someone along to fix it within 20 minutes (which they did) and gave us another $25 Food Credit. That caused us a dilemma as we didn’t want to waste it and so changed our plans and went to the Paradise buffet in the Hotel instead. We had ruled this out as being too expensive but we now got both meals for a net cost of less than $30. Tonight was Surf & Turf night. I have never eaten so many giant crab legs in my life. They were fabulous. Normally once a year we go to Joes Crab Shack and I always baulk at the cost, and so this was a real treat. I just wandered what happened to the rest of the crab. I love the brown meat from a good old Cromer Crab. I also tried some Prime Rib as it would be rude not to, washed down with some delicious scallops. Karen was delighted to find the desserts had a sugar free counter and even I had my first cookie since 2015 although I did worry about the fat content.
We then wandered across the road to Caesars Palace. I say wandered across the road, which is not something you can just do in Vegas. From leaving the cool air of the Flamingo to the cool air of Caesars was still a 20 minute walk just to get over to the other side. Once inside we marvelled again at the curving escalator and wandered a happily though the mall stopping in a few places.
The best shop in here is the Memorabilia and Antiquities shop. They have such fascinating and one off pieces. I wanted to buy the framed and genuine Frank Sinatra Toupee but wasn’t allowed to as it was over $10000. Karen is so mean sometimes. Nor was I allowed the original handwritten lyrics by Prince to ‘1999’ or even the lyrics to Margaritaville by Jimmy Buffet. They had the signatures in one frame of everyone involved in the Gunfight at the OK Corral, along with original oil can signed by the actor who played the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz. Unbelievably someone was buying a framed letter by Oppenheimer about his Atomic Bomb invention for $14000. Why? Had they missed the toupee which was much more interesting. Sadly I was not allowed to take any photos inside so inside settled for a Zoltan machine outside that had been modified to have Trump inside it.
At the end of the mall there is a free show about Atlantis that we stood and watched. It was as rubbish and incomprehensible as I remembered. It was noticeable that the people frequenting Caesar Palace were a different class to those walking on the The Strip itself. We then slowly and rather tiredly made our way back to our Hotel at the end of another long day.
