Viva Las Vegas!

Sunday 4^th November
After an unexpected week in hospital, Jo and I jumped on a plane to Vegas (via LA). Not sure how it happened but we managed to get Economy Plus seats to LAX, bonus! But the flight was FREEZING, not impressed. We whizzed off the plane at LA knowing that we only had 50 mins to catch our next flight. We made it through the massive queue at immigration, had the whole finger printing issues, then grabbed our bags, ran through customs, dropped out bags off and dashed through security for our next flight. Only to find that after we had run for our lives, the plane’s doors were closed and it was ready to go. After some frantic waving and another 7 or so people rushing up behind us to get the flight, they let us on! So there we were, all out of breathe and knackered, as we set off taxi-ing back from the gate… All of a sudden the plane stops and our luggage has appeared on the back of a small truck which is zooming towards us…Brilliant – I can’t imagine that LHR would have a) opened the doors and let us board the plane or b) stopped the plane enroute to the runway to put our bags on!! Took a cab to the Luxor (pyramid shaped casino/hotel – huge), tested out the inclinator lifts (which go up sideways) and had a salad in the Mexican restaurant in the hotel (which also has a food court, steak house, oriental restaurant, IMAX cinema, museum, casino, etc.). Went to bed at 8pm (4amUK time), woke up at 2 but snoozed til 6am.

Monday 5^th November
Up and out by 8am. Had a buffet breakfast in our hotel – I’ve never seen such a huge variety of food for brek! Walked to the Mandalay Bay hotel (next door) via the shops. Found their pool but it was only open to their guests, booo – it looked lush. So we headed back to our pool for the rest of the day, and booked some meals out, trip over the Grand Canyon and a Cirque du Soleil show.
That night we had dinner in the MIX (top of THE Hotel – 64 floors up). Amazing views of the strip and great food. Met with 2 old guys: (Pat Sharp – the Letch, and Hank). Eventually shook them off and headed back to the Luxor to watch the poker. Stuck with Jefferson from Dublin and Jo chatted with Ret (not Butler) from Canada. Had a dabble with the Irish boy and got to bed about 4am.

Tuesday 6^th November
HUNG OVER. So much so that we stayed in our room all day! Ordered room service for breakfast but after eating it all, Jo spewed. We did manage to get up and out for 7.30pm to go to the top of the RIO for dinner in the VooDoo lounge (52^nd floor). Booking was originally for 9pm but we only managed to pull it forward to 8.30. We were starving but went to the bar and ordered some water! It was there that we bumped into some guys we previously met in the lift. We started chatting and soon found out that they were there on business and were eating at 8pm. When they asked us to join them for dinner we jumped at the chance. There was 6 of them: Mark, Matt (Martinez – a marine, who’d been to Sailors in Newquay!), Lance, Tony, Jason & George. Again, another very funny evening, with fishbowl cocktails, lobster, steak, chocolate fondue – all on the business! Great! There was a really cool band playing in the bar after so we had a boogie and went out onto the roof terrace and admired the views of the city. Chatted with some Ozzie guys and then went back in to find our businessmen gone, or so we thought…. We got in the lift to find Lance and Tony chatting up some poor girl that had obviously got in at the ground floor where they were supposed to be getting out.. So they spent the journey with her back up in the lift trying to talk her into going out with them. She got out and they started their work on us. Unfortunately we were so tired and our feet hurt so much we blew them out. We had to give them 11/10 for effort though as they tried to persuade us the whole way back down the strip to our hotel in a taxi that they paid for, despite the fact they only needed to go 2 blocks down to the club they were going to!

Wednesday 7^th November
Had breakfast in the Excalibur (next door) and went back to our pool for some sun. Had a snooze in the afternoon then headed out at 7pm to TI (Treasure Island) where we had a massive scrummy dinner in Kahunaville. We hit an oxygen bar for 20 mins with back and scalp massage included, then we were off to see Cirque-du-Soleil’s ‘Mystere’. It was absolutely AMAZING. I’ve never seen people bend so much. There were trapeze artists, people doing immense things on a trampampoline, dancing, two bendy guys doing crazy lifts and stuff – it was immense. We then took the tram to the Mirage, where we found a bar for a few drinks. It actually felt like we’d intruded a wedding reception or some kind of work function, everyone was all dressed up. But we went ahead and ordered drinks and soon attracted some male attention. A drunken pilot no less. He attached himself to Jo and his two mates and I entertained ourselves. We followed them to a club in the Mirage but 3’s a crowd and it ended a little messily… bed at 4am.

Thursday 8^th November
We took a helicopter trip over Vegas and the Grand Canyon – OH MY GOD! How incredible. It was absolutely fantastic. There were 6 of us and a pilot. Jo and I were sat in the back between two burly old blokes but this didn’t deter our view. It took approx 45 mins to fly to the Canyon via the Hoover Dam – the sky was clear and the views were amazing. We landed in the Canyon and had a champagne picnic with a few other ‘copters from the same firm and then we got in the front for the journey back to see the sunset and fly over the strip at night. Awesome.
Back on ground we went to see the Sirens of TI (show in front of the hotel/casino), wandered through the Venetian to see the canals and the amazing ceiling that looks like sky. We popped into Caesars Palace for drinks in ‘Shadow’ where we had a Cosmo and then went for a swanky dinner in ‘Nero’s’. We went on to the Bellagio and Jo makes some xmas pressie purchases in Dior. The Bellagio rocks. It’s another massively vast casino but it looks posh and glitzy, cheesy old gold glitz but it’s great. Back to our pad for our first bit of gambling, of the speedy variety, electronic roulette!

Friday 9^th November
Paris for breakfast. Back to Dior to change the bracelet, then on to Fashion Show Mall for an exhaustive shop – spent a fortune. Home to bed at about 6 (we were sooo tired) with room service (pizza and Haagen Dazs).

Saturday 10^th November
Breakfast in Mandalay Bay and then back to our pool for the last bit of sunshine. Whizz to the shops to make some returns, then whizz to the Wynn (5* lush) for a browse in the fancy shops, back through the Bellagio and then down to New York New York. Dinner in the swanky ‘Nobhill’ in the MGM Grand (saw the lions: Pepper and Chilli – freaky naming coincidence). Studio 54 for dancing and random men meeting. Jo tiddled with sore feet, back to hotel, drunken Blackjack (I kept winning despite being distracted by the nice man next to me, much to Jo’s disapproval – ha ha). Bed at 3am.

Sunday 11^th November
Up and out. Boo. Caught at security with a large bottle of Clarins cleanser in my hand luggage – I honestly thought it was my new iPod nano wrapped up. Bugger.

An excellent trip but needed a week to get over it! – thanks Jo xxx