The Tourist that Never Sleeps

It is once again 6:00 a.m. or at least it was when I started to try to connect to the internet (I HATE the wireless network at this place - and it's not even free). I am awake because it's 8 a.m. at home - that is despite having been up past 11:00 p.m., despite having a bed all to myself because Hockey Girl and Swedish girl (our newest exchange student you haven't even met since she's only been with us a month and wasn't with us on day one of Vegas), and despite walking miles yesterday. The good news is that it leaves me with plenty of time to blog about the trip.

We spent the morning on Tuesday by the pool. It was a lovely warm day - ended up being about 84 degrees for the high. HG and her friend had secured nice front row chairs for us. We all went down and mostly sunned ourselves for the first hour or so. Then we started playing in the water, ordering snack and beverages, reading and of course chatting. We were there until we had to go get Swedish Girl (who had been in San Fransisco visiting her aunt) from the airport. Her plane arrived about 1:30 p.m.. We picked her up without much problem - I did have to go into the airport and direct her to the right door - causing me to ponder once again what we did before cell phones. I wonder how much their existence will impact my children's generation's ability to make a plan (and a plan B) in advance.

When SG arrived she and HG and AOSB wanted to go back down to the pool. Curling Man and I had had enough sun (I was a little sunburnt despite sunscreen) so we took advantage of having an 18 y.o. chaperone for the kids and went to the casino. We played some craps and I was promptly up $125 (and much of that was made on my roll). I left the table and went and played some slots. I was up another $50 and Kevin texted me and told me he was playing Let it Ride, so I went to join him. After playing awhile and hitting trip aces, I was up another $35 - finishing out my day up $215. Kevin was even Tuesday - having been down in the morning, but making it up in his afternoon session.

That evening we had dinner at Battista's Hole in the Wall. It is an Italian restaurant a little off the Strip. They have an old guy who roams around playing the accordian, since we were from Minnesota he played the Beer Barrel Polka. He was very funny. He has been playing there for many years. We all had yummy Italian food (except our friend Gracie who is picky and ate chicken strips AGAIN). The meal included wine (which I didn't drink) and some wonderfully delicious cappucino (which I did drink eventhough I don't normally like coffee and man, was it delish)! CM and the kids headed back to the hotel while Swedish Girl and I and our friends walked back to the hotel. SG was in awe of the sights and lights of the Strip. On the way back we stopped at Excalibur to pick up some Krispy Kreme donuts for breakfast for the kids on Wednesday.

Yesterday was predicted to be cool and windy so we skipped the pool. The kids and I hit the Strip and Kevin entered a poker tournament. He had a little bit of time to kill before it started so we went to the craps table, where he made $200 in 15 minutes. He didn't get very far in the poker tourney as his trip 10s with an Ace kicker were beat by a full boat with 10s over 5s . Meanwhile we went to the Luxor to get HG her favorite breakfast meal (a Sausage McMuffin with Egg without Cheese). I got my favorite breakfast - a non-fat chai latte from Starbucks. We shopped our way over to Excalibur where CM met us at the booth where you can win a prize if the man fails to guess your weight within 3 pounds or age within 2 years. Kids win no matter what - so HG did it and while he was within 3 pounds of her weight, she still got a pretty cool Las Vegas puzzle that she is working on putting together as I type. After that we made our way over to NY NY where the CM and SG went on the roller coatser and the kids and I played games in the Arcade. Kids purchased prizes (rings, bracelets and a wallet) with their many tickets and we went to find lunch. CM, HG and I ate in a Jewish Deli. HG and I had matzoh ball soup and talked about how sad we were to be missing seder with our friends. We really bemoaned not having any charoset this year - maybe I'll have to make some when we get home. AOSB had a great meatball hoagie and SG had a turkey wrap. After lunch we went to M&M World and shopped and saw the 3-D movie. It was cute but it took a LONG time. Afterwards HG and CM went back to the hotel to rest and SG, AOSB continued down the Strip shopping. We went to Coke World (where AOSB got Coca-Cola shirt in Hebrew) and to Planet Hollywood to wander the Miracle Mile Shops. We found the beloved H&M (Swedish store that made SG feel very at home) and AOSB found a sweatshirt he liked. While we were there our friends called us and told us that they had tickets for the Titanic Exhibit that night. We made plans to meet them for dinner and go see the exhibit. We shopped a little more and started our walk back. We stopped at the Tix4tonite booth and bought our discounted Titanic tickets and got back to the hotel and got our 2nd room for SG and HG to share, since one room was a little small for 5 people.

At 6:30 we met our friends for dinner at the House of Blues. HG and I split the ribs - yum! CM and SG had shrimp creole and AOSB had a big burger. After dinner everyone except CM went to the Titanic Exhibit. it was very well-done. They gave each guest a card with the name and information about one passenger, including what class they were in and who they were. We got to see a lot of actual artifacts and to learn a lot about the ship itself as well as many of the passengers and crew. There was even a large piece of the ship itself. The kids were really impressed by it. They all said that it was very interesting and very sad. Everyone's person except mine died.

We came back to the hotel. The kids went to bed and I went to the casino to meet CM who had been hanging out in the sports book watching some games. We met at the craps table (SG came to watch and made it about 20 minutes before they asked for her ID). The table (along with all of the others in the casino) was HOT! Betting conservtively I left up $150. CM bet much more aggressively and he made nearly $500. It was a good night! We were back in the room by 10:30 p.m..

Today will be another lazy day - mostly by the pool as our friends leave tomorrow.