Saturday, February 22, 2014

Vegas Part 6

Saturday morning was our last full day in Las Vegas. I got up pretty early showered dressed and went down stairs to the casino and entered a texas holdem tournament at the Flamingo poker room. It was 50 dollars to enter and since we had spent around 10 dollars gambling so far I didnt feel bad about entering. There was over 30 entered and the top 3 got paid. I made it to 12th and a couple players had re bought in. I did pretty good the first few hands becoming the chip leader at my table pretty quick thanks to my pocket Aces and the woman beside me going all in with pocket 7,s. Every one at the table were thinking it was a bit early to go all in but after seeing my cards they said you had to do it. To help me an ace came up on the flop. I made it to the break and chip up then things went downhill from there. I can tell you that in 3 of my 4 last hands I had ace, king but couldnt make them pay off. My last hand I was big blind and had enough for 2 more big blinds so went all in with ace, king. The older gentle man beside me said he would help double me up as he was pretty sure I had better cards than him which he was right because he had 10, 4 suited. But as it goes he rivered a 4 and took me out. I was pretty pleased with the way I had played being my first pay tourney not counting the 2 dollar games we played at Laurie and Owens before I came back out here.

When I went up stairs Patty was up so we went for something to eat and then caught a bus to the Wynn Casino. Being a bus driver in BC it didnt cost me to get on I just flashed my ID card. The Wynn hotel is very nice. They say most stars stay there when they come for a visit. It was a very classy place on the strip. We wandered around for a while but didnt dare go into the shops. They had stores like coach, Rolex, Tiffanys and Chanel. The shoe and clothing stores had about 5 items in the store for you to look at. We then went to the Venetion which was another amazing Hotel. We went and checked out the Gondola rides but there was a long line up and it was about 80 bucks for 2 people. We wandered around in there for a while and came across Gadivas Chocolares. They gave us a sample and it was oh so good. we decided to go in and check it out and we were watching a woman making Strawberry Banana kabobs covered in Gadivas chocolate.  OMG were they good! 





Next up was going back to our room and getting ready for Beatles Love by Cirque De Soleil. I had booked the seats before we went and they were awesome seats although I dont think there was a bad seat in the house. The show was awesome and kept you at the edge of your seat. There wasnt a dull moment. You almost got whip lash trying to follow everything that was happening. The music was awesome and the sound clips of the Beatles talking and joking were well awesome as well. I truly enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I only wished I had taken a few photos of the Characters after the show was over but it was the first time I listened to them when they said no photos allowed.

 






On the way back to our room we stopped and got some Chinese food. Was quite reasonable and was quite good. Our last day full day in Las Vegas was coming to an end and although we discovered we are not really Vegas people we did have an awesome time and could see ourselves going back. 

Monday, February 17, 2014

Vegas Part 5

Next it was on to the famous Freemont  street in down town Las Vegas. Its pretty cool because the street is off limits to cars and has a canopy over it. There are some old casinos there and some old signs hanging up which are real cool. We even had a deep fried Twinky at lunch. We wandered around checking out the shops and of course I went into the casinos and got my dollar chip. The famous Golden Nugget Casino is there but we didnt go check out the big gold nugget and Im not sure why we didnt look for it. 







We caught the bus back to town and we passed a couple interesting things. One was the Mob Museum where you learn more than you need to know about the mob. They also had a building that was a clinic for brain injured people but if you looked at the building you would think it was designed by someone with a brain injury. Then we passed the stratosphere, a tall building that you can pay to jump off if you like.




The tour guides were pretty good but the last guy was a stand up comic. He had every one laughing from the moment we got on. We had him for the shortest time but he was the best tour guy we had so I gave him a tip and thanked him for the fun journey. We went back to the room and got changed then we decided to go see the valcano in front of the mirage then walked down to the Belagio to see the fountain show. After  that I thought Patty might want to see the Paris since I had already seen it and thought it was quite nice. While walking through we were approached by a guy that offered us a coupon for half price tickets for Taylor Hicks a past winner of American Idol. The concert was in a small bar with about 30 people so we decided to see him. I knew patty liked him as she had picked him to win Idol when he was on. It was an awesome show and he told lots of stories about starting out and being on idol. I reaaly enjoyed his concert. After words on the way out they sold photos and cds and i took a picture of Patty and him. I think she liked it too much lol. We headed back to our room picking up snacks on the way and then stretching out on the bed to watch tv.


   

Vegas Part 4

They next day we decided to do the Big Bus tour. The weather wasnt great so it was a good idea as it was warm on the bus. We caught the bus at Ballys and it drove around the strip with a guide talking about the history of vegas and the hotels. He told us what was coming down and what was going to be replacing it and showed us spots where parts of movies were filmed. 

We got off at Circus Circus and caught another bus to the down town where we decided to get out and check out the Pawn Shop. there was a bit of a line up but it only took about 15 minutes to get in. the store was small but bigger than I had imagined because every one told me it was tiny. We looked around and bought some souvenirs  and when we were paying they told us that the dad and son were working in the back room and that they come out 3 or 4 times during the day to do some taping. we didnt get to see them while we were there. The guy looking after the parking lot said Chumly had gone out and was due back shortly but we had to catch our bus.










 

Vegas Part 3

Our First morning there I was up around 5am and since it was Pattys birthday I decided to let her sleep in and went for a walk. And what a walk! Every hotel looks right beside each other but they all gotta be a 1/4 mile wide. It took me 3 hours to walk up to the end of the strip by the airport and back. I started at Ballys and went in each casino where i got a $1 chip to bring home. I have around 20 of them. It was still kind of dark out so I didnt take many pictures. I was so pooped when I got back. Patty was awake so I took a shower then we went out for breakfast and a walk. We went up the street to a ticket booth where we picked up tickets to Terry Fador for half price. Good seats too. We did a lot of walking and a lot of eating and alot more of both again. I wore my Canucks hat so we attracted alot of Canadians and we ended up shopping for souvenirs with a couple from Winnipeg. They saved me once when someone handed me a free cd to check out there music then wanted a donation. I offered them my tooney but they didnt seem to like it. I gave them back their cd and was dragged away lol.  









I should have wrote this out when we got home because its all a blurr now.  Because we are not gamblers we didnt hang out in the casinos but we did do a lot of site seeing. We went back to the room and watched tv and had a nap before the concert. Terry Fator won Americas got talent a few years back and has his own concert hall in Ceasers Palace. He is a good singer and a great ventriloquist. (you know I used spell checker for that word lol) He was given an award for his contributions to the war vets and family of war vets that he helps out. You could see he was touched by it. That was one thing I noticed in Las Vegas is there was alot of support for vets but nothing on the Olympics.




Afterwards we went back to the Cheesecake Factory for supper for another great meal. Patty ordered some gorilla drink and we split nachos and stuffed mushrooms. I had told them that it was Pattys birthday and since we ordered cheesecake to go they brought out icecream with whipped cream and a candle and sang happy birthday to her. We went back to our room and ate our cheesecake, a great end to a great day.