Got up relatively early to check out "Dishes" the buffet at Treasure Island. Totally stuffed my face, as, I believe, did Nancy. In Las Vegas, there is so much food and so little time to eat it all. Then we walked over to the Mirage to see "Siegfried and Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat". It's amazing how close it is to the Strip and yet how far away it feels. Had a couple of twinges of guilt about the animals, but they seemed happy and well taken care of, so... The dolphins reminded me of how much I missed Mojo. The big cats were all sleeping. That's the life, eh? The Thai Elephant, Greta, has a pet turkey. While we were there, Greta relieved herself. Here's another tip: never be around a peeing elephant. Firstly, it's really not that pretty, and secondly, the odour is unpleasant and significant.
So then we went back onto the strip, and had some dollar margaritas. I may not mention all the subsequent margaritas, but most were better than this one. I guess, what do you expect for a dollar?
Then we went to Paris-Las Vegas, where I lost a whole dollar at the slots. You see, I just don't find gambling that interesting. Anyway, then we went up the "Eiffel Tower" and took some pictures of the Strip. It's quite impressive how the bottom of the Eiffel Tower is right in the middle of the casino there--indoors. All in all Paris is pretty nice. But really, if you're going to have a woman in the elevator up the Eiffel Tower giving you information partially in French, it might be good to choose someone who doesn't massacre the language that badly. Sounded like something close to French in a seriously heavy, almost over the top comical, New York accent. And she had to close her eyes while she was giving the schpiel. Whatever, it was still a good view.
And then, we were off to Aladdin and the "Desert Passage" shopping centre inside it. They try to make it actually look like it's a bunch of small buildings under an open sky since the ceiling, like many other places on the strip, is painted to look like a blue sky with some passing clouds. Not totally unbelievable either. So they had a "Bath and Body Works" in this place, which we went to, and somehow the cashier just knew we were from Canada. So, attention Bath and Body Works head honchos. Time to come to Canada, okay!
So the rest is a little blurry in my mind because of the pain in my feet and possibly the effects of a cheap margarita. But we saw MGM Grand, green to be reminiscent of the Emerald City (and I recall it being way too dark inside), Excalibur (why do they have sand in the moat and not water?) and then the Luxor, where we ate at "The Phoenix" cafe. Hooray, they had skim milk there! Okay, so it didn't taste like the skim milk at home, but it was still great. I had quesadillas, which you all know are my fave, and discovered just how much I really like guacamole.
Next we got lost in the New York-New York casino (see my comment on Caesar's yesterday) and sat on the "Brooklyn Bridge" for a bit doing some people watching. As a side note, everyone there seems really friendly, and I'm not just talking about the people looking for tips. Can't tell you how many times people offered to take our picture, or asked if we could take theirs. I guess when you're so far removed from reality, you can afford to hang loose a bit.
And about New York-New York, it's designed to look like downtown New York with the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building, among others. But not the WTC. And it was built before 9-11. So why no Twin Towers? Because the whole thing is built to 25% scale and to do the WTC would have made it too high, too close to the airport. Lucky for them I guess, because having them in Vegas, even replicas, might be a little sad, maybe even distasteful at this point.
So anyway, then we checked out the CVS pharmacy on the strip (really huge, sells everything) and I stocked up on some much needed liquids. Remember Lise, you are in the desert here.
Finally, we wrapped things up by checking out another 3 performances at the Bellagio fountains before walking back (and it's a long walk, especially past Caesar's) to the hotel for the night.
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