March 2, 2008


*whimper*

My feet have never hurt this much in my life. I've just gotten back to the hotel from walking the strip. Not all of it, but damn close. I had to admit defeat at Caesar's Palace and instead of hailing Caesar, I found myself hailing a cab.

With the time change, I was awake at 4 this morning, but managed to get back to sleep and got out of bed at 7. Dianna was in a course today so Ron and I had the day to ourselves. This is something like Ron's 38th trip to Vegas and he delights in talking about the town in the 70's, when it was still run by the mob and classy - you'd never see anyone in shorts or jeans or sandles...suits were the attire of the day. Now, Vegas is corporate and they'll let anyone in...even me!

We had brunch at the Grand Buffet this morning - the great thing about Vegas being 24/7 is while we were having brunch, others were having dinner...complete with drinks! The couple at the table next to us were eating sushi and washing it down with Coronas with lime. Ugh...not appetizing that early in the day for me.

I had smoked salmon (again), bacon, eggs, fruit and cranberry juice.

At 11, just outside the Grand Buffet, we watched the MGM Lions in their habitat. These lions are descendants of the original MGM Lion. This morning, there were 2 young males on display and they were very, very playful. 3 handlers were in the exhibit with them and tossed gargantuan raw hide bones and rubber balls for them to play with.




Afterwards, we set out up the strip heading for Caesars Palace.

Along the way, we passed through New York & Paris. Passed by Bally's, the Bellagio, and the Flamingo. We toured through the Flamingo and out into their gardens where we saw koi the size of bed pillows - they were MASSIVE. The photos I took don't do them justice, so I didn't post them.

The Monte Carlo:


New York, New York:

The Bellagio:

Planet Hollywood:


Harley Davidson Cafe:


The Flamingo:








Paris:




Caesars Palace:








I had invested in a new camera bag for this trip and thank goodness I did. For anyone who travels and has a large DSLR camera, check out the Lowepro SlingShot (3 sizes,100, 200 & 300). I picked up the 300 and can carry my camera body and up to 5 lenses. It's a backpack style bag that rotates around your torso for top load access to the bag without having to remove it and it also keeps both of your hands free.

Right now, everything from my waist down is on fire - my feet have blisters on top of blisters (I've already had to go buy moleskin for my poor tootsies) and for some reason, pain has settled into my right hip like you would not believe. I suggested Ron take Dianna out for dinner...just the two of them...because I really don't think I'll be going too far. Room service, anyone??

We didn't make it to the Nascar Race here, but I've been able to listen to the last 100 laps while sitting here typing this blog.

These photos are for Darryl - in the Caesars Palace Shopping Mall, there was an FAO Schwartz toy store. Aside from the undeniably impressive trojan horse in the store (2 STOREY horse), there was also a huge stuffed moose...since I didn't bring a second suitcase, I'm goin to buy the moose for $1200 and check it as baggage and bring it home for Monty, Quinn & Toby, ok?