World United States Nevada Las Vegas

Two Hams in a Can Two Hams in a Can

What happens in Vegas . . . Feb 24, 2007

Movie Clips - Playback Requirements - Problems?

This morning, Kaki came over to our camp site and we hitched up for Vegas. It was only a short drive (less than 100 miles) and we were at the RV park. After setting up camp, we headed out to Boulder Station's lunch buffet as we were all quite hungry. We signed up for their card and got $3 free play on their slot machines, but we didn't really win much.

We stayed in Saturday evening and watched a DVD since we were all pretty tired.

The next day, we checked out Sam's Town - I had a coupon which gave $10 in free slot play - the catch was that you had to play $20 first. Jeff and I decided to put the $20 into our quarter walking game. I have never seen such sorry quarter machines - we won about 12 quarters! So much for Sam's Town having the best slots!

My brother Stephen was in town with his son Jordan and Jordan's friend. They were playing the poker tournaments in town, or at least Jordan and Chris were. Stephen is more of a craps players. We went over to the Stratosphere where Jordan had gotten to the final three in a poker tournament,but we just missed them. The Stratosphere has really changed from the last time we were there and our favorite machines, "Let's Make a Deal" were nowhere in sight. We played a little, but lost,lost, lost.

Kaki decided to go back to Bullhead City early on Monday morning, so she missed the breakfast with Stephen and Jordan at The Paris.

Suzanne, Stephen and Jordan at The Paris

The Paris is our absolutely favorite buffet especially for breakfast. We had a great time visiting with Stephen and Jordan.

Jeff and I decided to check out the Paris slots. He was doing pretty well - staying ahead of the game and I was picking all the wrong machines. Just as we were about to leave, we went to a part of the casino that we had not been to before, and I saw one of my favorite machines - The Carnival of Mystery. Suffice it to say that when I finally left that machine, I cashed out over $400!! And this is a penny machine! Now we have lots of fun money for Vegas.

Since we won so much money, we decided to spend some of it on the Star Trek Experience at the Hilton

Entrance to Star Trek Experience

. We had gone to it a couple of times years before and I had heard they had added a new portion to the rides.

The Enterprise and a Bird of Prey

. It was the Borg Invasion 4D and it was pretty cool. The tickets are pricey - $65 for the two of us and that's with a $10 off coupon for both, but you can go on the rides as often as you want for the whole day. We had already given the museum a good working over the first two times we were there, so we spent all our time on the rides. They were both great and get better every time. If you're at all knowledgeable about Star Trek - any of the versions, they're really great fun.

Jeff was accosted by a Ferengi who wanted to charge him for his hat.

But this is all the money I have!

, and I found some new buds to hang with

Hanging with my buds

While we were at the Hilton, we saw something you would only see in Vegas - an IPOD vending machine!

I got up one morning and snapped this picture of Madison as she regaled herself on the sofa and hassock. We always joke about her needing a chin rest - here's proof

Dog with chin rest

.

We felt we really hadn't done justice to the Paris buffet the day we met Stephen and Jordan, plus we were about to start a diet the next day, so we had our "last meal" at the Paris buffet on Wednesday morning. I love the little village atmosphere that they have created here

Inside the village

From the little shops to the cobbled streets, everything is very picturesque

Street scene at the Paris

. Jeff thought this picture was fairly picturesque too. These girls were part of a dancing troupe that entertained in the casino. As I snapped the picture, a woman said "There's a dirty old man grin for you." I told her, "You have NO idea!"

We weren't doing too well on the machines, so went outside to snap some of the cool recreations of Paris landmarks. Here is the Hot Air balloon they use as their logo and the fountain

Fountain and balloon at the Paris

, the Triumphant Arch advertising their production of The Producers

L'arch de Triomphe

(David Hasselhoff plays Roger de Bris!), and of course, La Tour Eiffel The area outside of hotel registration has the art deco appearance of a train station and even a reproduction of Academie Nationale I have my picture taken in front of the REAL version of this fountain in 1992 as well as this faux version

The next day, we decided to go down the strip to the MGM Grand end. The Lion Habitat was open, but could barely see the lions for the crowds. I just held up the camera and hoped that I got a lion

Lion Habitat at MGM

. The sun was out though and the lion at the front was gleaming

MGM Grand Lion

I got this shot of the Brooklyn Bridge on the bridge headed over to New York, New York.

Strip view toward The Paris

. We had a great time at New York, New York. I have always loved the interior - such a wonderful feel of Greenwich Village right down to the steam coming out of the manholes

Jeff at NY NY

We also doubled our alloted gambling money there which is a good thing. Here you can see the NYNY skyline and the roller coaster , the Statue of Liberty and a tugboat below

We crossed over to Excalibur

View to Excalibur

, but didn't do so well on the machines, so decided it was time to go home. We felt bad about leaving Madison in the trailer for such a long time, so we looked up dog parks and found one not too far from us. She had a great time running around and meeting all the dogs

Madison and friend

We wanted to go on the strip at night, so Sunday evening, we went to The Paris and took a trip up the Eiffel Tower. Their tower is a 3/4 size mock-up of the real thing and has some pretty cool views. This picture looks out over the casino from their recreation of the Pont Neuf bridge.

From the Pont Neuf inside the casino

You can see how they have incoporated the legs of the tower into the casino. The view is stunning. The Bellagio is right across the street

Bellagio from the Eiffel Tower

, and looking down at the hotel part of the Paris is cool . Las Vegas is known for the amount of lights, and they were everywhere! We also had a nice view of Caesar's Palace and the other end of the strip I was using the night setting on my camera and no tripod, but thought this picture was interesting as my movement caused the light wiggles

While in the tower, the Bellagio fountain show began

Magical waters at the Bellagio

. We could just barely hear the music, but it was really a beautiful display. Afterward, we went down to the strip to watch the next show on the ground. The Eiffel tower was all lit

Lighted Tower

. The show was wonderful . I had always wanted to see it from start to finish right in front and finally was able to do so. It is amazing how high the water goes I took a little bit of video of the show, but it can only tantalize you, as it is so much better in person.

Tomorrow,March 6, we prepare to leave Las Vegas town and head about 30 miles away to Lake Mead for a few days.