Well we had a ball and were so sad to leave.
It started with the Go! room in the Flamingo hotel that we had booked. One of the few rooms in the hotel that has a view of the strip, looking right out onto the Belagio fountain. It also had it's share of completely unnecessary features such as the flat screen in the bathroom mirror and an alarm clock that wakes you up to the sound of waves crashing.
Having settled in, I partook in my first American buffet and found myself on my third trip to the food thinking "what's the catch?" Sooo much food, think I got through a bucket of prawns and a kilo of different cheeses. And this was all really good quality stuff!
We walked around the strip but tiredness got the better of me, was all very overwhelming. Had an early night in preparation for Grand Canyon trip the following morning.
The Grand Canyon was stunning and made me feel very small. We started with a flight on a plane that holds about 10 people. Then when we got to the rim we were taken down into the canyon in a helicopter...just as well for the buffet the night before as my weight was perfect to ride shotgun. Brilliant! Was unreal plummeting down towards the Colorado river. Once we got down there, we had a short boat cruise. Back on the helicopter...to the buffet lunch...obviously. The sights were amazing. Made the most of feeling petite I can tell you! Really was a highlight of our trip so far (apologies in advance for the many photos that will go up on facebook).
Following a Go Room power nap, we hit the strip equipped with drinking boots. Starting with a buffet in Ceaser's Palace. Then onto Belagio fountain (you'll remember it from ending of Oceans 11) where we watched the water raise & fall to the sound of 'Sleighride together' (or whatever that Christmas song is - dillalingaling dingaling etc :o). I don't know if it was the delerium of overfeeding myself, the bottle of wine with dinner, Christmas, or just that the Vegas thing hit me, but I can't lie, a tear came to my eye. It was just so nice! We then went for a drink in the Belagio and won a couple of rounds of roulette. So clearly we thought we were destined to walk away from Vegas having doubled our money. Incidentally, the Belagion seems to go against all the tackiness of Vegas. It's pure class, even it's Christmas decorations were somewhat charming. We bought bubbly & vodka & went back to our room (just so we wouldn't spend our potential winnings on alcohol!) feeling confident about the night ahead. Nicely glowing, headed for a tour of the casino (later to be known as 'the losing streak tour' - we were awful!). We managed to keep going til the early hours just winning & losing evenly. Luckily our cash ran out just at the same time as our energy. Woke up the following morning halfway between disgusted and really pleased with ourselves for not doing things by half. To ponder on this, we had a buffet lunch. Decided to have a quiet enough night having spent so much & feeling really hungover. Bought tickets to 'Legends in Concert' and had a go on the rollercoaster... which woke us up a bit. I screamed....a lot...I can't say Malte didn't incidentally.
For Legends in Concert we sat in Imperial hotel with a booth to ourselves. The show started with Ray Charles (unbelievabley like the man himself), through to Supremes & Tom Jones....all really good. But then the moment I'd been waiting for (2 bottles of bubbly later)...out came the King. This guy won prizes for his impersonations & rightly so! I was blown away (Vegas teary moment number 2 :o). Afterwards got a picture with him & decided I had enough energy to lose more money. So that's what we did :o) Starting in Imperial where Barbara Streisland, Stevie Wonder, Whitney, Garth Brookes (and many more) dealt the cards. Fortunately we contained ourselves a little better though I do recall sitting at a bar talking to Bill the barman & then calling every barman in the place Bill (they looked similar and answered to the name?!). We went to a piano bar where a girl & fella were on 2 pianos playing any request given. The place was going mad, was great!!! Don't remember much about coming back to hotel, but the camera shows I took way too many fuzzy photos of the strip.
Anyway, you're probably sick of my rant. All I can say is, I loved it all!! So much fun to be had in that place.
I probably won't get an opportunity to say it to you all as my phone doesn't work here, but hope you have an absolutely fantastic Christmas or 'Happy Holiday' as they say here,
