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| View of THE Hotel (left) Luxor and Mandalay Bay from the Mandalay Bay Convention Centre |
"****"
Well, not all of it was THAT bad...but some certainly sucked. Like waking up with a pain in my back like I can't even begin to explain. However, I managed to
MacGyver an ice pack for it and after resting a bit and some Advil, it was tolerable and got better as I moved around more through the morning.
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| The pool lobby at the Mandalay Bay |
First things first this morning - we needed to find out where the convention is going to be and get registered. Everything is accessible indoors - you can walk from the hotel, to the casino, to the convention centre, and even between different hotels. Seeing the gorgeous day through all of the windows as we trekked to the convention centre was tempting, but we stayed on course and got that task out of the way. The convention centre is MASSIVE - and we only saw the concourse and the hallways. I can only imagine what the marketplace and auditoriums are going to look like.
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| Lower level of the Mandalay Bay Convention Centre |
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| Outside the great hall at the Mandalay Bay Convention Centre |
We finished off the morning at
Starbucks in the shops that link the
Mandalay Bay to the
Luxor and people watched for about an hour before doing some shopping. We visited Peter Lik's photographic gallery and talk about inspirational. Incredible! I tell you, If I hit it big here, one of those pieces is DEFINITELY going home with me. Of course, my favourite is the most expensive one on display, naturally. I mean who has $130,000 to spend on a photographic print?? I dunno....but I sure wish I did. Don't know who Peter Lik is? Allow me to introduce you...
CLICK HERE to visit his website & online gallery. Fair warning: have a tissue handy for the drool.
My companions are addicted to a realty show called "
Pawn Stars", which I have never seen, so the hype was a bit lost on me, but the pawn shop where the show is shot is not far from where we are staying, so we all bundled into a cab and headed to "Gold & Silver Pawn Shop". I found it a little underwhelming, but was advised if you don't watch the show, you won't "get it" :)
What followed next was the second **** portion of the day. We had been advised that it's probably not the best idea to wander anywhere south of the Stratosphere. Well, the pawn shop was about 8 blocks south of the Stratosphere...we made it to the Stratosphere only being hit up for spare change 3 times & cursed at once...and continued walking, and walking, and walking... We walked just about to the Wynn....nearly 5km. Guess I don't have to worry too much about gaining weight on this trip. I'm only eating one actual meal a day and with all this extra exercise, I should actually
lose. Let's hope that's the only kind of losing I do on this trip :)
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| Los Vegas Blvd looking south |
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| Las Vegas Blvd looking north towards the Stratosphere |
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| A rare sight in Vegas...no, not the wedding chapel, they are a dime a dozen...I'm talking about the grass! |
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| The Stratosphere |
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| Yup, GREAT part of town :o/ |
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| Close up of the previous image |
We finally flagged a cab and came back to the hotel. We were all absolutely ravenous. We went to every restaurant in the food court area of the casino and all but one was closed!! Apparently, they close between 4-5 daily to switch over from lunch to supper. Do they not realize there are people here from all over the world on different international internal clocks??? Sheesh! Their loss ended up being out gain in the end. We ended up going to
Fluer, which we probably wouldn't have chosen had there been other alternatives, and were very pleasantly surprised by the incredible food. Besides downing 2 large bottles of San Pelligrino water before the entrees arrived, we had chef' Hubert Keller's special which ended up being to die for...the multiple different margarita's weren't bad either. Who ever would have thought of a braised short rib lasagna? It was incredible!
Dinner was followed by a brief stint through the casino on the way to the room. I've been here since going through photos. Almost time to take a soak in the tub while I can still move pretty freely. If I sit here too much longer, my back will start seizing up and I'll be done for the night. It's already giving me the odd shooting spasm. Grrrr.
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| Darn! Just missed sunset when I returned to my room. One of the pitfalls of spending time in casinos with no windows or clocks...very easy to lose track of time...which I guess is kind of the point ;o) |
Need to get a good night's sleep so my brain is ready for some edumacashun tomorrow...er...later today :)
- Paula
We finally flagged a cab and came back to the hotel. We were all absolutely ravenous. We went to every restaurant in the food court area of the casino and all but one was closed!! Apparently, they close between 4-5 daily to switch over from lunch to supper. Do they not realize there are people here from all over the world on different international internal clocks??? Sheesh! Their loss ended up being out gain in the end. We ended up going to Fluer, which we probably wouldn't have chosen had there been other alternatives, and were very pleasantly surprised by the incredible food. Besides downing 2 large bottles of San Pelligrino water before the entrees arrived, we had chef' Hubert Keller's special which ended up being to die for...the multiple different margarita's weren't bad either. Who ever would have thought of a braised short rib lasagna? It was incredible!
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