"...will be on Youtube in an hour".
My how times have changed!! It's been 4 years, almost to the day, since I've been in Sin City and the modification to the unofficial slogan isn't the only change. There's been some changes along the strip too. When we were last here, the skyline from our hotel room window was dominated by giant, hulking cranes working on a slew of new hotels and casinos. Now, those cranes are gone and the hotels are standing gleaming sharply in the harsh desert sun. These new hotels lack any of the character and appeal of the older existing casinos & hotels. They are steel and glass and smooth and BORING. I'll see if my opinion changes once we've had a chance to actually explore them - but I can pretty much bet none of them has a pirate ship in a moat out front, nor is there an Egyptian tomb reconstructed in the lobby...
I'm very much looking forward to exploring tomorrow with camera in hand. You have to do the tour at least twice, once in the daylight, and once at night - despite each property having the same address both day and night, that is where their similarities end as it's a completely different world when the sun sets.
Today's been a VERY long day - it was a restless night last night as we slept fitfully with one ear tuned to the roaring winds threatening to suck the glass from our hotel room windows through the night and into the morning. We were up this morning before the crack of stupid (anything pre-5 a.m. is just ludicrous) to catch a shuttle to the Buffalo Airport, which I have to admit was kinda nice - quaint compared to Pearson International in Toronto - and easy to navigate.
We flew Southwest, also another first. While sitting on the tarmac waiting for the okay to take off, I, who was fortunate enough to score a window seat, watched the plane wing outside my window shuddering in the gusts of wind...and beyond that, the plane next to us at the terminal bobbing and bucking as the wind shook it. I was decidedly green about the gills by the time we started away from the terminal.
The pilot confirmed my suspicions when he announced they were expecting a fair bit of turbulence throughout the majority of the 5+ hour flight. However, the warnings proved to be mostly unnecessary as the flight was one of the smoothest I have ever had with the wind even providing a generous tail wind that lopped 31 minutes off our flight.
We landed in Las Vegas at 9:29am local time where it was 45F with sunny blue skys and no wind. Of course, with such gorgeous weather welcome us, what do you think was the first thing we did? Yeap...hit the casino! En route to checking in, we tried our luck at a couple of slot machines as we passed through the casino.
My room was ready, so I checked in and we left all of the luggage in my room while we went for a bite of lunch. It was a unanimous order of Rubens all around which we excellent followed by several more hours in the casino which left me considerably lighter in the wallet than I had expected. At 3pm, the second room was ready so we spent some time in our rooms unpacking for the week. To my surprise and delight, it doesn't appear that I forgot to pack anything!
After freshening up, we made our way to the Mirage Hotel to catch Terry Fator's show - you remember Terry - the fellow that plays with dolls that won season 2 of America's Got Talent? If not, look him up on Youtube, you'll enjoy it, trust me. This was the second time I've seen him perform live. The first time was when I was here in Vegas 4 years ago and he performed at our convention's opening general session. My seats were so far from the stage I had to watch the video screens to see anything at all as Terry on the stage was a mere speck. Not so tonight. We were close enough to see the sweat beading on his brow. He has added to his inventory both in puppets and material and the show was excellent.
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| Terry & Winston the Impersonation Turtle open the show with a number from Phantom of the Opera |
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| Winston as the Phantom |
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| Did I mention we had great seats?! And yes, you were ALLOWED to take photos during the show (just no video) so I wasn't bothered by the fact that Terry looked straight at me several times as I happily clicked away. |
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| Terry and Johnny Vegas perform |
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| Terry and Wrex the Crash Test Dummy |
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| The View from my room (the window is VERY dirty) |
- Paula
Today's been a VERY long day - it was a restless night last night as we slept fitfully with one ear tuned to the roaring winds threatening to suck the glass from our hotel room windows through the night and into the morning. We were up this morning before the crack of stupid (anything pre-5 a.m. is just ludicrous) to catch a shuttle to the Buffalo Airport, which I have to admit was kinda nice - quaint compared to Pearson International in Toronto - and easy to navigate. 
We flew Southwest, also another first. While sitting on the tarmac waiting for the okay to take off, I, who was fortunate enough to score a window seat, watched the plane wing outside my window shuddering in the gusts of wind...and beyond that, the plane next to us at the terminal bobbing and bucking as the wind shook it. I was decidedly green about the gills by the time we started away from the terminal.
We landed in Las Vegas at 9:29am local time where it was 45F with sunny blue skys and no wind. Of course, with such gorgeous weather welcome us, what do you think was the first thing we did? Yeap...hit the casino! En route to checking in, we tried our luck at a couple of slot machines as we passed through the casino.
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