Texangeles - Day Six

[roonlou]

Day Six, Monday 1st October 2012

Oh, Craps!

We both slept really well, but woke at 6:30am to see the sun rising over the strip, this was our first full day in Vegas, so the early start was possibly due to jet lag and excitement! We lazied in bed before Roo decided to make us iced coffees with the Starbucks Via supply we had, he looked in the mini bar for water as he need a bottle to shake it up in to find all three bottles of water had been previously opened and then filled with tap water and returned to the fridge! Cheeky.

So Roo decided to pop downstairs in search of a sealed bottle of water and the ice-machine, he returned a few minutes later with a big grin no water, but a winning voucher for $75 that he'd won on the roulette machine that we'd played on last night! First spin and everything.



So to celebrate our win we got a bottle of orange juice from the mini bar to share and added a cheeky Vodka tot as in Vegas.



We could then shake up an icy brew as we had an empty bottle to use for this purpose! I caught up with this trippie whilst Roo filled the soaker tub for us both to use this morning. The soaker tub was really nice, but we had a planned time to meet our friends, so had to creep out earlier than we would of like to prepare for the day ahead.



We had decided to suggest breakfast in Paris, and maybe even the 24 hour buffet pass, but we'd broach that subject on route. We met in the lift lobby on the ground floor just around 9:30am as planned. Everyone was refreshed and ready for the day ahead, and Mickeyetta already had her own idea for a breakfast suggestion, the in hotel Wicked Spoon! This was ideal as it was a mere 10 minute walk through the mammoth hotel to arrive and find the restaurant not too busy.



Soon we'd paid our fees and were being shown into the large dining room, the decor was food-chic, with large pictures of onions draped in jewels, and high heels being propped up with mushrooms amongst others. We had drinks orders taken, lots of tea and coffee and a couple of mimosa for Roo and I - well while in Vegas! We all went off in search of food, and Roo and I found that even though the selection was good, mainly served in little dishes, pots and boxes, it was quite lean on breakfast foods as of course they claimed to be serving brunch.



Roo return with traditional fruit and granola to start, whilst I had slab bacon freshly cut, fruit parfait, pineapple and spicy mac and cheese - I did already mention this was a brunch menu.



The other two returned with traditional breakfast fare along with Chinese food and fried chicken served in a little deep frying basket. We all visited the ample food on offer a couple of times before the last mouthful of delicious biscuit and sausage gravy sated our appetites.



Si also mentioned during breakfast that their bell boy had hooked them up with "discounted" for cash wifi, and were kind enough to share the code so we didn't have to pay $15 a day to hook up our electronic gear. Mickeyetta and Si had shopping in mind for the day ahead, and we had gambling, so we parted separate ways agreeing to meet for dinner later that day, but after a huge breakfast like that I couldn't imagine being hungry again!

We decided to make tracks off to Caesars Palace as Roo wanted to visit the Tumi shop for a nice wallet to replace his not so nice one. This plan soon ground to a halt as we discovered a Craps machine in our hotel, live giant dice in a kind of Pop-it style and an electronic board to play upon.



This looked like it could be fun. And hour later and with the help of a rather drunk player we had exchanged $20 for $131! Wow, it was all a bit confusing, but we'd won, so who cared!



We finally managed to step out into the midday sun and began our day as previously planned and arrived at the massive Caesars Palace. Here we spent time and money on either Electronic Roulette or another one of those Craps machines, and finally a spot of video poker washed down with a few drinks.



We were still up on the day, and went to spend our winnings at the Tumi shop. We wandered into the impressive shopping area, the decor all things greek with a ceiling painted like an early evening sky. There were huge fountains and even an aquarium, and some weird Atlantis animatronic show with flames, lasers and possibly a story line - only in Vegas.





We eventually found the shop and Roo soon had a nice new wallet, and I even bravely joined him in the hated Apple store so he could actually touch a new iPhone that he wouldn't be getting for a while yet.


We followed the path through the shopping area and finally found the amazing helical escalators and road to the ground floor to throw some lucky pennies into the fountain, 31 of them to be precise.



Next up the Mirage, we missed out on visiting the Secret Garden last time and really wanted to have a look around. We spotted a Starbucks on the way in and grabbed a couple of iced pumpkin spiced lattes before trying to find the little zoo. But again our visit was delayed by the sight of the electronic Craps machine, this time we lost $40, but held our own for a while. We arrived at the Gardens and paid our fee, the park was quite small but excellent for animal viewing, they had white lions, white tigers and black panthers - mainly dozing in the sun, but where thrilled to witness the white tiger creep into his pool to cool off, it was also funny to see the big cats spraying everything which apparently they some times did to the visitors!







They also had three dolphin pools, one with three generations of dolphins in, including a couple of dinky ones. The walls to the pools were only shin high, and we got great views of the show that was being put on, even getting blessed with dolphin water when they splashed down close to us.





All in all a good visit, and even better than that we won our money back on a organic roulette machine on the way out of the casino!

[roonlou]

At around 4pm we decided to start heading back to the Cosmo, as unsure what time our friends would be back, via the Belliago to see the seasonal conservatory. We did finally get to the impressive autumnal decorated conservatory, but only after being again delayed by those dratted Craps machines which we did quite well on. The conservatory this season included a full size water wheel, lots of pumpkins and giant golden leaves hanging from the ceiling, and a of course a large talking tree that sounded a little like Morgan Freeman.







With some photographs in the can we arrived back at the Cosmo at around 5:30pm, and returned to our lucky Craps machine, and some more free drinkies - by the time we finished we were in total $280 up since we started gambling yesterday - no not a big win, but a win no less. During this time we got a message from Mickeyetta and Si, they were back and chilling out, so we suggested meeting at 7pm giving us plenty of time to freshen up.

We enjoyed a dance to music in our walk in shower and were ready and in the ground floor lift lobby at 7pm on the nose. Next question, where to eat, we'd survived the day on booze and caffeine and were now super hungry! When we reunited with our friends who looked super refreshed after their day of shopping and relaxing in their room, we suggested eating at the in hotel burger and shake restaurant Holsteins as a dirty burger is always good when you're hungry.



The restaurant was decorated with really cute pig in a cow suit cartoons and the seating was a mixture of tables and booths, we were thrilled to be placed in a booth, but then surprised to find how soft the seating was as we disappeared into the furnishing. Orders for drinks were taken first by the friendly waitress, pumpkin ale for me, coke for Roo (we were knackered), A boozy Almond Joy milkshake for Si, and a strawberry milkshake for Mickeyetta.



Starters were next, cheesy fondue spring rolls for our pals and deep fried pickles for us, as we'd missed out on enjoying them in Texas, which is where the idea of frying pickles comes from.





The starters soon arrived, and both Roo and I were impatient to eat and burnt our greedy mouths on the first bite! Our friends starter seemed equally as warm from the sounds coming from their end of the table.

The mains then arrived, Si had the millionaires burger, piled high with foie gras and chutney, Mickeyetta the classic burger with goats cheddar cheese. Roo and I opted for sliders so we could share, seared Ahi tuna for me and caramelised onion and beef burgers for Roo. The food was delicious and all our plates were soon emptied, but sadly there was no room for dessert!





We settled the bill and then headed off down into the casino to show our friends our new best friend - the kind and generous Craps machine. We had to scarily feed a $100 note in as we'd only had one bill during dinner which was spilt between the two couples, but Si had charged to his room and we'd paid him cash. We then attempted to explain the little that we understood, this must of been super dull for them as Si went wandering off for a bit, then returned to take Mickeyetta for a look round the shops.

We stayed on the table until we'd almost lost the whole $100, but slowly we started to make our loses back and finally cashed out $27 up, that meant we had actually won $308, no not a huge amount but we were really thrilled.



We were just cashing out when our friends returned with a small purchase and feeling guilty by being again distracted by the flashing lights of the craps machine, asked what they wanted to do next. Mickeyetta was really tired, so they were calling it a night, so we wished them a good nights rest, arranged again to meet for breakfast.

We then decided as Roo had his camera in hand to step outside and enjoy the warm evening air.



First up though up and over the road to the new Walgreens to get some lip balm, this dry air and air conditioning had virtually cooked the smile off our faces! We enjoyed the stroll and wandered off down the strip towards the MGM, all lit up in green in the dark night. Then across the road and back towards our hotel, enjoying taking photographs and chatting to some very drunk but happy folks.



We made a detour to the hotel Aria that we stayed in last time, and were impressed by the reception decor, lots of giant golden leaves hanging from the ceiling but even more impressive than the Bellagio conservatory ones - we also enjoyed the smell of the casino, a very pleasant perfume indeed.



We then wandered on and through into the Crystals shopping mall also decorated for autumn, with massive pumpkin faced scarecrows filling the main shopping area.



Feeling tired ourselves, but guilty of an early night we wandered back into our hotel and arrive just before 11pm for a night cap on the balcony whilst listening to the very loud dance music from the day club night club on level four. Not exactly relaxing music, but very Las Vegas. We finally crawled into bed just before 12 after a long and brilliant day in Sin City!

[Pussycat Doll]

Brilliant day, can't wait to get back there in 91 days! Pussycat

[hross42877]

Another great day!

[Guest]

I miss Vegas!

The Bellagio conservatory is always so beautiful!

[Guest]

You're doing well on the Craps table! Well done!

[Glee Fan]

Wow - some great wins on the craps table!

We got breakfast included in our room rate every day at the Wicked Spoon, we loved it there. Also loved the burgers at Holsteins too. Bringing back happy memories for me

[orlandosgr8]

Well done on your wins

I also love the look of all the decorations up, can only imagine how amazing it must look for Christmas.

[JoJo88]

Brilliant day! You're doing well on the machines! I wonder if you will brave it on the tables?

[christybell]

I want to go!

Every time I read one of your trippies Lou, I want to visit. Thanks for taking the time to share, absolutely brilliant as always. Love the way you are going with the flow, alcohol and caffeine eh! Well you are on holiday. I think we will wait till the kids are gone before we venture to Vegas then we can follow your lead and have a ball!