Las Vegas, Thursday--Day 3

I remember my mom calling Thursday morning and that's what woke us...but I can't remember why they called. That's okay, though. We did our Monte Carlo 2 for 1 yummy buffet deal again and then headed even further south on the Strip to check out some of those hotels. I took this picture of J as we were on the escalators going over the street, I think:


We made it up to Mandalay Bay via the free monorail from the Excalibur (the one I was wrong about going to the Mirage yesterday, D'oh!). While at Mandalay Bay we decided to check out Shark Reef. It was pretty cool...J posed in front of an alligator...or is it a crocodile? I've never been good with that:


They give you little hand held wands where you push a button corresponding to the numbers at the exhibit you're standing at and it gives you an audio tour:

My wand smelled like B.O. Yum.

Here I am looking like a total tourist at the entry of the aquarium tunnel:


And a self-portrait at Shark Reef:


We concluded our tour and walked back through the walkway that connects M.B. to Luxor. And that's where we found me some coconut gelato. My favorite. And hard to find. So, even though I was still stuffed from breakfast, I got some:

Just a small scoop.

Back at Excalibur we searched for a "good knight" to take a picture with to send to the boys via Lauren's phone...but she was at work so they never got this:


I posed like the statue again on the way to the monorail to take us to Excalibur:


After standing awhile waiting in the hot sun we were happy to be on the monorail again:


We went back to our hotel because I wanted to have a nap. It was rather sad how tired we were the previous two nights and we had plans to ring in my birthday at midnight that night...so I needed a nap. Jason hung out down in the casino while I had a small zizz. He came to wake me but I was already up and using the breast pump. Hee hee. So he ran and got me a Starbucks and a cookie to be nice. And then we got ready for the highlight of our trip: Elton John!

Because of my cookie and J's granola bar we weren't hungry for dinner--and we hadn't eaten since my gelato--so we bought a bus pass to take us down to Caesar's for our concert. We waited. And waited. "The Deuce" is supposed to come at least every 7 minutes at that time of day. We waited over 20. Never came. So we had to start booking it down to Caesar's in order to get our tickets in time. Oh my. It was hot. I was getting blisters. But we made it. We knew it'd be worth it.


We posed with the sign outside the Coliseum:




As soon as we got inside...they confiscated everyone's cameras! At the previous two shows we saw they just basically told us not to use them. At Elton they made us check them! Wow. But we did...they didn't ask about a camera phone...and I didn't tell:

Then I wanted a better one with the flash, Jason saw the flash going off, started getting mad about me "advertising" we still had a camera because of the flash and made this fun face. It's now the image that pops up on my phone when he calls me. I wasn't going to take any during the show...and I didn't. Goob. Mad goob.


The show was excellent. Excellent. He played a bunch of his hits. Now, some of you might be going, really? Elton John? But we're fans. There are quite a few Elton John song memories in our relationship...Little Jeannie reminds me of the very very early days in Jason's townhouse. An Elton CD was playing during Dalton's birth. Then there is "Blessed" that was playing during Dalton's first year montage. Yeah, we're fans. It was a good--and a little weird--show. And the tickets my mom bought us came with drink coupons. Score! They said we could use them on anything so we both got big frozen daquiris in Bette Middler souvenir "glasses". Hee hee. I guess that's all they had.

When we picked up our concert tickets earlier they warned us that there was "adult content". Jason was like, "Good thing we saw Zumanity last night" as his joke to the ticket girl that we were okay with some "content". But yeah, at points during the show some big inflatable boobs came down from the ceiling. They hung around (literally) for a few songs and then at the end of "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" they squirted silly string out the nips. What the heck? During "I'm Still Standing" they blew up a couple gigantic bananas. Like a Viagra commercial. Funny...I didn't think that is what the song was about.

There was often a lot going on during the songs on the screen behind the stage...that's where you'd find most of the adult content. Like Pam Anderson dancing around a pole during one tune. And a bunch of T&A. We had to remind ourselves to watch Elton himself a lot of the time.

After Elton let out we were engerized and ready to hit the town. We still had our free Comedy Jam tickets at the Riv so we took the bus (it came!):


And went to check out that show:


I posed with the Crazy Girls busts...er, butts:


We watched the so-so comedy show--it was at 10:30. We got out sometime after 11:30...and we still hadn't had dinner! Just my cookie and J's 'nola bar. But it was nearing midnight. And we had plans to "ring in" my 30th year by putting money on 30 in roulette. We headed over to Slots of Fun because they have cheap tables. The tables in most of the casinos have $5-$10 minimums. You can get much more fun for your money over at Slots of Fun. I was already sitting playing roulette for a few minutes before 12, but AT 12 I put a few bucks on 30. And lost. Oh well.

Vegas took a lot of our money. It was cute to watch Jason in the weeks preceeding our trip practicing his blackjack and craps on the computer. I told him we'd have to find some $1 tables but he thought he'd be okay at the $5 tables. His first time I watched him blow through $40 in less than 10 minutes of blackjack. Did it again with craps later in the trip. So, Slots of Fun gave us a chance to gamble without such extreme penalties. ;) I'm not a fan of slots...nor is Jason...but we did play quite a bit of 25 cent video poker and video blackjack while we were there. That's what we did when we got thirsty. Can't beat the free drinks they bring you when you're playing...minus the tip of course.

Anyhoo...at midnight I lost money. And played till all my chips were gone. Then Jason moved over to the craps table for a spell...and then we left. Here I am holding up my "3" and my "0" just outside Slots of Fun while we waited for the bus:


We headed down south again towards our hotel. Finally we were going to find some dinner. Only one place was open food-wise in the hotel so that's where we headed: America, it was called. And it had a big fun 3D map thing hanging above, so I put J's head over Weezy-ana and took this:

We ordered our food, ate it and went upstairs. And even though it was nearing 2 a.m. I had to use the tub one last time. My legs were killing me and begging to be soaked.

And then we were able to go to sleep...sometime after 2.

How twenty-something of me...staying up past 2 o'clock. You'd never guess I was 30. ;)