Category: Fun stuff

Even if you’re just wandering through a couple of casinos to sightsee, it’s not difficult to put on 8 or 9 km worth of walking around. Finding a place to rest your feet and take a load off can be a bit challenging too. Most of the time the only seats around are either in front of slot machines, at the gambling tables or inside restaurants. You can sometimes find benches scattered about, but those are usually few and far between.
Horseback riding was on the schedule for the afternoon, so we took it easy in the morning and didn’t do much. After a bit of some miscommunication (either they didn’t record our reservation or forgot about us), we ended up making the 50 mile drive north of Vegas to Sagebrush Ranch (not much of a ranch…just a few trailers and storage buildings and some horse pens) for their Sunset trail ride and dinner. It’s actually not too far off I-15, but feels like it’s in the middle of nowhere. A few more riders than they were expecting showed up, so the trail ride got off to a bit of a late start because they had to saddle up some extra horses.
The ride itself was pretty cool. Rode down through some dry stream beds, up to the top of some hills, back down through some flat areas and saw lots of desert with the mountains for a backdrop. Clouds obscured the sun setting behind the mountains, but it probably would have been really cool. Because of the late start, we ended up spending the last third of the trail ride in the dark. There was no moon in the sky either, so it was really dark, although you could still see the dark shapes of the brush and other riders nearby. Good thing the horses knew where they were going.
After being on a horse for almost two and a half hours, most of the riders were glad to finally make it back and get off the horses. The evening ended with dinner (either steak or chicken) and marshmallow roasting over a campfire.

One interesting thing about Vegas (at least on the Strip anyway) I’ve observed is that lots of people come here just to go to a replica of somewhere else. Just about everything on the strip seems to be a replica, down to the fake stone benches outside in the valet pickup areas.
This morning started off with dim sum, something we look for everywhere we go since there isn’t any in Charleston. The one we found, Chang’s Hong Kong Cuisine, wasn’t too far away, so we headed out there mid-morning and fortunately weren’t disappointed. The selection wasn’t extremely large, but they were good and had all my favourites. The prices were decent too.
Then, with full bellies we headed off to the Luxor, that large pyramidal behemoth of a resort. We wanted to check out the King Tut exhibit and the Lion Habitat. Both were a little disappointing and didn’t quite measure up to our expectations. The Lion Habitat consisted of a smallish glass enclosure housing two lionesses, both of which seemed to be pretty domesticated. At least they weren’t trying to eat the handler in there with them at the time anyway. Inside, you could shell out $25 to have your photo taken with a lion cub if you wanted and if the cubs were in the mood for it.
We wandered around the rest of the Luxor to check out the scenery, shops and restaurants. Like Mandalay Bay, Luxor had lots of pricey upscale restaurants with famous chef’s names attached to them.
Then it was off to MGM Grand to have a look around there. MGM Grand seemed to have about the largest casino floor of all the ones we’d seen so far. It also seemed to have the largest sports book area of the four resorts we’d been to so far. For the more budget conscious diners, MGM at least had a food court area where you could get some McD’s, a Nathan’s hot dog or even some Haagen Daaz. MGM also had its share of upscale restaurants too, including a couple of places with Joel Robuchon’s name on them, although most of them were priced a little more reasonably than the ones at Mandalay Bay or Luxor.
We finished off the afternoon with a much anticipated trip to M&M’s World just up the block from MGM. Four floors of just about every conceivable item you can think of related to M&Ms. Pillows, key chains, magnetic letters, dominos, cookie jars, candy dispensers and more. The place was packed too, particularly around the M&Ms Wall of Colour. It’s hard to resist a wall of M&Ms even if they are $9/lb, so we ended coming out with about four pounds worth of them.
The wife’s parents made it back from their side trip to LA, so it was dinner at the Bayside Buffet at Mandalay Bay. There was lots of tasty food with a couple of carving stations and a pasta bar where it’s cooked right in front of you. Not quite as large as the buffet at The Bellagio, but I thought the food was better. At $25/person for the dinner buffet, it’s a little pricey, but you can stay pretty much as long as you want and eat as much as you like.
The evening’s entertainment was La Femme at MGM, a topless cabaret style show brought over from the Crazy Horse Saloon in Paris, France. Interesting show and very entertaining.

Capital G gaudy, but an interesting place. Slot machines are the first thing you see getting off the plane, and they’ll probably be the last thing you see leaving. Got some time to kill waiting for your flight? Feed the one-armed bandits for one last chance to leave Vegas on the plus side. Waiting for your partner to finish the grocery shopping? Spin the slot machine wheels to try to win enough to pay for them.
On today’s itinerary was the Bellagio where we started with the brunch buffet, then wandered around the expansive resort to check out the scenery. The Fine Art Gallery at the Bellagio was the wife’s attempt to instill some culture into me. Nice paintings but Impressionism, which was on display, wasn’t something that ever really appealed to me.
Lots of upscale restaurants to spend even more money on at Bellagio. $12 iceberg lettuce wedge salads and up from there.
The next stop was Mandalay Bay and the Shark Reef exhibit. It’s basically a large aquarium based on predatory fishes and other sea creatures. Mandalay Bay was pretty expansive with even more upscale uber-pricey restaurants, mostly Asian themed.
A Fry’s Electronics shop was the final destination this afternoon for checking out their goodies. Plenty of things for a geek to drool over, including a quad-Opteron MB for just under $1300.
The final event for the day was Cirque du Soleiel’s Zumanity. Not your typical Cirque show, and definitely one the kids won’t be able to see. Great show with some great performances. Not quite as acrobatic or circus-y as some other Cirque shows I’ve seen, but still very good.

Based on v1.2.2 of the Nethack Code

NH 3.4.3L D eugenem-Mon-Hum-Mal-Law HP:115 Pw:134 AC:5 L:18
[+ )+ i 2- P S+ D+ p+ $+ t- s+ W+ E++ PS- PP-
!G C- I++ Ps-- @W(d) N-- !Y X So+ Sp+ sb+ wb +many

In the tradition of the Geek Code:

Found via Jay Allen