Las Vegas Day 2

Well the title is pretty self explanatory.

We arrived in Las Vegas yesterday, our very first visit to “The Strip”, and oh my, what an assault to the senses.

So many lights, sounds, smells, people etc.  I have to admit given the amount of walking we’ve had to do I’ve struggled a little bit, but I’ve managed.  The hardest part of the day was going to see Cirque de Soleil’s “O”.

The show is absolutely amazing.  The issue, with the heart issues I’m having, my Doctor has me on diuretics, which so far have been amazing.  Inside of 2 days I’m already starting to feel a lot better.  The torturous part is that the show is water based.   Amazing, but ALL water.

Need I remind you, I’m on diuretics.  They make you pee.  A lot!

So you can imagine.   The show is amazing and I don’t want to miss a second of it.  I’m dying to go to the bathroom, and there’s water everywhere.

Argh!  I survived though, and heartily recommend the show to anyone who is fortunate enough to get to Las Vegas.

Today has been fun too.  Not only did I get to see the hotel that my parents stayed at when they were here a couple of years ago (Treasure Island), but I also got to go up in a Helicopter, fly out to the Grand Canyon, land at the bottom for a champagne picnic, then fly over Las Vegas at dusk seeing all the lights.   Amazing.

One problem.  On the way to the Grand Canyon we had some turbulence, and the woman sitting directly in front of me had to utilise her air sick bag.

Gross!  I couldn’t hear her being sick for the noise of the helicopter and the headphones I was wearing.  But sadly, I’m a sympathetic vomiter.  If one person pukes, I do too, and I could smell it.   I can almost still smell it now, a couple of hours after the event.  Needless to say, and I’m a little embarassed to admit, I had to reach for my own sick bag, for the first time ever, and I’ve been in many helicopters, planes, hot air balloons, rides etc and never had a problem previously.   The only upside was that I’d not really eaten much, so other than breaking out into a ridiculous sweat and heaving with a bag at my face, I wasn’t actually ill.

I did pass on the champagne.  I’m not stupid.  Unfortunately, the woman who puked on the way out imbibed.  Needless to say on the way back, and this time she was sitting next to me, she puked two more times.  This time I managed to survive and retain my dignity.

On a side note, while standing at the bottom of the Grand Canyon I met Red Symons, of Hey Hey It’s Saturday fame.   Mark suggested we should introduce ourselves,  I wanted to, but was a little hesitant.  That was until I saw him (Red) pick up a stone and throw it into the canyon (he later said it was to get an idea of how deep it was – we weren’t technically right at the bottom), on seeing it I said “Mr Simons, you’re a vandal.”
He laughed, I introduced myself and we had a chat.  Nice guy!  Small world.

We’re back at the hotel now, having changed room to a suite that has two bedrooms, both with King sized beds to accomodate us, and our friends Alex and Randy.  We’re all sitting in the living room now.  I’m blogging, they’re playing Scrabble on Alex’s new iPad.

Very civilised.  Oh yes, civilised.  We have champagne, and amazing view out over Las Vegas from the 17th floor.

Sounds lavish, but when you do it as a group it’s totally affordable.   Oh, and I’ve gambled.  I lost $21.  I don’t even gamble, I hate it, but figured while in Vegas, why not.   Mark won the money I lost back, his machine was apparently much luckier.  We then cashed out.  So for gambling, overall we’re down $3.  Not such a bad effort.  Especially when you take into account that when using the ATM, the amounts it suggests are in $1000, $2000, $3000 etc denominations…

That’s it.  There’s nothing sordid, so on this occasion, what happened in Vegas is fit to be shared with all of you! 🙂