Viva Las Vegas!

Las Vegas is like no other town in the world - Mix in the vibe of Times Square (multiplied by 10), the magic of Disney Land (on acid), and your next door neighbour's colourful Christmas lights (taken from some futuristic vision of neon Japan). Throw in a million or so tourists from all over the world. Serve them up a load liquor and food (24 hours a day, 7 days a week). Turn the heat up way over 40 degrees. Include the dazzling lights and the shrill bleating sounds of an army of over a million slot machines and the smiling precision of a few thousand table drones. Have a drive through wedding chapel, which includes a $100's worth of free chips and a free ticket to a one night only extravaganza, by some half forgotten performer, which happens to run every night of the year. Put this all together and you will only have captured a small iota of what Las Vegas is about.
 
Although it is essentially a gambling town, you cannot help but feel like you are truly on holidays when you arrive - there is literally that much to do. As for the both of us, we plugged a hundred dollars each into the Great, Greedy, Gambling Machine and ended up between us, losing $80 and winning $80 dollars.  It left us quite contented, having experienced winning and losing combined. Regardless of how you did, the hotel reception always greets you with a chirpy "Have a Lucky day!"
 
Our room, located in the Bally's Casino, was very comfortable. Anyone who knows will tell you: there are no uncomfortable rooms in Las Vegas. We headed out to what is reputed to be the best burger joint in America, called simply the 'Burger Bar' and they are right about that! It was fully dark as we climbed into the monorail over to the MGM Grand, but despite it being night time, the temperature was well over 36 degrees. We were both dead tired from traveling - all thoughts of staying up until dawn to celebrate Melissa's birthday and riding on a hot air balloon were forgotten (for this year at least). Instead all we wanted to do was stay up until midnight before stumbling into bed. We ended staying out a bit later, exploring the various casinos on the strip.
            
The next day, Melissa wanted some coffee. So Colin went all the way over to Paris to get it (that's the Paris casino, decked out like the streets of the Champs Elysées). He also purchased Melissa some flowers and though he was tempted to, he bought them from the actual florist, rather than from out of a vending machine.
 
On Melissa's birthday day we took it easy, exploring a couple of casinos:  Paris, Caesars & the Bellagio. We then followed up at nighttime, with much ado about nothing, by seeing Jerry Seinfeld perform live. Under normal circumstances we would not be able to buy a ticket with such short notice, but at Las Vegas we didn't have to resort to paying the scalper's ridiculous prices.  Melissa noticed while waiting in line at the entrance to a show that they seemed to surround the location with $1 slot machines instead of the commoner 25c verity. Tends to makes you wonder what idle hands will get up to...
 
Tonight we were well rested and stayed out a fair while exploring around. Then as our pace began to slow and the heat became uncomfortable, we set our step towards home, with the intention of calling up room service, ordering a Crème brûlée (Melissa's favourite desert) and a cappuccino to keep us awake long enough that we might watch a movie on the pay per view. This did not work out as planned, as the 'town that never sleeps' had shutdown the hotel room service and the TV which was to provide us with the movie had the Windows 'Blue screen of Death'.
 
It didn't matter though, as nothing can be more like Las Vegas than waking up at 10:30am, having half an omelet, followed by 3 margaritas, seeing a couple of shows and calling it a day!
 
Next up is San Francisco - where the temperature will drop from 40 C down to 15 C and we shall go from opulent luxury, down to Hostel accommodation. All this and we couldn't be happier!