Vegas: Day Four. The Finale.

May 28

Woke up early, as usual for Vegas. Not so usual for Texas, but shh. Around 8:20 am.

At 7:30 am, my Dad left a sign on the TV (that he later showed me, somehow I missed it) that said something like "went downstairs to gamble. you can come find me or else I'll be up at 8:30. love, BD." I asked what BD stood for. Apparently, Big Daddy. Oh geez. Vegas really got to his head, HAHA. But he did find a really fun, interactive wheel of fortune slot machine. He won $6. Practically paid for our vaca, dontcha know? Haha.

He also told me a story about some drunk girls in the elevator. I'll spare you the deets, but it ended with him whispering the "f word" (only, he actually said it). OH MY GOD MISSION COMPLETE. In 25 years I have NEVER, I repeat NEVER heard my Dad say that word. I have begged and pleaded, but he's always always always refused. Life goal 1: Complete. LOL. It is one of my fave words, after all. ;)

As we ran around packing and all that, my Dad broke out the tried-and-now-true blow dryer to heat up our Mesa Grill leftovers for a breakfast feast to remember.

OK, OK, so some parts were warm, some were still cold-ish. But trust me, this time it was not just passable, but damn good. No lie, I think some of the food (especially the quesadillas for SURE and somewhat the chili relleno) were MUCH better reheated. The nite before they were boring/usual, but the flavors really came together this time! We ate it all. SEE, I guess I was right about us gorging on ridiculous amounts of food the nite before (OK, maybe the gorging part still was a bad idea), but we had the perfect amount of food left to tide us over. Go me ;).

BTW, if you think the blow drying leftovers technique is funny, just hear what my Dad used in place of a fridge to keep the leftovers fresh. He took a plastic bag and dumped a container of ice inside and tied the leftover boxes inside as well. He's nothing if not resourceful about food, haha.

Then, we got ready...




Call me crazy, but I really don't like black and navy together. But, I wanted a closed toed shoe for the day in case the plane was cold and couldn't bare to wear my sneaks again. My Dad assured me I was too picky and this was fine. So this it was.

We were going to see another early afternoon show, but thought we'd cut it too close. Probably smart.

Checked out the lion habitat again on our way out to check the luggage for the rest of the day...



Yep, still sleeping.

Silly lions, you could be having fun!



But...nope.

pretty flowers in the lobby

We decided to go gamble together on the wheel of fortune slot and won $40 (we only put in $20). Yeah! It was really fun. Again, we made a good team. I only wished I had taken up the cocktail waitress on her drink offer. I can't believe this trip I didn't get even one free drink and I gambled more than usual! Oh well. Partially my fault (I think I was offered twice).

Right before our 24 hour bus passes expired we jumped on the bus asap to get another one of these.....




Oh yeah, that's the stuff. No whip perfection.

Told you I wasn't leaving without another. And even though my Dad claimed I was ridiculous, he didn't need anymore, blah blah blah, just looky looky, because that's the large. Yep, he shared with me again. Only this time we upgraded to the $15 size. Ouch. Prob could have stuck with the $10 one, but it didn't stop us from guzzling it down. Oops!

Normally I refuse to share drinks, because ew. Germs. So he's lucky I was willing to look past that this time. :-P

Then, we realized we never officially checked out of our room! Oops again. My Dad called and they said no worries, they did it for us. Now that's what I call service! ;)

Since we were already there, we decided to check out the forum shops of Caesar's to see if we could find a lil somethin' somethin' to bring home to Mom.

I took this pic for her viewing pleasure...



Only to find out she doesn't like Cher. Oops. Wait, what? Since when. I could have sworn she did. Huh!

No luck in the present department, but the sites were nice, as always...



That kid wouldn't move out of the way LOL



Bye Caesar's!

Next, we walked across the street (pretty much back to where the bus dropped us off initially...) and checked out the Flamingo Gift Shop to get my Mom a Donny & Marie silly souvenir. I KNEW for a fact she did like them. Phew. Just think if I'd come home with something from the Cher gift shop, LOL.



After some help from a casino employee we finally found it....

LOL



The shirts were kinda cheap looking, so I settled on a mug for her + some gummy dice candy for my brother. My brother's souvenirs are candy 99% of the time and that's a-ok with him.



I wanted to find something fancier for my Mom, but nothing really came up. Me? Barely shopped? Something WAS wrong ;). Oh well.

As we left the Flamingo (which I kept mixing up with the Tropicana for some reason), I saw this...



My Dad was wondering WHY in the heck I was taking pics of trucks, but DUH DAD, that's my Mom's maiden last name. I thought she may like to see it on a dairy truck, sheesh! ;). He didn't find it weird (actually he asked me!) to take pics of the RM restaurants day one, and those are just his initials! :-P His excuse? Those were nice restaurants, this was just a truck. SO!! lol

Next up, our first and last buffet: Bellagio. I heard great things about this buffet throughout all of my research, but when I went to double check the consensus was about 50% love 50% hate. Oh no! With limited time to figure out another option, we decided to chance it. On our way into the property, we saw an incredibly drunk guy who kept hugging everyone (strangers. against their will) get "chased" down by security (um more like the slowest security I've ever seen in my life). LOL. Vegas.

The buffet was only mediocre. It got the job done, but I wouldn't go back.


smoked salmon goat cheese pizza. Sounds better than it was. Good in theory, at least.


Yeah, I barely ate any of that. Actually, I pretty much just chowed down on a plate of shrimp cocktail, took bites of the other stuff, and called it good. You can feel free to call me wasteful. But that shrimp was good, man. I'm still craving more because of it. Otherwise, the options were limited and not that great. The herb polenta was disgusting. How can you ruin polenta? They also had a fairly large sushi bar, but only offered veggie sushi and cali rolls. Why? Bo-Ring! That hardly counts as sushi, c'mon.

For dessert...




So. The top one looks pretty and fab and the bottom looks gross, right? WRONG. I took one bite of the top (peanut butter fudge cake). No thank you. Blech. But the bottom (bread pudding)? Nom.

We were going to bus it back to our hotel, but were both too full and thought a walk would do us good. Kinda sad we didn't catch a Bellagio fountain show (thought we might), but at least we'd both seen it before. I guess. Sigh. A reason to go back, I s'pose.

Besides that, the only things I didn't do that I really wanted to where try the Canyon Ranch (healthy, spa-type) restaurant, check out the Christian Louboutin boutique, check out the newest Casino/Shops/Hotel (Aria), and drink a frozen (alchy) drink (or 5) while walking around in the heat. Otherwise, we accomplished everything. Not bad.

Anyway, we ran into this guy a couple times throughout the trip. My brother is a HUGE Batman fan, so my Dad stopped him to take a couple pics...




My brother STILL doesn't know we took these, because my Dad wants to blow up the pics and frame them, and give them to him as a gift. I'm not sure why he thinks my bro wants a pic of his Dad and a street guy dressed up as a Batman, but I digress. LOL. Whatever makes him happy. ;).

We tipped him, of course, but we noticed a handful of people getting their pics taken with dressed up characters and just walking away. I thought they only worked for tips. Hmmm. Isn't that the point of walking around (in the heat, no less) and acting like a crazy person? LOL. The Batman guy had the voice down pat and everything.

Before we left, we had time to check on the lions once more. They were up!! And about to feed. Hooray!


see the meat on the glass wall right above the lions head?
Now you don't.
NOM.

Finally, it was time to call the shuttle and bid adieu to the strip. Noooo! As tired as I was, I wasn't quite ready for my trip to be over. BooHoo.

Though the airport proved to have some tricks up its sleeves...



The Holy Grail. I mean, a Sephora vending machine. What? *sings* Heaven, I'm in heaven.....

I didn't buy anything, but I should have. JUST BECAUSE I COULD.

Damn the man, put that in my bathroom. STAT!

Also?

Lookie who else was on vacation!!!



SANTA!!

I'm so bad. *blush*

& finally...

Pure Class on the bathroom stall:



Yikes. LOL.

I REALLY wanted a last Coffee Bean and could have sworn there was one at the airport. Too bad I found out (thanks iPhone) it was in terminal C. We were stuck in A. NOooo. Such a tease. *sigh* We had Starbucks by us, but it's not the sameeee. I can have that anytime.

I went to the smoothie stand instead. Defeated. And picked up one of these for the plane ride...



$6 wasted. It was small and disgusting. I couldn't even finish it. Bummer.

As we boarded the plane I saw a guy in first class drinking a screwdriver. I generally don't get a drink on airplanes, but I was suddenly craving orange juice.



Ahhhh. Craving (sort of) satisfied. I prefer a more natural variety, but this worked in a pinch. I was a little worried about the acidity, but I did OK.

When we deplaned, I was starving (not to mention exhausted out of my MIND).

I made a bad choice at the vending machine:



They kind of burned my mouth and hurt my stomach a bit. Darn hunger.

Anyway, as much as I was already mourning for my trip, I was glad to be home. There's not much better than snuggling with your pets, especially after a few days away (oh, and with your Mom too ;)).

Thanks again Dad for the great vaca (not that you know how to even turn on a computer to ever see this). LOL. I had a blast!

xo,
Amanda