Departure Day Drag

Departure days don't really count as vacation days in my opinion. All you do the whole time is travel. Arrival days usually have some activity that happens in the vacation location, but departure days all you do is leave. That was basically our experience today. Jess wasn't feeling well from drinking the night before and slept in a while, but I was up at 8:20am getting everything set and ready. I brushed my teeth and put toothpaste on Jessica's so I could pack as many toiletries as possible. I was so organized from the night before, however, that there really wasn't much to do, at least until Jess woke up and I could put away her toiletries and pajamas. I did take the opportunity to chug down the remaining hard cider we had in the fridge because I was not about to throw a full beverage in the garbage, no thank you! She got up around 8:40am and started getting herself ready but she was still feeling sick. She didn't drink that much but Four Loco's are pretty powerful on us and she'd had a weird amount to eat so it made sense she was more sick than her usual hang-over.

At 9am she managed to get herself to vomit (aren't you glad you read this blog) and she felt better. We wondered if the sickness wasn't the alcohol so much as the alcohol and the copious amounts of pasta she had eaten the day before that was upsetting her stomach so much. With the vomiting passed, however, Jess had mostly gotten out of her system whatever as upsetting it and was ready for the day! At 9:30am we hit the hotel Starbucks which had absolutely no prices whatsoever so we couldn't plan in advance what to get to add up to $26 exactly. We had to ask the prices of everything as we ordered, but we got basically three egg and meat sandwich things, one with ham, one with sausage, and one with Impossible, and we had just enough money left over for one cakepop! Our total was $25.90! Perfect! We took our goodies back to the room, stripped the place so housekeeping wouldn't have to work so hard, and set off!

We hit the front desk to check out, check out bill, and order a taxi. Our bill was naturally wrong, as they had only set up the account for one guest to be getting $13 meals free so it was a good thing we checked to rectify that in person (I just had a feeling they were gonna do that), and taxi's were waiting outside already so we were ready to go! No limo this time, just going the regular poor-people way (but not the Algieri Poor People way which would have been walking). It was a flat rate of $19 for the cad ride from the Tropicana to the airport which was great to us and we were there in a few minutes! We arrived at the American Airlines terminal at 10:30am, just as we planned, giving us an hour to our takeoff. We had already check in but we printed our boarding passes and headed up the escalator to security. Jess's bag got pulled cause she forgot to take my tablet out and mine got stopped cause the food I had needed to get checked, but all that was typical and normal and no problem to us! We just waited patiently and chatted with the security guard going through the stuff.

That done we took the weirdly long walk and tram ride to Terminal D, Gate 3. We were there about 10 minutes before boarding began for the first groups but as we were Group 6 we had a while to go. Or so we thought. There as basically no one in any other group besides 6-9 so this whole 'split up people by group to make boarding less congested' thing really didn't work out. On our flight in, Southwest had kept every middle seat separated to promote some form of social distancing, but this American flight was jam packed! We'd gotten an alert the other day that both flights were very full and it was possible we would be bumped. It didn't happen, but we could see how it could with how stuffed this plan was! We were only on that flight for about an hour, and we were barely up in the air before we started the descent towards Phoenix, Arizona. We landed at 12:30pm and our connecting flght took off at 1:30pm so we had a decent amount of time to get wherever we needed to get to in this strange and foreign airport. As we exited we asked the person behind the desk where our gate was, since it wasn't listed on our passes and she told us Gate 10A and gave us directions. It was another fairly long walk but we were already in A so not too long to our next boarding zone. We arrived with 11 minutes to boarding and did a bathroom run before getting in line.

This flight, from Arizona to Florida, was the long one, about 4+ hours, so naturally I was bored most of the time. I like that flying is obviously faster than driving or taking a bus, but goodness it is so dull up in the air. You just sit there. That's it! And I know I like to sit and do nothing in my home all the time but there isn't even the option here of getting up and doing something. You're just stuck sitting still for 4 hours. So stuck we sat for the flight just listening to music, eating our Starbucks sandwiches and a burrito, and half-napping. When the descent started, however, a young child, maybe 3 years old, began crying and getting fairly loud. Jess initially thought he was just scared but we heard him complain that his ears hurt. He cried and screamed the whole 30 minute descent and in that time various people offered the mother gum but she already had gum. The boy just didn't want to have it because he said he was in too much pain to chew. Children are like that aren't that. I felt bad for the poor thing, it's very uncomfortable the first time you're ears pop on an airplane and as I thinka s an adult it isn't as bad (if I remember correctly from my childhood to now). Could just be that it's a foreign feeling as a child though, as opposed to an adult who's accustomed to the sensation.

We landed about 8:30pm, took about 10-15 minutes to disembark, then we texted our mother that we'd arrived. She told us she'd be 20 minutes so we made our way slowly to the arrivals pick-up area and found an empty bench to sit down on. We ate the last burrito, which felt symbolic, and waited for her to arrive. A man was wandering around asking if anyone had a lighter, which no one did, and seemed somewhat upset that 'no one carries a light around anymore' which I thought was funny because 1: We're at an airport. If anyone has a lighter it's shoved deep in their checked bag cause they aren't permitted on flights and 2: You also don't have a lighter, so who are you talking about exactly? I thought it was funny and it amused us until our mother swung by the our car. She'd taken it upon herself as a birthday gift to get it all cleaned for us, so she'd taken it to a car wash, gotten it vacuumed, and steamed the seats. Our car was pretty filthy so it was a very nice treat! We headed from there to Denny's. We'd planned to eat at a different one but because there's like a zillion of them in Orlando we found one sooner and pulled in there. We had a lovely meal of nachos, mozzo sticks, and a Super Slam while we recanted tales and caught up. We gave mom the gifts we'd gotten for her and dad, just fun things. We got her a money fan, a fan that is made out of hundred dollar bills for that cooling sensation of being fanned with $700, and for dad we got him two dice, one that said Ron's Casino and, because it's Vegas, one with his stripper name that said Rod's Casino. This was in reference to a misspelling that occurred on a playbill the year he played Friar Tuck at Robin Hood's Springtime Faire with us and we hoped he would get the joke as we wouldn't see him to explain it. 

We were there until about 11:00pm but with Jess and I needing to get home so I could go to work the next day at 9am we had to get moving. The plan had been for mom to stay at Denny's until dad got off work at like 12:30pm when he would pick her up but I said we could drive to the hospital so she could be there for when he drove home. But we ended up missing a turn and dad seemed to be unsure whether mom would even be permitted in the hospital if she wasn't a patient so I said I was fine with just driving her home. Mom felt bad, having planned all of this so Jess and I would be good to head right home after Denny's, but I felt better about her being home where she would be able to relax. We got to her house about 12:30pm and we set off from there to home. One of the ramps we needed to get onto, however, was closed, so our GPS sent us the wildest way to get onto I-4 to get around this ramp issue and it was a whole mess but we got passed it after much panicing and worry. We arrived home at 1am and basically pulled out what we needed for bed from our suitcases and hit the sack, trying to pretend we would be fresh and ready for work the next day. 

I meant to post this yesterday but got swept up in taking a luxurious bath-bomb infused bath after work that I missed it. I even had it all written except the drive home. How dare I miss a day on the blog my mother and two friends from up north read! I'm a disgrace! The point though, after our week-long adventure we are finally home and I have to say I'm glad. I like traveling, I like being new places and trying new things, but there's no place I love more than my home. I'd pick there over any place in the world! And I hope no matter where you roam, you too have a sanctuary that you're always somewhere pining to get back to, because what is travel without the fun of being able to reflect and recant when you're finally home. Until next time friends!

All You Can Eat (and Drink) (and Gamble)

Our last full day in Vegas was spent half relaxing, half going all over the place. We woke up around 10am, as usual, and spent some time journaling and writing the blog post. I spent the next two hours navigating Jess's computer, catching brief moments of Wi-Fi where I could add the photographs to the blog. It's been a process the whole time and it wasn't going to get easier any time soon. Luckily, today was my last day doing that so I can't complain too much. While I finagled Jess and I watched whatever was on TV while we chit-chatted and enjoyed the room. We had our two burritos, of course, but tried to space out our food eating so we would have an empty stomach for all the pasta we were planning on consuming.

We stayed chillaxing and generally hanging around in the room until 3:30pm when we were dressed and ready for our one outing of the day to Bally's Buca de Depepo for their $13.99 All You Can Eat Pasta. We brought along Jess's student ID as well, in case the Eiffel Tower was open and we were feeling like going up. We knew we would have to try and finagle me getting the student discount because my ID was, as I said, home in Florida because why would I have thought to bring it? Now, technically, neither Jess nor I are current students, but student ID's don't have expiration dates and $27 to go to the top of a tower in Vegas is a life-ruining amount of money as far as I'm concerned. So, we packed it and Jess's phone to see if maybe showing them my Stetson Acceptance email would be enough. This was all supposing it was even up and running at all.

We arrived at Paris around 4 but stopped off at the Eiffel Tower ticket booth first to see if they were actually running. There was a line and people seemed to be buying tickets so we assumed it must be back up and worked out a plan of attack for the ID situation. We decided our best grift was acting like we're gonna pull out both, then being shocked when there's only one. Shock would turn to panic as we pull a bit of us trying to remember where we could have left it. It was my ID so I would play the Nervous Nelly desperately searching and trying to remember when it could be while Jess would be a Pollyanna, optimistically assuring me it's probably back at the hotel room in the wallet. The grift worked, cause while Jess and I have limited skills we are award winning actors and we've considered it lucky for many people we didn't turn to con-jobs or MLM's. The tickets with the discount were $13.50, which is still more than the student discount to go to the top of the actual Eiffel Tower, but it was more reasonable and we were cool with paying $27 flat for both of us. 

We bought tickets for the 6pm-7pm hour, meaning we could get in line at any point between that hour, which gave us plenty of time to head over and get food! We arrived at Buca's around 4:30 and were seated right away. The hostess recognized us from yesterday when we asked about the mean and we had a laugh about us never being able to blend in! We ordered two waters and the AYCE pasta right away and we were given it right away! The pasta's are all already made and sitting in giant vats with a chef where you can see him making and seasoning it so they're always ready to go. If I was at Olive Garden I would've been sitting 20 minutes to get served and another 20 for one bowl of fettucine alfredo. Instead we were served immediately four fabulous bowls of pasta! The AYCE deal starts you off with one bowl of each pasta you can have, regular spaghetti and red sauce, penne alfredo, baked ziti, and some broccoli and cheese pasta dish that wasn't listed on the menu so we never knew the name. It's possible it was on the menu and we're just dippys who don't know words for food, but it was green and cheesy! From those 4 you eat all of them, or whatever you like, then order repeat bowls of the ones you like the best. We liked the baked ziti best and knew we would be ordering more bowls of that one. The alfredo was great, but I already feel it's too filling for an AYCE.

While we were eating the table next to us was getting their water drinks cleared when a glass slipped from the waiters hand and spilled all over the man sitting there! Nightmare fodder! The waiter seemed so sorry, and so upset, and we were worried he was going to get in trouble, but the couple seated there was very polite and understanding. The manager came over after to do damage control and they again said they were fine. The manager asked if they wanted free drinks or deserts and they initially refused, saying it wasn't necessary, but hen she asked again they asked if they could get one of the meals comped. The manager was happy to oblige and the couple was happy no matter what, so life was good all around.

We ate 6 bowls of pasta in total, ordering two more of the baked ziti, meaning our order was really $5 a bowl which we were totally satisfied with! We couldn't believe they offered this great deal for so cheap period! $13.99 for one bowl of pasta is cheap for Vegas prices! But AYCE? Insane! We didn't eat any bread mostly because we didn't get any. We didn't even know e were supposed to until our waiter asked us if we needed more pasta or bread, at which point he seemed to realize he never brought us any. We just waived it off saying we were totally good, so full on pasta, which was true. I was very grateful we didn't have bread brought because I would have either been tempted to eat it and lose pasta space or it would have been wasted because we were saving room for pasta. At this point during the dinner I got up to see about splitting a $20 so I would have tip money and I was directed to a machine that does it for you! You just put whatever you have in and it splits it into smaller bills for you! Wish we had one of those at work, people always need bills split! Wish we had more of them everywhere actually, I mean how convenient! 

With that fascinating discovery made we meandered through Bally's to Paris, strolling leisurely as we still had 25 minutes before 6:00pm. We popped into a Viva Vegas store, another one of those tacky Vegas shops all over the strip, and searched for a gift for our father. We'd gotten one for our mother on the Linq Promenade but still hadn't found anything for dad. We thought we found the perfect thing, a $3.99 shift but it turns out it was not only in the $9.99 section but they charge $2 extra for XXL's in a practice I refer to as a Fat Tax. There's arguably no reason to charge more for the extra size besides hating fat people. That's it. "But the extra fabric", no, the fabric difference between an XS and an L are significantly larger than an L and XXL and there's no price difference for those. It's absolute nonsense. So, we didn't get the shirt, but we did discover a lovely unicorn-pegasus Vegas stuffed animal that I just had to have. I'd gotten my new cup, but I needed a new stuffed animal, and this one as exactly what I needed! That purchase in hand we headed for the escalator to the Eiffel Tower elevator. Except the tickets they sent to the Tracphone wouldn't open so we had to go back, stand in line, and get them printed. It did gie us a chance to hit the bathroom again though, as we were told there wouldn't be one in line or at the top so it was our last chance, and boy were we glad we did! The line wasn't exceptionally long on the bridge to the elevator, but because they could only take one group at a time up and they only had two elevators we waited for almost hour, from 6:30pm to 7:20pm before we got to go up. By then the line was way longer and people were going to be waiting for likely 2 hours to go up. Hope they didn't have reservations to keep anywhere!

In the elevator the girl operating it chit-chatted with us about having bangs and how they never grow in right and how self-trimming is a reality but it always comes our wrong. She as sweet and we liked her a lot. At the top we were 7 minutes off from the Bellagio Fountain show, of which the Eiffel Tower had a perfect view! Except, of course, for the cage that surrounds the whole thing which seemed to surprise everyone up there. Jess and I knew it was the same at the top of the actual Eiffel Tower but... yeah? They don't want people falling, jumping, or dropping things. That's how it is. Regardless, Jess and I got a great spot and watched the show, a My Heart Will Go On performance which we both agreed was way longer than the daytime performance! It was awesome, but the view period was too! You could see the whole strip and city from up there, all lit up in it's evening glow! We hung around and just looked at it for quite a while before we joined the increasingly long line to go back downstairs. We apparently got up there just in time as the second elevator had malfunctioned and they were now don to one. Double yikes for the people waiting to get up! We didn't wait too long, maybe 15 minutes, but we chitchatted with the attendant directing people about elevator malfunctions at our hotel and how the elevator people never actually fix the problem. Inside the elevator we talked with the operator about being twins and all it's glory, a topic of which we get to be experts, and exited the whole experience around 8:30pm.

The walk home took half an hour as we were enjoying our last walk through the strip and we walked into the Tropicana at exactly 9pm. We knew we were going to miss the evening dinner we're provided but after the pasta we knew we weren't going to be hungry for the rest of the evening and were fine with that. We decided this evening, at long last, we were going to do some gambling! Yes, actual gambling! I split our remaining $20 into four $5 (the splitter at our hotel asking you how you would like to split it rather than deciding for you like at Bally's) leaving us with five $5 to spend at the moment. Our first $5 game was a Lucky 8 slots spinner thing which we liked a lot! Jess got it up to $8, but we weren't looking to win really, just play so we put it all back into the game eventually. We wandered and played a Wonder Woman slot, FarmVille slot, Clinko, and some other random named one. With that we were out of money but we elected to get changed into some warmer clothes, drop off our stuff, get one of our Four Loco's (which we'd started in the afternoon before leaving for lunch), grab more money and go play some more!

We grabbed two $20's and headed right back to the Lucky 8 game! It had a Chinese theme and a fun minigame you could unlock if you got three Power Wheels in a row and Jess and I had really enjoyed it so we decided to return to that one and play $20, then put the second $20 when we ran out cause it was our favourite and we were having a blast playing! We did get carded while there, which I'd been prepared for and had brought our ID's in my pocket! I know we look (and sometimes act) like we're 16 year old idiots but the woman was very friendly, just doing her job and I respect it! Kids shouldn't be gambling, it's not chill and I totally get them enforcing it strongly! Gambling is dangerous for adults, let alone teenagers and children who aren't clear what's going on and see it as a game. She swung by a few times that evening to check on us, probably to make sue were in fact just overly peppy and giggly girls and not gambling while drunk out of our mind. We did have a drink though, the Four Loco but we finished it at a certain point so I sent myself back up for the room and got the second one for us. We merrily drank that as we continued to play our fun game. We loved getting the Power Wheels because you got to play a game where you had to 'catch' koi fish that swam across the screen and that was super fun. Also you got more money when you got the game but we were really just looking for fun times! 

We kept getting our money back though, kept getting back to just about or a little over $20 so we just kept playing! At a certain point Jess went up for the bathroom and asked someone the time and it was 11:30pm on the dot. We knew we had to be up around 8am the following morning and we'd been playing for about 2 hours by then but we weren't sure we wanted to cash out yet. Almost immediately after we got one final Power Wheel that put us at $30.51 and we decided that was the time to cash out! We we're going to get higher than $30 back from $20 in so we took our ticket, cashed out at the same machine you split bills at, and returned to the room. Jess was significantly more buzzed than I was so she laid down and ate the chicken fingers we hadn't finished the night before while I got everything packed around her. Everything that could be put away, was, and was put away efficiently and orderly. We needed to now be able to fit the large Paris cup into one of the bags so I had to be creative with the packing. It wasn't really difficult though, as long as all the clothes were put in one suitcase there was plenty of room in the other for anything we had! We would have to carry the large fan and the stuffed pega-corn, but we didn't think that would be a problem when we went on the plane.

With as much packed as I could manage for the evening I set an alarm for 8am, though technically I set it for 11am because my clock had never changed to Vegas time and every time I've tried to adjust it in the past it's screwed everything us so I just lived with it. Alarm set and ready Jess and I crawled into our beds, watched 2 Broke Girls, and talked about how much fun we'd had that evening, our first night ever gambling! It was a total Stripperella series finale night and a perfect closing evening to our fabulous time in Vegas!

Places We've Already Been, But Smaller

We thought getting up that we didn't have much in the schedule for the day but we, as always, were wrong and had plenty that we got done. But also as always, we weren't up until about 10am. We spent two hours in the morning predominantly putzing around. I struggled to get Jess's computer to upload my pictures to the blog while Jess read some internet funnies outload. We do finished off the honey buns we'd gotten last night for breakfast and I had widely taken two burritos out of the fridge early in the morning on a pee run so they were already close to room temperature. At 12:00pm we started out, dressed and ready to mostly explore. We took a quick look first at the hotel directly across the street from us, Excaliber. It was totally awesome inside, looked almost like how Universal Studios decorated their interiors, but it was very small. Compared to how.lost Jess and I have gotten in every other hotel we've wandered iinto, this was a piece of cake. It did, however, have a really cool pedestrian moving sidewalk that took you all the way into the building from basically the skywalk so that was pretty sweet! Props to them for that! They didn't have one going out but that makes sense. They want you inside the casino, not leaving it.

After that minor detour we walked across the other street to New York, New York! Having been to New York many times in our life we were excited to discover what select and aesthetic parts of New York they had elected to display. The skywalk led right to the second floor of Hershey's Chocolate World which was exactly where we wanted to be! The store, both floors, we're wall to wall Hershey's products, but the first floor has a slushy/milkshake stand where I seriously debated buying one of the milkshakes. It came in a collectible plastic mason jar cup, and I am a freak about collectible cups, but we decided we didn't wanna carry it around all day and elected to see about getting it on the way back. We did not make our way back.

We wandered out into the casino and followed the signs to the Big Apple Coaster and Arcade and went up the escalator towards it. We checked the prices and found out it opened at 1:00. We were only a half hour off so that have us the perfect amount of time to eat our burritos! We headed outside and found a nice table in the warmth but also the shade to relax and enjoy. We had, obviously,  already done so much. We'd saw our first pigeon of the trip there and agreed that was a very New York experience to have. We finished our burritos just after 1pm so wandered back through the casino to the escalator. We were in a line for all of one minute to purchase tickets, which were $17 each, though the line they had set up was prepared for a significantly larger crowd. I bet they usually have tons of people for this thong, but as of now we were one of a handful of riders there at the opening for the day. 

We wandered through the arcade until we arrived at a series of lockers that were set up right beside the start of the official roller coaster line (which was also empty). We found out we couldn't go on with our purse, which makes sense, and had to part with a precious $1 to rent it. All things considered, $1 was super cheap compared to typical Vegas prices, but I suppose they really don't want people sneaking bags and such on the ride. We got the locker and headed basically right to the start of the ride and waited a weird amount of.time before boarding the cart that was sitting right in front of us. We guessed maybe they needed to wait a certain amount of time for the cleaning chemicals they used to 'take effect'. The stuff smelled strong and made my arm hurt actually because it smelled exactly like what they use to wipe your arm down before giving you a shot. Weird.

Once on the ride took you WAY up into the sky. Jess and I couldn't believe we were still going up as we got a view of everything! On the way up I remembered my hoop earrings and quickly pulled them off to prevent them ripping a hole in my.ear if they got caught on anything. Just as I finished that we tipped over the edge and were soaring through the New York themed buildings and wizzing over the Las Vegas strip. It was a bumpy ride and I had to hold my mask on, but it was fast and fun and certainly long enough I felt to feel like it was worth it. We were a touch woozy getting off, but not actually.motion sick so we were good to go continuing on through the hotel. We passed through the restaurant area on our way towards an exit and it was very nicely decorated! Dark, as casino areas tend to be, but the floor was made out to be a street with fake and real buildings themed like genuine New York shops. It was a very nice walk through and I say they really outdid themselves!

Outside we popped into the casino across the street, the ..., just to take a peak at the interior. Fairly standard, nothing really themed, but elegant and well designed to be sure! Just not our kinda thing! We crossed the street then to the M&M building which boasted four floors of M&M's and it delivered! We saw the wall of M&M's on the second floor and the M&M race car on the fourth. I was tempted to purchase a blanket there but decided I really didn't need it and we just explored. I liked the way each floor was set up, very well designed with a good flow, and of course one just loves being surrounded by chocolate! We were there about 39 minutes, taking it all in, before we began the walk to Paris. Having also been to Paris before we were again excited to see the featured features. The walk was about 15 minutes from where we were, but we knew it well and had no problems on the way. 

Outside, Paris is all tall, memorable structures like the Eiffle Tower and Arch Dr Triumph but inside is very much just a French historic/cafe district vibe. The bottom of the Eiffel Tower protrudes through the ceiling in three places to give the feel of being under the Eiffle Tower, whmuch I guess technically you are. The ceiling, like The Venetian, is designed to look like a sky but rather than morning, Paris is themed to look like dusk. This is likely because while The Venetian had that theme exclusively for their shopping center, Paris has this them over their shops and casino, and casinos are always meant to be dimly lit. We tried to check out a Paris shop but it was closed so we wandered around looking for the ticket booth for the top of the Eiffel Tower. We almost ended up in Bally's, a connecting hotel, before we found a mad which pointed us in the right direction. At the booth the man told us the ride opens at 4pm, but they just got word the elevator isn't working and they don't know if it will be up at all for the day. He also told us the price is $27 per person, but there is a student discount. Jess's student ID was back at the hotel and mine was several thousand miles away in Florida because I hadn't taken it with me. Still, the tower was down, and given we had ridden to the top of the actual Eiffle Tower for $9.50 each we decided to pass for now and check some other things out. We decided to see if the Linq High Roller, which I keep calling the Vegas Eye much to Jessica's chagrin, was open and worth doing. 

When we'd been walking into Paris we'd stopped by a bar directly under the Eiffel Tower to see if they had an Eiffel Tower collectable cup. We couldn't explain why, we just had the feeling they would and we were right! They had a HUGE Eiffle Tower cup but it was hidden completely from view so no wonder we didn't see anyone with it! How could anyone find it!? We told the bartender we'd come back on the way out to get it and we meant it, so back we came on the way out with money in hand. It was $32 for the drink, four shots of vodka mixed with your choice of slushee margarita, pina colada, or strawberry (which we went with) and the cup. Steep but considering we paid $39 for the drink at Sugar Factory and didn't even get a cup this seemed great to us! We got the drink and brought a crowd with us apparently cause a line magically formed behind us. My bet is they saw this cool cup that isn't displayed for the first time and wanted it too, cause who wouldn't?

We left Paris and followed a sign that said High Roller inside the Flamingo where we got immediately lost and somehow ended up in Margaritaville. We finally got out of there and located the Linq hotel but turned right down something out friend Heather told us is the Linq Promenade! It's a nice street off the strip that's themed like Boston with plenty of restaurants and shops. We liked into a candy store to take a peek and looked at all the menus to see if we wanted anything. We were still slurping down our strawberry vodka slushee and were starting to get hungry. At the end of the street we got to the Linq High Roller where we discovered tickets were $34 per person. Since we had access to the Orlando Eye for $5 every Monday we decided it wasn't worth it and went back up there street. We stopped for a break on a bench and finished our slurpiarita before popping into one of those tacky Vegas shops to look around. Jess got a little sick-feeling here and say down outside while I kept looking around. I wasn't tipsy really, but my shoulders all of a sudden really hurt so I joined Jessica outside for a break also. We were up pretty shortly afterwards though and back to our journey forward. 

We made a plan to hit Paris again to see if that shop was open yet and check out this All You Can Eat Pasta deal at Bally's. On the way though we remembered something Heather had put On the list she have us about there being a Flamingo habitat at The Flamingo that was free to visit so we made a stop in the Flamingo and followed signs that said Habitat which we presumed to be the way to the pink birds. We were correct and in no time we had exited to an outside area where 7 or 8 flamingos were wandering around! It was a large area with plenty of space but all the flamingos seemed to be interested in being around one mini waterfall area with lots of grass and space. The other areas were populated by other birds, all of which were very pretty and sweet looking, and enormous up I fish of all colours! There was a great flamingos fountain and a wonderful large waterfall where we were asked to take someone's picture for them and I went full photographer mode taking all the angles in and getting like a dozen shots. The woman seemed very grateful and we were happy to help! See spent a half hour or more there enjoying the fish and the birds before we headed back to our mission towards Paris. We'd were very glad for having made the stop though, as we love free experiences! They're our favourite!

We hit Bally's first and found the restaurant was open so we swing back to Paris, saw the shop was still closed, and tried to make a plan. We weren't hungry enough for plates of pasta just then, and we were getting our free dinner at the hotel when we got back (which had to be before 8 and it was already 5pm) but would we come back tomorrow? We decided we would check with the restaurant and see if they were open tomorrow and what hours and decide from there. They were open so we agreed we would spend tomorrow morning relaxing and recouping, then come back tomorrow at 4pm for lunch, then finally we would do some gambling in the evening, which We hadn't done at all since arriving. This doesn't seem like a difficult plan but it actually took a great deal of deliberation because we can't ever decide on anything quickly. Jess says it's because we're Libras.

We were still hungry though and had plans on the list left to do so we walked a ways to Panda Express and got a roughly $9 bowl of chow mien and orange chicken. It's the best. That in hand we crossed the street to The Bellagio to watch the fountain show. We'd forgotten water, however, so Jess headed back to Paris to fill up our empty Eiffel Tower cup with water while I found a spot in one of the nooks off the sidewalk to watch. It wasn't hard though as the streets of Vegas are fairly empty and no one was around for the half-hourly fountain show. I was worried Jess wasn't going to make it for the 6pm show but just as it started I saw her running back from across the street and down to me. The show only lasted a minute and I wondered if sending Jess to get water was stupid as we could have just gone after the show, but we decided to sit down (yes, on the ground) and eat our meal while we waited for the 6:30pm show. All the shows are different so we wanted to see a second one to compare!

The wait was the perfect length for us to enjoy our food and chit chat and before we knew it the next show was starting! We picked the perfect time as it had just changed from sunset to a dark dusk and we got to see all the lights of The Bellagio turn on during the show! It was perfect! With that checked off the list we skedaddled back to our hotel at a brisk pace, suddenly unsure if dinner went until 7pm or 8pm and wanting our free meal (whether we are it or not). We did make a quick stop at the Cosmopolitan to cut through to the pedestrian skywalk and got to see the fabulous chandelier in the center! It was HUGE and glitzy and exactly the thing I want in my house. You know, someday. Butt we trooped on and we arrived around 7pm and the Trop 'n Go was still hopping so we realized it was until 8pm and got in line. We did so just in time as a crowd of people joined behind us and were grateful for our timing cause people take forever to order at this place. I don't get it, you look at the menu the whole time you're in line, it's everywhere, how do you not know still up at the front!? Jess and I were prepared though, with ID's out and orders ready. Took us maybe a minute. It's not hard people.

We arrived around 7pm and the Trop 'n Go was still hopping so we realized it was until 8pm and got in line. We did so just in time as a crowd of people joined behind us and were grateful gor.Our timing cause people take forever to order at this place. I don't get it, you look at the menu the whole time you're in line, it's everywhere, how do you not know still up at the front!? Jess and I were prepared though, with ID's out and orders ready. Took us maybe a minute. It's not hard people.

We ordered the chicken fingers for $16 and tater tots for $8, bringing our order again to $26.01 with tax! Food came quickly and we were back up in the room on no time, watching some PBS special on cats of Asia and Africa as we are and drank some of our cider. We only have two days left and still plenty of alcohol so we realized we need to start chugging some of that before we go. We ended the night with one cider and two Four Locos left to go. Not impossible to drink, more manageable for us now. as we drank and are we heard a slew of no king going on outside and looked to see about 20 cars with eyewitnesses on going slow and honking up the street. A few had flags of red, blue, and yellow on their cars but we couldn't Google anything to do with that flag and some kind of protest or parade so I guess it'll remain a mystery! We'd watched a couple different things on TV, flipping to anything that seemed interesting. We watched quite a bit of American Ninja Warrior which is good, cause these people are basically peak dominant apex predators, but I always feel like they're just a little too intense and competitive. I always feel like single-person sports need some kind of team atmosphere because you end up being to hard on yourself and don't learn how to lose gracefully or cheer on others. Not that everyone was like on the show, just some folks and I tend to think it has to do with the setup of the sport. Regardless we watched that, Pawn Stars, and just general crap TV as we finished our meal and drinks and went to bed around 12:45pm.

Penguins and the Palazzo

We were busy bees today, but we are still on vacation so we were up at 10am. Jess was up earlier than me so she could take a shower so I was actually up at 10:30am. Sleeping in is one of the prime joys of our lives so we're not really 'up and at-em' people on vacation. Our internal clocks are tired and like to sleep. Anyway, we got up eventually and putzed around for an hour or so deciding what to wear and what the exact plan of attack was. I pulled out 2 burritos to warm up (we don't have a microwave so they have to just naturally get to room temperature) and we picked out our matching purple sweetheart dresses and polka dot masks (courtesy of our aunt Eileen) and decided we were cool being catchy-march for the day! Dressed and set to go we headed out about 12:30ish. 

It was about a half-hour walk to The Venetian but a pleasant familiar walk at this point. Jess and I are pretty excellent walkers so we had no problem the way up at all. We fondly passed the Rainforest Cafe we'd eaten at the day before and carried on further up the strip. Nothing of particular note occurred on the way up and in no time we were outside The Venetian! We crossed over a large bridge and we're making a plan for how to find the ticket booth when we happened right upon the outdoor one! How convenient! There we paid the $58 for two indoor Gondala ride tickets, which is kinda pricey but we were so heart-set on it and it looked to be a really fun experience so we felt it was worth it! The woman gave us directions for how to find the indoor Gondala rides, as she was next to the outdoor ones, and told us we had to be in line 10 minutes tied before our ride time. It was 1:30pm then and our ride was at 2:00pm so that have us a full 20 minutes to find out way around a new casino maze!

Inside, the first floor was just regular casino aesthetic. Lots of slots and neon lights, nothing too different than the other casinos we'd seen. Following the ticket booth woman's directions though, we went up the escalator to the fabulous old Italian city themed section and it was delightful! They had one of those mock skies where it it looks like.you're outside when you're inside, and all the architecture and design was so quaint and cute! We passed a bunch of shops following the signs for the Gondala rides (they know what folks are looking for) and they were all so darling on the outside! Inside they're all tacky designs with overpriced junk, but wow did the outside look great!I

We found the Gondala rides at 1:43pm so we had time to take some pictures and eat one of the burritos which we hadn't had a chance to munch on yet. As we finished we got in line, where we had two groups in front of us cause they really did time things well for these rides! The first part of the line was way down at the end of the water, but as the line moved each group was taken one at a time down to the entrance of the Gondvdala rides where you were told the rules of the boat and finally boarded. Luciana was our Gondalier and he was perfectly charming! As he drove us we talked about nothing in particular but we all had a wonderful chat anyways! We talked of where we were from and he the same, and when we mentioned we worked at a hotel he told us "that explains everything about your personalities". Apparently he almost thought we might be some kind of secret shoppers because of the way we were behaving! He said that was a good thing though, guarantees you'll always get excellent service!

There was a part of the ride where you got photographs taken which Jess and I were never going to buy but were fun to ham up for anyways! Now, the Gondaliers weren't being permitted to sing, because of the mask wearing and whatnot, so instead sections of the ride were quartered off for singers on land to serenade the passengers! We arrived at the first one at the end of the canal where he was waiting on some kind of ledge into the water. He was a wonderful singer and we enjoyed every minute it's of it! Here we turned around and went back, discussing horseback riding and hiking on the return journey. At the other end of the canal, where we turned around to dock, a guitarist this time awaited us and he was marvelous also! I love guitar playing in that old Italian style! As we docked we quickly tried to take a few pictures, Luciana explaining that they weren't permitted to take pictures of guests (likely to encourage the purchase of the souvenir photos) but we didn't really get too many good ones. Still, we got some at least, and some wonderful memories of a fabulous time! Our Gondalier had subtly brought up the concept of tips by telling us on our first visit to one of the performers that the 'Gondaliers take care of the performers' which I thought was very classy. We were going to tip anyway though, but I liked the way he gently reminded people, and we gladly gave him $10 to cover his service and the wonderful music!

After we got out we looked at our pictures and they looked quite nice, but for $30 a picture that was a no from us. We looked around the shop and I found some great 'personalized' five with Jess and my name's on them that I just had to have! For $1.39 each, those were my kind of souvenir! We took the time then to eat out second burrito and begin exploring! We loved just wandering the Venice-themed streets and window shopping the stores! We moved with some kind of mission though, on our way towards a macaroon store we'd seen while on the Gondala. We thought we were going to get some macaroons, but when we got there we saw they sold macaroon flavoured gelato and since we were planning on getting ice cream anyways and the gelato here was not only a unique flavour but also at least $3 cheaper than any frozen great sold anywhere else, it seemed a perfect fit! As we checked out though, she told us customers got access to a private bridge overlooking the canal, the only of its kind in the hotel, where we could sit and eat! It was so cute up there and we couldn't have had a better time eating our gelato and enjoying the view! It felt so chic! So tasteful!

We managed to see Luciano and give him a last wave from the bridge before we started our wandering again. Jess was on the hunt for matching Venectian necklaces for both of us so we hunted down every store we thought would possibly have some. Th he first store we attempted to locate turned out to be closed, so we'd traveled a long way for nothing, and every other store we looked at didn't have what we were seeking. We finally stopped in the Las Vegas gift shop (actually one of many) and looked through their jewelry selection. The woman there let us know there wasn't any Venetian jewelry or merchandise in the store, but to try the Emporio. We'd been there already, it was where we saw our pictures, but we decided to look again and see if we'd missed something. For the sake of keeping social distancing in a very small store, Jess went in to look on her own and asked the shopkeeper about necklaces. The woman, who remembered us buying the dice, told us there was no necklaces, but they did sell a charm without a chain that was a small golden gondola with an Gondalier and the words The Venetian on it. I mean, can you talk about a perfect find? Jess had me come in and we both agreed it was great and spent the $10 or so dollars to get one each. They're going to look great as necklaces!

We looked briefly in a very cool bath shop that sold all their bath bombs and soaps in the shape of deserts, but decided we didn't need anything else and headed out. It was sad to see the gorgeous place gp, but we had a restaurant to get to! Sugar Factory was further up the strip, but not by much and we were there in a few minutes. We thought it was on the second floor at first, but we were actually wrong and had to hunt down a way off the second floor to get the the actual place cause we're total numpties, but we found it and check out a menu. The price for the kind of drink we wanted was $39. Yikes. We considered just passing on it and going elsewhere, but Jess had wanted to do this, and we had come all this way, and we were on vacation to spend money, so we got in line and got seated inside! After some debate we ordered the Fuzzy Peach Penguin Mango (aka The Tongue Twister), which was designed by Pitbull. Who knew! We got it pretty quick and the waitress have us a chance to get our camera ready to record her dropping the drink into the dried ice, which was very nice of her!

We were seated around 4pm and took about 45 minutes to be seated, get the drink, and enjoy the whole thing. We didn't order anything else, because all we wanted was the drink, but that was enough! Jess and I had good waiting to be gotten for free at the hotel so we didn't need anything and we were still satisfied from the burritos and gelato! So, we enjoyed our drink and chatted as we watched the restaurant fill up around us! Very popular place! We didn't see our waitress much but we could see her scrambling between several tables full of guests and good so we didn't care at all. We ordered on drink, we didn't need anything from her! We did want the check at a certain point though so when Jess got back from the bathroom at one point she just asked the maitre de at the booth for it and brought it over. She then went to them with the receipt and card and brought that back to the table to sign. Just the our waitress appeared, having dropped off several glasses to the bar directly in front of us, and seemed sort of distressed that we'd had to get our own check, but we didn't care at all. She was obviously busy with tables that actually needed attention. We were glad to see her, though, so we could give her the tip in person! She was very grateful and we had had a good drink, so life was good!

We left in high spirits with a touch of buzz as we began the walk home. The now normal journey back seemed so much shorter than ever before as we passed the Paris hotel and casino, Cesaers Palace, and more on this familiar walk. As we passed the Bellagio, however, we could see the fountain show going on. We were, however, in the wrong side of the sidewalk. We sat down on a bench at first, but we weren't really contented with that view. Also these guys next to us just leaned over and went "Are you twins" and we ignored them so not it felt awkward. Listen, I don't mind being asked "Are you twins", but that's when it's by shopkeepers and waiters and people who are interacting with us with a purpose. We had been asked "Are you twins?" at least 8 times by 8 different random men and it gets old. 1: You don't need that information. Why do you care? We're not talking to you, we don't need to engage in small talk, this information will not affect you. 2: Obviously. We are obviously twins, why are you asking? It could not be more clear, just think to yourself "oh hey, twins" and keep your mouth shut. Digressing, we elected to get up from the bench and try to cross the skywalk over but it would take to long so we debated, then just went for it and installed (or jayran rsaher) across Las Vegas blvd. I think jaywalking is a pretty severe no-no, but we wanted to see the last 39 seconds of this show so we were doing it! And we made it! And we saw it! And it was great! We're such idiots, good lord.

We returned to the correct side of the street the appropriate way, via skywalk, and actually reached the Tropicana at last. We went right to the restaurant area but the Red Lotus was shut down still. Asking the front desk we found out it's only open Friday-Sunday so our only food option is the Trop 'n Go, so that's where we headed! There was a line, who head to be expected as it was the only restaurant in the place, but it gave us a chance to check the menu and plan our meals for today as well as the next few days. We had $26 to spend so for today's combination we got a $18 burger with fries and $6 honey rolls, leaving us with $2 for tax which we hoped would be enough. Our order came to $26.01 and we were distinctly pleased! We could afford the .1. We're be coming big spenders like that.

Food came pretty fast and we decided to maybe try some gambling out but we quickly realized we have no idea how to do that. I asked the front desk and Jess asked some guy and we both got conflicting answers but at the cashiers booth we managed to get to the root of it. We each got Players Cards which were some kind of loyalty credits thing, but you used that and cash to play the games. We didn't have cash on us so we elected to just go upstairs to eat and try again another day. We'd exhausted our learning stretch muscles enough for one day. Upstairs we happily ate our excellent meal and tried to find something in TV to watch. We settled on some Discovery show about people living off the grid and officially settled in for the evening!