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!
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