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Viva Las Vegas!!!!!!
We got a great deal in the Imperial Palace, for 14 nights it only cost us $250 each which is a lot cheaper than a hostel and we get a private room!!
We arrived mid afternoon and didn't arrange to meet Mum and Dad till that night so we spent the day checking out the hotel and pool while Mum and Dad checked out the strip. It's a very basic hotel with a normal pool (bit weird for Vegas!) but we got a free upgrade and it is great for the price we paid!
We met Mum and Dad in a bar at the Imperial Palace and happily found out that they do $6 pitchers! Our first bit of gambling in Vegas didn't turn out too well, we both lost $50 and not one of our numbers came in. Even Mum and Dad were down! We didn't have a long night out as everyone was jet legged so we just stayed up till about midnight drinking and gambling, just like it should be done in Vegas!
On our first day we all met up pretty early and headed out on the strip. We first headed to a few casinos close to our hotels like O'Sheas and Casino Royal and had a few drinks and gambles in there. We then went and checked out the new City Center which is a big let down. The whole building just doesn't look right on the strip, it would be more suited in New York or a normal city. One of the casinos in the City Center is Chinese yet it has no theme and is just totally glass. Inside the casinos everything is geared towards the upper class with every expensive shop and restaurant you can think of and because of that there was no one in there. We didn't stay too long in there as there didn't seem to be much atmosphere so we then headed to the Monte Carlo. For some reason me and Jodie haven't really checked out much of the Monte Carlo so Mum and Dad showed us round as they stayed in there. It seems really nice and they have a great microbrewery in there that we are going to have a night out in. They also have a new bar made entirely out of ice but it was closed and quite expensive just to get in so we didn't bother. Afterwards we went for a drink in the Harley Davidson cafe and then went and checked out Planet Hollywood as it was the Aladdin last time. Apparently the Aladdin was a lot nicer than Planet Hollywood and the main shops and rain show is from the Aladdin.
That night we all met in the Paris hotel as Mum and Dad still hadn't really been in there yet that's where they were staying! Jodie thought she had lost enough the night before so is having a few nights off from gambling but I was still well up for it and ended the night up! Woohoo!!
Next day Jodie wanted a pool day so I went out with my parents and planned on meeting Jodie later on. Me, Dad and Mum went down to Hooters to book a Prince show for the Sunday night. They stayed in Hooters one year when it was called the San Rino and was Spanish themed, now it is bright orange and full of women in tight clothes, I loved it! We got everything booked and paid for, which Mum and Dad kindly treated us too and then went for a couple of drinks. The drinks were so much cheaper than they are on the strip, $1.50 for a bottle and $3 for a pint compared to $7 for a bottle at the Excalibur across the road! We stayed in Hooters for a little while then went over to the Excalibur to see if there sports bar was showing the footy.
That night Mum and Dad got tickets for Cher at Ceasars Palace so spent the night there. Me and Jodie relaxed in the room for a little while as we were pooped and then went downstairs and met my parents there and starting drinking the pitchers at our local. Cher was only on for about an hour and a half so Mum and Dad didn't really enjoy her that much, some of her songs were good though. Utd are playing Everton at half 4 in the morning so I planned to meet Dad and head to a sports bar he heard of. Problem was though after me and Jodie got food I only had about an hours sleep till I had to get up so unsurprisingly for me I slept in!
As it was September 11th we headed down to New York New York to see if they had anything going on for the day. Surprisingly they only had the flags at half mast and a small vase of flowers outside the statue of liberty. They had no mention of anything inside or anything special going on which I was quite shocked at. We stayed in the NyNy for a while then headed over to the MGM and checked out the lions and the tv studios. We then headed back up to the Paris to see if we could find my parents and found Dad in his usual place on the roulette table and stayed in there a while with Mum and Dad watching him lose all his money!
We ventured up to the Treasure Island to check out a bar that had a band playing. The bar was quality, it was all western themed and they had a bucking bronko. The first women that went on it was totally thrown around and ended up being bent over on it with her ass in the air. The guy controlling the bull then started to shake the thing so that her ass was jiggling everywhere, it had the whole crowd in bulk. Later on a guy and a woman went on it who must have done it in the rodeo. They were getting thrown round in every which way but managed to stay on for ages. The girl done the best out of the two and that seemed to piss the guy off loads. After we left the bar we went to a jungle themed bar where all the bartenders juggle and throw the bottles round but they weren't doing it as they had a band on. Instead we headed over to the Casino Royale and had a bit of a gamble and drink.
On the Sunday night we had a Prince tribute show booked so we are going to have a long day on the beer. We met Mum and Dad in the Paris and made our way down to the MGM for a little gamble. On the way down we past a load of people in fancy dress costumes but there was one in particular that caught his eye. A midget Elvis and a midget Marilyn Monroe! After not too much persuasion he was over there with them getting his photo taken, I always knew he liked the smaller woman! There is a horse racing machine in there that has little plastic horses running round the track so we all had a gamble on that for a laugh. All you had to do was pick a horse to win and one to finish runner up yet none of us won once! We made our way down to Hooters and headed to the there restaurant for tea. Me and Dad watched the American Football game and was quite surprised at how much I got into it. After dinner we all went out to the tables and slots and gambled a bit. Jodie doubled her money and me and Dad won a little bit but Mum lost. We then headed in to the show which was quite good. The only problem was that he kept stopping to hear the crowd singing but it wasn't really working and it kind of ruined Purple Rain, he done some great guitar solo's though. By this point Mum had been knocking the Buds back like there's no tomorrow so was quite out of it and had to be taken home, always one!
Me and Dad are planning on winning a poker tournament today so we meet at Bills at 1. Mum and Jodie are going to go to a Sushi bar in the Miracle Mile shops as Mum has never been to a proper Sushi restaurant. Our tournament didn't start till half 2 but we registered straight away, there were 2 tables with 8 seats each so we were told to pick a card out each with our table and chair number on it. Out of all the seats me and Dad could have chosen we ended up sitting next to each other! As we still had an hour to kill before we started we sat at the bar and had a few drinks beforehand. We got started and after only about 20 mins the first guy got put out which he wasn't too happy about. Then Dad called a hand and had 2 pairs Queen high but the other women got a full house. Then afterwards he called an all in and had, I think, a pair of ace's Queen high. The other guy only had something small like a 7 and a 3 but luckily for him 5, 6, 8 and 9 came out. That was Dad out, lasted 35 mins and came in 15th out of 16! I looked over to the bar and gave him a little wave and got the middle finger back then 20 seconds later I was stood next to him! I had an Ace Jack and an Ace, Queen, and 10 came out on the flop. The guy next to me said something so I knew he didn't have a straight so when he went all in I called. The lucky b****** had an Ace King so beat me with a higher kicker. Think it was a job well done, out of 16 we came 15th and 14th! Mum and Jodie didn't even get to a Sushi restaurant in the end and settled for one out of the corner shop.
That night we all met up in the Imperial Palace and had a quieter night as we were picking up a rental car in the morning. We were sat at our local bar quietly drinking our jugs when an older women came over to Dad, without a second thought she asked him if he was with his wife (who was sat right next to him!). If it was me I would have panicked but Dad said as smooth as you like 'yes I am thanks' like he gets hit on by prostitutes everyday! Later on another woman sat at the bar on her own and just looked around, were still not sure wether she was another prostitute or not but I reckon she was!
Next morning we had to be at the car rental place for 10. We have rented a car for 3 days just to get off the strip for a little while and see a few things that take our fancy. For our first day we headed to Lake Mead to have a look around there. We asked the rental guy where the best beach was and headed in that direction. The drive to Lake Mead has such amazing views, literally 10 mins after you get off the strip then you are in the middle of the desert pratically on you own apart from a few small villages. When you get into Lake Mead national park you have fantastic views of mountains all around you and then the lake in front of you and the first thing we all noticed was the markings on the mountains that showed how much the water level had dropped. We stopped off at a picnic area and had such amazing views of everything around us. We then headed down to the actual Lake and stopped off at one of the marinas. We walked along the pier towards one of the cafes when we noticed that all around the pier was full of massive Cat fishes. I have never seen any Cat fish that were this big never mind that many and they were all sticking there heads out of the water to get some food, crazy. After we had a drink we headed back out but couldn't find anywhere to rent a boat out. We thought that the place would be full of rentals but there didn't seem to be any. We then headed to the beach we got told about but couldn't really find our way to it so left it till later and headed up to see Hoover Dam instead. We were really impressed with Hoover Dam and the new bridge they are building but for some reason I expected it to be a little bigger. We walked pretty much all the way over the dam and went into Arizona on the other side before heading back and seeing all the memorials to the workers who died building it. After we finished here we went to visit a casino we saw just before the dam, had to be the most random placed one ever as it was in the middle of nowhere. It was quite a nice casino, cheap and had quite a good buffet that we went to. They also had slot machines that paid out coins instead of slips so Mum was made up. She got 5 dollars changed to 5 cents and quarters and spent about half an hour putting all the coins in the machines.
We then left and headed back to the Lake Mead beach for a swim. We all expected an actual beach as that's what they were calling it but it wasn't, it was desert terrain and it was sharp on your feet. No one else fancied a swim in the end but how many people can say they have swam in a desert so I ventured in. As soon as I got a little further out my feet started to full on sink. The mud was so sloppy that in about 5 seconds I was sunk up to my ankles and had to fully yank my legs out!. That night we didn't stay out too late or drink too much as we were up early again and Dad was driving the next day so we just went for a bit of a gamble.
We all met up pretty early again and headed to the Red Rock Canyon. The first place we came to was what used to be an Indian reservation. They had a boardwalk all the way around it and had signs up to show you where their house was and where they wrote on the rocks. The views there were ace with mountains surrounding you in every direction and a swamp area that was full of frogs and had rattlesnakes in it. At the car park Dad spent most of the time on his hands and knees trying to chase a chipmunk, and I get told I'm the kid!!
We spent about an hour here looking round then headed to the actual Red Rock national park. The first place you come to is the visitors center and when you go in you are faced with a massive window with a great view of the Red Rocks. The visitor centre is full of facts about how the red rocks became red and all about what kind of animals are in the national park. We then left the visitors center and went round the 13 mile scenic drive. Along the way there are stop off points so you can see the views and have picnics and things. The views all around the place are incredible, all the rocks are different colours due to half of them rusting from the rain. They had signs all around the park telling you what happened to the rocks and that they all look like they do due to earthquakes. The whole place is incredible though, from wherever you are on the scenic drive you are treated to different views each time you stop from the red rocks to seeing the Vegas strip in the background surrounded by desert.
We then headed back towards the Strip but noticed a ranch style village on the way so stopped in there for a look and some food. The place is class, it is fully wild western style with old style wagons and horse riding cowboys. They have dogs, ducks and peacocks wondering around free and a huge pond with turtles and more ducks and swans swimming around. The restaurant we went to was ace, the whole place was wooden and had things like moose heads on the wall and three wooden planks over the bar full of signed 1 dollar bills. The toilets were ace on the outside door they had proper old school granny knickers and bra on the womens toilet and some long johns on the mens. Inside they had old womens lingerie on each of the cubicles and in the mens you had a bath as the urinals. After dinner we went to check out the rest of the ranch and went into the petting zoo. Here they had wolves, lynx's, donkeys and a other animals that I have never seen before.
We then headed back towards the strip and headed to the outlet mall. We had a look round here for a couple of hours, Jodie got a dress and Dad got some jeans and then we went back to the hotel.
Jodie was shattered tonight so she stayed in and I met Mum and Dad and headed to O'Sheas. Me, Mum and Dad sat at the bar and drank as much $1 beer as we could stomach. No idea what beer it was but it tasted like s***e so we couldn't have too much of it! We then made our way over to the roulette tables and had a flutter there before heading to bed at about 1.
The next day we had our car again and decided to go to Mount Charleston and Lee Canyon. We don't really know anything about these places but figures there must be something decent there. The directions we have from the car rental place are useless, they tell us to go on a road that didn't exist so not surprisingly we ended up lost. We finally figured out where we were meant to be and headed over to there. After about an hour and a halfs drive we arrived up Mount Charleston to find that there really wasn't anything up there apart from hiking trails. All the signs everywhere said to make sure you have plenty of water, food and decent footwear and there was us 4 in flip flops, half a bottle of water between us and a packet of mints to last us! All the locals had trucks full of camping and hiking equipment and gave us all some strange looks. We didn't really fancy a hike so went across to the Lee canyon. On the way over there we found a scenic route so we stopped here and had a look at the views over the whole desert. You could see Boulder City, Vegas and just around the corner was apparently Area 51. When we did reach Lee Canyon we found out that it is a ski resort (yeah that's right, a ski resort in the desert!) but the whole thing was closed. I though it would have been open to downhill mountain bikers and bmx's but they just had everything closed. It looked quite good though with a few big slopes so think we will definately have to do it if we return in winter. We headed further up the mountain to see if there was anything else up here but as soon as we went round the corner we were faced with a dead end sign, there was nothing else up there apart from a great view, a drop and an older couple having a cup of tea (how random).
We then headed back down to the strip and went down one of the best roads I have been on. It went straight from the top of the mountain straight down to the freeway with not one corner in it. The views were incredible, it was like driving down into the middle of loads of mountains. Back on the strip we went to check out the Gold Coast, Palms and the Rio as we still had the car. The Gold Coast is a nice cheap casino, probably a place where all the locals go. We were all expecting quite a lot from the Palms as it's where all the celebrities go but it was a complete let down. The place is nothing special at all and I have no idea why it's so famous or held in high regard. After that let down we headed over to the Rio to see what that's like. We were all really impressed with the Rio, it looked like I expected the Palms to be like, only bad thing was that the show in the sky wasn't on till day after we left. We then went back to the strip and returned the car.
Dad wanted a big night out that night as he no longer had to drive and could drink a lot more. We all met up at the Imp bar and had a few pitchers. Jodie was dying for a few drinks so she was really hammering the drinks. We sat at the bar for a while but before we left Jodie wanted to take a shot of something she had never had before...Tequila! The 'shot' was half a glass of it and fair play to Jodie she downed it in one. I think that was the last thing she remembers of the night because it hit her like a brick wall, she was hammered! Me and Dad went on the roulette for a bit while drunken Jodie followed Mum over to the slots. An hour later Mum returned with Jodie still as drunk as ever and it was pretty evident that it was time to escort her to bed. On the way up Jodie wanted to get something to eat before bed. In the burger place she was really wanting an egg mcmuffin and wouldn't accept that they didn't do it. In the end I got her a sausage muffin and she never knew the difference!
The next morning we all enjoyed a lie in after being out early for the previous 3 days. We didn't arrange to do anything until mid afternoon as we pretty much didn't move from the room. We met up at the Imp at around 3 and headed down to Fremont street to spend a night there. The taxi driver took us there via the longest route he could possibly think of, fully done us over! When we got there though we took a walk from one side of it all the way to the over and seen the worlds largest pint, I got all excited until I realised that the building was the biggest pint and they only sold normal ones! We went into a couple of small casinos that gave out beads and raffle tickets to everyone who went in (we only wanted the beads!). Mum was made up that she had found more casinos that paid out in coins. Everyone apart from Jodie lost so the free drinks ended up costing us a tenner each! After we finished in the small casinos we took a walk around the Golden Nugget as it has been done up since Mum and Dad last saw it. We then headed up the Fremont strip and seen a few of the street performers. They had a guy who done paintings with spray cans and was brilliant at it and some other guy who done portraits out of clay who was also very good at it. We then went to a nice restaurant and treated ourselves to a steak and then afterwards went to gamble a bit. I stayed with Dad while he gambled but I decided against it as my numbers were nowhere to be seen. When 8 came we all went outside to watch the light show except for Dad who didn't want to cash out. When we had returned 5 minutes later Dad had over doubled his chips, the jammy man hit every number for 6 spins! We spent the rest of the time in Fremont street having a few bets then going out to the street to watch the light shows. They were all really good except they totally ruined the Queen one, it was all good until they suddenly replaced the British flag with an American one and started showing there troops and saying God bless them. What the hell has a British band got to do with the Yank army?!?
We then headed back to the Strip, Jodie went to bed as she was tired but we all headed to the Casino Royale. We all had a good night and ended up. Mum was even playing roulette at the end of the night. I had quite a few too many drinks on the roulette tables and ended up dropping and knocking my chips all over the place on every spin! We then decided (well I was in no state to decide anything) to head home and apparently I had to be escorted hand in hand by my Mum as I was in no state to walk!
On the Saturday we all met at the Imp at half 1 and headed over to the Mirage to see the Dolphins, me Mum and Dad were going to pay for Jodie as we all won the night before. It was an absolute boiling day, probably the hottest yet so Jodie wasn't really enjoying it too much. In the end she decided that she wasn't going to do the dolphins because of the heat so she went to get some food. The Dolphins were really good, we got to see the trainers feeding them and playing with them. When we were stood there one of the trainers made the dolphin swim sideways and soak us all with his flipper, really didn't mind it though cos of the heat! One of the trainers then went scuba diving in the tank to clean the bottom of it and constantly had a dolphin at his feet biting his flipper! We then went into the secret garden and got to see two 3 month old white tigers playing with their handler which was quite cool. We spent an hour or so sat at the dolphin pool having a couple of beers, me and Jodie only got up at half 1 but where else can you get up and 10 minutes later be watching dolphins? Afterwards we met up with Jodie and headed back to the room.
Me and Jodie are going to a show at the MGM tonight so are going to head out for a steak. We went to Bills, which we thought would be quite cheap but was quite surprised that the steak house was so posh and quite expensive. We both ordered the same steak but when they brought it out they had given Jodie a T-Bone. She then said that this wasn't what she ordered and the waitress got well s***ty and started moaning that this was what she had wrote down. We couldn't give a s*** what she had wrote down as we knew we both ordered the same thing but she was adament that they were right. Finally Jodie did get her steak and it was really nice but they still ended up messing up the bill, leaving out our chips and adding beers on there that weren't ordered, useless!
Afterwards we headed down to NyNy to watch a show called Zumanity and saw Mum and Dad on the way who scared the s*** out of me. We had no idea what the show was about but got a good deal on the tickets and as it was Cirque Du Soleil we thought it must be good. We got into the theatre and saw that the whole thing was kitted out in red velvet and that it was all romantic. we got to our seats and saw that 2 fat ladies in bras and a thong were handind out strawberries while bending over guys and getting there asses right in their faces, it was well funny. When the show started it was all acrobats, gymnastics and people doing dangerous things high up, the only weird thing was that everyone seemed naked. All everyone had on was thongs (men included) and it just seemed like a proper porno, not even a soft core porno! There was one scene that Jodie hated and it involved a ginger girl doing daring things high in the sky on a velvet rope while getting herself off on it. It has to be the most random thing I have seen, a half naked girl doing acrobats 40ft in the air while playing with herself and moaning like she was getting the best seeing to in her life! Jodie liked the show but thought there was too much porn involved but I had no complaints! We headed home after the show as I was getting up early for the Liverpool game.
I actually managed to get up early on Sunday and met Dad at 5 downstairs to head to the only English bar we could find in Vegas (called the Crown and Anchor on Tropicana Ave if anyone wants to watch footy over there). The bar was smart, it was full of Utd and Liverpool fans either just starting off the day with drinking like we were or finishing off the night. The atmosphere was quite smart, all the Scouse b******s starting singing YNWA but they soon shut up. The game was ace, Liverpool were awful and it was quite good to see the Scousers get all excited just to see them shot back down again! After the game I went back to bed while Dad went for a gamble and won a quite a bit so it was a good start to the day! We all met later at the Imp and got the monorail up to the Sahara to have a look around that side of the strip as we hadn't been up there yet. We spent a little while looking around Sahara then headed to the Riveria and had a look round there. There used to be a huge bar that had shows on all the time but they have got rid of it. After the Sahara we headed to the Circus Circus. Above the casino they had 3 trapeze performers catching each other on the trapeze and even doing 3 somersaults and then catching each other while blindfolded, it was really good. We then went into the Adventuredome and had a look at all the rides there, it was full of kids though. We were walking through the dome arcade side and spotted a Manx TT racing bike game, totally random but we had to have a go on it. We then went on one of the games where you have to throw balls into the holes to make your horse run faster, Dad moaned about going on it and then won the damn thing!
That night we all met in the Paris and went to the Monte Carlo pub for a few drinks. They have a load of different beers there and brew there own so it's quite a good place. We stayed in the Monte Carlo all night and gambled at there roulette. I hadn't really been in there before but it is a great place and we had a good laugh there. When we were heading home Mum and Dad took the tram to the Bellagio but Jodie made me cross over and go to a shop so she could get a sushi, women!
On the Monday it was Mum and Dads last day so we met up in the Paris. We then got on the Monorail again and headed down to the MGM. We walked over to the Excalibur and had a little look around as Jodie hadn't been in there yet. We went to the bar in there and got served by the grumpiest man I have met, proper a******! We then walked over to the Luxor and had a look round there. The casino is still crap as it is not Egyptian themed at all but the rest of it is quite cool. The whole upstairs looks like you are in Egypt with all the old school Egyptian writing around. Mum was dying to see the Tutankahum replica of his tomb and death mask but they have taken it all out for some reason. We then jumped on the tram and headed down to Mandalay Bay. We were going to go to the Shark Aquarium but for the price they were charging none of us wanted to go in enough. We walked around Mandalay Bay for a while and saw there beach/pool which looks good, they even have a wave pool! We walked back to the tram and came across a wall with a few statues of just boobs so me and Dad being us had to get a picture with them! We got some strange looks and quite a few laughs off men who probably wanted to do the same but didn't have the balls! We then headed back to the tram and walked past Eddie Izzard and headed to the Excalibur for something to eat and decided to go to a place called d*** . We got sat down and our waiter came up to us to take our orders. The guy was a complete and utter w***er, proper f*****. He shouted at Mum for her drink order then called Dad a dumb ass for asking what beer they had (God forbid he had to do his job!) then started shouting at me to hurry up with my order. I was completely dumb struck, I wasn't quite sure wether to turn round and start shouting back at him or to just get up and smack the gay b******. Dad told him to calm down to which he got a smart assed response, I actually thought he was going to get up and chin him. We told him where to go and said we were going somewhere else and he said that we were in d*** and it was their job to be d*** , who in the right mind would pay to be shouted at by a little b**** of a f*****?? We walked out and he tried to be smart with us again, I don't know how me or Dad didn't just smack him. We ended up going to a fish and chip shop in NyNy which was much better but we all talked about the f***** and got more and more wound up, think it took us all properly by surprise.
That night we headed down to Casino Royale and had a few gambles there. Me and Dad were doing well on the tables until they changed dealers so we went to another table. That table was even worse and Dad lost $100 and I lost $50 without any of us winning a single bet. We then decided to try our luck somewhere else and headed to O'Shea's where we all had a quality laugh and played beer pong. It was Mum and Dad V me and Jodie and it is harder than it looks, Dad was quite good (bet he gets big headed) and they beat us, wasn't too bad though just meant I had more alcohol to drink! We then played a heads up poker game which Dad again won! We then went and played roulette on the tables and I ended up $40 up, not sure how much Dad was up and Mum won quite a bit on the slots. I was pretty wrecked by this point so me and Jodie went up to bed, where I managed to drop a litre bottle of coke on the floor and spilled the entire thing!
The next day was our last in Vegas and Mum and Dad were leaving that afternoon. We met at 11 in the Paris and took a walk over to Bally's to have a look round. We got playing on a Deal or no Deal machine where everyone won about $6 except me who had 1 cents in my box and then lost that on the double or nothing bet, Jodie lost hers too though so I wasn't the only crap one! We then went for one last gamble, me and Dad on the roulette and Mum and Jodie on the slots. Me and Dad done quite well on the tables, I was $70 up and I think Dad was a couple hundred up. Mum won quite a bit again on the slots so the whole week has been quite good for us winning. We stayed at the tables until Mum and Dad had an hour until there flight departed. We went back to the Paris so they could get their luggage and then said our sad goodbyes which wasn't a nice thing, they should have come to Hawaii! Me and Jodie then went up to the pool and packed ourselves before heading out to the Casino Royale for a drink and then to Bills. We didn't really have much luck on the tables so decided to call it a day on them and just settled for a few drinks in Bills and the Imp.
Tomorrow we leave for San Fran and stay a night there before heading to Hawaii the day after. We have had such a good time in Vegas and it was so good seeing Mum and Dad and spending the 2 weeks with them, was sad to see them go. Hopefully though they will be able to get out and visit us at some other point.
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