Let's Go to Vegas

So I'm back with my favourite genre of music today as I pick Faith Hill's Let's go to Vegas to represent this post about our third day in Vegas.

I hope this is not getting too repetitive for you my readers, but as with days one and two of our stay in Vegas today we also visited some of the hotels in the town.

The day started at 5.15, a real-lie in for me, the latest I have been up all holiday. The sun was shining brightly and the temperature was rising, while only in the 80s at 5.30 it was soon to go up to the 100s.

Drew woke up at 6.40 and I went downstairs to get Coffee for us both. It is interesting to see that there are still people at the slot machines even at this time of the morning, some clearly still going from a late night the night before, the others just up and hoping their luck is brighter with the morning.

A conversation I overheard while waiting for Coffee made it clear that our approach to Vegas is different to others. A lady spoke to her friend and said: "Would you get me a coffee, I need one to keep me going as I can't order a cocktail until 8am and I had the last two at 4am, so I am starting to miss the buzz." In an attempt to be non-judgemental I'll just leave it there, but I am reminded of a friend of mine from many years ago who was afflicted with addiction saying to me: "I don't know if I'm addicted to alcohol and use gambling as a way to get more alcohol out of hours, or if I'm addicted to gambling and use the alcohol to make that more acceptable." His conclusion was he was addicted to both.

We did what has become our tradition here and left the room at 8.30, today instead of going up the Strip we went down. It being so hot we nipped into the New York New York as an air-conditioned way to get to our next set of venues. An above road walkway leads from New York New York into Excalibur, an hotel with an Arthurian theme. From Excalibur we walked through to the Egyptian splendour of the Luxor and from there on to the Hawaiian themed Mandalay Bay. In a comment yesterday one of my colleagues, Lloyd, called Las Vegas, Disneyland for Adults, and while I think Disneyland and DisneyWorld can be for Adults (having visited the former on my 50th birthday and planning to visit the latter for Drew's 40th) I see what he means, the unreality, or hyper-reality of walking from Olde England, to Pharaonic Egypt and on to Hawaii in a few hours is like a theme park.

We stopped at a restaurant called Citizens in Mandalay Bay for breakfast at 9.45. Drew chose a 'build your own omelette' with tomatoes, onions and jalapeños to complement the eggs. I opted for the California Omelette which was composed of the eggs with sour cream, guacamole, pico de gallo and American cheese. They were both fluffy omelettes which were full of flavour. Drew had an English Muffin with his and I had sourdough toast.

From the Mandalay Bay we caught the tram back up to the Excalibur and crossed over on the above street walkway to the Tropicana.  The Tropicana is one of the oldest hotels still in operation in Vegas, but has been recently updated and has a pleasant airy feel. 

We sat for a while in air-conditioned comfort then we split up with Drew heading down to take a photo of the Welcome to Las Vegas sign while I headed over to the Shrine of the Holy Redeemer. From the back of the Tropicana Conference Centre this was a 200 yard walk, so I arrived at the Church a lot less hot and sticky than the day before. I got there at 11.40 and noticed that a priest was hearing confession so took the opportunity to seek forgiveness for my sins and prepare myself to go back to life at home and work.

I prayed after confession until Mass began at 12.10. Mass was celebrated by an African priest with a Nigerian accent, again the Church had over a 100 people present for a weekday Mass. The priest focussed on the psalm of the day (Psalm 89) and the words: "Make us know the shortness of our life that we may gain wisdom of heart." I am reminded why being here in the presence of the Lord, open to the foreverness of a relationship with him gives sense to the shortness of days that makes up a human life.

I walked back from Mass via the Tropicana Car Park and through the MGM Grand, which is a well-known venue for boxing and other sports. From the MGM Grand it is across a walkway to New York, New York and back to the Monte Carlo at 1.45, Drew had arrived back just before me and had obviously spent more time out in the heat than I had as he was quite 'moist'.

A brief siesta and I was up writing yesterday's blog post. At 7 we went out again and I was reminded of the part of Vegas that I've missed on the holiday to-date, the drunken morass of people acting in crazy ways. I guess it is because we have been going out between 8.30 and 1.30 when Vegas is quite and where the streets are clean and free of vomit and spilt drink. The cleaners are out from 6am making the streets, walkways and escalators/elevators presentable, but at 7pm in the evening (and I suspect later, but haven't been tempted to try) crowds of drunken people, young and not so young are milling around the streets with plastic drinks containers.

We were only going across the road for a visit to the Coke Cola store and then the M&M store, amazing what merchandise each of them have - though while we enjoyed looking around we came out of both without buying anything.

We had decided our last night in the US should see us eating Mexican food again and we liked the look of the restaurant at the front of the Monte Carlo called, Diablo's Cantina. The restaurant played loud music and the waiting staff were dressed with as little as was decent on, but the food was excellent.


For appetisers Drew opted for a Tortilla Soup, a dish he had tried in Santa Fe. He thought this one was spicier and had more meat in it than the first version he'd tried. I opted for my favourite chicken wings, these were the Diablo Hot XXX wings, but they really weren't that hot, still with the blue cheese dip they were meaty and tasty.

For mains Drew went for the Jalapeno Chicken Tacos which had a nice kick to them. I had a Pulled Chicken Burito with red chilli sauce which was also tasty. Both were served with sour cream, guacamole, pico de gallo, refried beans and rice. It felt like a fitting culinary end to the holiday.

We stopped at Sambalatte's for a coffee and I had the first cup of coffee in a real china cup in the holiday. As Drew put it: "Three weeks I have had you trying to find coffee from a mug not a polystyrene cup, so I'm glad you managed it before you went home!"   

We went back to the room by 10 and to bed soon after.