Today started even earlier! Chris was awake at 4am and I only lasted until 5:30! Obviously not a whole lot to do at that time of the morning, so we spent some time learning some of the strategy for a new type of video poker and trying to plan the day.

We hunted through our piles of vouchers for something breakfasty and found a “second item free” for Original Chicken Tenders. Amusingly, their breakfast menu contains no chicken!

We each had a platter, except apparently Chris’ bacon didn’t fit on with the French toast and required a second plate!

After food we headed out to Terribles and then Palms to check out the promos. We were tempted by a gig at Palms tonight but figured we’d probably be asleep before it started! They did have a play 4 buffet promo on though, so we spent a little while on some 50 line Jacks or Better to earn tomorrows breakfast :)

Then it was off for a little shopping. I’d found a place called Little Shop of Magic which claimed to sell board games so we headed there :) It was a nice little place with lots of tables set out which were slowly filling up with people playing Pokemon. We spent about an hour looking over the games, working out which ones we couldn’t get from our local shop, and which ones wouldn’t be too heavy to take home, for those who know us we love gambling games (visit site now) but this time we had to go with these because of the kids.

Eventually we chose two: Food Fight and Legendary. The first is a very silly card game where you have to battle over meals with your food based troops. The second is a deck building game like Dominion but with a Marvel comic book theme, so has Spiderman and Hulk :)

We found a nearby park and a shaded picnic table and sat down to play Food Fight. Despite the breeze trying to steal our cards and the fairly long rules, we did manage to complete a game :) Chris won by using this wonderful card:

We decided not to battle the breeze any longer and headed back to our room to play Legendary. This game has many cards to sort before first play and an awful lot of rules! Plus the box isn’t as awesome as Dominion’s so it doesn’t sort so nicely into it. It also has a rather large board! Only just fit on the little table!

We found the artwork on the cards made it hard to see what anything was at a glance, and playing sideways clearly didn’t help. That said, the theming is good fun, and the way the game fights back is good too :)

After a couple of games it was time to head downstairs for some dinner. Thanks to playing MyVegas on Facebook, we had a free buffet for 2 to redeem and we made the most of it :) Oddly, downstairs in the buffet, the original Egyptian theming remains!

Whereas elsewhere you’d not really know you were inside a pyramid shaped building if you didn’t look up! The food was all tasty and a number of courses were consumed ;)

After dinner we were pretty tired, but managed another game each of Food Fight and Legendary before bed :)

Thanks to time zone confusion, day 2 started early. Since we knew we wanted breakfast at Hash House and that they didn’t open till 7am we had to waste some time reading about the various players club promos for a bit.

Then it was off to the Quad for breakfast. This place is currently undergoing major renovations
So major that we never even saw a casino and missed Hash House entirely the first time! Very bad mess in there at present :( However, HH was wonderful as ever :) Chris used his (expired) Diamond card to skip the line and we ended up in a room we’d never seen before – VIPs only maybe?

Aware that we never manage to finish the food there (portions are HUGE!) I suggested we order a little differently. Rather than a hash each, we shared a hash and a smaller item – a flapjack.

I know what you’re thinking, that’s a pancake ;)

Then again, that’s corn beef – not what a British person would expect ;)

Both very tasty and for the first time ever, we cleared our plates! :) Service was great and friendly too :) Used our first coupon – $10 off a $25+ spend :)

After breakfast we went to do some shopping. We needed some supplies from Walmart (drinks, snacks, etc) and Chris got a haircut (ridiculously long time to make hair short!) Plus a trip to T-Mobile to get SIM cards for our phones. Conveniently, they had just today started selling iPhones! So it was very quick and easy to get us each a 1 month plan with unlimited data – hooray! :)

Then it was back to the room to make the most of the bath with a view whilst we planned more of the holiday :)

Gold Coast had a 7x points promo so after a long soak we headed over there to spend an hour grabbing some points (as points turn into free foods!) and then it was time for dinner :)

Our first proper dinner choice was easy – Hooters! :) Whilst I have been making similar wings ever since our last trip, we were both craving the real thing! :)

20 medium wings and 10 spicy garlic, plus chips and celery :) Amusingly, I’ve been increasing the heat in mine over time, and always add a lot of garlic, so the latter tasted more like what I now make :) Next time we’re going to try hot ones ;)

After dinner we were exhausted! All attempts to concentrate failed so it was a very early night!

On Thursday morning we headed off to Manchester airport after a little last minute packing. Dave kindly gave us a lift and we made it there with plenty of time :) Once settled in the lounge we grabbed some breakfast (at midday this was really lunch #1) and wasted time on the Internet until our flight.

A quick, easy flight down to London and it was time for lunch number two, accompanied by some wine :) Then more Internet before a mad dash to the gate having realised we were late! Arrived to find lots of people hanging around and an announcement that we would be delayed at least an hour :(

So we found a seat nearby so we could hear the announcements. Chris did some more work and I kept myself quiet with some colouring :)

The captain gave a few candid announcements about the problem – there was a dent which hadn’t been spotted and it needed to be checked, either 1 hour or 4 hours or a new plane! Thankfully it was the former and it wasn’t too long before we were onboard and then in the air :)

At this point we were given lunch #3 according to the menu (though even if we’d been on time, it would have been late for lunch!)

A strange cream cheese pans cotta to start which didn’t really taste of anything :( The salady bits were all good though :)

Then some beef with garlic mash. This was followed by a little ice cream :)

The flight was fairly uneventful. We watched some Futurama and then dozed to some music. Woke up just before they turned lights back on and grabbed a little chocolate snack before they served us afternoon tea (tiny sandwiches and tiny cakes!)

So that was 3 lunches and an afternoon tea! It was now 8am UK time and bodies thoroughly confused!

We got out of the airport, grabbed our rental car, and then to the Luxor :) Checked into our pyramid suite :)

We headed down to the food court to grab a burger as it was already too late for a restaurant and we were exhausted, and then slept :)

Having asked my friends what they wanted bringing back from Vegas, this morning was spent shopping for various food items – maple syrup, sugar free maple syrup, twinkies, pop tarts in unusual flavours and Cheetos :)

All this food shopping had made us hungry and the closest place was Del Taco.

We’re not sure why you’re given (extremely salty) chips with a mexican meal, but the rest of it was tasty.

After that we headed over to Gold Coast for their swipe to win offer and each got the lowest point prize, bah.

Then we headed over to the Stratosphere to buy tickets for the evenings show. An uneventful trip except for some walking in circles hunting down the box office, so it took a bit of time. We’d wanted to go ooo at the view too but it was quite expensive and we couldn’t find a 2 for 1 voucher quickly so that’s been added to the list for next trip :)

Oddly, we were hungry again! So we headed back to our hotel for some food. Our Groupon had included $40 food credit which meant we had to eat at one of their restaurants. We chose Johnny Smalls as it offered an interesting sounding tapas menu.

You got to order two plates each from the menu at a time, as many times as you needed to be full :) This meant we got to try lots of things.

Some were things we’d had before like corndogs.

These deep fried green beans were new to us but very tasty! Not sure they still count as a good for you vegetable though!

“Flatbreads” turned out to be pizzas (tasty but kinda filling when we wanted to be trying lots of different foods).

Tasty meatballs :)

Some sliders. This wasn’t the entirety of our food, because I didn’t manage to photograph all of it! But it gives some idea of the selection :) The food was all very tasty and freshly prepared – a buffet cooked to order and brought to your table! A fine way to try different things and eat a little too much :)

After eating we went back to our room for a bit to start sorting out some of the many bags we had. When in Michaels, Chris had bought some fabric paints and neon tape so we could make our suitcases unique. I spent a while making sure mine would be recognised :)

For our evenings entertainment we went to Bite. A show promising topless vampires and rock music. There was good dancing, some impressive acrobatics, a bit of magic, and a flimsy storyline. It was a little odd sharing a booth table with two strangers! But the show was enjoyable and I got a strawberry daiquiri in a Stratosphere shaped glass :)

After the show we refilled my drink and headed over to Hooters for a bit more gambling :) We wanted to get a few more of the freebies :) We didn’t manage a huge amount though as I was rather tired and giggly and the money was vanishing a tad too quickly!

Today was our penultimate hotel switch. Time to check out of the Plaza and leave behind the pretty view of the Stratosphere.

Whilst driving over to our next hotel we went past this and I managed to get a photo. It’s a McDonalds, but it doesn’t quite look like one!

We had a Groupon for our last hotel in Vegas. To stay at the Hard Rock Hotel in their new all suite tower. We used the valet and had a bellman take our bags and then found the check in queue. We finally get to the front to be told that the new tower actually had its own checkin desk we could have used (if only it were signed or we’d psychically known!) but she checked us in anyway. Then we walked over to the tower and grumbled as it has a fancy smancy check in area with comfy seats! Dang!

The suite was very nice. A lounge area with plenty of seating and back to back TVs plonked in the middle of the room to provide separation. The bed was huge and smooshy. The bathroom large with everything you’d expect :)

After we’d settled we decide it was time for some lunch. Being Wednesday and my following of Hooters online meant we had a magic word which could summon up 10 free chicken wings, so we headed over there. After nomming rather more than the free wings, and stealing another pen, we checked out the players club.

For those who aren’t familiar with Vegas, every chain of casinos has their own little club. You get a card which you put into the machine (or hand to a dealer at tables) every time you play and it tracks your play and you get rewards. Most of these clubs have new player offers :) The good ones give you your money back if you lose within 24 hours, and Hooters not only had that, but also cool free prizes for earning a number of points!

So I signed up and we headed over to some video poker machines to see how many points we could earn whilst losing the $100 they would give you back. Only, we didn’t lose! We did rather remarkably well and lost our whole afternoon to playing :) Turns out, I rather like Hooters. Not only do they have awesome chicken wings and pretty waitresses, they play good music :) So we were singing along whilst we played, quite content :)

When we realised it was time to go, we went and collected our loot so far :) Alas, they’d run out of blankets :( But it did mean Chris got a tshirt too, oh, and another voucher for free wings ;)

We had no time for those, it was back to the hotel to get changed before heading out to our dinner reservations. We had a table booked at Origin India to have our only Indian food of the trip :)

The place was very quiet so the waiters were a little hovery whilst we were trying to read the rather long menu! But once we’d ordered it was all relaxed and the food was very tasty :)

Our entertainment for the evening was Criss Angel. I’m not sure how much I should write here as its going to get very ranty! First up because the tickets have an original value marked on them which was half what we paid! Really shouldn’t pre-order Vegas show tickets unless you’re desperate for a specific performance!

We did at least get a free upgrade – the place was rather empty and they didn’t want everyone sitting at the back so we all got moved forward many rows. Then I took a sneaky photo of the stage as it looked pretty cool!

The mechanical rabbits occasionally pulled a human head out of their hat. This was the kind of pretentious nonsense I was expecting. Criss Angel is known for levitating above the Luxor hotel, for walking on water, for doing rather over the top magic. This was also a Cirque show, which should have added to the pretentious nature. Even without watching any of the trailers I was expecting big. Acrobatics, awesome magic, music and entertainment.

I wish I could say I wasn’t disappointed. I really do. But it was terrible!

When he wasn’t shouting at us and complaining we weren’t clapping loud enough, he was showing video clips of the kind of magic we’d been expecting. The only magic he did was disappear himself, or his assistant, and then reappear himself or his assistant. Every time he picked up a piece of fabric you knew what to expect!

He did a piece with some birds, which had a little more of the pretentious theatre I was hoping for, but come on, it was birds! Surely one of the first things magicians learn!

He seemed to be impressed with himself for performing others tricks slightly faster or for using smoke instead of a curtain, but you know what? It’s still someone else’s trick!

There was nothing unique, nothing really wow worthy, and nothing I hadn’t seen done before and better! Even Rick Thomas with his afternoon tiger magic last year had presented these same tricks better, for a family show!

Oh and everyone left going “Wow! That was the best magic I’ve seen!” – then go watch more magic shows! Any one of the other Vegas shows would have shown you those tricks better, and included something unique. Nyargh!

Okay, I know Penn & Teller have spoilt me. Criss did cut a woman in half quite impressively if you didn’t know where to look to know how it was done. No, wait, all he did was stand at the front and shout whilst some freaky rabbits cut the woman in half. *sigh*

Needless to say, I was not impressed. We were both not impressed. We were both ranting rather a lot about how bad the show was and what a waste of our evening and money it was :(

Today started with a little bit of gambling to do a swipe to win offer which got me a fabulous purple swim bag with the Palms logo :) Then some lunch which was supposed to be at a proper Chinese restaurant but their lunch menu confused us so we ended up at Panda Express instead ;)

Our plan for the day had included a whole lot of stuff. Foolishly, we started with the Pinball Museum and therefore lost the day!

It is a great place filled with lots of machines of varying ages. Some of them are disappointingly mean and just drop the ball down the middle without giving you a chance.

The South Park machine on the other hand was a special UK machine with skill bumpers which meant in theory you shouldn’t lose the ball!

There was a second set of buttons next to the flipper buttons which popped up bumpers to block the holes the ball usually escapes down. It meant that the game had a nice learning curve and you felt much more in control. It had great sound effects (mmm kay!) and kept us entertained for a very long time. Our $1 for 2 players lasted well over an hour!!

So by the time we left there it was rather too late for all the other things we’d planned and we decided it was about time for dinner.

Trip Advisor gave us this evenings choice. If you look for the top restaurants in Vegas the first is seafood (which I don’t eat), the second is basically just a bar with a great view, and the third is where we went :) “Off the Strip – Just Real Food” is rather a long but descriptive name.

We started with the wings which were tasty :) Very different to the wings we’ve been enjoying at Hooters but yummy nonetheless.

All main courses get served with a salad, so we nommed that down with rather a lot of the fresh bread they kept bringing us!

Then the main courses and a realisation that we shouldn’t have eaten all the bread! There was way too much food. Very tasty and we ate rather too much!

When we’d arrived we were asked if it was our first time. Trip Advisor reviews had mentioned that first timers were given a free piece of their homemade cheesecake. It magically arrived and amazingly got eaten despite our full bellies!

Today was a better day :) We started with a bit of a drive to go and find Popcorn Girl. Thanks to “Kid in a candy Store” on Food network we had seen this place with their many, many flavours of popcorn made fresh on site and just had to go try :)

They’re very friendly and want to give samples of the flavours so you can try to decide between them all. Every flavour we tried was delicious! They make some crazy bright candy flavoured popcorn :)

Eventually we decided on these three – hot wings, Parmesan & garlic and white chocolate peppermint.

Luckily they warned us about not leaving chocolate popcorn in the car so we just got a little bag :)

It was about lunch time so we headed over to Sweet Tomatoes for some vegetables :)

Once our tummies were full we decided to go for a bit of a shop. We went to Luxor so I could buy a couple of tshirts, and to the sock shop in Mandalay Bay, and other random things. Finishing up with this…

There’s an apple underneath all that chocolate which makes it a healthy choice, right? ;)

Continuing the shopping we headed over to the zombie apocalypse store but despite having a fab leaflet and outside we didn’t buy anything. I didn’t think we’d get home with any of the weaponry ;)

Then we went to watch Sirens of TI stopping at Señor Frog for a frozen drink in a palm tree glass :) The show almost got called off because it was very windy, but they managed and it was rather fun :) There’s a good array of free shows in Vegas :)

After that we headed to the drive in to watch Snow White, stopping off at Dominos to grab a buffalo chicken pizza which was scrumptious!

The drive in shows double features, but despite it being very windy out we couldn’t keep the car cool with the engine off :( So we didn’t stay for the second show instead opting to go back to our hotel to set up our diddy projector.

We made our own private cinema and watched some TV whilst munching some of our tasty popcorn :)

Today wasn’t a great day. We had a slow start. We couldn’t decide where to go or what to do, or even where to eat breakfast. It was soon coming up to lunch time and we decided to try out the Underworld Bar & Grill which we had a voucher for. Once we finally found the place, we discovered they only serve dinner, d’oh! So time for a rethink and off we went to Palms to have Mexican there, but they had a silly Sunday brunch buffet and we didn’t want a buffet. So we had to try and come up with another plan. Finally we ended up in TGI Friday’s and had some food.

Then some playing with my macro lens – any ideas what this is?

Whilst hunting for Underworld, we had found a Michael’s so we went for a wander round there as Chris had never been in one. Amusingly, despite being a craft store and therefore more my thing, I didn’t buy anything and yet Chris did ;)

Then we went over to Walmart for some supplies. We’d run out of water and coke and snacks! We had a very slow wander round, getting distracted by the board games section, and clothes, but eventually we had everything we needed (and more!) and joined a queue. The wrong queue. Oh my word, it took forever! The lady at the front had coupons. Only, not Walmart coupons. Adverts in various papers for other stores offers which Walmart foolishly guarantee they’ll match! So it took forever! The lady behind her wanted to use the same coupons. The poor checkout lady was so fed up she wanted her break and tried to tell us to go away, but we’d been standing through all this frustration too and weren’t joining another queue at this point. So we went through too, and finally escaped!

To improve the day, we went to Hooters :D I have been following them on Facebook since last year. I even won one of their random competitions and got a cool sticker and keyring through the post! :) We have been waiting to try their wings for a while, and finally we tried them!

They were GOOOOOOOOD! :D Oh so very tasty! :) They certainly lived up to the anticipation. Hot but not too spicy, and so very flavoursome :) We nommed through all of these mighty quickly :) I suspect we may go back again soon ;)

Unfortunately, it was extremely cold in their restaurant and I was freezing! So we didn’t stay for dessert. Instead we headed over to Luv It Frozen Custard for our desert :) A small window in a wall which serves fresh frozen custard :) Most tasty :)

We had a fairly slow start to the morning whilst we packed up everything and eventually checked out of our hotel to head back to Vegas. There were a few things to do on the way, the first being in rather the opposite direction :) We had a massage class booked (to learn how to massage, not to receive one) in Beverly Hills. So more fighting with the traffic and then hunting for some lunch led us to Taco Bell. I love their array of sauces and the tasty foods :)

Taco Bell is one of those places I just have to visit every time we come to the US :) I love the idea of Mexican fast food and it’s always so tasty :)

We had some time to waste before the class, and were still a little peckish, so we went hunting for donuts. Only, the closest place didn’t sell donuts, nope, it sold fonuts…

These are baked, not fried! I’d like to say healthier, but given the fillings and toppings I’m not so sure ;) I had a salted caramel followed by a caramel apple which had chunks of apple in the donut – yum! :)

No photos from the massage class I’m afraid. It was run by Berora and it was a very nice way to spend a couple of hours. The girls get to learn first, and then the process repeated by the guys. You work only on your partner so no need to worry about strangers hands in strange places!

Now that we were all relaxed, it was time to start the long drive. Not a very exciting drive, although we did stop in Baker to buy some Alien Fresh Jerky :) Resisted the temptation to buy this:

Once we finally got to Vegas we checked into the Plaza. This hotel is downtown, not on the strip. We do have a rather nice view of the Stratosphere though :) We’re also above the Greyhound bus station!

We finished the day with a trip to Tony Roma’s which was a little disappointing as despite checking the menu earlier online, it had changed, and the starter I wanted no longer existed :( Still, we had good food, tasty ribs, and left satisfied :)

We had a fairly slow morning whilst we caught up on some computer based activities. Breakfast was a challenge as we had no forks for our cheesecake :( Chris went on a mission for coke and a spoon/fork but couldn’t find one, so I hacked up a plastic cup into something kind of usable…

We eventually headed down to Long Beach stopping by In and Out burger for some lunch.

They may not have the most inspiring menu (burger, cheeseburger, double cheeseburger) but the food is good! :)

Once we’d eaten that we headed down to the docks to find the hydro bikes. We’d booked it with Groupon some time ago as it seemed suitably random and has good reviews. Basically, it’s a bicycle held between two canoes, and you pedal to propel yourself. Cycling on water!

It was good fun although rather tiring! The little canal around Treasure Island was much easier pedalling than out in the water with other boats where there were more waves to contend with.

The bikes are nice and stable and have a cubby hole for keeping things dry. I ended up with a wet foot from catching waves whilst pedalling but Chris didn’t seem to have that problem. We were glad it was quite a cool day as it would have been much harder work in heat!

After hydro biking we went on a bit of a donut hunt. The closest place according to Google maps was closed :( So we decided to try a Yum Yum Donuts which we’d seen a few of in our travels. They cook the donuts fresh on site (now a requirement of our donuts!) and were very tasty :)

After a quick change it was time to head out again and up to Beverly Hills for our annual trip to the Stinking Rose :) This restaurant is known for garlic and lots of it! I’m not quite sure why the new vampire themed cocktail and steak menu – surely they’d repell vampires?!

One tasty cocktail ordered, and then time for some garlic! We started with the Bagna Calda which is soft stewed garlic cloves to smoosh onto their freshly baked garlicy bread, with some raw garlic on top if you want ;)

We were seated down “Garlic Lovers Lane” which is a series of little tents! A little odd but nicely intimate :)

For a main course, I had ribs and Chris had a steak. All with plenty of garlic! It was, as always, very tasty and much enjoyed :)

Amazingly, we squeezed in a little chocolatey dessert. No garlic for this course (though they do a garlic ice cream for those so inclined!)

After a fairly early dinner we fought through the traffic back to our hotel to watch some TV whilst I made a new inside for Chris’ iPhone case to stop him complaining about it falling apart ;)