We're in Chicago right now. Chi-Town. The Windy City. Chicagoland. The Queen of the West. Hog Butcher to the World. And many other things according to this Wikipedia article. We're up in our hotel which offers free internets and The Dark Knight is on TV, so now seems like a good time to catch up our ever-growing readership on our last couple of days.
Friday was fun. I got up early to grab breakfast while Zarah slept in. I stuck around the roulette table afterwards ($5 minimum! Whoo!) and made myself some money before heading back upstairs. The fact that I no longer have that money might suggest to some of you that I am not as good a roulette player as I think I am. I think it means that I just needed more time to fight the Long War.
Anyway, with Zarah now awake and me flush with energy and optimism, we got in a taxi and headed to the Gun Store, Las Vegas' most advertised shooting range. After all, what's more American than shooting a military-issue firearm just because? Once there, the guy behind the counter asked where we were from. Australia, we replied. "Ah, my allies!" he exclaimed.
Anyway, we each fired a bunch of different guns. I got the "Gun Store Package" - an AK-47 rifle, an MP-5 submachine gun and a shotgun, with a pistol added. Zarah got the "Ladies' Package" - a pink AR-15 and a handgun. We fired them, had a bunch of fun, posed for silly pictures and then headed back, both of us glad that you can't get your hands on that kind of firepower back home.
We grabbed lunch back at Treasure Island, discovering the joys of a Las Vegas buffet. Pasta stations! Regional BBQ! So many different dishes and foods and other things!
That pretty much killed off the afternoon, but by the evening we were ready to go again. We started with drinks and a light dinner at TI's Isla Tequila Bar, before heading down the Strip to check out some other casinos.
First we visited New York New York, checking out its Times Square replica and riding the roller coaster that circles the building. Well, I did. Zarah stayed on solid ground.
We also stopped in at MGM Grand before heading back to Treasure Island. There we visited its vaunted Christan Audigier nightclub which was, truth be told, pretty lame. And that's about it for that day.
We had a slow start to Saturday. We stayed in bed until what we thought was lunch time before heading down to meet our new best friend - the TI buffet. But it turned out they were doing champagne brunch, which meant they were serving both breakfast and lunch foods. Yay!
Again, the buffet wiped out any afternoon plans we might have had. We stayed up in the room, digesting brunch and absorbing a Law & Order: Special Victims Unit marathon on TV.
By evening we summoned up the energy to venture outside again. We headed back to MGM Grand to check out their lion enclosure (the lions had gone to bed before we saw them the previous night).
Then we grabbed dinner from a pizza place in New York New York's Times Square before walking to the Bellagio and watching the fountain show (a short video of which we have posted below).
We even went inside, past an array of very expensive shops, and did a little gambling, cut short only by the fact that we lost our initial bets pretty quickly. So we left the lap of luxury and headed across the street to Paris Las Vegas to go up their fake Eiffel Tower. The view from the top was pretty amazing, if a little overpriced.
From there, we walked back to the Venetian with the aim of going on its fake gondola ride. Instead we settled for walking the banks of its fake canal and strolling through its fake St Mark's Square.
And when we got back to our room, SVU was still on.
Which brings us to today. We checked out, got on a plane and arrived in Chicago. We're staying at the Hotel Cass/Holiday Inn Express. The room is tiny, but with new furniture and decor. Plus the shuttle driver was complaining about how expensive the place was. We got it for almost nothing on Hotwire.
So now we're sitting in the room planning our days here. It should be good.
No comments:
Post a Comment