Thursday, August 31st, 2006

Being that we woke up very hungry, but not really being aware of what was in our near surroundings we decided to hit the Breakfast Buffet @ the Bay Side Buffet located on the Casino Level. While we both aren’t huge buffet fans, the buffet did have a good amount of breakfast items and even some lunch items to choose from. Both our bellies were full and we were ready to head out into the heat!

Excited to be in Vegas we decided to spend our first day doing some of the strip. We took a taxi (yes, another $20) to the Stratosphere which is located at the opposite end of the strip from Mandalay Bay, over 4 miles away!

We noticed the difference immediately in the Stratosphere compared to the Mandalay Bay. The Stratosphere is very old looking, including the shops. This part reminded us of a very old mall with very poorly decided on shops. All we were trying to locate was the elevators to access the top of the Stratosphere 1100 feet up!!! No offense, we didn’t really care about the bad shops, and stands that we had to walk through. After finding and purchasing tickets and getting our picture taken, we waited in line to go to the indoor viewing area. Wow, what a view…

Besides the fabulous view of Vegas, some people, not many, take the chance to experience something a little more adventurous while 1100 feet in the air – RIDES, which dangle over the edge of the 1100 foot obstruction – yeah some people are just a little more gutsy than us!

Being that we are in Vegas and want to experience the strip, we decided to walk it in the 105 degree weather the 4 miles that we taxied earlier. Crazy, I know, but really a lot of fun. We got to experience a lot of the casinos starting with Circus Circus, where Josh got to play his all time favorite game Ms. PacMan!

We continued our journey hitting The Stardust and Frontier. One of the neat things they have added to the strip are malls and food courts! These are centralized more in the middle of all the casinos and not out towards Mandalay Bay. We took a pit stop at one and Josh managed to down a lemonade in a matter of seconds, must have been thirsty! Continuing onward we walked through The Mirage which we both found to be very very pretty, and on a return trip may stay there. We walked through the Mall at Caesars and had snackies at Planet Hollywood, where we were entertained by the bartenders and waitstaff. Josh ordered a Miller Lite and the bartender continued to pick on him about how he was drinking “water”. It was a fun time! At this point we decided to see if we could locate the Monorail that runs the 4plus miles from MGM to The Sahara, with a few stops in between. Walking through Harrahs we located the Monorail and purchased a pass ($15 rather than the $20 taxi ride) exiting the Monorail at MGM, which is located 2 casinos away from The Mandalay Bay, woohoo!

That evening we had tickets for The Blue Man Group @ 7:30pm with dinner following. The first 1/2 of our evening was very entertaining and a lot of fun! Those Blue Men really keep you guessing and laughing the entire time. The show flew by and thank goodness for recycling ;-)! We both highly recommend this show to anyone who wants to have an evening of unexpected entertainment! After the show we had made reservations at a sushi restaurant located within Treasure Island (TI). We made our way across the street to TI located The Social House and were expecting a fabulous time… wrong…Our dinner experience started by sitting 15 minutes at our table listening to the 3 young naive girls at the table next to us being wined and wined and wined by the 2 45 year old men they were with…. all we can say is naive! While we are waiting we were wondering if we had become invisible for no one was even looking in our direction, we hadn’t even received a menu or water!!! Finally, the first of our supposed three waitstaff came up to our table and asked us what we would like to drink. Megan knew she wanted a glass of wine, but unsure of what, the wine list was going to be brought to the table. Once the wine list was delivered, Megan scanned the page and still wasn’t set on one certain wine, letting #1 know of this, he takes Josh’s’ drink order and walks off…. doesn’t even suggest a wine to Megan!! Within the next 5 minutes, our second waiter, who became known as “The Kneeler” came up to our table and made us aware that we would be taken care of this evening by a wait staff of 3…. so it took the first guy 15 minutes to even get us water, boy what are we in for!!! “The Kneeler”, in his kneeled position continues to whisper to us about the restaurant, the menu, and what he would suggest we order. Megan sees Josh’s body angle towards “The Kneeler” trying to hear and comprehend what he was telling us. In the end all we could get out of it was…. Tuna, tuna, tuna, open your pallet, sushi, and how family style is recommended…. from this we really got nothing other than Family Style! With not really seeing any sushi rolls that looked interesting to us, we fore-go the rolls and go for the sashimi along with a dish of Chicken Teriyaki to share. With no sign of our third wait party, and our experience this point “ify” we were wondering if maybe we should have foregone this before we placed our order. Within maybe 15 minutes our food arrives and boy are we shocked…. we are brought a sashimi platter accompanied by a Chicken Teriyaki which while great taste wise, was the size of a Weight Watchers meal! It was very disappointing considering we were both under the assumption that Family Style was the way to go. At this point all we wanted was our check, while waiting, #3 shows his face, he is cleaning the table next to ours and asks us how our evening is and if we needed anything further this evening, fills our water glasses and in both our eyes did a much better job than our first two waiters did. Cuddos to you #3!!!

Leaving TI, we are both in need of a pretty strong drink, after dealing with the Social House Gang. Las Vegas has many drink stands running along the strip, mostly Daiquiri’s & Margaritas, frozen of course! We purchase a Margarita each and begin walking up the strip toward Mandalay Bay. One of the annoying things we found to be are the Solicitors for the casinos who have stands outside of their casinos. Their jobs are to suck people in and get them to spend money in turn they will give you “free” dinners, show tickets etc. We are lucky enough to get stopped by the guy outside TI who’s first question is, “How Long you in town for?” – we lie (sssshhhh) and say we are flying out tomorrow, meaning Friday. This way he can’t get us for anything, we are leaving!!!! He continues to try and get us a free dinner at TI, Josh tells him we just ate at the Social House, which is located in TI, and he responds well what about a restaurant in the TI… we just look at him and at the other lady with him… obviously he needs a hearing aide, or he needs to learn his casino/hotel/restaurants before he steps foot in that position.

By the time we made it back to our hotel room, we were hungry, remember our dinner was small! We end up ordering room service which really wasn’t all that bad. Grilled cheese & fries, soda, and a piece of chocolate cake which wasn’t $11!!!

Good Night!