Las Vegas Living

Hello! Fear not - we haven't forgotten about you! Mom and I are in Las Vegas on vacation, and having ourselves a grand old time.

We flew out here on Thursday - barely surviving the plane trip. Not because the plane was the problem. Because the twentysomethings in the row behind us were flirting up a storm, and talked non-stop for three hours. The girl laughed at everything (EVERYthing) the guy said. And then they played "The Question Game" for about 2 hours. So if you ever wanted to know, her favorite band is Modest Mouse, if he had to be a pizza topping, he'd be a jalepeno, the person she most would have liked to meet is Audrey Hepburn and his is Johnny Depp. I could go on and on, but you get the drift. Mom and I have vowed to never fly without music and headphones again. A crying baby would have been better!

We're staying at the Mirage, and it's a completely amazing hotel. Honestly, we've barely left it yet, although we're venturing out shortly to go see the Bellagio and the Venetian. I taught myself how to play on the slot machines the first night (Mom has a bit of a cold, and had zonked out in the hotel room) and while I wasn't really winning, I was proud of myself for figuring it all out. So Friday I sit Mom down next to me to show her, and gave her $5. Which she promptly turned into $68.25 within the first few plays! Show off! My immediate reaction was, "Cash out!" which she did. I gave her another $20, and I'll be darned if she didn't win on THAT money too. She ended our little 30 min. spree by turning her $25 into $118.50. And I lost. She's very pleased with herself!

We spent time on Friday afternoon checking out the dolphin and tiger habitat here at the hotel, and we're so easy - we had a blast. We played with Flipper and his cousins for quite a while, and then moved on to the white tigers. We got to see some adolescent tigers play and there are two 5 month old babies there right now too. So sweet! The lions weren't in the mood to pose or play for us, but that's okay because they're bad ass lions and they can do what they want. And lastly, there was Grandpa tiger, who's 18 years old and clearly has arthritis. It was kind of sad to see him moving gingerly around. They have a life span of 18-20 years, so he's pretty old.

Tonight we'll be going to see Cher! I'm sure she'll be putting on a heck of a performance for us. We're taking lots of photos, and I'll try to upload some of them to the computer tonight to share.

This is my kind of place - we're sleeping in until 10 or 11 am, and going until 3am, and we're the early to bed folks compared to the rest! Mom says we won't be moving here, though. Drat.