Nataliya and Seth's Las Vegas Vacation

Nataliya and I woke up early and we tried calling Ty and Jen's room but they didn't answer. I tried his cell phone and left him a message on there that we were going out and for him to call when he was ready to meet up. I thought about knocking on their hotel room door but decided that since they didn't answer the phones, they probably didn't want to be disturbed.

Nataliya and I decided to drive around. We went to pick up something at the local Walgreen's. (Get your mind out of the gutter! She needed conditioner for her hair! You know, if we have to explain every little detail, this log book will get much longer than it already is... sheesh!) ANYWAY... once done, we decided to try shopping at the Forum Shops at Caesars. However, they were closed so our options were limited to gambling and gambling... so I gambled (and lost).

At 9:00 AM, Ty returned my phone call telling us that he is waiting for us downstairs at our hotel. He was insisting that we told him that we would meet up at 9 AM. I told him I didn't remember us saying this but that we could meet up for breakfast because we were waiting to hear from him. At this point, he felt slighted and decided not to meet up at this time. I said there might have been some miscommunication and the day was still young. He still did not want to meet up, so we decided to go our own ways.

By 9:05 AM, we went to do the Palatium Buffet at Caesars which was very good. Nataliya had a taste of breakfast before digging into the desserts while I opted for one of everything, from omlettes to prime rib. I even tried cereal of my own making with M&Ms and milk, but it was a bit too much sugar.

After breakfast, we walked through the Caesars' Forum Shops. We decided to check out the IMAX 3D ride, "Race For Atlantis". It was entertaining and Nataliya got a kick out of it since it was her first experience on a ride of this sort.

After the ride we stayed to watch some sort of animatronics display exhibit. The storyline was that the king of Atlantis is trying to see which of his two children would be the right person to rule Atlantis. After some nasty competitive displays by the two teenage children, the king decided that neither of them were worthy. So one of the Gods was pissed and destroyed Altantis, sending it into the ocean depths. It was the sort of show that looks like it was intended for children but would end up scaring them half to death...

From there we headed to Mandalay Bay - Since it was still early, nothing was really open, but we still looked around. It's a really beautiful hotel, and some of the artwork was pretty good as well! Take, for example, this particular wall exhibit which I found very interesting. I'm just not sure it's something to share with the entire family...

We headed over to Luxor to look around and there really wasn't much to look at. Okay, so it looks like an Egyptian city in the middle with the giant building structures and phony hieroglyphics, but it wasn't very exciting. (Incidently, last time I was in Vegas, I had the buffet at the Luxor with a group of friends. In about a half hour, we were ALL rushing to the bathroom!) The only think of interest was to go for a ride on the inclinators - elevators that run on a 39 degree angle instead of the usual vertical. (Last time I was in Vegas, I walked right past security like I was a guest and I was able to rude up.) The security guard said that a room key was required, so we didn't get to ride. (This place is one disappointment after another!) We actually looked around for a room key someone might have dropped, but after a few minutes of this, we left to go back to our hotel room. This is probably the only hotel in Vegas that I went to where I did not lose any money - primarily because I ended up not even bothering to gamble.

After a short rest, we headed back out to the strip. We had bought tickets to see Dana Carvey that night and I thought I'd pick them up at Paris Las Vegas. Afterwards, Nataliya and I walked across the street to the Bellagio Fountains at The Bellagio to watch the water spray to and fro - to the noise of Celine Dion's Titanic song. The louder Celine squealed, the higher the fountains rose up to a height of about 85 feet! However, after waiting twenty minutes for the show to begin, just when the show just started is when Jen called Nataliya asking about dinner. After deciding to meet up for dinner in 45 minutes, Nataliya watched the remainder of the show which was about 20 seconds remaining.

The agreed upon cuisine was Indian food and after we went back to the car, it took us 35 minutes to drive near the restaurant and another 15 to actually find the place! The restaurant was "India Palace" and it was a very good meal. However, after our breakfast ten hours prior, Nataliya and I were only starting to get hungry so we didn't overeat. Nataliya didn't even have a single dessert, either!

From there we headed back to see Dana Carvey perform at "Le Theatre Des Arts", a 1,200-seat theater in Paris Las Vegas. I enjoyed the show, and there were a lot of fans in the audience who shouted out for him to do certain routines which he obliged. He did spend some time throughout the show making fun of a few select individuals in the crowd, but it was all in good fun. Ty enjoyed the show a lot, and Jen was in tears at his stand-up. For the first half of the show, Nataliya wasn't very impressed - she was napping, despite my best attempts to wake her!

We then headed down to Fremont Street to view the Fremont Street Experience light display. On my last trip to Vegas, I was pretty impressed with two of the shows I'd seen. This time, the one show we saw was really not all that impressive. Nataliya was too cold to really enjoy anything except going some place indoors. (The temperature had dropped a bit from the daytime temps and we were all a bit chilly.) We all did a little more gambling and while Ty and Jen's lucky streak continued, I (yet again) lost a bit more money in the process... just doing my part to help the economy, I guess... My unlucky streak had to end eventually... right? *crossing fingers*