Las Vegas, Nevada  August 5, 2007

This is my third trip to Las Vegas. We love Las Vegas! We are not big gamblers and there is still plenty to see and do in the Las Vegas area. 

We stayed at the Polo Towers on the strip across from the Monte Carlo. This is a Time Share that my friends own. There are so many beautiful hotels in Las Vegas it is hard to say which is my favorite. I would recommend that you stay at a different hotel each time you visit Las Vegas. My first two visits to Vegas we went and toured all of the different resort. The décor of the resorts on the strip is amazing. It is definitely worth the time to go and see the different resorts. Our first trip was during December and the decorations for the holiday season were impressive.

We arrived in Vegas late Sunday night around midnight. We rent a car each time we come to Vegas. I would suggest you rent a car so that you can see the sights around the Vegas area. It is really not that difficult to get around Vegas. The city is well design for ease of getting around. If there is a lot of traffic on the main strip; which there normally is, I would recommend that you go about two blocks off the strip and drive the road that is parallel to the strip; Koval Lane.  I would suggest that you valet park at each of the resorts; it is well worth the $2.00 tip. 

Since we got in late, most of the group slept in. We decided to go to Circus Circus to Slots A Lot and get a foot long hotdog for lunch. Now this is probably the cheapest lunch you will have in Vegas.  My husband and I each got a hotdog with chili and cheese for a total of $7.00. My husband had heard about this place on the Travel Channel. They were very good and I would recommend if you like hotdogs to go and try them. We played a few of the slots while we were there. They have the older type slot machines that still give you actual coins when you cash out. 

After lunch we decided to take a ride out to the Hoover Dam. We first visited Hoover Dam on our first visit three years ago. It is truly worth paying for the tour of the dam and learning the history behind the dam. It is about a 45 minute drive to the dam from Vegas. They are building a suspension bridge across the dam. It was amazing to see the process on the bridge.   

We returned back to our hotel and decided to walk to the La Salsa Cantina Restaurant. It is between the Polo Towers and MGM Grand. In the past this has been one of our favorite eateries. We love Mexican food and they have really good margaritas. Unfortunately, the air conditioner was out. We braved the conditions and ate there anyway. The service and food was not as good as before; but it could have been everything was off due to it being so hot. 

We had tickets to the Amazing Jonathan comedy show that evening. The show is at the Sahara and starts at 10:00pm. It is for adults or children age 12 and older accompanied by an adult. The language is why it is rated for adults.    Everyone enjoyed the show.   The show was funny and entertaining.

On Tuesday, we had planned a trip to Laughlin. It is about a 1 ½ drive from the strip. The casinos are on the Colorado River. We stopped at Harrah’s and had lunch at the Beach Cafe. It was reasonably priced. We took a stroll out to the beach. They have a water taxi for $4.00 that will take you to the different hotels along the river. They do also offer a boat ride to the London Bridge for around $52.00 per adult. We did a little window shopping in the shops and headed back to Vegas around sunset. It was beautiful to see the sun setting on the mountains. Since I live in Louisiana below sea level; the highest point in Louisiana is the levee about 10 miles from my house, I am totally fascinated by the sight of mountains. 

We got back to our resort and decided we would walk over to Planet Hollywood. It was the Aladdin the last time I was here. They have built a mall around the casino. There are a lot of premium stores in there. We ate at one of the little Italian eateries in the mall. 

We had planned to go to Mt. Charleston today but when we awoke it was raining. Now that is an unusual sight in Las Vegas. We decided to go back to Planet Hollywood to the Mall area. There is a store in the mall called the Photo Magic. You pick out a song and sing along with it and they give you a cartoon body that is dancing to the beat. It is a show stopper in the mall. A crowd always appears when people get up there and start singing along to their favorite songs. It cost $25.00 per song and additional DVDs can be purchased for $9.95. We did three songs. If you don’t want to purchase the DVD you do not have to. We did some shopping at some of the stores with sales and then headed over to P.F. Changs for lunch. We signed up for a player’s card since they were having free pulls daily for a million dollars and there was a slot tournament you could participate in for many different prizes. The prices were based on your points on the slot machine after 5 minutes. We played a few slots and headed over to the Bellagio. We had show tickets for “O” at 7:30 pm. If you are interested in seeing the Cirque Du Soleil shows you should definitely purchase your tickets in advance. It is not necessary to buy the most expensive tickets to have a good seat in the arena. In fact the cheaper seats in my opinion have a better view of the stage. There are normally several things going on at one time on the stages of these shows and being further back from the front of the state is your best view.   We saw Mystery last year and La Nouba in Orlando the year before. These shows are worth going to see. It is amazing the stunts and the athletic ability of the performers in these shows. Each one has a different theme. There are three more in Vegas that I have not seen: Love, KA, and Zumanity. I suppose I see at least 3 more visits to this city of non-stop entertainment.

There are some discount ticket outlets on the strip for show tickets, but the most popular ones are not available at these retail outlets. One of these discount show tickets outlets is located in the courtyard in front of the Polo Towers. It is hit or missed on these places; so if you really want to see something definitely buy your tickets in advance.

Thursday morning was clear and we decided to head up to Mt. Charleston. It is about a 45 minute drive. You take 95 north to highway 157, turn left and drive to the end. There is a restaurant on the top of the hill with beautiful scenery and plenty of humming birds feeding on the outside feeders. I had a hamburger and it was good. One of my friends had the chili and he said it was not that good and was missing some seasoning. All in all it is well worth the drive. You leave the strip and it is around 100 and when you arrive at the mountain top it is in the 60’s. Very quiet and peaceful; quite a contrast to the strip. You can snow ski up here in the winter. On our way back we stopped at the Premium Outlet Mall. It is near the downtown strip just off the interstate, exit 41. Afterwards we went to the Mirage to play the slots and then had dinner at the T.G.I Fridays. It is on Flamingo Rd not too far. 

As you may have noticed we stay away from eating at the buffets, not that they are not any good, but like most people you tend to over eat at these buffets. On our first two trips we tried several and my favorite buffet would be the one at the Bellagio. We found the quality of the food to be one of the better ones.

Our last day in Vegas and our flight did not leave on Friday until 7:40 pm.  We headed back over to Planet Hollywood to take another chance at the million dollar pull and the slot of tournaments.  This time around we at least won a deck of cards.  We decided to eat at La Salsa Cantina in the Mile Mall at Planet Hollywood.  This time the food and service was better.  Right outside La Salsa there is a stage where they had some gymnastic performing.  We decided to head over to Paris to take the elevator to the top of the Effiel Tower.  We felt this was well worth the $9.00 to see the city from this vantage point.  We timed it perfectly because when we arrived at the top the fountains at the Bellagio where performing to the Star Spangled Banner.  This was a perfect way to end another great trip to Las Vegas.

Be sure and pick up the free magazines at every hotel call the “WHAT’S ON”  and “Where”.   These are excellent magazines on what is going on in the city for the week.  There are maps and coupons in both magazines.