The Vacation - Day 7

Lounging by the pool

The next morning I was determined to soak up a little sun and not be so fish-belly white. So at about 9:30 I headed out to the main pool at the Flamingo thinking I would have plenty of time to find a good spot and set up camp before the good rays started coming through. Was I ever wrong. The pool was already jam-packed. What chairs weren't already filled were covered by towels and water bottles waiting to be filled. Wow, and I thought I was getting a head start. These people take their tanning seriously.

Eventually I gave up and went back to our little pool on the Hilton side of things. It was still completely in the shade, but at least there were a few chairs left. I grabbed one, positioned for where the sun should hit first when it makes it over the edge of the hotel and start reading away. I got my sun, I got to read, and was happy.

Does anyone else feel queasy?

After I came back in we headed out to get some food. Over to the Flamingo's diner type restaurant. MMMMM greasy. But so tasty. And calories don't count on vacation. I'm hoping lots and lots of them didn't. Finishing up we started looking through the coupon book to see what else we could do for a discount on our last day here. Well...there's a discount on Second City here at the Flamingo that sounds good. OOH and a buy on get one free deal on that IMAX ride at Caesar's! Let's go!

Off to Caesar's we went. And eventually puttered our way to where the ride was, taking care to avoid that information booth in case that woman recognized we got a good deal on a meal with out seeing their timeshare.

We bought our tickets, went through the staircases, ropes etc. and wound up waiting at a door for the next ride to start. Finally we were let in and given these bizarre 3D goggle things. Which everyone in line immediately threw on and started messing with. Next came our "guide" who promptly told us all to take them off. We adjusted them properly and then put them back on for the intro video. And in we went. Sat down in a giant "car", you know the kind where the seats move, but nothing else does? Put on our goggles and we were off.

The thing was incredibly neat, but NOT the best thing to do after a large greasy meal. I felt ill for a good 2 hours afterwards. OOF.

Lions in Vegas?

After Caesar's we drove around and parked at MGM planning to walk through to GameWorks. A Spielberg produced fun thing. When we got there it was a minature version of Dave and Busters. Not thrilling, not original, and not really any good games to play either. We decided to walk over to New York and see what was up there. Nothing very different from the other casinos. Back across the street to MGM.

On the way back through the casino Andy said "Lion habitat? What's that? I bet there's lions in there." I responded with "No, not real lions in the middle of the casino."

I should've known better. After all our hotel had penguins right? There they were in a big glass encased setting, two beautiful sleepy lions gnawing on a giant rubber ball. There were two trainers in there with them, trying to keep them awake and playing to the delight of the crowd.

I don't know how long we stayed, but I could've stayed all day. They were amazing to watch. So playful. So cuddly. So BIG. And you could tell they were both young since they had some of the baby spots left on their stomachs. One funny thing though...they had two balls to play with. A red on and a blue one. Neither cat wanted to play with the blue ball at all. So they "fought" continuously over the red one. It was hysterical to watch.

Second City

After resting and some dinner we walked over to see Second City. Great comedy/improv group. Much fun to watch. Also fun to watch...the people in the crowd. As the waitress was coming around with one table's drinks she tripped on an outstretched foot and down came everything. 4 out of the 5 people at the table were splashed. They all took it well though and I overheard her say "they'll have to send a porter out to clean this up." I also noticed she came back in 20 minutes and had to wipe it up herself with a towel. Not a job I would want.

The comedy was great, very witty. The improv was as always my favorite part.

Walking back after the show we encountered some of the hotel's wildlife. The Flamingo also had these strange black chicken-type birds. This one was walking around and around in the grass. We stood there and watched him long enough until eventually he started circling around and around us. We tried slowly manuevering him back towards the rest of the animals but he was incredibly slow and we were getting tired. We did entertain quite a few other people though. We finally gave up after a while and left him circling aimlessly around the path.

I think it was like a goldfish. Once they get to one side of the bowl they've forgotten where they've been. And continue to circle. And circle. And circle...