Vegas Vacation Day 5

Our next day in Vegas was mostly spent walking the strip. Fortunately I had recovered from my illness of the day before, which was good considering how much walking we did. We started at the Luxor in the morning and made it to Treasure Island later that night, and then we had the pleasure of figuring out the best way back to our truck. While we did take a fair amount of pictures, I’m just going to concentrate on the highlights of the day.

Wildlife Habitat at the Flamingo

A majority of our trip was planned around free activities, especially ones involving animals. The Wildlife Habitat seemed to fit our criteria for enjoyable entertainment, so we made it a priority to check it out. It was actually quite pretty and was a nice retreat from the insanity of the Strip. We even saw a couple of wedding parties while there. While the flamingos were supposed to be the main attraction, for Kevin the main attraction were all of the koi. I think he even started to plan a koi pond while we were there.

Here are some pictures: 

Mirage

Our Vegas guide had told us that there was a large aquarium at the Mirage Hotel, so that was our next destination.

Kevin is a huge puffer fish fan

While there we decided to check out the BB King Lounge for dinner. Up to this point we had been very conscientious about how much we had spent on food and such, so for dinner at the BB King Lounge, I had filet mignon and Kevin had a sirloin or similar type of steak. It was delicious. One major plus of this restaurant was the live music. Almost the entire time we were eating, there was a band playing the blues. A few couples even got up and danced. We were not one of them. We aren’t really the spontaneous type. It was definitely a memorable dinner.

Night-time Shows

After we had filled our bellies, we went back to the strip to catch the Volcano and the Treasure Island Show. It is incredible how crowded those shows get, but we were able to get fairly good spots with a good view. Kevin just took a video of Treasure Island, but here are some pictures of the Volcano:

After watching the shows, we wound through the casinos and tried to avoid the pedestrian traffic. I think it took an hour and a half or longer to walk 2 miles. According to Wikipedia, we should have been able to walk that far in 40 minutes. Oh well, such is the crazy life of Las Vegas Boulevard.  

Vegas Vacation Day 4: Caesar Palace

After visiting the aquarium we drove to the other end of the strip to go to a classic car show. However, by the time we got there, it was near closing time, so they wouldn’t let us in. After wandering around for a bit, we crossed the street and ended up at Caesar Palace.

The sheer magnitude of that casino is astounding. It feels like a city in and of itself. When we got to the shopping area, it felt like we were on the streets of Rome. We watched the Fall of Atlantis, which was pretty neat (and very hot) with all of the special effects with water and fire, then we ate at the Cheesecake Factory. 

Because I didn’t feel spectacular after my fried chicken earlier, we split a pasta dish, then had some cheesecake. It was very yummy. 

After we had filled ourselves to the brim, we checked out H&M. I had heard so many wonderful things about it, but since I felt sick I didn’t truly enjoy it. I ended up buying a pair of jeans, but I am going to have figure out how to hem them because they are way too long. However, there didn’t seem to be any with a shorter inseam. Apparently, I am just a midget. 

After Kevin and I met up again, we headed over to the Bellagio to see the fountains. Kevin video-taped the show, so I don’t have any pictures of the fountains, but he did get some nice shots of Paris. Here are the final pictures of our day, which of course include aquarium pictures from the other side of the Fall of Atlantis:

At least we know I was on the trip, still haven't seen a picture of Kevin yet...

Vegas Vacation Day 4: Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay

I think this was the highlight of our aquarium tour of Las Vegas due to the fact there were multiple, huge tanks and there were even a few fresh water tanks. I think Kevin’s favorite part were the rays. He even asked an employee questions about rays. I liked the turtle, the Moray Eel (which we didn’t get pictures of), and the unique sharks (like the one that looks like it has a saw for a nose. I had read during my research for this trip that there was an opportunity for a behind the scenes tour, which I was sure would be greatly enjoyed by Kevin, but alas, it was false advertising and didn’t actually exist. We were in the aquarium for well over an hour and enjoyed every minute of it. 

 Unfortunately, aquarium pictures do not often work out as we would like, but here are some of the best: 

I like our African cichlids a lot better. They are much more colorful (and probably more expensive) than these ones.

This Pacu was huge, which is why we only had one for a few hours before Kevin sold it to someone on KSL

Kevin was drooling over this sting ray.

Kevin wants an aquarium big enough that he has to clean it like this. (The diver has some kind of air blower thing.)

This may end up on our wall.

This reminds me of a trilobite.

Fortunately, we took this picture right before they fed the jelly fish and cloudy the water up. I think jelly fish are just plain cool.

My "saw-nose" shark

While we were in Vegas, Kevin decided he wanted to move down there. This is one of his reasons, the other was the cacti possibilities.

Vegas Vacation Day 4: Ethel M. Chocolate Factory & Botanical Cactus Gardens

After a quick lunch at KFC (which ended up making me sick later in the day), we stopped at the Ethel M. Chocolate Factory and Botanical Cactus Gardens. There was also an M&M world there, but we didn’t look at it too much. Apparently, Ethel was the mother of the founder of the Mars Incorporated, the corporation who makes M&Ms, Skittles, and apparently Pedigree dog food and Whiskas cat food. (It is amazing what you learn on Wikipedia.) After he retired, he was bored so he built the factory to make fine chocolates and such. 

The tour of the chocolate factory was self guided, and we were able to see the whole production process from stirring to molding to samples and everything in between. Here are some pictures from the tour: 

The main reason we visited was to see the cactus gardens. We were told about them while at scouting out a cactus to add to Kevin’s collection at Lowes last fall. Kevin is a little bit into cacti. I even bought him a little cactus for Valentine’s Day. It also was a self-guided tour. It was interesting to see that many cacti and succulents from different parts of the world together in one garden. Of course, Kevin took lots of pictures (probably to plot the next addition to his cactus family), of which here are a few:

I always read the signs, so I can never keep up with Kevin.

We have one of these. It actually attacked me when I tried to save it from a torrential downpour last year. Wet pergo flooring, flip flops, and yellow barrel cacti do not make a good combination.

Fortunately we were just leaving as tour buses full of Japanese tourists pulled up. I think if I traveled that far, I would probably chose a different destination. However, people in other countries probably feel the same way about some of the stuff Americans want to see in their countries.

The necessary sign picture. Kevin is so well-trained. :)