Las Vegas: Day 2

Las Vegas Day 2 dawned much later--6AM this time--and for that I was grateful!  I was tired after the previous day's excursion and a bit sore.  We've been playing a lot of Wii this winter and sitting on our butts, so this was like going 0-60 in a nanosecond.

Still, Leah woke up with a great deal of vim and vigor, so after a quick breakfast at McDonald's, we decided to walk over to the M&M Store, which was just across the street from our hotel at the base of the MGM Grand.  It opened at 9, which was the earliest thing on my list, so after puttering about the room for a while, we headed over there.  They had just opened and were pretty empty.  Green came outside and a woman offered to take our picture, for free, using my phone, so I actually got one picture of me and Leah together, which was great.  The M&M store is pretty much what you'd expect.  Lots of stuff with M&Ms all over it.  My favorite was a $3,000 lambskin bedazzled-with-Swarovski-crystals M&M jacket.  But they had office supplies, dishes and cups, candy dispensers, clothes, towels, etc. and they even had an on-site printing area so that if you wanted to, you could have M&ms custom printed while you wait.  With the wedding industry in Vegas, that probably does a bang-up business.

After there, we just started walking.  We were accosted by a really rude guy at the Chamber of Commerce who literally screamed at me as I walked away down the street.  "I HATE NOT GIVING AWAY FREE MONEY, LADY."  Yeah right.  I'm sure if I had gone in, they'd have wanted my name, address, credit card, email, phone number, blood type, and everything else, and at best I'd have walked away with a book of coupons totaling the $75 he was promising was free. He made himself look stupid, after I politely declined no fewer than 4 times.As I said to a friend afterwards, "I may have sucker written all over my forehead, but I've got East Coast Bitch written into my DNA."

My plan for the day was pretty simple--head to the Venetian to go to Madame Tussaud's and in the afternoon, our second show, David Copperfield.  We walked all the way to the Venetian.  It was a beautiful day and I just wanted to be outside in the sunshine.  Leah was kind of pissed about it, whining incessantly that she was tired or hungry, but when I got her a snack, she wouldn't eat.  She just wanted to be in the stroller, but I had refused to bring it given that she had so much energy.  She somehow miraculously regained her strength and energy when we arrived at Madame Tussaud's.  The best thing I did on this trip was to keep my iPhone well charged, turn on the camera, and let Leah snap pictures as much as she pleased.  She had an absolute blast running around taking photos, making me pose for a change and although I deleted most of them, as they were blurry, it did keep her engaged and happy for a long time.  Her favorite display was Tiger Woods and Arnold Palmer, mainly because she discovered that if she dropped a golf ball in the hole on the green, it would cause loud cheers to come forth.  She must have done that several million times and then bowed.  It was quite adorable and many passersby commented on it.

She also took a particular shine to Will Smith and Beyonce.  Of course, I only had eyes for Clooney.

After we left the exhibit, I thought it would be nice to show her the canal inside the Venetian.  She only needed to catch sight of one gondola before it was clear we were going to ride on the canal ourselves.  I told her to follow the canal to the end and we found the ticket booth and got tickets.  She was very excited, especially when we got to skip ahead to the front of the line because we had to share with two other people.  Our gondolier, Caj, was a nice man who sang a lot.  He was Sicilian.  He sang some children's songs in addition to the music he thought the adults would like to hear.  It was a short ride, only about 10 minutes, but again, Leah was free, so I didn't mind.  They took lots of pictures of us for cash, but I elected not to buy any or even look at them for that matter.  I'm sure they were quite nice.  I'm sure they were also quite expensive.  Leah announced when she saw the white wedding gondola that either I am getting married there or she is because we are riding in that white boat, damnit!

After the gondola ride, we walked back out and saw a crowd of people around a store at the Venetian.  It turned out Joe Montana was doing a signing that day, so I grabbed a quick picture of him.  Not that I much care about football or Joe Montana, but at least I'd heard of him and I knew several people who would be interested.

By now, it was lunchtime.  I asked Leah what she wanted for lunch and she said she wanted spaghetti.  I had seen a lot of advertising at Excalibur for Buca di Beppo and thought it would be great to go there and then rest for a bit before the show.  They were hot on selling their giant meatballs (1/2 a pound!) and so Leah and I split a plate of spaghetti and meatballs, which was delicious, I have to say!  Then we ordered a chocolate volcano for dessert and while we were waiting, they came around and took our picture "for free".  We were given a picture that was the size of a postage stamp, literally, and then offered larger 'suitable for framing' prints at a price, which I declined.  There was a wedding a couple of tables over, and Leah happily watched the bride and groom and enjoyed herself till our dessert arrived--and that dessert was AMAZING.  This was easily the most expensive meal we ate while we were in Las Vegas, and I don't mind saying, it was worth every single penny.

We returned to our room to relax a bit before heading over to MGM to see David Copperfield.  We went early to get our tickets and they let us in early.  There was a strict policy against taking pictures, so we just sat there and drank Shirley Temples and posed for more pictures.  I started to feel like the paparazzi was after us!

The show was great... Leah was so impressed by the fact that cars and motorcycles and stuff appeared out of thin air.  I remember growing up and watching DC's specials on TV as a family--they were a highlight of the year, really.  He came to Syracuse NY one time and I was on a campaign to get my parents to take us to see him, but they didn't, so this was really a dream come true to go see him do a show.  In general, I thought his demeanor was a little off putting, honestly.  He was on the edge of being hostile or bored, a bit of a show off without showmanship, and in general he didn't seem very fun, happy, or nice.  It was disappointing, but the magic was great.  He did a wonderful bit at the end which even involved emailing those present a "poster from the future" (see right), and was a lovely tribute to his dad, and I cried so hard, I'm not ashamed to say so.  He did a couple things which involved the entire audience.  And at the end, he made 12 members of the audience disappear from the stage and reappear at the back of the theater, and I still don't know how he managed to do that.

As we left, Leah said, "Mama, I think I'm pretty tired now", so we just went back to the room and put on the TV.  She happened upon Rocky II of all damned things, and she became completely enthralled with Sylvester Stallone.  After Rock whooped up on Apollo, I made her shut it off and she was asleep in seconds.  The kid likes the damnedest things, seriously... I followed her to dreamland shortly thereafter!