Vegas Day 3

Day Three in Las Vegas dawned and I was pretty tired and sore.  It became clear that Leah was kind of over it too.  We probably could have gone home after 2 days, but we had one more day to go.  So I decided we would try to stick close to the hotel and keep things light and easy.  I looked through the list I had prepared before we left and it was done except for one thing: the Siegfried and Roy Secret Garden and Dolphin Sanctuary.  But that was way down at the Mirage and I was just not that worried about it, really. 

I couldn't get a straight answer out of Leah about what she wanted for breakfast, so we decided to take our initial trip to a buffet.  Excalibur and the Luxor have a mutual agreement--if you pay $35, you can eat all day at either one of their buffets.  I decided to do that.  When I got there, Leah was free!  So for the two of us to eat as much as we wanted all day was very, very inexpensive.  I was happy she was free because for breakfast all she wanted was watermelon.  Crazy kid!  But I had a nice breakfast of oatmeal and fruit and a croissant, and couldn't really complain.  They had a huge variety of things, including breakfast burritos and an omelet station, pancakes and french toast, waffles, you name it.

Afterwards, we went up to our room.  Leah was very attached to being in there, and so we sat and I asked her if she wanted to do anything special.  She said no.  So I looked through a magazine and she caught sight of an ad for the Bodies exhibit.  She said she wanted to go see that.  Well A) I had no interest in going to see it and B) I thought it might be too scary or intense for her.  So I suggested that we go see the Titanic exhibit instead.

Big. Big. Mistake.

Leah was completely and utterly devastated by the story of the Titanic.  She could not get over that people died, that the ship sank.  She was just so upset.  She demanded to see videos of how the boat sank, and then she just got so worked up over it, I felt awful.  Poor kid.  Plus, when you enter, they give you a 'boarding pass' with the story of a passenger onboard the ship and at the end, you find out if your passenger lived or died.  One of our passengers died and one lived.  This did NOT sit well.  Not at all.  I was half tempted to take her to the Bodies exhibit just to calm her down, but then I thought this would just add fuel to the flames.  But even last night when we went to dinner with her little pal Anna and her parents, Leah was telling them all about how the iceberg ripped the ship up and the ship sank and everyone died.  It certainly made an impression.

So we were at the Luxor for that exhibit, and I decided we would try their buffet for lunch.  It was fine food--I was particularly crazy about their Mediterranean bar with couscous salad and hummus, which were both awesome.  The rest of the food was standard buffet fare, but there was plenty and much of it was fresh and good.  They had a nice little dessert bar and we got some wee little desserts.  Leah was kind of mad I didn't let her keep the cups. But oh well!  We already had swizzle sticks to bring home from David Copperfield.  There was nothing remarkable about these cups other than they were "cute".

We strolled around the Luxor a bit to have a look-see, and I have to say, it's a pretty impressive area.  All the casinos are beautiful, I mean, you really can't believe they are built for just getting people to gamble and give up their money, but that's really the extent of it.  It's like Disney World for grown ups... 

So we finished up at the Luxor and headed back to Excalibur (going over we took a moving walkway system between the Luxor and Excalibur--MUCH faster than the tram system.  Coming back, we took the tram, which is probably faster than the moving walkway).  Leah wanted to do something else, so I asked her if she wanted to go see the tigers and lions and dolphins.  She thought that sounded fun, so even though we were tired and it was way the heck up The Strip, we hitched up our suspenders and headed north.  We did take the monorail, as I was too tired to walk that far, and it was a nice ride.  We got out and had no trouble finding the place, even though, predictably, it was way in the back of the casino like all the other attractions we'd been to.

In hindsight, although Leah was free to the Shark Reef, Titanic, and Siegfried and Roy, for myself it would have been cheaper to buy the 3 for $57 pass they sold to those attractions.  I did get to use my student ID at the Titanic Exhibit--the woman working the desk there absolutely could NOT have been nicer, so I got a slight discount, but I do think it would have been cheaper to package them, nonetheless. 

So anyway, the main attraction there is the dolphin sanctuary.  They have 3 pool areas with various dolphins and the dolphins work with trainers.  There seems to be a little 'show' every 15 minutes or so.  The dolphins do flips, play with a ball, standard marine animal show fare.  But Leah enjoyed it and I got to test out my quick shutter on the camera and got great pictures of the dolphins flipping around.

After seeing the show a couple of times, we went into the Secret Garden area.  It was a warm day and most of the cats were asleep.  We saw white lions and white tigers, as well as a couple of leopards.  Only one tiger was up and moving, everyone else was fast asleep. 

It's hard to get decent pictures through the fence--I really need to learn some focusing techniques with this thing because autofocus just wanted to focus on the chain link and I really had to mess with it.

So it was much smaller than I thought and not really all that exciting, but Leah enjoyed seeing the animals.  It is nowhere near even the size of the smallest zoo I've ever been to, so I can't say anything that it's necessarily worth the cost of admission for a family, but for the two of us it was a passable way to spend a couple of hours.  The staff was very friendly--Leah had a question about how deep the dolphin pools were and they were only too happy to chat with her.  (answer: 20 feet)  We enjoyed a bit of juice and water overlooking the pools to end our visit and then wandered out.

We wound up walking back to the Bellagio--I wanted to see the gardens in the conservatory there.  But nearly as soon as we got there, Leah wanted to leave, so we didn't go see them.  As we were going out, the fountain show started, and it was the first time I'd ever gotten to see it, so I stopped on the footbridge to get a look.  I put Leah up on my shoulders, and almost immediately she was screaming she had to go potty.  (SIGH)  So we went to the bathroom and I've now seen about 30 seconds of the fountain show.

So after that, we got on the Monorail and headed back to Excalibur.  I was so tired I just collapsed on the bed after dinner and decided to set the alarm early and pack in the morning.  Apparently my body was still refusing to give up East Coast time because I woke up at 4:45, not to sleep again.  But I was actually fine with that.  We packed up all our stuff, grabbed a quick breakfast, checked out, and headed to the airport on our little shuttle again, which picked us up promptly at 8AM.  Leah had a great time playing on this giant turtle in the airport, and an older lady was looking at the turtle, which Leah took as an invitation to chat and gab her ear off for about 10 minutes.  The woman, whoever she is, now knows that Leah has a cousin named Chunk and that her daddy died.

After that lady wandered off, we went down to the gate area.  There was a recharging station, and I wanted to plug in my phone and as we sat there, a few people from Virginia filtered in.  We were all nervous about the weather--several of us were flying in to Richmond and others Charlottesville.  Everyone was making phone calls and swapping weather reports.  I was worried about turbulence.  I don't exactly like flying--I just view it as a necessary evil.  So I was NOT looking forward to these flights home.  Plus, I wasn't sure if my driveway would be covered in snow, if I'd have to shovel at 11 o'clock at night, what was waiting.  On the plus side, Leah's school was closed for the day, so she didn't miss anything!

So another woman came over and sat down next to Leah and Leah just decided this woman was her best friend EVER.  They made princesses together on Leah's various apps, and Leah commanded the woman, "Make them stylish!" and the woman obliged.  She had been in Las Vegas for a friend's birthday party and said she missed her kids a lot, so she was happy to keep Leah entertained, for which I was very grateful.

Around about 11AM, I thought we should make a potty run, so we did and then I thought "Oh, it's close to boarding time, isn't it?" being that our flight left at 11:20.  So we went to the gate to find most of the plane had already boarded.  Ooops.  So they needed people to check their suitcases again, which I happily did, as well as checking the stroller, and we just kind wandered on and sat down.  There was no standing around or waiting in line, they were all kind of waiting on us, which I found quite funny.

The flight back to Charlotte was OK.  Leah was hungry and again I bought her a meal.  There was mild turbulence, but nothing terrifying.  The flight to Richmond, on the other hand, was another matter.  They canceled the beverage service, and I prayed so hard.  I mean, I have long given up praying, but I was so scared, I was sure the plane was going down.  It seemed to be moving way too quickly, there was a lot of noise like you would expect if it was moving quickly, and furthermore, there was just tons of turbulence.  When it landed, I was so grateful.  I can't even tell you.  We got our bag no problem, hopped in the car, and within about 20 seconds, Leah was sound asleep.  We made it home and happily everything had melted . I picked Leah up, put her to bed, and I fell asleep in about 20 seconds myself.

It was a great trip, probably one day too long, and got the Vegas bug out of my blood.  I would be OK if we never went back, although it was fun enough that I could go again and still enjoy it.  I will do a little write up of tips and tricks for you all in a day or two...  Thanks for reading if you've gone through all these days!