Las Vegas Vacation Diary
Day Five: The Paris, Aladdin, Harley Davidson Cafe, Hawaiian Marketplace, M&M's World, MGM Rainforest Cafe
We are changing rooms today, out of the “luv tub” and into a standard room. The Luv tub room was quite luxurious. The tub was huge and we did try it out. It was big enough to float full length in. Unfortunately, all I could think of was the water shortage back home, so we limited the experience to one luxurious bath. It is Sunday, and we are in the room until this afternoon, because the hotel was full and the new room (standard two-bed room) won't be ready until this afternoon. So we checked the mail and I continued this diary. |
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Ken is revisiting the Vintage Auto Show that is here in the hotel. He
is taking pictures. After we change rooms we will go down to the Paris
and Aladdin.
What's on the Strip?-Walking the Las Vegas Strip - Stop Four - Aladdin and Paris
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So far we have taken 800 MG of pictures. We seem to take 200 each every day. One-third of those would be duplicates of the same subject between the two cameras and a couple of shots of each thing. But we do have a different “eye” and will often take really different pictures in the same location. That still means that we will have 150-200 new shots of Vegas every day! There will be plenty of material for a couple of new screensavers and additions to some of the old ones. |
I am using my Canon Power Shot A30 (1.2 mega pixels) and Ken is using the Canon Power Shot A75 (4 mega pixels). They are wonderful cameras, with beautiful lenses, but they are small and difficult to hold steady. We don’t really need more megapixels for our purposes, and the batteries and memory cards last longer at the lower megapixels. We bought a 1 gigabyte memory card before we left Aus and have not had to switch out cards during the day.
We have figured out a way to keep the movement of the “click” from causing the pictures to blur, especially the hand-held pictures taken inside the dark casinos. We put the cameras on 2 sec timer delay. Therefore, when you “click” down to take the picture, the camera will open the shutter 2 seconds after you have moved your finger downward, and thus you are more likely to be in a steady state when the picture is actually taken. See the problem (picture on right) - and this one had the delay on!!! |
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It has worked like a charm. I am getting very few blurred pictures. This was a problem last time I was here, but I have been very pleased with the pictures when I download them each night to the laptop.
We have yet to get out at night because we are walking so
much during the day, 4-5 hours. |
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Today, we will not go out and we will stay out until after dark. Neon Nights!!
Later…..It was about 1:00 when we got out of the hotel. We wanted some night shots of the neon, so we walked down to the Paris to check out the observation deck.
For a picture gallary of The Paris: Las Vegas Dreaming - The Paris
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Ken said it wasn't very far, but of course it was about a half mile. The Paris observation deck was closed because it is at the top of the tower and the wind was 50 to 60 MPH up there. There was a front coming through, and with my fear of heights, standing 400 feet in the air on a swaying tower didn't sound so appealing anyway.
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So...we walked on down the Strip to the Aladdin.
What's on the Strip?-Walking the Las Vegas Strip - Stop Four - Aladdin and Paris
At the Aladdin they seemed much busier than the last time we came, which is good because they were in bankruptcy the last time we were here. Planet Hollywood has bought the Aladdin, and is announcing that soon they will remake the casino in their own image. Anyway they had a promotion for a million dollar slot pull, plus a free Margarita, so we went inside. We stood in line and signed up for the Players Club and the lady behind the desk was very suspicious of my Proof of Age Card, which is a substitute drivers license in Australia for those you don’t drive. |
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In fact, she didn't believe in it at all, and tactfully omitted to give me a drinks card or put any money on my player card. There is probably some law that states a valid drivers licence is necessary for ID, because I am sure she didn’t think I was underage! I guess she didn't really expect me to win the million, 'cause I was allowed to play the million $ slot machine. And I won... a coffee mug, which is more than Ken won.
For more pictures of The Aladdin: Las Vegas Dreaming - The Aladdin
We had the drinks and they were good, but we didn't drink much of them for fear that we would be overly affected by the alcohol and end up singing Waltzing Matilda. Anyway we played Ken's credits in the slot machine and it is amazing how quickly $5 disappears. No wonder Las Vegas is the magic capital of the world.
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As I said, you don’t have to gamble to have fun here, but it is obvious that a big part of their revenue is from gambling, and they encourage you to gamble with freebies and “comps”. And many people come with rather large gambling budgets and view the gambling as part of the entertainment. You can enjoy this town on all levels, but you have to monitor your own behaviour. We walked on down the strip. There is a more humble part of the strip below the Aladdin. |
It begins with the Harley Davidson Café, which has a real biker crowd and a display of Harley Davidson motorbikes. Then there are several little touristy shops and, wonder of wonders, a new Walgreen’s.
What's on the Strip?-Walking the Las Vegas Strip - Stop Three - Hawaiian Marketplace, M&M World
Walgreen’s is one of those marvellous pharmacies that has everything else as well. So we shopped in the little shops and at Walgreen’s. I bought an American Braun electric toothbrush. I found that I had an addiction to my dental habits and missed my electric toothbrush, which won’t run on this current. We also found the blank CD’s for the laptop backup.
After the shopping binge we checked out the Hawaiian Marketplace which advertises an internet cafe. Well, we saw several, and they all charged about $10-$15 an hour. We get a better deal at the hotel, even if it is deadly slow at night. It's $10.00 for 24 hours. However, if you don’t have a PC, this is one place you can get online.
We next stopped at the M&M shop, where they have everything M&M. You can buy them by the pound and in every color you can imagine, not just the normal colors. They have M&M Stars Wars right now (The Evil Mpire) and we bought a Bubba Fet M&M Bounty Hunter Christmas Ornament. He is really cute. |
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By this time we had walked a couple miles, it seemed, and it was getting to dusk, so we went up on one of the pedestrian bridges to take pictures of the neon. But they didn't seem to be turning out well. Neon shots all have to be without flash and are hand-held and I suddenly felt very shaky. I thought I was just exhausted, and I was very tired.
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Ken came and pulled me off the bridge and took me down to the MGM Rainforest Cafe so I could sit while he tried to get pictures of the Luxor light beacon from the top of the Pyramid. I got a table, and when he came back he said he couldn't get a good view. And besides the pedestrian bridges were swaying in the wind and he was a bit worried about them. And the Temperature dropped. The front had come through! |
For more pictures of The MGM Grand: Las Vegas Dreaming - The MGM Grand
We had a nice dinner at the Rainforest Cafe and the waiter's father lives in Docklands, Melbourne. Small world. All the staff at the hotels are first class, well trained and very hospitable.
While we were at the Rainforest Cafe Ken tried out his movie feature on the camera. He took pictures of the aquarium (I did say they were everywhere!). And we were amazed at the quality of the movies. He will be taking more of these. The 1 gigabyte camera card will allow him to get a few of them a day, as well as the still pictures he wants to take.
We took the long walk through the MGM to the Monorail and shivered
all the way home.