A great time as always…. Eventually.

Drove to Toronto on October 18, 2006 and stayed over night at the Knight’s Inn in Richmond Hill. Won’t ever stay there again. Way too difficult to find.

Had the day in Toronto and visited some of my old haunts, bought a full length, black leather coat for $19.99 at the Salvation Army. Toured a huge mall called Vaughn Mills and then headed to Pearson International Airport. Got there early, sat for a bit and checked in. Staff was very nice. Check in was painless. The only problem is that Pearson is now entirely smoke-free; bars, restaurants, everywhere and you can’t go outside once you are in. Hubby is a smoker and while I’m emphatically not, I still believe that if smoking is legal then smokers have rights.

No meal on the flight so we grabbed chicken sandwiches at the lunch counter. Talk about costly! $35.00 for two sandwiches and two milks!

Flight was fine. Our first time flying with a US carrier (US Airways). One of the attendants was a big “C U next Tuesday” so we avoided her. In-flight movie was “The Lake House”, yawn! Landed fine. Now the fun begins. Canadian carriers apparently go to a different terminal. A much smaller terminal. Since we went with a US carrier this time, we went to a different terminal, about 8 times the size! OMG! Talk about a cluster$%&#*!! We arrived early and had to wait on the tarmac, then we stood there for about 20 minutes to get assigned a baggage carousel, then another 20 waiting for the baggage to be released, which they did 1 piece every 2-3 minutes. Finally got our baggage, now where is the shuttle bus? No signs in the vicinity indicating shuttle buses, the staff at the US Airways counter wouldn’t help us. Finally the information staff directed us to the shuttle bus area where we had to wade through about 50 people all standing in the middle of the sidewalk (why do people do that?) to check in even though we were pre-paid. Got our shuttle. The driver took the long way around and took his sweet time. We had landed at 10:36PM and didn’t check in at the Luxor ‘til past midnight.

Luxor staff was nice. We’d book the pyramid but a room wasn’t available at the top until the next day so we spent our first night on the ground floor. Nice room, clean and sweet smelling. Grabbed our Sobr K (chasers) and hit the casino. Two long island iced teas later, I’m not feeling well, neither is hubby. I’m no lightweight, 2 drinks no matter how strong is not enough to finish me. Back to the room to call it a night. Spent the better part of the next hour in the bathroom with both ends going. Finished just in time to relinquish the bathroom to Scott for the same reason. Welcome to food poisoning!

Spent all night and most of the next day in the same condition. I’m panicking. I have a tattoo appointment at 6PM and we’re supposed to meet Eponymous Coward and a friend at Krave at midnight.

Went downstairs to get some Pepto Bismol and almost ran INTO Criss Angel on my way to the loo to puke. Back to the room & took some Pepto. Starting to feel better so I went to my tattoo appointment. Luc Zietek at Poker’s Tattoo on Valleyview behind Mandalay Bay. Not the friendliest place but WOW!! what an artist. Would not hesitate to go back to him or recommend him to others.

Headed back to the Luxor. Endorphins and Pepto are now wearing off and the sickness is returning. Tried my stomach on some dry toast, big mistake. Spent the rest of the night trying to watch Pirates of the Caribbean 2 between trips to the bathroom. Didn’t make it to Krave. Very sorry Eponymous Coward but we couldn’t even leave the room never mind the hotel.

Felt better the next day, toast stayed down so we slowly got into the swing of things. The days past in a blur so I’ll just hit the highlights.

Shows: CarrotTop – had front row, center seats – great show. He must live on Red Bull and candy to get that kind of energy, like a hyperactive child. Couldn’t stop laughing. Unlike other comedians who draw their material out, he’s go, go, GO! From the moment he hits the stage til the moment he leaves it. Barely time to breathe.

Museums: Bodies – the never-ending exhibit. Give yourself at least an hour to go through this. Not gross at all, very tasteful and educational. Loved the section on blood vessels. Be warned, there are some fetal specimens. The section that deals with organs shows the cancerous lungs of a smoker. Next to it is a plastic bin where former smokers have tossed their cigarettes! Didn’t motivate hubby though.
Guggenheim: showcasing the work of Robert Mapplethorpe. I didn’t find it shocking or risqué at all. Interesting stuff but NOT worth the admission price.
Goddard: he does the Vegas painting with olives as characters. Great stuff! Very surreal but he has excellent technique as well. There’s a fantastic painting of Ozzy Osbourne in the gallery that had just been sold.

New Casinos/Hotels: Wynn – nice but it didn’t blow my hair back.
Palms – what a disappointment! It’s no bigger than our charity casinos and had little or nothing to really look at. Past by Hart and Huntington, another disappointment. Tiny shop with most of the shop curtained off. One artist, Joey working in front, a receptionist, Rose and a few people sitting around waiting for their turn. Looked at the overpriced T-shirts and left. Found out later at one of the art galleries that H & H is basically a joke. It’s where silly tourists go for overpriced tattoos in hopes of getting their 15 minutes of fame on camera. Met someone who got a quote there. $380 for 3 Chinese characters, each 1” high! I only paid $250 for my newest piece (will post a pic if requested) and it’s quite large. Actually the price was $200 but I tipped the artist $50.
Meals: ate at the Luxor Steakhouse (lobster and Kobe beef) worth every penny! Kahunaville, love the scallop and shrimp kabobs, Buzio’s, had Chilean Sea Bass (to die for!)

Lots of shopping! Bought lots of pearls at the Pearl Factory, even got two “blue” ones. Bought T-shirts and lots of Egyptian statues and figurines.

Gambled a lot. Hubby did fairly well at craps, blackjack and Big 6. I did pretty well at Sic Bo and a slot machine called Hexbreaker. Drank tones, rarely ordered the same drink twice. Seems Sobr K (chasers) really does work! We were both 3 sheets to the wind several times and didn’t get a single hangover!

Hubby met Criss Angel. Seems he’s moved his show from the Alladdin to the Luxor, is starting his 3rd season of Mindfreak and the Luxor is giving him a stage show in or around 2008. Scott says he’s a really nice guy, easy to talk and pleasant, but not as tall as he looks on TV. Invited us to come down to the office once he was set up to go but we were leaving the next night.

So much we didn’t get to do! We’ll have to go back soon.

I’ll try to make this short.

First, Rick from BC, I am so sorry I missed the meet on the 18th. I actually overslept Embarassed Not from a wild night of partying, but from gorging myself at the breakfast/brunch buffet. I thought I would just take a short snooze to digest, but….Anyway I am sorry I missed the opportunity to meet some of you.

This was my third visit in October. The weather was gorgeous as usual. This trip though seemed to be extra crowded. I know that there were several conventions, but I felt like the majority of my time was spent waiting in lines!
From airport check-in, to the taxi line, to get something to eat etc…My patience was truly tried. Maybe because this was my seventh trip, but the “tourists” were really on my nerves. Stopping in their tracks to gawk, take photos etc. (I hope I wasn’t that annoying on my first visit).

We basically lost our a$$’s gambling wise. Maybe that explains my less-than-enthusiastic feeling from this trip. The best luck I had was at Casino Royale (slots). I seem to have had longer play for the buck there.
Other casino’s we “donated” to were Flamingo of course, Caesars,Harrah’s, O’Sheas (see a pattern here for tightness?). But to not show favoritism, we also donated to BC and Main Street Station.

On our visit to MSS, we took the Deuce downtown. We caught it in front of the Flamingo. I think I would rather have a root canal than ride that again. It was pretty excruciating. I honestly think we could have made better time walking. The stops did dwindle the farther north we went. Yes it was cheap transportation, but never again. We cabbed it back.

So I guess this wasn’t one of our better visits. Could it be because we lost? Or could my “Love Affair” with Vegas be waning? I really have trouble with crowds the older I get.

And a sad note, two days after I got home, my beloved dog died. Maybe I have some guilt going on too. I could have saved a lot of $$ and had some extra time with my “baby”.

I know Vegas is supposed to be a happy place. I hope this wasn’t too much of a “downer” of a report.

To all of you that have upcoming trips, I wish you good luck. I think we will probably wait a while before returning.