Las Vegas Trip Report

October 12-15, 1997

Day Two - Monday, October 13, 1997


We got up and had breakfast at the Carson Street Cafe. We decided to make full use of our rental car today. We first headed out of town on Boulder Highway and stopped by to see the Simpson House. I'm glad we didn't go too far out of our way to see a yellow house. I'm sure it was much more interesting inside.

Then we were off to Hoover Dam. We arrived and parked on the Arizona side of the Dam. We walked across and checked out the visitor center. Already being terribly claustrophobic, I wasn't about to wait 2 hours to go down into a big piece of cement, so we walked back across and got our car. We intended to go through Valley of Fire, but we ran into a bunch of road construction near Vegas Bay, so we changed our plans.

We stopped at a marina near Vegas Bay to get some cokes and snacks for lunch. As we walked out to the store, there were people throwing popcorn into the lake and there were SWARMS of catfish, carp and bass climbing over each other to get to the food. It was the most disgusting thing I've ever seen.

Instead of Valley of Fire, we went to Red Rock Canyon. It was pretty and very interesting from a geological perspective. I'd like to go back there when I have more time to hike and look around. As it was, it was getting late and we were getting tired, so we pretty much drove through and only stopped at a couple of the pullouts.

After Red Rock, we were pretty bored and tired of being in the car. We went back to Golden Nugget and changed clothes. We wanted to be sure to catch the Masquerade Village show at Rio this time, so we went straight there. We got there about 15 minutes before the show, so we found a seat at some video poker machines and waited.

The show is really something. That particular show was the Mardi Gras theme and it was really amazing. Lots of high energy and the people who do the acrobatics, suspended from the ceiling are really good. My boyfriend even managed to assault some other tourists to get me some beads. (Green and gold to match the outfit I was wearing )

After the show, we made our way upstairs and had dinner at Bamboleo, the Mexican restaurant at the Rio. It was fantastic! Dan had the fish taco/enchilada combo and I had the soft chicken tacos. I also had a margarita with the Tres Generaciones tequila. YUMMY!! But very strong. They are not conservative with the alcohol there. Dan had a beer, Corona I think.

After dinner, Dan wanted to play some Blackjack, so I went back to the Sneaky Queens to try to hit another 4-Aces. I did, much to the dismay of the woman sitting two machines down from me who had been there for over 2 hours. 3 plays later, she hit the 4-Aces too.

While playing, we saw the Venice theme show. What fun! This time we were right in front of the "stage" area and saw some of the other things that were going on.

When we were leaving, I decided to see how many points I had. I had accumulated enough in the two brief evenings of gambling to get a t-shirt. So.. guess what my Rio souvenier was.

We went back to Main Street Station to gamble a little bit before bed. One of the hosts and I were arguing about what day it was. He kept trying to tell me I had missed my birthday. I told him that it was midnight on the 13th..that I still had 24 hours to celebrate. I think his watch was wrong.. or he was drunk. We had a good time. Don't ask me if we were up or down in our gambling by the end of the night, I had WAY too much to drink that night.