Oh, what a day, what a day!

We woke up this morning and Rob announced that he was going to take me to dinner at the Top of the World restaurant at the Stratosphere.  He had wanted to keep it a secret so I would be surprised but he remembered my intense fear of heights and had to make sure I was okay with it.

Let me just tell you, it was wonderful!

There was a bit of a wait for the elevator and then they can only fit so many on it.  The elevator freaked me out a little because there were so many ppl crammed together on it and it rises at an extremely rapid pace.  Your ears pop instantly once it gets going but I guess it would take forever to get to the top at a regular elevator speed.  At any rate, it was totally worth it!

The restaurant itself revolves 360 degrees an hour and is completely encased in glass.  Just Vegas scenery as far as the eye can see.  It was also very elegant compared to what I am used to.  Rob and I don’t usually dine anywhere that actually has cloth napkins so I was impressed.   I ordered a turkey club on a croissant with fries and Rob ordered a half a chicken cashew sandwich on a croissant with the lobster bisque. Everything was wonderful.  The wait staff was attentive without being overbearing and the deserts looked fabulous.  Too bad we were too full from the meal to get one.

Once lunch was done we played a little at the Strat and found it pleasant.  Not too fancy for us, a bit of a downtown feel.  From there we headed to the Venetian for a very anticipated trip to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. I had been wanting to go here for the last two years but we have never had the time/motivation in the past trips to do it.  It was very much worth the wait.  I have so many pictures!  It was really creepy at first because you can’t tell what is real and what isn’t until the person moves, but it was so great!

We joined the Venetian slot club and then played some nickel Yahtzee machines. I bought in for twenty and left with seventy-five dollars and a new feeling about the tightness of slots on The Strip. Maybe they aren’t so bad after all.  Currently we are back at the Four Queens and Rob has won us some money on our new favorite Regis machines. We will soon be heading back down to see our favorite bartender Dan and play some more slots.

I just thought I would update really quickly.

It has been a wonderful day so far!

We left the house around seven fifteen in the evening. Not as early as we would have liked but with my new schedule at work it was all we could do.

We made our traditional stop in Wickenburg, AZ at the Basha’s there to get munchies and some sandwiches since we were starving. Also we picked up four gallons of water. We learned long ago not to drink the water in Vegas.

We ate the sandwiches in the car and then headed back out. I was dead tired but no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get to sleep.  I fear the days of sleeping in the car for long stretches on road trips might be a thing of the past for me.   Another stop, this time  in Kingman for gas and then we were onto the final leg of the trip where I finally did manage about a fifteen minute nap.

We stopped at the Hoover Dam to put the top down on the Mustang.  I didn’t matter that it was freezing.  We had a convertible and we were going to experience it in all it’s glory!  Shivering a little we made our decent into my favorite city in the world.

We checked into the Four Queens in downtown Vegas and headed up to our room. I was so tired at that point that I wasn’t into the whole Vegas mood. This happened to me last visit but I shook it off then. I figured I would do the same this trip once I had a few drinks in me but the opposite happened.  My stomach started to turn on me.

Rob figured I just needed to walk around so we went downstairs to the nickel palace. I got a mai tai and settled down at a Price Is Right machine, but the price was clearly wrong.  Ten dollars quickly donated to the Las Vegas economy.  I moved over to a Press Your Luck machine and Rob took a seat next to me on a Let’s Make A Deal slot. We both got some bonus rounds but it was still twenty dollars gone too soon for me.

Rob went off to get a drink and I sat down at a Regis machine. Ireally liked it. I put in Ten and got a lot of play off of it. Rob came back and also had luck on the Regis machine next to me, cashing out ten bucks ahead.

I was finally feeling better so I told Rob while he waited for his hopper change I was going to go up to the room and use the bathroom. Strangely enough, as soon as I got back up to the room I started to feel sick again. It was about 80 degrees in our room. We know the deal with this particular tower at the Four Queens because we have stayed in this tower before in the winter and it was explained to us that they shut off the air conditioning in this tower during the season and apparently crank the heat. Rob came back up and we took the window off the hinges so we could get some fresh air.

He convinced me that I needed to get out again so we went down to Fitzgerald’s next door. I held down a Monopoly nickel game while he tried twenty on blackjack.  Overall I just wasn’t enjoying myself. It was boiling in there and I wasn’t feeling good so after losing twenty more dollars we went back up to the room.

Rob got some food from Magnolia’s downstairs so I ate some and went to bed.

I woke up at two this afternoon and feel decidedly better having gotten a lot of sleep.  Not a great start to the trip but who knows?  Maybe our luck will change.