So my friends Gail and Joe from Phoenix were driving up to Vegas last night and called me around 8pm to say they were still 2 hours away and were gonna look for a hotel and carry on the drive this morning. However they carried on the drive and got a rate of $27 a night at the Stratosphere hotel! The didn't arrive in till gone 10pm and Id had an early night so we didn't meet up at all.
They called me around 8am, i was still in bed but had been awake since around 6. They were gonna shower and head down to my hotel to meet up and go get breakfast.
View from my bed this morning
They arrived around 9, i hadn't seen them since the Toronto shows but it was like we had seen each other yesterday. We headed out to get breakfast and drove down the strip.I was surprised how many places were actually closed for Thanksgiving, we ended up parking at the new Aria resort and after looking round the new casino and hotel which is absolutely spectacular we took the tram over to the Bellagio.
Outdoor beach volleyball court inc sand! Aria Aria complex
The Aria encompasses several hotels and casinos inc the Cosmopolitan, the Aria and the Mandarin Oriental, 4 years ago when i came this whole area was just concrete foundations, its now the most impressive collection of buildings I've ever seen!
We ended up eating at a Crepe store in the Bellagio, i had the most amazing Yogurt Parfait and a sesame Bagel while Gail had a fantastic breakfast Crepe.
This place also had the biggest chocolate fountain in the world, i just wanted to put my tongue under the flowing dark, white and milk chocolate for a minute or two! it was amazing, it was huge and had three types of chocolate all running into various glass dishes that went from floor to ceiling.
We spoke to Ralph and Lori and they were just getting showered and pretty so we arranged to meet them at the MGM and call them when we got in the lobby. It was 11am by the time we arrived and Gail and Joe wasn't sure if they would be able to check in that early but they were and dropped their bags at the room.
Heading back to the MGM through the Bellagio.
Gail and Joe had not met Ralph and Lori but i knew they would all get along, Gail and Lori both like to Party and i said to Lori there's no way you two wont get along and they did like a house on fire! After seeing a couple of Roger promo posters while going into the MGM Ralph said there a great poster round the corner so we headed round to tale a couple of pictures,
What we were here for Camaro in the parking lot, how can you not like these!
The poster we wanted a picture of was in probably one of the busiest walkways possible, it was in the walkway that led to the hotel elevators, it was easy for me to snap a picture of Ralph and Lori in front of it, i just waited for a gap in the “traffic” and snapped, however getting a picture of all of us by resting the camera on the seat in front of us and setting the 10 seconds times was a challenge! we managed after a couple of attempts though!
We headed out of the MGM to start our walk up the Vegas strip. Gail, Joe and myself have all been to Vegas many times, however it was Ralph and Loris first time. The weather was no where near as warm as i expected. I had looked online a couple of weeks ago and saw it was 85` i presumed over the next couple of weeks it would drop to maybe 75 or even 70 but what i didn't expect was it to be as low as 481 which it was today!! i was nearly wishing i was back in Denver! Ralph and Lori being from Florida felt the cold the worst but as we walked outside the sun came out and the skies were clear and it warmed up a little.
New York, New York, across from the MGM The MGM Lion I missed the Roger sign!
We went into the Planet Hollywood Casino for a look round, then headed over to Caesars' Palace, we stopped in a few places on the way and i spotted what was now a challenge to find in each city, a Bull!! Unfortunately it was a little high to do any lewd acts to, however i did find a horse and tried my best but failed! Help, I'm turning into Jens! You’ll have to wait for the Horse picture as that's on Loris camera.
No bull is safe! well this one was.
We wandered around Caesars Palace and by the time we had finished in there i had to make a move back to my hotel to get ready for Thanksgiving dinner at 3:30. I had been invited out by my friend Erin's family for Thanksgiving dinner at the Nine Irishmen Bar in the New York New York hotel at the south end of the strip. I left Gail, Lori and Ralph shopping in the Caesars mall and went back to my room to shower and change.
To be continued….
