What happens in Vegas...

doesn't always stay in Vegas.

Friday afternoon we dropped the dog off at the in-laws (who already had the kids) and the FIL pissed Liz off by making fun of the list she gave him, such as locking the dog in her crate at night. We should have had JE watch A Night at the Museum with him, so he could see what happens to people who don't follow directions. Of course they didn't lock in the dog in her crate on Saturday night, so she repaid their "kindness" by taking a dump outside their downstair's bathroom. They still thought she was a good dog.

Saturday morning we were off to Vegas, and we made pretty good time right up until we hit Primm, Whisky Pete's, and...the Fashion Outlet. After returning a Coach purse for Liz that she'd bought last time we were in Vegas, along with visiting numerous other stores where more items were purchased which will (probably) be returned at a later date, we resumed our journey. Thanks to our GPS the trip was fairly uneventful, except thanks to the almost, never-ending construction going on around The Strip we missed our turn-off to the Monte Carlo. We had to drive a mile further up the road then come back down The Strip, where we encountered more construction, road works, etc.

And let's not forget the Vegas pedestrians who are worse than the elderly Chinese folks you run into (or would, if it wasn't illegal) in Chinatown.

Oh look, we need to turn right here, and we have a Green Right Turn arrow but...there's people crossing the road. Both roads. People are both crossing the road in front of us, and crossing the road into which we want to turn. Then there was the woman in the car ahead of us who refused to turn at a Green Right Turn arrow. Possibly because the other lights were Red. Maybe because she'd found herself in a Right-turn only lane and she wanted to go straight ahead. We tooted her, the car next to her tooted her, Pedestrians on the sidewalk even tried to wave her around the corner. Finally she made her turn...just as the light changed and all the pedestrians began crossing the road. After Liz zipped through a gap in the pedestrians (don't ask how an SUV zips through a gap between pedestrians, it just does) we made our right-hand turn, and found the woman pulled over to the side of the road. Yup. Lost.

We checked into our room and found not a single, King-sized bed as requested but two Queens. Not only that, but for a non-Smoking room on a non-Smoking floor, it sure smelled like someone had been smoking. And look, here's an ash tray on the table. An ash tray, in a non-Smoking room. Just lovely.

I called down to the front desk and was informed they had no other King-sized bedrooms left on non-Smoking floors. So we took what they did have. Our second room turned out to be on the third floor, at the very end of the hall, and had a fantastic view of the Monte Carlo's second floor roof top. Our previous room had been on the 22nd floor, right off the elevator lobby, so I was pleased to get a room which would see zero foot traffic, and indeed it did prove remarkably quiet.

We went downstairs, hit the Casino, and found the Jackpot Dance Party machines that we'd enjoyed playing last time (it has a mini Bonus game that pops up occasionally and gives you a chance to win extra credits). Unfortunately we only found two of this particular machine, and both were being played, so we found a couple of other machines that looked like fun and settled down. We don't go to Vegas to get rich, we go to have fun, except these two machines weren't fun, and we were losing our money too quickly, so Liz went in search of a different machine while I waited for the waitress to return with the beers we'd ordered.

While waiting for our beers I watched another woman play a different machine, and a combination of a long wait for our beers, my non-playing, and my observation of this other woman playing managed to draw the attention of Security, because suddenly I had a large guy standing over me asking me in a jovial, but very direct, no-nonsense manner, "Where is your Player's Club card, and why aren't you playing?"

Now I've done some things in my life before which should have attracted the attention of security, but never did, so their arrival this time greatly amused me and I literally laughed out loud. I explained that I was waiting for the waitress to return with the beers I'd ordered, and that as soon as she showed up I was going to search for my wife who'd gone off to play another machine.

Taken by my accent the first Security guy (there were two of them) responded that as soon as he got home he was going to turn on the BBC. But the second Security guard had a better ear for accents and had me pegged as an Aussie, and he chastised his friend. We chatted for a couple of minutes then the cocktail waitress turned up with my beers, lending credence to my story. "Here's my beers," I said, tipping the waitress. "Now I just need to find my wife." The waitress remember Liz and told me she was just around the corner, and she was. My wife had been sitting right on the other side of my bank of games, and judging by the grin on her face, she'd over-heard my close encounter of the Security kind, too ;)

After playing our new machines for a while I was up a couple of dollars but Liz had lost several dollars so together we were a few dollars in the hole. I'm not trying to make light of our losses. We go to have fun not get rich, but we don't plan to lose our life savings either, so we play the Penny Slots. Yep, we're real high rollers, we are ;)

Actually I did play Blackjack once at $5 a hand. I'd allowed myself a stake of $50 before I knew what the table limit was, and even after seeing it was $5 a hand I still decided to play. I'd won a few hands but lost more and I was down to my last $10 when the cards started falling my way again. Half an hour later I'd won more hands than I'd lost and I had $50 in front of me once again, at which point I stood up, tipped the dealer $5 and walked away.

So now we just play the Penny Slots.

We played for a while then I went to the Box Office and secured our tickets to see Lance Burton, then Liz and I hit the Monte Carlo's buffet. We leisurely stuffed ourselves on all the fine food available, then with full bellies, wandered across the casino and into the Lance Burton Theater. Lance was pretty good, although I think both Liz and I would have liked to see Penn & Teller, if only they weren't so freaking expensive. As a bonus, there was a very humorous half-time show by a juggler and his stage hand.

After the show Liz and I wandered up The Strip but didn't get much further than Planet Hollywood's Miracle Mile Shops, where we strolled around, watched the indoor thunder storm, and bought more stuff.

Sunday morning we sampled the breakfast buffet at the Monte Carlo before heading up the I-15 to yet another Outlet Mall where...we returned the pair of jeans we bought at the Outlet Mall at Primms.

We also did a spot more gambling, again on the Penny slots, again on the machine we like playing. There was a lady playing at the machine Liz had been playing the previous day (& losing), so Liz sat down at the machine which I'd been playing (& winning) and fed in $5. Within minutes (or so it seemed), Liz won a 250 credit Jackpot (Woohoo! $2.50! Yes! In your face!) then the bonus game came up and Liz won another 500 credits.

That was about when the lady next to Liz decided to leave. I didn't have much luck with her old machine and by the time we walked away Liz had won back everything she'd lost the day before, but now I was down a couple of dollars. As I said, we play to have fun, we won some, we lost some, we broke even, we had fun :)

Sunday night we ate at the Bellagio, then we killed our feet some more walking up The Strip before riding The Deuce back down to the Monte Carlo.

That morning we'd discovered another good thing about our room, it faced north, so when the sun came up it beat down on the opposite side of the building instead of shining in our window. This made sleeping in very easy, and both Sunday & Monday morning we slept late. Sunday we made the breakfast buffet at the Monte Carlo with just half an hour to spare, and before we were done eating the lunch selections had already been brought out, so we got the best of both worlds.