LV, Chapter 2

Let me begin with this: Tuesday was not our favorite Las Vegas day. No, no, a thousand times, no. We were bamboozled. Hornswaggled. Flimflammed. Sandbagged, even! We were strolling through the mall at Planet Hollywood, minding our own beeswax, when all of a sudden a very exuberant woman steered us to another very exuberant woman, and before we knew it, before we even had time to turn around really, we'd agreed to view a resort property at the other end of the strip.

It's only a 90-minute tour, the woman said. All you have to do is view the property, she said. We'll even give you free tickets to dinner and a show, she said. Well, we said, we'd like to take the free tickets to Cirque de Soleil's Mystere. Ahhh, she said, those happen to be very expensive tickets, $300 tickets, VIP tickets in fact, so you'll have to forego the free dinner. And I'll need to take a $40 deposit from you, she said. Of course we'll return it once you arrive at the resort, she said.

After all was said and done, the tour, which was actually a very high-pressure sales pitch (because WHO IN THE WORLD wouldn't want to own a time-share on the very prestigious Las Vegas Strip?) was over 3 hours. We had our very own salesman, who brought in our very own mortage calculator, who left us alone twice to discuss whether or not we'd like to purchase the one or two-bedroom condo, even though we respectfully declined the offer the first time around. The mortgage calculator made it somewhat clear that he thought we were foolios for passing up such a stupendous investment opportunity, and the salesman predicted we'd come crawling back in four years to rectify our mistake.

But lest I complain too much, I will list the positive things regarding our little jaunt down time-share lane:
1. We each got two free glasses of Sprite, and I got a free package of peanut-butter crackers while we were there.
2. We did receive the two free tickets to Mystere, which was a very interesting show. However, we also did some research, and determined that they were not $300 tickets. Maybe they were worth a total of $140, but there's no need to nit-pick, is there?
3. They also gave us our $40 deposit back, just like they'd promised; otherwise, there may have been some flying elbows and fisty-cuffs.

And now, on to the pictures:


The only thing we had time for in the morning, before taking the shuttle to the resort, was a trip through the flamingo enclosure at the Flamingo Hotel & Casino. There were other sorts of birds there, too, and also some turtles. Once the resort tour was over & done with, the day was long spent, and it was time for....

dinner at Mike & Amanda & Dane's house! We'd known of them through their blog, and it was so lovely to be invited to their home to meet them in person. We also met Amanda's parents, Steve & Pearl, as well as Jeff & Renee (other fellow bloggers & WA natives!) and their little ones Carter & Camden. We felt very welcomed, and our time with all of them completely made up for our teeth-gnasher of a day :)

Chapter III coming soon...