Anniversary

Our 38th anniversary dawned much like the other days in Vegas although we ate a much smaller breakfast. The previous day, Glen had indulged in a huge plate of french toast, strawberries topped by a mound of whipped cream. This morning he had cereal and our waitress remarked he was eating light.

Since neither of us felt like swimming, we left Meg and Mike to lounge by the pool while we headed out to see the best of old Vegas (according to Glen)--Circus Circus. Meg had a tattoo appointment so she and Mike didn't join us on our morning walk.

When Glen first experienced Vegas, over 20 years ago, he had gone to Circus Circus and Slots a Fun to gamble. They lured in customers with free beer and shrimp cocktails which Glen thought a great deal for someone travelling on a budget. He bet $20, played the nickel machines, and ate several cups of shrimp. Winnings at that time poured into tiny margarine tubs. Today, the machine makes the sound of falling coins but then spits out a ticket with a bar code that you cash at an ATM.

Meg warned me I should not touch anything in Slots A Fun, to just see what I had to see and leave. She felt the place was disease-ridden. Both it and Circus Circus had obviously seen better days but Glen insisted on playing one machine for old time's sake so I sat beside him on a rather shabby, cigarette burned chair. The circus part of Circus Circus, made famous in Diamonds Are Forever, wasn't open when we toured the hotel but I could see the array of games designed to amuse children.

It was here we almost got caught by a face cream hawker. She met us as we entered and admired my tattoo. Without realizing it, we had a gob of cream in our hands and she was asking us where we from. Being Canadian, we answered as she steered us toward a chair. Fortunately, we saw the trap and high-tailed it out of there. It was the second time that day someone had commented on my 'ink'.

Meg was ravenous after her tattoo session so we ate at the Nascar Café, changed for supper, then headed to the Venetian. This hotel has a beautiful Italian style shopping plaza but our plans were to do a gondola ride. It was too hot to do the one outside so headed to the dock of the interior canal. We had done this with Geoff, Melissa, and Elijah and it is well worth the price ($16.00/person). Our gondolier was Tino and he entertained us with humour and three songs, the first in honour of our anniversary. It was a relaxing half hour hiatus from the hustle and bustle of Vegas.

After a refreshing lemonade, we went to the casino to wile away the time until supper. Meg had made reservations for us to eat at Mario Batali's B&B Ristorante. She and Mike treated us to a lovely meal there. The grilled octopus antipasto was spectacular! It was a great way to celebrate our anniversary and so nice to share it with our children.

After dinner, Glen and I headed to the Bellagio hotel and Meg and Mike went back to the Sahara. We had to pick up our tickets for the Cirque du Soleil show "O". I was glad we arrived an hour before the show as there was a line-up. Once we got them, we went out to see the Fountain Show.

We had missed this famous show the last time we were in Vegas as it was cancelled due to high winds. The fountains 'dance' to one song every 15 minutes after 8:00 pm so we 'saw' two songs before we had to leave. It was a magic moment.

Any performance done by Cirque du Soleil is worth the money spent and "O" was no different. We had seen Love and enjoyed it immensely but did not have the best seats. This time, I paid a little more and we had the first row of a balcony so my view was unobstructed. As with any Cirque show, there were acrobats, contortionists, trapeze artists, dancers, and clowns but "O" adds the abilities of Olympic athletes to its cast. Medal-winning synchronized swimmers and divers contribute to the awe of this show as did the 1.5 million gallon pool which served as the stage. Platforms were raised and lowered to allow for performers to move across it. Ten thousand feet of hose lined the pool and released bubbles to break the water's surface so dives were almost splashless and swimmers glided in and out of the water. The affect was mystifying.

Our monorail trip back to the Sahara was an adventure. As we learned while riding the beast, the trains have no driver. So we were on a northbound train going south and could do nothing about it. At its final stop, we stayed on board hoping it would get us to where we needed to go. Once it began moving, an announcement said its destination was Harrah's, not the Sahara. We disembarked thinking we'd have to catch a cab but there was an actual person on the platform answering questions. Turns out they were repairing the track so we had to take an alternate train to the Sahara. We tumbled into bed at 1:00 am knowing we had to rise at 5:30 am to catch our flight home.