Three Events in One Day--Too Much Vegas?

Thursday began quietly enough with lounging at the pool.  The water was cold so I didn't swim but I'm not adverse to reading in a deck chair.  Glen 'worked' by answering emails and for him, that's relaxing.

A highlight of any visit to Vegas is a stroll through the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay.  This is an aquarium that also features crocodiles and komodo dragons but it is the sharks that illicit the most oohs and aahs as they lazily swim above and below you.  Having snorkelled (once near a shark), the environment of the Shark Reef evokes memories of my own time swimming with fishes.   Meg loves stoking the rays in the interactive tank (see photo).  One ray wanted someone to touch it and almost climbed up the side of the tank, trying to get our attention.  If the rays didn't want to be touched, they could swim out of arm's reach.  Staff members made sure no animals were abused.  As I moved into an area meant to be a sunken ship, I missed an octopus moving along its aquarium's glass.  Meg's photos were incredible!

I was all for seafood for lunch but that got vetoed.  Meg suggested we go to an American-style pub called The Public House in the Luxor.  I love the Luxor as it has an Egyptian theme (it looks like a black pyramid from the outside).  The rooms open onto a central space that mimics the pyramid shape and huge statues of Egyptian gods soar from the floor.  Water features add a relaxing feel to the hotel.

The pub was huge, 7000 sq ft and one wall was a giant TV.  It as hard to ignore Fred Couples when he's over 10 feet tall.  I had a delicious pulled pork sandwich but their menu offered limited food choices.  However, their beer menu was extensive.  Meg and Mike couldn't resist ordering Hobgoblin English Ale and when they saw its tap at the bar, they had to photograph it.

After lunch, we staggered upstairs to the Titanic Exhibit.   One unique feature of Vegas is the vendors who wander the halls, sidewalks, and connecting walkways between the hotels.  Those outside offer everything from coupons to strip shows to cheap bottles of water.  Inside, they offer discounts on the shows featured in the hotel.  Stop and take these coupons as they usually save you $5 on the price of intermission.  This happened as we walked toward the Titanic Exhibit and when admission is $32/person, those discounts help.  As we entered, we were given a card assigning us the name of an actual person on the Titanic.  Mike was thrilled to find he was a first class passenger as before, he had been in third class and ended up dying.

The exhibit took us from the building of the ship through all the artifacts brought up during various dives to the ship's resting place on the bottom of the ocean.  There was even a replica of the Grand Staircase and an actual chunk of the hull.  Meg said they had added a jewellery display she hadn't seen before.  We reached the end to discover even though I was a third class passenger, I had survived the sinking whereas poor Mike had not.

We returned to our room for a brief respite before going off to the Tournament of Kings in Excalibur.  We'd done this dinner/show before and loved it so when Meg got complimentary tickets, we joined her and Mike.  Dinner begins with a bowl of tomato soup (no spoons) and a glass of either water or soda.  Beer can be bought but by the time our server reached us, we were pretty much done our meal.  The meal itself is a whole chicken, a stalk of broccoli, some potatoes, and a biscuit.  There is no cutlery so fingers are the utensil of the day.  It's lots of fun.  An East Indian family sitting nearby had a vegetarian version but I'm not sure what that entailed.

The show is based on a rendition of Arthur and the knights of the round table.  Each knight is the king of a country and his 'people' sit in a specific section of the oval indoor stadium.  We sat in Ireland's section so all our cheers were for our Irish king.  The show had feats of horsemanship, jousting, swordplay, and spear-throwing.   Dancing girls added some female talent.  It is a family show appealing to all ages.  Children under 3 get in free but they must sit on a parent's lap and eat off their plate.  With the amount of food we were served, I could have shared with several children.

As we waddled back to the hotel, we all agreed that doing so much in one day was not a holiday so we would take it easy on Friday.  Famous last words.