Las Vegas - A Guilty Pleasure!

I had my reservations about Las Vegas, not knowing a thing about Black Jack or Poker - it was set to be a bit of a miss. My excitement, however broached as one of the songs on the CD my big bro had made me rocked out 'Viva Las Vegas' courtesy of Mr Presley... I was beyond excited - a little more so than Hollywood, I believe! So on we drove to our motel... not Caesar's Palace, but a sweet haven away from San Diego!

Although the stars live in Beverly Hills and Hollywood, driving onto the Las Vegas strip and knowing Brad Pitt and George Clooney had walked these streets, seen these casinos, sipped a G and T in the Bellagio, I was beside myself and as my first dollar was sucked into the first 'Lucky 7's' machine I think Callum saw a side to me that he never knew I had... a gambling side!

Alas - this lasted all of about half an hour before my bottom lip was once again tripping me up as 'the House' had once again won. The excitement and money gone, we decided to take a walk down 'The Strip'. Walking into The Bellagio simply took my breath away - how the other half live! Quite finely thank you very much! A quick scoot around, we finely decided we'd had enough of 'not belonging' and sulked out. But just as I was about to write it off as a rich man's play pen, I was near reduced to tears by the most outstanding spectacle - A fountain show... 'Fountain Show - Ha' I hear you laugh... but believe me - you have never seen anything like it. Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman belted out 'Time To Say Goodbye' as the water shot up into the air, each separate fountain dancing with its partner, gently lit by beautiful lights - it was quite simply breath taking. I could have stayed there all night, but the fountains stopped, Andrea and Sarah were taken out of the cd player, and Cher started - time to say goodbye to the Bellagio and hello to Caesar's Palace next door.

Much of the same here, the casino not as impressive as it's neighbour; but the buildings, fantastic again. Las Vegas knows how to do it! Onto 'Paris' with it's miniature Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triumph - just brilliant. Not wanting to gamble any more of our holiday money, we retreated to our room, quite content with the sights of the evening.

I have another confession - another 'guilty pleasure' - I spent two hours inside of an Arcade today... please don't judge! I have to admit, I really did have a good time!! Having thrashed Callum twice on two driving games, I was well and truly into the swing of things! When he finally scored the equaliser, my first car's brakes were faulty and the second one had off traction - honestly! I never thought I'd see the day when I was slaying zombies, shooting Darth Vader, or driving a Ferrari around Italy - but today was it - and what a day it was. I released the inner child and had bags o' fun!!!

A-hem... back to the matter in hand - a Graduate trip around the States(!). We have one more night here then we're pushing on down to Phoenix. We'll be arriving in Captiva in just over two weeks, it's starting to go really fast now, now that I've settled in to the pace of things here. I'm really very excited about seeing the guys at Jensens, let's hope I don't get distracted by any more fountains or arcades!!!

Jen