Vegas - Part 3 - Saturday singsongs

After a fabulous buffet breakfast of cereal, fruit, cakes, bacon and eggs (and more) at the hotel, Mr and Mrs S, CT, Yule, Curtains and I set off for a wander into Vegas proper, and to see the sights and sounds of The Strip.

The weather was warm, although not fabulously hot, and quite windy, so we spent some time just strolling along and acclimatising to the activity happening, and the sheer size of the place. You cannot imagine how big the place is until you get there, and although the maps show the hotels, they are really, really deceptive, as there is literally no gap between where one place ends and another one starts. Pretty much the entire strip is filled with stalls, shops, casino's, etc etc.

First major stop was the Fashion Show Mall, where much wandering, oohing and aahing was done, and first purchase of the week was made! Fabulous new sunglasses for me! (I managed to resist the $200 Versace number, and went for cheap and cheerful instead!)

Past Treasure Island stopping to take a couple of pictures in front of the waterfall.

Then along to The Venetian which is actually quite amazing with it's ceiling painted to give the illusion that you are outside, and it's real canal with working gondolas built right inside the hotel complex.

After all this sightseeing, everybody was beginning to work up quite a thirst, so we set off in search of a decent bar, (preferably outside in the sunshine - which is actually easier said than done in Vegas, they all want you in the Casino's not out of them!) and came across this little gem! And what a find it was!

A funky (and actually quite funny - for Americans!), cheesy, 70's rip off band playing on the stage, the bar tenders swinging cocktail shakers around faster than you can imagine and pouring free shots straight down the throats of hundreds of customers, people dancing in front of the stage, and just masses of people laughing, chatting, singing and drinking.

After getting the beers in, we managed to blag a table right at the front and sat back and watched the show. It wasn't long before we were all singing along, and Mrs S and I hit the dancefloor in front of the stage. My wannabe piss taking hip hop moves a little later must have been good because I had several calls of "You go, girl" from the Americans at the table behind, who then handed me some luminous flashing medallion style necklace before proceeding to all high five me! I'm so down with my homies!! :-)

Mr and Mrs S, CT and I eventually dragged ourselves out of there at about 6pm (Yule, Curtains and Lanky had all only stayed for a short while!) after the culmination of the afternoon with an onstage booty shaking contest! Which was just the funniest thing I have seen in a long time. There were a few wannabe pornstars/lap dancers up there, but in the main they were just ordinary girls dragged up from the crowd and having a laugh. To prove the humour of the whole thing, the contest wasn't won by this little crowd pleaser...

... but instead by a 70yr old woman, who was accosted onto the stage in honour of her's and her daughter's birthdays. The crowd absolutely loved her shaking her very sensibly clad behind, and even flashing a bit of beige, firm support, granny bra! It was just too, too funny!!

By the time the four of us got back to the hotel, after an entire afternoon dancing, laughing and far too many beers for most, everyone was just about worn out! We had planned to spend the evening at Fremont Street, but after an hour or so of chilling in our rooms only Yule and Curtain were up for it. Mr S was feeling a tad unwell (bad stomach!), so it was left to Mrs S, CT, Lanky and I to head out to find somewhere to eat pretty close to home.

Three (nearly) empty plates of barbecue rack of ribs later (I just had Potato Skins!), and we were ready to leave the restaurant and head for another relatively early night, in bed by 10.30pm, ready for another Vegas day awaiting!