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This trip included myself, my wife Marie, and 2 friends, Eric and Kellie who were celerating their wedding anniversery. The trip began on May 17th and concluded on May 20th. We flew Southwest airlines, non-stop, Spokane, Wa to Las Vegas. Thanks to DING, we were able to obtain tickets for $160.00 r/t per person.

This was Kellies 2nd visit to Las Vegas. Unfortunately, her first time she was there on business, so she did not have a lot of time to enjoy Vegas the way it was meant to be enjoyed. She only really had time to hit a few casinos on the strip, so never made it downtown.

It was Erics first visit. Since I have been there a number of time before, I was kind of elected the tour guide. The only place I really thought they should be sure to see was Freemont St, and we made plans to visit down there on our first night.

Our flight left right on time and by staying up late the night before, I was able to score each of us the coverted "A" boarding passes. I suggested we try to get seats on the right side of the plane, since it would offer a better view of Vegas as we appraoched for our landing. The "A" boarding passes made this possible.

We actually arrived a little ahead of schedule. After making our way to baggage claim, I called our own Dear Cabbie for an airport pick up. Traffic was it's usual nightmare, and we got our luggage quickly so we had a short wait for DC to arrive. But he finally made it and off we went to the Barbary Coast.

Check in was a breeze, since there was no one on line when we arrived. I had thought of trying the good old $20.00 trick for a fountain view room, but I chickened out. So instead, I tried a different approach, and just asked the clerk if she had a fountain room available. She checked and said she had only 1, but it was a single king sized bed, smoking room. I told her that was fine and we got room 312.

The view from the room was really good. It looked especially nice at night, with all the lights of the strip, but every time I tried to take a picture, the flash reflected off the glass and ruined the shot.
	But I have to admitt, it was one of the best strip view rooms we have had in all our visits to Las Vegas.
And as the name implies, the room offered a pretty good view of the fountains at the Bellagio. Here they are just before one of the shows started.
	And here the show has begun.
We were never in the room during a night show, so don't know how nice the fountains looked at night from the room.
	But they sure looked pretty from the room during the day time.

Eric and Kellie decided they would split up and go exploring on their own while Marie and I decided to head to the Flamingo to check out the Blazing 7's slots. These machines are my all time favorite in Las Vegas. Before that, I went to get my FREE hot dog using my fun book coupon from the BC. Well I was disappointed. Since my last trip, they had changed it. You now had to place a $20.00 wager in the Race Book. I had placed a $20.00 wager on a ball game, but seems the BC considers the Race Book and Sport Book to be seperate animals.

Since the dumb hot dog only cost $1.50 I decided to just pay for it. Ahhh. Another Vegas perk goes by the wayside....

Well off to the Flamingo. We finally found the Blazing 7's and I stuck in a $20.00. I played it down to about 10 bucks with no luck and cashed out and changed machines. Played that out, and still no happy results.

Fortunately Marie had a little better luck. This paid $75.00.
	A few pulls later resulted in this $50.00 win. So in no time at all she was ahead by $125.00.

After playing a number of slots, and getting skunked at all of them, we headed back to the Barbary Coast to hook up with Eric and Kellie. This was going to be the night we took in the Fremont St experience. Neither of them had been downtown, and the effect of all that neon, in your face, up close and personal, was something I didn't want them to miss.

Nothing says Fremont St like neon.
	The 4 Queens is no slouch when it comes to the magic tubes.
What some might call the jewel of downtown.
	Not a bad buffet, and pretty good Blazing 7's.
Binions' seemd to be cleaner and brighter than I last remembered it. But I miss the "Old Shoe".

We got there in time for the first light show of the night, and they were both pretty impressed. By now Eric was so hungry, he was threatening to eat a cat if he could catch one. We thought of having dinner to Tony Roma's in the Fremont casino, but the wait time was about 30 minutes.

So we decided to take in their seafood buffet. The cost was not too bad, and I more than ate my fill of fried shrimp. Over all I would say it was not too bad, it was buffet food. The waiter was attentive and keep the glasses filled and the table clear, plus there was only a short line, so what more could you ask for?

After eating, we went back to the casino and wandered around. I found some Blazing 7's and started to play.

	After running a few bucks through one machine, my luck had finally changed..
A few pulls later and presto....
	And the fruits of my labor of love. Because I love winning.

After listening to me ramble on and on about the Blazing 7's, Eric decided to try his hand. He lined up triple 7's on the pay line for $75.00! His first ever Las Vegas casino win, and he was hooked. Blazing 7's had become his favorite slot and as it turned out, it would pay nicely for him.

We hung out downtown for a while longer, going to Mermaids so Kellie could pick up one of those huge drinks they sell. Eric also brought a football of beer. He was amazed that you could walk around freely with a drink in your hand and no one gave you any static (or tickets)... :)

We walked over to the Plaza and found a TV crew just wrapping up filming some kind of poker tournement. The winner was being presented a check for a little over $320,000. Needless to say, he seemed pretty happy. I wanted to run over and rub his head for good luck, but Marie wisely talked me out of it.

Day 2:

Eric and Kellie had run into some timeshare folks yesterday, and to score some free slot play and show tickets to some show or other, they agreed to go listen to the sales pitch today. I expressed my regrets, wished them luck and told them to call me when they got back.

One attraction I was determined to see this time around was the Borg 3D show at the Hilton. So Marie and I brought an all day monorail pass and headed south to the MGM with the intent of purchasing some half price tickets at the Coke Bottle building.

When ever we are in Las Vegas, Marie makes it a point to stop in to the MGM to check on the lions. This time was no exception, and she even had her picture taken with one of the cubs.

As we left one of the side enterences for the MGM, I took this picture of New York/New York.
	If you happen to have an M&M fetish, this place was built with you in mind.

We picked up two tickets for $56.00 including taxes (regular price was $34.99 + tax each) and headed north on the monorail for the Hilton. Our tickets allowed us unlimited access to both attractions, so we took in the Borg 3D one first. I thought it was pretty nice and held a few surprised that made us jump. We then took the the Klingon show, which I had taken before. I still like that one better.

We then decided to have lunch so we went to Quarks Bar. I was going to order the Warp Core Breach, but changed my mind and went with coffee as my drink.

While eating lunch, I had a nice chat with this Ferengi fella. We both came to the conclusion that Quark was a pain in the lobs, if you know what I mean.

After the show, we played a few slots without much luck, and headed back mid strip to wait for Eric and Kellie. Once we got back to the Barbary Coast, we decided to walk over to the Bellagio and take in a fountain show.

	The show was just startig when we got there.
I've seen a lot of these shows, and I have to admitt this one was kind of disappointing.
	Not a whole lot of fountain activity in this show. Pretty boring actually.

We than decided to pay a visit to Caesars.

Classic Greco art.
	Part of the fountains approaching the main entrence.
The Ermpoers statue greets guests as they enter the casino.
	Caesar and Cleo with a couple of guards pause for a photo opp.
Caesar than bid me to join the picture. Hey, when the Big Kahuna gives you an invite, you don't take a pass. I asked Cleo how things were going on the Nile and she said fine.
	Some sort of horse fish god hybrid out front. Them Romans were some weird dudes.

We left and crossed over to the Paris. I looked up at the Eifel Tower and thought this was a nice shot with the moon and all.

I thought this was a neat picture.

After meeting up with Eric and Kellie, he wanted to try playing some Bingo. The ladies stayed on the strip, and we caught the shuttle from the BC to the Gold Coast. I didn't have any better luck at Bingo than with the slots and neither did Eric. We walked around the casino for a bit, droppig some bucks into random Blazing 7's and still no luck.

We found ourselves walking among the table games and found a $5.00 black jack table with no one playing. We decided to buy in for $100.00 each. Just than a man, his wife and son from India sat down, with the man and son playing and mom just watching the action. Another lady also sat down.

Eric can be pretty funny after a few brews, and he had the table in stiches. I must have played for about 2 hours, and walked away $50.00 down, but I sure got some great entertainment value for the $50.00.

It was after 2:00am when we left so the shuttle had stopped running. We ran into a husband and wife having a domestic argument outside. Not too big a deal, except they were both cab drivers, and the only 2 outside. It made for a somewhat interesting ride back to the BC. We opted to take the wifes cab, but numerous bottles of Coors Light and a couple shots of whiskey we had consumed help take some of the fear factor out of the ride.

Now, we arrived back at the BC, and the distance from the cab to the front door was maybe 100 feet. A straight line shot, no obstructions, no bushes, no trees, just wide open flat pavement. Yet somehow Eric and I managed to get seperated.

I found a $5.00 BJ table and sat down to play. It must have been trainee night, because the dealer at my table did not seem too sharp. At one point, she was hand shuffling the cards and they got away from her and flew all over the table.

I only played a few hands and decided that was enough for me. It was now almost 4:00am and I was feeling no pain but was hungry enough to eat a cat as Eric would say. So I stopped in the Victoria Room for one of their early morning breakfast specials that really hit the spot. It was than time to call it a night (or morning)

We meet up with Eric and Kellie about noon and they wanted to see the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay. So we brought some monorail tickets and headed south. Checked out the lions at MGM and crossed over to catch the tram from Excalibur.

While walking to the Shark Reef we passed some one dollar Blazing 7's and noticed one woman who had lined up three Triple symbols on the pay line of one machine for a pay out of $10,000. She was pretty excited about that.

After seeing the Reef (which was ok, but a little over priced I thought) we were heading back to the tram to to go the Luxor and passed those same 7's.

	Eric put 40 bucks into the same machine the lady had won 10 grand on and lined up this little win... $1,000 cash!
I figured what the heck, seems these machines want to give away money. I put $21.00 into this machine and when I was down to 9 credits hit this nice $150.00

We ate at the Luxor buffet which was pretty good. Our waitress was on the ball and very attentive. She refilled the coffee/soda cups before they were even empty. We hung around the Luxor for a bit playing a few slots without much luck, so decided to head back to mid strip and take a taxi to the Wynn. We wanted to see what all the hype was about.

We grabbed a taxi from the BC and the driver did not seem too thrilled about taking the fare to Wynn's. He told us during the ride a lot of drivers did not like to take fares there because it is still such a headache to get in and out of and I saw his point when we arrived. Traffic there was a nightmare. But we finally made it to the front doors.

Now, for 2.7 billion dollars, I have to say, the Wynn was nice. All the live flowers in the place adds a nice touch. Marie liked that the coffee shops were well lit, so you could actually see the person you were talking with.

I noticed the floor staff were always going around pushing seats back in front of the slots, wiping down the fronts of the machines to keep the brass shiny and smudge free, and I seldom noticed empty glasses, or trash built up around the slot machines like a lot of other places.

I broke in my maiden visit to the Wynn with this nice 600 coin win.

We discovered of all the casinos we visited, the only 2 we did not get cell service in was the Imperial Palace and the Wynn. This place was packed, and it was begining to look pretty grim that we would ever find Eric and Kellie, but while wandering around, we actually bumped into them.

It was getting late and we were leaving in the morning, so wisely decided we should head back. I asked a parking attendent out front where the taxi line was, and he pointed to a line that was about 12 blocks long. YIKES! We decided if we wanted to get a taxi before becoming eligible for medicare, we should walk to the Frontier and get a cab from there.

This driver took us down the strip, so Eric and Kellie got a mini tour of the strip on the ride back. Walking through the BC at 1:00am found every table packed to capacity. Nice to know the economy is alive and well in Vegas.

Our last few hours were spent with Marie and I playing some slots at the BC with Eric and Kellie out shopping for a poker chip set Eric had been looking for since arriving.

I stuck a hundred into this slot and played up/down for a long time. I decided a few more pulls than I would have to cash out to get my cab to the airport. I than hit this win for 400 coins, so I got my hundred back plus an additional $49.00.

Our flight was scheduled to leave to 10:30 and we got to the airport at 9:00. Big mistake. Curb side checkin was a mess. Inside was worse. Add to that the 300+ people going through security and we arrived at the gate 7 minutes before departure.

Flight back was uneventful, since I slept the whole way. Marie, using that famous female intuition, pulled our car keys out of the suitcase while packing at the BC. A good thing too, because Southwest lost our luggage. Well actually they didn't lose it, it just spent a little more time in Vegas than we did. I reported it to the Southwest rep who took a report and said it would probably be on the next flight from Vegas. Since Marie had the foresight to save our keys, we were at least able to drive home (60 miles). S/W delivered our luggage about 9:pm that night.

Well there you have it, our latest adventures in Sin City. As usual we had a pretty good time, and brought home some good memories. I hope you enjoyed reading about our trip and viewing our photos.

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