Viva Las Vegas!

I read somewhere recently what the percentage of revenue from gaming was in Las Vegas and it was much lower than I expected. I shouldn't have been surprised, though. There is a LOT more to do there than just gamble. In fact, there are far more things to do than can be squeezed into a four or five day vacation. Debby commented on a recent post that "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas". While that might be true in some instances (and I'm certainly not telling all here), I don't mind sharing a few of the things we did.

I've visited Madame Tussuad's in Las Vegas, Amsterdam, and London. The Vegas MT is my favorite so I was glad we made it there on this trip. It was uncrowded enough that we had ample opportunity to snap pictures with all our favorite celebrities. I would post some of the photos here, but I'm not sure I could narrow down which ones to share.

We walked past the Lion Habitat at the MGM Grand just as they had two of them out on display. They looked too young to be the cub my younger kids had their picture made with on our last visit.

I love aquariums and Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay ranks right up there with the best of them. The first part of the aquarium is good, but the final room is the best part. You walk through a Plexiglas tube (surrounded by water) into the "shipwreck" where there is a spectacular display of predator fish swimming all around you! The aquarium also includes a fun "petting zoo" where you can touch little manta rays and horseshoe crabs.

It seemed like everywhere we looked on the strip we saw people carrying bright yellow M&M shopping bags. By the second day of our trip, so were we! M&M World is always packed with people. I remembered that from my last trip there. I also remembered the huge display of M&M dispensers where you can fill your own bags with every color M&M imaginable. I didn't see the coconut or pretzel varieties, but they had dark chocolate, peanut, almond, and peanut butter. Sold by the pound, it's amazing how quickly it adds up. I was proud of my restraint on this visit.

I think my very favorite Vegas attraction is the Tournament of Kings at the Excalibur. This was my fourth time to see it and I don't think it will ever grow old for me! Part of the novelty is digging in to a meal served without any utensils. There's jousting, knights at the round table, dancing maidens, good guys, bad guys, horses.... huzzah!!

Most hotels have an "in-house" show. The Monte Carlo hosts Lance Burton, Master Magician. We booked that for our last night and had great seats, Row D on the Main Floor.

Oh....and we went to see the flamingos at ... where else but the Flamingo Hilton!

Many things got left undone. They'll just have to wait for another trip to Vegas.