vegee sick in vegas part 2

Day 3

Up at 7:00 and hit the buffet at TI for breakfast again. Hey It's free. Hit the slots for a bit and then take the tram to Mirage. This time we just walk through the Mirage to get to the Forum shops. We did a little shopping, picking up a Barbie doll for our son's girlfriend for next Christmas. She's an avid collector, so we usually try to pick up one on sale in FAO Schwartz and put it away for later. This time we got the Mann's chinese theater Barbie for 1/2 price at 40.00.

We decide to hit the Flamingo. For the first time ever we checked out the wild life exhibit. What an enjoyable way to pass an hour. Especially when the weather was absolutely gorgeous. It was about 72 and the sun was shining, who could ask for more. We will probably do this again and recommend this as a welcome break from those money sucking machines they call slots. Also watched a wedding party while we were there.

While there we decided to see if we could get tickets to see Gladys Knight for that evening. We got our tickets and decided to check out Caesars.

Signed up for the Park Place connection card and hit the slots, or should I say they hit us. This was becoming a recurring theme for this day. I'm really not sure where this day went because by this time raging fevers, pounding headaches and hacking coughs were taking over. I know we went back to TI to change and then hit Harrahs buffet (free) before heading over to see Gladys Knight. Oh yeah, I had my only hand pay of the trip at Harrahs this afternoon and it wasn't even money.

I decided to try the Raining Diamond slots. I stuck in a 20 and hit the max credits. On the second pull I lined a up a whole row that said "silver". The machine locked down but didn't play any music or anything. I knew the slot paid off in Diamonds, but I certainly didn't know what silver was. Turns out silver is the first level of diamonds that you can win. There is silver, gold and platinum. I received a 1/4 carat diamond solitaire necklace set in 14 kt gold. All the cocktail waitressess came around and congratulated me and people stopped to look, but I just couldn't get excited. I would have preferred cash. Sounds terrible, I know, but I was spending money rather quickly and was worried about making it through the day on my budget so the cash would have been nice. When I sat down to play, I certainly never expected to actually win any diamonds.

Oh well, over to the Flamingo for the Gladys Knight show. We still had a little time before going into the show room, so decided we'd better play nickel slots for a while. Why is it that when you don't have much time, you always manage to find that elusive slot that want's to let you play for hours. I eventually had to cash out 900 nickels ( a regular 3 reel double diamond slot) and run to wash my hands before the show started.

Gladys was great even without the pips. Her brother Bubba (a former pip) added a lot of comic relief to the show and they did a nice tribute (Mr. Bo Jangles) to Sammy Davis Jr. We picked up some pictures that were taken at the show and paid for them even though we both looked like death warmed over.

I decided to put my nickel machine profits in a millionaire 7's machine and actually got 2 100.00 bonuses before cashing out. Looked like there was hope again.

Back to TI for some more gambling before bed. I should mention that while we didn't have any big wins, at least at TI we would hit some small ones so that we could play a little more. There was one Frank Sinatra slot that I would drop a 20 in a couple of times a day and usually could walk away with 100. Thank goodness for these small wins as otherwise we would have been in bed by 9:00 pm most nights.

Day 4

Today was my birthday and I truly believed that our luck had to improve. Our health certainly hadn't. We actually slept a little later today and didn't get up until aobut 8:00 am. TI buffet for breakfast again. I hit 1000 quarters on a monopoly slot and hubby had a few small hits on dollar slots so we were feeling flush again for a little while and actually up on the daily budget for the day. We cabbed it over to Palace Station to play some bingo. We have never won at this bingo, but we always come close and keep on trying. Played nickel slots in between sessions to conserve gambling funds and left here losers as well. Cabbed back to TI and changed for dinner at Bellagio. We were feeling adventurous and walked up the strip as the weather was so nice it certainly wouldn't be a problem even with our fevers.

Thanks to wagerworks we ate at the Bellagio buffet. John loves this buffet and I don't really care for it but being the good little wife that I am (ha ha) I worked my fingers to the bone so that we at least didn't have to pay for it as with what I eat there it isn't worth the price. He tried just about everything, I ate mashed potatoes, roast turkey and bread and butter. Exotic foods are just not for me. I did however get to have chocolate cake for dessert and this was good enough for me.

Club Bellagio had sent me $50 freeplay for my birthday and I had visions of parlaying this into a big win. I finally found a machine I wanted to play and promptly ran the whole 50 through without hitting anything. Happy birthday to me!

At this point both of us really wanted nothing more than to hit the sack but we had tickets for the Rat Pack and gamely kept on going as neither one of us wanted to be the one to poop out when the tickets cost us so much.

We hop in a cab to the Sahara. We were a little early so played for a bit here without hitting anything. Got in the line for the show and sat down to wait.

We were both popping cough drops and tylenol in hopes of not ruining the performance for everyone around us. We ordered soft drinks because we didn't think mixing alcohol with cold medicine was a good idea. Despite the lousy circumstances, we both thoroughly enjoyed the show. The cast was great and the band was fantastic. We sat in the golden circle which really makes you feel like you are participating in the show just like it was 1961. There were a couple of young girls behind us that dressed in the appropriate manner for that period and they were a hoot to see. Despite our medicine induced haze and fever stupor we had a great time. We'll probably see this one again some time because we figure if we enjoyed it that much while were ill, it must be great when you feel good.

I love the guy that played Dean Martin. Hubby thought the actions and voice of the Sinatra impersonator were great. All in all it was money well spent and ended my birthday off on a happy note.

Hopped a cab back to TI for some final gambling before bed.