Tag 23 Las Vegas

Early in the morning, I was up and about. When I went downstairs, Kusi was already awake, and I gave him the promised haircut with Randell's razor outside by the pool. Falco, the shepherd dog (a drug detection dog), observed us with interest. Afterward, Shelli asked us if we wanted to go on a neighborhood tour until the others were up. Of course, we did! Off we went, naturally in a golf cart, to the golf courses, the clubhouses, and the private beach. Then we passed through the gate that can only be opened with a code and drove past Celine Dion's house. At Michael Jackson's brother's house, Shelli stopped briefly so that Kusi could take a photo. At that moment, Mr. Jackson came out onto the balcony and waved at us. It was fun but also interesting to explore the area like that. After breakfast, we were allowed to rent paddle boats and stand-up paddles at the club. It was very warm, however, and we did not paddle all the way to the other end of the lake. After about half an hour, we had enough and returned to the house to cool off a bit in the pool. Shelli brought us Flammkuchen and Pizza Rolls, and we enjoyed the view and the slightly quieter afternoon.

Finally, we got ready to drive into the city. We borrowed Shelli's car and drove towards Downtown Las Vegas. Just out of the parking garage, it went over a bridge to the first casino. The first stop was the Venetian. This casino is modeled after Venice and even has a river with the typical boats inside and around the building. Then we proceeded to a very good restaurant. We ate burgers, meat, and garlic fries. There was no room left for dessert, as we soon had to hop into a taxi and go to the Rio to see the Broadway show Rock of Ages. It was a good show with a lot of well-known rock music. The singers had good voices and were also good actors. Two hours later, we took a taxi back to the actual Strip and saw the water show in front of the Bellagio. Inside the casino itself, there was a room with a flower exhibition where all the items were made of flowers. We had a dessert next door that cost as much as the entire dinner alone. We strolled all the way to New York New York with the Statue of Liberty and the Excalibur Hotel in the background. We crossed the street and marched to the casino with the Eiffel Tower and the small replica of Paris. By then, it was already 1 AM, and we decided to head home. If only it were that simple!

We returned to the Venetian and to the first casino we had entered. However, we couldn't find the right exit for about 20 minutes and managed to do so only after asking three times. Finally arriving at the parking garage, we were obviously all thirsty and had to buy water and iced tea from the vending machine first. Eventually, we set off. The head of the family was in the driver's seat, and mother was in the passenger seat. Not a good combination! We missed about five exits and made the GPS sweat. We also couldn't turn off the windshield wipers, and every few minutes, they had something to say. In the end, we had to take a shortcut that was still too new for the GPS, and Marielle's sense of direction was once again put to the test. However, this worked wonderfully (at least somewhat), and we were finally in bed by half-past three.