Day 23 Las Vegas

I was up early in the morning. When I went downstairs, Kusi was already awake and I gave him the promised haircut with Randell's razor by the pool. Falco, the German Shepherd (a drug-sniffing dog), watched us with interest. After that, Shelli asked us if we wanted to go on a neighborhood tour until the others were up. Of course we did! We took the 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. Shelli briefly stopped at Michael Jackson's brother's house so that Kusi could take a photo. At that moment, Mr. Jackson stepped out onto the balcony and waved to us. It was fun but also interesting to explore the area. After breakfast, we were allowed to rent paddle boats and stand-up paddleboards at the club. However, it was very hot and we didn't 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 in the pool. Shelli brought us flame cake and pizza rolls and we enjoyed the view and the more relaxed afternoon.

Finally, we got ready to go into the city. We declined Shelli's car and drove towards downtown Las Vegas. As soon as we got out of the parking garage, we crossed a bridge into 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 went to a very good restaurant. We had burgers, steak, and garlic fries. We didn't have room for dessert because we soon had to hop into a taxi and go to the Rio to watch 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 main strip and watched the water show in front of the Bellagio. Inside the casino, there was a room with a flower exhibition where all the objects were made of flowers. We had a dessert right next door, which cost as much as the entire dinner alone. We walked 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. It was already 1 o'clock in the morning and we decided to go home. If only it were that easy!

We went back to the Venetian and into the first casino we entered. However, we couldn't find the right exit for about 20 minutes and only managed to do so after asking three times. Finally in the parking garage, we were all thirsty and had to buy water and iced tea from the vending machines. We finally set off. The head of the family was on the driver's seat and mother was in the passenger seat. Not a good combination! We missed about five exits and put the GPS to the test. 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 too new for the navigation system and Marielle's sense of direction was once again called upon. However, this worked wonderfully (at least something) and we finally reached the bed at half past three.