We had a straight flight to Vegas and it was very long. I'm not sure I like straight flights but you are assured that you make it to your destination on time.
We flew Southwest and you have to pick your own seat. This man sat in the aisle seat and he had 2 empty seats beside him. Someone asked him if anyone was sitting there and he said his wife and kids. Totally hilarious because he wasn’t with anyone except a bunch of guys. That was a priceless moment. But an older lady came by and asked the same question and he gave her the seat. But that was so funny!!!!
I had to take a picture of this cool new limo we saw.
The Latin Grammys were an experience to be remembered. The arena was gorgeous. We picked up our tickets and observed all the wonderful Latin people together. I could tell this was going to be an interesting experience. We were meaning to ask the worker people if we could bring our cameras but noticed on the ticket that we couldn’t. Well we were mistaken. We didn’t bring our cameras and we were the only ones that didn’t have one. We tried to take pictures using our camera phones but that didn’t work. We only have our memories of this eventful evening. I guess we know for next time. Well, we didn’t know that many people that performed and every thing was in Spanish. Everyone was really nice to us and I’m glad we were able to experience this. Ricky Martin performed but he wasn’t as good as one guy who did wonderful. He had me wanting to jump out of my seat. We have to find out who he was because he was so awesome. Ricky Martin had the Blue Man Group cast with him and they did pretty darn good. Daddy Yankee wasn’t too bad. I remembered the song he did. He came out with the people from Stomp Out Loud and some dancing girls. Lastly, Sheila E did a small performance with a group. She did good as usual. Gloria Estefan was having an after party but we decided not to go because of the huge crowd. We didn’t feel like being involved in it. We ate at PF Chang that night. Too bad we really couldn’t eat our leftovers since we didn’t have a refrigerator in our rooms. I think one of the performers came to eat there too after we had left.
The next day we went to the mall and shopped a little. I don’t remember if we did that much gambling. That night we went to the Orleans and had lots of fun there. The bar waitresses sure didn’t wear that much. They have to be really comfortable with themselves and I bet they get lots of tips. I played a little on the slots but didn’t have that much luck here. We had a wonderful buffet here. It was one of the best in Vegas. I can’t believe how big it was and the food was seasoned to perfection. Overall we had a really good time here. We may even stay here next time but we aren’t sure. We then went to Jackie’s (Justin's sister) bar for a little while. 
I had to get a picture of Justin's favorite video game gadget the PSP. 
Our third day, Saturday, it was very good. We did a lot because we went to Ceasar’s Palace and their wonderful Forum shops. I got pair of sterling silver Tiffany and Co earrings. They are special because they are a brand new item and no one has seen them yet. Speaking of Ceasars’ shops, we got Burt Reynolds autograph. He has really aged. When we took our picture with him, he gave me a squeeze around my mid section so he is a fresh old man. We were also able to see Bobby Flay at the Mesa Grill. He was signing autographs for his new book. We just took his picture because that line was way too long to stand in to get his autograph. He was signing autographs for a long time and he didn’t look that happy. We hung out on the strip a little bit. We did a lot and signed up for a lot of players' cards. We tried to make it over to the ESPN zone to watch the USC game but they wanted you to pay $10 per person per hour and we weren’t even going to think about paying that much for it. So we went back to the hotel.
We also went inside the Paris hotel. That was another nice place and it was cool to see all their signs were in French. It really felt like I was in Paris with the way the shops were set up and the types of shops. I liked this place too. We just walked around here. Nothing really sparked us to gamble here so we didn’t. I did get a cool picture of the bottom of the Eiffel Tower. 
On Sunday, we went to downtown Vegas. We parked our car at Main Street station and signed up for as many players’ club cards as we could. We even got a few free slot plays that they were giving away as promotions. We ate at the deli in Binion’s. This was one of the best deli sandwiches I have ever had. The meat portions were wonderful and we weren’t that hungry for dinner. We then went over to Fitzgerald’s. We weren’t planning on staying there very long but found an empty table of “Switch Blackjack.” We dropped our $40 and stayed for a good 3 hours. We had so much fun. Our dealer was a very nice lady from Ethopia. She helped us out as much as she could for fear of getting fired for helping us as much as she did. Justin was up over $100 and was even giving me money because I had lost mine. But he walked away with money when I didn’t. We did have a lot of fun at this game and will definitely be back to play there again. We didn’t get to see the light show at the Freemont Experience but they did have the military band Tops In Blue. I would have stayed to watch it but we had seen the show with the same performers in it. It looked like everyone was having a good time and we left. I couldn’t believe how late it was because we were there since 11 that morning.
On Monday we went to Freed’s bakery. You have to pay homage to this wonderful bakery. We got this wonderful wedding cake that had strawberries as one of its layers. And of course I bought out every last one of their chocolate covered macaroons they had. They have recently opened another bakery just for cakes and we went there too. Well, I had to buy out all their macaroons there too. So after doing this we rode out to Silverton’s Casino. This is a very nice casino because it is a Bass Pro shop as well. We walked in the store and they had all these stuffed animals there. It was the actual animal that was stuffed, the anatomy and everything. It was quite interesting. So we ate a wonderful and huge buffet. The décor of this facility was “spot on” and I’m glad we got to experience it. I played a little here too. I was so confident in myself from doing well on Freemont street that I played two hands when we played Blackjack. I did well for a while but then lost it all. I even got 7 blackjacks and that was way cool. I was never that lucky and I sure did feel confident in myself but my luck there didn’t last very long. Then we left there with our shirts still in tact and had dinner with Jackie. We ate at Hooters. We got 50 wings and I can’t believe I was stuffed after 8 wings. They were yummy.
Our last day flew by. I really didn’t want it to end. We had so much fun. We did so much stuff this time around. We went to the Palms and I did really well. At this time I was up about $40. However I got the fever in me and had to put more money in the machines at Stratosphere. I finally got the hang of the penny machines. You have to bet the middle number of lines and then put a 2x max bet on it. I did really well with this strategy. On our last night we decided to go back to the Orleans because we had so much fun there but the tables were not nearly as nice as the tables on Freemont street. Justin was at one table and the dealer wasn’t even talking. He said several times she had to ask him how much his cards were worth. I went to another table and I felt bad for betting my little $5 while everyone else was betting $100 chips. Needless to say I didn’t stay at this table very long there was something interesting that happened while I was sitting at the tables at the Orleans. This man walked up to the Pit Boss asking to open up a $500 table. The pit boss just looked at him like he was crazy. Then he said he had just dropped $4000 at the Mirage and he guessed they did not need his money. He then walked off. First of all he didn’t even need to be trying to go somewhere like the Orleans and he should have gone to the Wynn or some place like that. But we did go to the Wynn and it was breathtaking. The décor and everything was gorgeous. I wish we could stay there one time. I think we need to try to save some extra money to stay there. Everyone was so nice there. Now they had some high roller tables. There were quite a few people in there too. Their low tables started at $15 and of course went up as high as $100. They had a table game called War which looked like so much fun. However, it would probably go by really fast. I would love to play that game if the limit was lower.
We went to Planet Hollywood to do some shopping at the mile of shops. Their shops were nothing compared to Ceasars’ shops. We went to Hard Rock hotel and looked at all the memorabilia. I think ZZ Top was there for a special function but we couldn’t see anything. I did well on the slots here too from my strategy that I just discovered with penny slots. We left there to go to the Palms and Orleans.
This was actually worn by Prince. How cool is that?! And these are his words from his song, "U Don't Have to Be Rich to Be My Girl...."
We also went inside the Paris hotel. That was another nice place and it was cool to see all their signs were in French. It really felt like I was in Paris with the way the shops were set up and the types of shops. I liked this place too. We just walked around here. Nothing really sparked us to gamble here so we didn’t. I did get a cool picture of the bottom of the Eiffel Tower. We didn’t get to go to any clubs. I had passes to get in and everything. It was just that we did so much stuff during the day that we were too tired to go dancing. We have to make an effort to go next time. It was cool that the Pussycat dolls had a section of Ceasar’s that they were dealers.
Patience is a virtue. We have been up since 5:45am this morning. Our flight left on time but upon arriving in Nashville, there was a bad storm and they would not let anyone land. There was bad lightening. So we were in the holding pattern. We did not have enough gas to keep circling so we had to go to Birmingham to fuel up. We then sat on the runway while they fueled the plane. A lady had to be taken off because she had an ear infection and got sick. They were able to re-route 5 passengers to another flight while we were waiting, too bad I couldn’t get a magnet while we were waiting. So….comes to find out that our connecting flight hadn’t even left Louisville. We are waiting for our flight to show up. Like I said, this was a going to be a long day.
We finally took off. We go to baggage claim and our bags are not there. We were looking for our claim ticket and couldn’t find it. Justin blamed it on me that he gave me the ticket. Well he finally found it. So we stand in line and wait. I’m very upset with him at this point because he left his car keys in his luggage which we did not have. So at this point it does not look like we have any way of getting home. It just so happens there was another flight coming from Nashville and coming to Raleigh. Thank God our baggage was on this flight. We are driving home as I am typing now. We are too late to pick up Cookie so it seems we will be getting her tomorrow.
We had bad news on our trip that Justin’s grandfather, Arnold Brown, passed a way after a long battle with his lungs. May he rest in peace and be in no more pain. I am praying for his family to be strong in this time of loss.
