Vegas travelogue: Days Four and Five.

The Last Stretch

Exhaustion had set in pretty heavily by the fourth day - the babies weren't waking up for an earthquake, let alone a parent. At this point, Zoe was pretty much fighting and screaming and kicking whenever we got her into the car seat, and Alex just wanted to be held all the time because he was just so tired. My mom wasn't well rested herself, having been harassed in the middle of the night because of the hotel - more on that later. I started out cranky because some guy next door was threatening to call security because my son was playing with the door, and waking him up at 9 in the morning. Dick.

We started out at the Bellagio, since we didn't get a chance to hang out there on Tuesday night. The conservatory garden was quite the sight to see, even this time round. That is just one swanky ass hotel. I even told my mom to go check out the bathrooms because they were so nice. Marble and just really sweet decor. Just too awesome for words, really. We hit a few other hotels, nothing really particular about our pattern of walking - we just did a whole lot of it.

The showcase mall was always fun, with the Coke and M&M's store. We skipped the Coke store in favor of the candy store, and just breezed through it rather quickly. My mom, Zoe, and I ended up wandering the store together, and into the 3-D show which was free and short. But since there didn't seem to be a way out, we ended up watching it anyhow. Zoe does not like 3-D, with or without glasses. She climbed up my face a bunch of time when the sound effects and chair effects came on, and I basically had to console her while crossing my eyes to see the 3-D effect. That pretty much gave me a headache for the rest of the day. In the same building, we also ended up taking the employee elevator to the parking lot. Don't ask.

When we went back for the babies' naps, my mom requested once again to speak to the manger. Basically, some check-in clerk somehow checked my room in the correct dates, and my mom's room in 3 days later or something, so essentially the room she was staying it was showing up as an empty room. So at 1 in the morning, people were trying to enter the room, and then the front desk called up and harassed my mom further about being checked in. So after talking to the manager some, he realized that it was the hotel's fault so we got two nights free for one of the rooms.

During the babies' naps, I went downstairs with my wife to gamble a little and yes, this was the first time since coming to Vegas when we got to actually gamble. The kids have just been with us all the time, and they really frown upon people who drop coins into slot machines while holding kids. I blew $20 on slots and felt immediately violated, despite convincing myself that that was all I was going to lose. I think it was just losing it that fast that threw me off. My wife had better luck - which is primarily based on the fact that I have no luck at all, so she has more than usual.

When we returned, Alex was still out - so much so that we were in the room watching TV and he didn't even stir. So my mom and I went back down, and she gave me a few rolls of nickels to play with. I decided that that was more in my vein of risk-taking, so I tried out video poker and actually dug it. I had some feeling of control in video poker whereas I had nothing in slots. So we played some more and when back up for the kids. We didn't leave the hotel again till almost 8.

We caught the tail end of a free show at the Tropicana at 9, and then walked around some more. Visiting Excalibur and the Luxor. I had my age guessed by the jester at the Former, and she pegged me as 35 years old, 7 years older than I actually am. I comtempled suicide, but decided that I was actually too young for that. My wife rejoiced quietly for not being too much of a cradle robber. And for my prize, Alex got some funky neon orange bear. My mom attempted to stump the jester, but she got her age spot on. Which was little consolation to me.

At the end of the night, we were just worn to the bone. Our bodies were pretty much walking to one destination to the next, but we ourselves were somewhere else. We got back to the hotel even later, at around midnight. My wife and I gave it a last hurrah by hitting the casinos again, and I broke even at video poker, actually making a nickel profit. So that was cool. My wife was so tired that she gave up early.

The next day was exciting because the first thing in order was to hit the car wash, since it was open at 8am. So we did, my mom and I, and having to fork out $11.95 for a rental car wash was about the most retarded thing ever. We got that done, drove to the airport, and luckily for us, the babies slept through the plane ride. The Shuttle express didn't know how to drive us back, but we got back eventually.

And I can now stop writing about this trip.