We stayed at the Mandalay Bay, which is the worst of any hotel that I’ve ever stayed at. There was limited easy access to food and drinking, and I could hear every last sound of every last person as they came to bed. And it smelled funny. And the bathrooms in the casino were yucky.

We shopped, which I haven’t really spent much time doing in Vegas before. You can’t buy too much due to all the walking and carrying, as I found out halfway through a day of walking and carrying too much. There are a lot of neat little boutiques and things to see while you shop, which is all primarily at the Venetian, Caesar’s and the Aladdin, which is currently being turned in to a Planet Hollywood casino. Bleh.

The interesting thing about this trip was definitely the array of cab rides, as one of our companions would chat it up for the ‘scoop’. These people are crazy. One guy doesn’t wear his seat belt because he was choked with it once. One guy walked across the border and married a Dutch girl. We learned all about the City Center Project, Vegas’ most expensive undertaking, where there will be rooms you can live in and rent out when you’re out of town and make a little money on.

We went down to the old strip, another thing I’ve never done. It was a little sketchy, but a lot of fun, something totally different. I had no idea what to expect. Don’t ever order a mixed drink (eew) but otherwise you’re safe. The tables are full of helpful friendly dealers that will help you learn to play. The light shows and attractions were neat as well.

The thing that struck me about Vegas this trip were the sheer number of people fighting. Perhaps I was always too drunk to notice in the past, but maybe Vegas isn’t a good place for couples. PH and I were cracking up at every turn seeing these huge arguments. It lead to a ‘cheers’ each time we saw someone fighting while we were drinking, because we were having good times.

Here’s us, and Elvis, well, two Elvises, (is that Elvii?) for you: