Sushi, Ponies, and Pyramids

So... Another too-fast weekend in Vegas has come and gone. And we had a blast! One of these days, we will sit down and have a nice dinner again, instead of room service and quick meals scarfed on the go. I did learn a new trick with sushi, though. This girl was sitting next to us at the sushi bar at Mandalay Bay and ordered her roll to be made with soy paper instead of seaweed.

Here's a little side note, Dr Pop loves sushi. Me? Notsomuch, but not for lack of trying. And trying. And again with the trying! I have it narrowed down to the seaweed. It's too fishy, if you know what I mean. Anyway, we struck up a conversation and the next time Dr Pop and I go for Japanese food, he's going to order a sushi roll with soy paper and I'm going to try it! Yay! This might be the difference and then I can be normal.

We got to our hotel Friday night and immediately headed down to the casino floor to feed the slots and the craps tables. After a quick round, we were back in our room changing clothes to head up to Mix (the 64th floor club at the top of our hotel). The views were phenomenal. Better views than the Ghost Bar, for sure! I felt a little ill, though, so we left and made it an early-ish night, by not going to bed until 1AM or so Vegas-time.

Saturday dawned hangover-free, and we decided to have a lovely breakfast, including a phenomenal bloody mary, before heading over to the Sports Book and placing our bets on college football opening day. As you can probably imagine by now, we love football in the Pop household. We made our wagers, watched some football, then headed back to our room. We had decided to mix things up a bit this trip and actually spend some time at the newly renovated and expanded pool at our hotel.

All I can say is 11,000 square feet of pool and sand, thousands of loungers, a "beach"side casino, and a wave pool that included lifeguards on surfboards was definitely a new experience! Dr Pop and I took turns taking pictures of each other while we body surfed in the wave pool, then we surfed together. It was so much fun!

There's Dr Pop's turn in the water:

Then mine:

Afterwards, we went back to change so that we could take in the UT game. Which Texas won 52-10! And to think, people were questioning putting their money on Texas with a 24-point spread... HAH! That was easy money. While the games were going on, I decided to try my hand at horse betting. I spent $2 each on the long shots on three races. My horses came in last each time, darn it! Oh well. It was fun to tune into the little TVs and pull for my pony each time.

After a very full day, Dr Pop and I changed into our "going out" clothes and hit the casino floor once again. We wandered around, played craps, spent a few minutes at The House of Blues, won some cash, and took the tram next door to the Luxor. I'd never been inside that casino before, nor had I ever seen the main entrance. Dr Pop and I had to get a pic.

Here it is... THE BEST PICTURE WE'VE EVER TAKEN IN VEGAS:

Dr Pop then lost his iPhone. With his entire life on it. I could tell you the long, drawn out version, but suffice to say, after two and a half hours, we got a call from the valet at the Luxor and he had the phone. Our faith in the human race restored, we went and retrieved the phone, ordered room service at 2:45AM, passed out, woke up to the arrival of our food (heralded by a very loud banging on our door) at 3:15AM, ate, and were asleep by 3:20AM.

Sunday was uneventful. We got home at a reasonable hour. We marveled at the twists and turns this trip took us on. And we counted our money.

All-in-all, another great Vegas memory.*

*My recap of our trip would not be complete without the above photo, taken on the tram between Mandalay Bay and Luxor, of these obviously exhausted people. No amount of noise or people were able to disturb their slumber. I have my own ideas with regards to what their story is, but probably reality is much more boring.