Las Vegas: Day 2

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Our first full day in Sin City …

We woke up refreshed after a full night’s sleep and hit the hotel buffet for Sunday brunch (you have to do a least one Vegas buffet, right?). Then we got into the rental car and drove southeast to the Hoover Dam. Wow … incredible. We took the dam tour to see the power plant and took a lot of dam pictures. We also walked across the dam into Arizona and back into Nevada.

On the way back to the Strip we stopped downtown on Fremont Street to see the classic casinos (now know as the Fremont Street Experience). After a few beers at Banger Brewing (and watching people weigh themselves on the big scale outside of the Heart Attack Grill next door) we walked up and down Fremont Street, which is now covered by a giant light show-enabled roof (which we didn’t get to see since it was the middle of the day) taking in the strange sights of the old Vegas strip.

Heading back to the Mandalay Bay, we tried stopping at the Stratosphere Hotel, Casino, & Tower thinking we’d go up the observation deck and possible ride the roller coaster. Unfortunately, all of the rides were closed due to high winds so we just turned around and drove back to the hotel. There we met up with some more friends again for some early evening beers, appetizers, and socializing at the RX Boiler Room.

We had tickets to the 8:30pm comedy and burlesque show at the Planet Hollywood Hotel & Casino so we freshened up and then started walking down the strip to the hotel. It took us a little longer than expected (and we got some bad directions from a guy in the information booth) so we ended up a few minutes late to the club. It was a good show: Gary Caouette and Kathleen Dunbar both did sets in between some burlesque dancers.

We hadn’t done any drinking at the show, so we hit the strip looking for a bar or restaurant to grab a late dinner and drinks. After watching the dancing fountains outside of the Bellagio we kept weaving in and out of the various casinos heading north on the Strip just to see everything. By the time we finally found a place to eat it was past 11pm … we were at the Palazzo and ended up at the Grand Lux Cafe. On the way back to our hotel we stopped by Hannah’s to check out the dueling piano bar (featuring identical twins).

Even the Vegas Strip seems to slow down on a Sunday evening (early Monday morning), though, and we eventually made it back to the Mandalay Bay for the night.

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