Sunrise in Vegas…I’m sure there are people that go to Las Vegas all the time and have never seen one!  However, it is worth the retina burning to watch the sun rise over the bleak desert only to hit the chrome and glass of the city and explode!

Today we are just wandering around the Strip, no real plan but since I have never seen any of these hotels/casinos we decided to just wander around and see some of the sights…with frequent stops to eat and play the slot machines!

Remember when I said that no one could run with a theme like Vegas?  Well it became clear that the only “theme” is EXCESS!!!  Every place we went was a different theme and they were all Over The Top.

We stopped for lunch at Julian Serrano for tapas.  I was not in the mood for tapas at all, but P really wanted to eat there so we stopped.

Boy oh boy am I glad we did!!  The food was unbelievably good!!  Our waiter was fun, it was a great location to people watch for a while and just look at this bathroom!!!

Ah-May-Zing!  And to top it off, we stopped at the slot machines right outside the restaurant and I won more there than the whole rest of the trip!  Moral of the story…shut up and do what P wants to do!!

We mostly meandered from casino to casino for the rest of the day.  One of the benefits to being in Vegas (in my mind) is the casino drink service.  No matter which hotel you are actually staying in, if you get thirsty and want a drink, sit down at a slot machine in any casino on the strip, put a couple of bucks in and a waitress will come by and get your drink order…drop a couple of bucks in tip and you are good to go! If you are lucky, that $5 you put in the machine to start will keep you entertained at least long enough to finish your drink and move on to the next casino!

I found that the bathrooms were just as over the top in every casino.  These are from the Paris Hotel and probably my favorite bathrooms ever!

Later I stopped and had dinner at one of the bazillion Celebrity Chef burger places on the strip. P wanted to go to someplace called Shibuya for Japanese/Sushi and although we have already discussed how I really should just shut up and listen when P wants to go someplace, I just could not do the sushi…so I had some sort of overpriced burger with some famous guys name on it, none of it I can remember, which should tell you something right there!

Shibuya made this cute little dessert for my brother!  The chocolate one was really good, but that green one was just strange.  Still, it was a very sweet gesture!  Oh, just so you know, I did not stand around and stare at them while they ate and I didn’t, I hung out in the MGM Grand casino and came to meet them right as this dessert was served!  Now that’s timing!

The Strip at night is stunning, and busy, and loud.  The one thing I had never encountered before was all of the “matchmakers” waving these cards around with pictures of the various women you could “hang out” with if you chose.  They would click the corner of the card with their fingernails to get your attention and then shove the card in your face.

I’m trying to come up with a game, maybe something like BINGO for this phenomenon…I’m thinking I could market it as a party game for all the bachelor/ette parties that happen in Vegas.  Still, it is truly beautiful at night!