VIVA LAS VEGAS SEPTEMBER 2008

Can you imagine coming from a place as gray as the Alaskan sky, a place where the walls were concrete and the air was thick with man made humidity and the smell of cat poo! Can you imagine having nothing and not even wanting anything because you couldn't have anything. Then you get taken away from this cold gray unfriendly scary place and you are suddenly dropped into an environment that is always changing and always magical and amazing and fun, and welcoming? This is what little Edik has experienced, imagine him in Las Vegas.

Remember going to Vegas your first time. What an amazing place, larger than life, brighter than anything you have ever seen, day or night, colorful and intriguing. The imagination used in this town exceeds any creativity of any film I have ever seen. I love this town, it is beautiful, and glittery and so unreal, it is fun to look at everything and to know there is so much happening in this town, things that are unspeakable, profitable, destructive, fun and I could go on and on.

Imagine Ediks awe of this new and wonderful world he entered. We stayed at the Caesars Hotel what an opulant tribute to Roman Architecture. I can say he was overwhelmed with everything, so overwhelmed that he kind of closed it all out and just tried to stay in his small imaginary world.

We had nothing but time, Tracey Crabtree was with us, we were "the lazy trio" sleeping till 10am, going to the pool until 2pm and then starting our exploration of the city. There was plenty of time for talking and sorting out life, and enjoying the good things. Edik loved splashing in the pool. He tried learning to swim with Tracey and he used his imagination talking and telling stories while splashing around. I think the pool was as big an area as Edik wanted to explore. He would have spent all day there if we would have let him.

We went to the MGM Grand the first night because I love the Buffet. I was so looking forward to the Champagne sauce over the exquisite bread pudding. But they added nuts to the pudding so I could not have it, I was so disappointed. I decided to just eat more of all the other wonderful things like Prime Rib. We told Edik he could try anything he wanted. He was adventurous and took a lot of fish and shell fish. He loved all of it. We had him try the prime rib but alas he still does not like meat. He ate a lot and had lots of desserts.

We saw the lions in the glass cage and we could look up under them through the glass, that is what the above photo is of. We walked down to one of my favorite places the M&M factory for a quick tour and show of Lost in Las Vegas M&M. We went down to the game center to see if the virtual boxing game was still there. I wanted Edik to have a whack at beating up Tracey like Andy did when he was Ediks age. But it was not there, we bought a card so that Edik could have all the gaming time he wanted. So he played a lot of video game and loved it!

Edik love the Harley Davidson store and restaurant that we toured through, it was all so fascinating. We had never gone through it before. It was fun to see Billy Joel's bike that he had completely restored. Seeing Billy Joel in concert is one of my life time goals, his vintage bike was great.

We had a fantastic beverage as we walked back to the hotel and it made fighting the quick careless crowd much easier to handle. Exhausted we gave in to sleep. Edik had a nice little tent made out of a bed spread and the table in the room that he slept under. We knew better than to put him in a bed with another human. He sleeps like a windmill.

The Bellagio Hotel is one of my most favorite hotels. I like it so much I named my dog after it! It has beautiful blown glass sea anenomies and amazing floral displays. It has a magnificent chocolate fountain and just a great atmosphere. I like the fall installation that I always miss, but they build this amazing scene out of flowers, this year was a huge water wheel and a giant scarecrow and a floral tunnel that you would not believe.

Cheeseburger at the Oasis is the place to get incredible hamburgers. They did change the bun so it was not as terrific as it use to be. Located in Planet Hollywood along the Miracle Mile, which is the ultimate shopping experience. We had a fun time checking out all the fun thing stores.

Sigfried and Roy were the entertainment at the Mirage, which we had a clear view of from our room. You can no longer see the Lions in a glass cage for free now you get to donate to the empire at $30 for adults and $15 for my little buddy. I have to admit, seeing the lions was fun because there was no glass between us and they were roaming and seeking whom they would eat! The Dolphins were so fun to watch, there was a new baby, 7 weeks old. The male Dolphins wanted to get to the females but they were in different tanks. But the boys made it very obvious they wanted at the girls, if you know what I mean, if you don't give me a call.

The Venetian with the wax people and the Blue Man Group was so fun. We found our new favorite restaurant. It is a Mexican place along the canal, we could hear the opera singing Gondola operators. The food was great, considering we were not impressed with the MGM Buffet and Cheeseburger at the Oasis any more we needed something new.

We met a fascinating British couple who agreed to take our photo at our new favorite restaurant. They were fascinating in that we had an amazingly stimulating political discussion. UK has some serious issues and a lot of them stem from their socialization of their health care. They also had strong opinions on which candidate should be elected to be our president. They had traveled a lot and told us that we really need to go to Prague. We are game!



One of the fun things we saw was the engraved image of the goddess of JUNO. Juno is our granddog. This is our photo of the goddess. Edik what did you think of Las Vegas "it was fun" long pause, "I got to play games". So you can see the child's opinion of Las Vegas, I see it as priming the pump for a future gambler. Oh Lord may it never be!