We started the day reasonably early, as we would soon find out - that starting too early meant you were finished for by early evening. We decided on breakfast at the Luxor Pharaoh's Feast buffet. The food was all right, nothing spectacular, especially factoring in the cost. After we had gobbled down enough to tide us over till dinner, we headed out, cameras in hand, adventure on our mind and sunblock lathered everywhere.

So out we went. We started off with a more thorough look around the New York, New York. The casino was interesting, I liked that they had live music, singers and a band while you played at the slots. Also, I really liked there eatery - it was funky and unique and had a lot of variety just like the real place.

I took mental note of the roller coaster, since my mom wanted to go for a ride. After shuffling around for a while we headed out into the already warm temps up the street towards the Monte Carlo.

This hotel was pretty dull in my opinion. The casino was ordinary and plain - and nothing especially stuck out about the hotel. Next we headed out of the the Monte Carol on a monorail to the Bellagio

This hotel was very upmarket. Catering to a select few with the right kind of money to spend. Everything about the hotel said expensive taste. We wandered around and I was really impressed by the Conservatory. . Beautiful arrangements that were changed monthly.

Also, the other striking thing in the hotel's atrium was a ceiling design made entirely of glass flowers. It was amazing, spanning nearly the length of the room and the colors were dazziling.

We went outside and proceeded to walk what seemed several miles to Caesars. Caesar's is one of the older hotels - but with all the renovations and extensions, I wouldn't have known that unless I had read it. The casino was run of the mill although I did like the sculptures that adorned the room. The other really neat thing about Caesar's is the Forum Shops - and the Fight for Atlantis show. These were both entertaining and fun. There must have been over 100 shops to walk around, coax you out of a little money and do so in a conducive way. The walkway ceilings were painted a realistic blue skies. It looked as though you were outside it was so real. As I soon learned quite a lot of the hotels had their shops decorated in this fashion.

So we stopped for a café aulait and a snack and then got back up and meandered through the shops. We eventually reached the end of one of the corridors where there was an aquatic tank filled with sting rays, tropical fish and corral. This area was also where the Battle for Atlantis takes place. WE had arrived for just the tail end of the show - but it was impressive - the mechanical figures were moving and looked very life-like. There was fire and water spewing up and the area in general was pretty hot. After the show we headed out of the hotel and down the escalator to cross the street to visit the Flamingo.

We had been quite ambitious in our walking early in the day but were starting to feel the effects of it wearing on us. The Flamingo hotel is best known for it's wonderful gardens and the fact that the everything inside of the hotel is pink. The day was really heating up and we didn't want to spend too much time outside in the sun or the high temperatures, but we had to at least visit part of the gardens, where there lived flamingos of course, and South African penguins. This had to be the neatest thing. See them outside, but even in the high temperatures part of there land was covered in snow. They seemed to have the best of both worlds. We also, stopped to chat with a rather friendly parrot, but I wasn't to anxious to put my fingers up to his cage as his beak was sure to have grabbed on and never let go.

From the Flamingo we wondered down the strip - passing by several other smaller hotels - and ducked in to get a few moments of a/c till we hit the other side and were outside again. So we headed into Ballys - can't say much - I didn't think it was spectacular or anything inside.

From Bally's we headed down to the Paris hotel.

We took a trip up the tower - which wasn't bad for $9. You could see just about every hotel and pretty well And even though it was daylight the strip still made for some interesting photo opportunities.

We stopped at one of the little coffee shops and had a chocolate crepe and a cup of coffee, while we watched a mime perform. He was very entertaining and fun - I was half expecting there to be more things, as far as shops and restaurants inside of the hotel, but as we followed the corridor down and around we realized that we had just connected back up with Bally's casino.

So we headed back to brave the heat and the next hotel. We were already so very tired - it was a wonder our legs would carry us any further. We walked along the front of the Aladdin hotel -taking in design of the building. I knew most of all that I wanted to see the Desert Shops and the area where they had rain indoors.

So we dragged ourselves around the hotel - at this point not taking much in - looking at the casinos as if we had seen it all before - and headed for the desert shops. Well this was another impressive shopping area.

In really liked the variety of food shops they had - just a nice variation and also, with the motif of Arabia it was enchanting. So after we had walked nearly the length of the mall - we turned around and headed back to stake out seats , get a cup of coffee or ice cream, to watch the rain storm. Well for all it's hype I have to say it was rather boring. It didn't really do anything for me. It wasn't a real rain storm as I had seen portrayed on t.v. it seemed as though it was just an afternoon summer shower. I was looking for more umpf.!

After leaving the Aladdin , we walked down the strip back in the direction of the Luxor - pretty much dragging our feet and desperately wanting to lay down and rest. But we had just one more stop before we could call it an afternoon and sit in the bath - with the bubble bath we acquired at one of the many shops. We needed to visit the M&M Store. It was really cool. 4 floors devoted entirely to M&M's I thought it was so neat - and if I hadn't been so tired I might have wanted to spend more time and probably part with more money in the store. In the end we ended up with a Blue mug - a very big Blue mug as our memento. So thankfully - we headed back towards the hotel - to crash for a bit - nap and then bathe for more was to come in the evening.

So we rested, and then had a nice relaxing soak in the tub. After which we went down, got a taxi and headed over to the Hard Rock Hotel and casino. Really liked the hotel, it was sedate (minus the music) although it was off-strip it was nice that it was so quiet. So we had a very short meander there before walking across the parking lot to the Hard Rock café. There we fed on our usual food selections and went and got perfunctory T-shirts and then headed back to the hotel. Where proceeded to register as club members and then spent our $5 complementary ticket on the slot machines. My mom was the big winner of the night though - winning about $80. So we hung out there for a while and finally decided after getting few more goodies from the shop that we should leave. WE decided to sleep in just a little later - since we were totally shattered and there wasn't the slightest possibility that we would be able to make it through the next evening without falling asleep at dinner.