After a little lie in, we headed to another morning buffet offered at the Excalibur hotel. This one was setup differently then the one we have tried at the Luxor. We paid and then waited in a rather long line to actually select our buffet items before being shown to our seats. Again I thought for the money the food wasn't all that great. There were quite a variety of things but nothing that really jumped out at me. I think the readjustment to the large breakfasts' was a problem for all of us, who are use to either no breakfast or something small and controlled, like cereal. So we muddled through our eggs, pancakes, sausages and toast, and then waddled our way outside over to the MGM Grand. We had another look around - but just in passing and headed towards the tram to head over to Bally's. As it happened the tram was operating on a later schedule and soon after we arrived a crowd started to grow. We waited for what seemed like an hour. And after the finally started letting us up to the platform the tram still hadn't arrived.

After we had found some seats and gotten settled the tram was off. Not especially quick and with even less of a view we whipped around to the back of Bally's behind the Paris and Aladdin hotels. Having been through Bally's and not really seeing much of interest we headed out to the strip. We were on a mission - to have a peak inside the Imperial Palace's Auto Showroom.

So after a small fiasco over my credit being over billed, we begin our jaunt around the room. There quite a few memorable cars, but mostly I remember cars from the 40's. They had a number of vehicles previously owned by celebrities and some rather sporty looking ones - which I am sure John took at least 20 pictures of each.

I am not an enthusiastic fan when it comes to cars but I believe in having a well rounded itinerary and this definitely fit the bill. So after we had made our way around the roped off paths we headed out of the hotel towards our next destination.

It must be said that the temperatures were starting to warm up again and we stopped for a short cool air blow at the doors before departing. Next we headed to Harrah's and looking back now - I can't remember what it had that made it seem any more remarkable then any others? There wasn't anything to my recollection that made it stand out.

Our next stop was much anticipated among the group - The Venetian Hotel. After having seen several programs on the hotel on the Travel Channel we were ready to see what all the hoopla was about.

We entered the hotel through the main entrance and it was stunning. The entire entrance hall looked like something out of the past - and was ornate with ceiling murals and an exceptional attention to every minuet detail. It was truly exquisite.

I was starting to feel a tinlge in my belly and decided we needed to stop for a snack. After having rejuvenated myself and everyone getting re-hydrated we headed on to have a better look around.

We finally made our way to what we had been looking for - the gondolas and the talked about shops. We were all quite impressed with the look of the shops and those popular clouds that we had already observed at Caesar's and Aladdin. As we wondered around we ran into a street performer.

He was quite fascinating and we watched him for quite a while. He seemed so statuquese, dressed in white robes and a turban. We watched as people went up and gave donations and his slow but quite funny responses. Eventually, I headed up to make our donation, careful to avoid turning my back or hanging around for him to do anything sly or naughty, like holding fingers up behind my head or some other funny gesture. But as I tried to head off he caught my arm and quite respectively posed with me for a picture. I have to say that is still one of the highlights of the trip for me.

So after wandering around in awe of the interior we made our way out and across the road, to Treasure Island.

I really liked the inside. The inside just struck me as tasteful, sedate and toned down. I was glad it wasn't over the top like so many of the other hotels were. Even the casino was relaxed, most of the other casinos had long since blurred together, but this one was subdued. After a short look round we headed out to the front of the hotel where we hoped to get some photos of the pirate ships. We saw signs posted saying that the pirate show was canceled given the recent events of September 11th, we were sad we wouldn't be able to see that but glad we made it over in the 100 degree weather. So, shoot, snap, snap and away we went.

From Treasure Island we headed over to the Mirage on a tram located in the way back of the hotel. But allowed a nice glance at the pool, which looked very inviting. The Mirage is a nice hotel, with a lot of hidden treasures. As we approached the hotel we glanced into the front lakes and wondered about the evening volcano show. I remember upon entering the hotel it was cool and lush.

We had already read about 2 things we wanted to do at least so we headed towards the Secret Garden/Dolphin Habitat. As we waited in line to enter the outdoor dolphin habitat, little water spritzer sprayed the air trying to keep us all cool. Once inside we wondered around looking at the dolphins, actually playing with them as the bounced the ball out of the water at onlookers for a little Marco polo. They were all very entertaining, and our fascination grew when we noticed a few babies. The children that were looking on were as much entertainment as were the dolphins.

From here we wondered towards the Cat Sanctuary. The animals in here were sedate but their beauty was captivating. We saw white tigers, lions, and African tigers. We picked up some recording that had been created by that famous Las Vegas duo - Siegfried and Roy. John was more interested in a man who had quite a nice Canon camera mounted to a nice tripod.

So after perusing the shop we headed back to the hotel and to seek out the entertaining cats of the hotel. We found them relaxing - more like dead asleep on their backs - seeing as their owners were on a vacation. Obviously, they were enjoying their own vacation. By this time it must have been at least 3 or 4 in the afternoon and we were definitely feeling the effects of the day. So we hopped a cab back to the hotel for a little evening relaxation.

That evening we rested up in our room for a few hours, indulging in another bath and a shower. Quite happy to say there weren't any problems with running out of hot water. After coming down to check out the food situation we settled on a nice Japanese restaurant. I was quite impressed and happy with my meal - but I now know I am not a sake drinker - I can probably get one down but that's it.

After dinner we decided to head back over to the Excalibur to get a better view of the Merlin-dragon evening show. We found a great spot and when the show started we realized just how close we were - as the heat from the dragon's breath was almost sauna-like. It was impressive and fun - and a nice way to wind down the evening.

After taking a few pictures of the New York, New York, we decided to try to check out some of the hotel shops and see what there might be as far as mementos - but turned out they had already closed. So, off to bed we headed - time for a little laying down relaxation and sleep.