How To Do Vegas In Three And A Half Days, Day 3

Sunday morning on the Vegas Strip rises empty and quiet.  Runners take advantage of no crowds and footbridges, running up and across and down steps and through streets.  Eddie and I took off to do as much of what was left of the scavenger hunt.  I'd slept.  Sleep was good.  I felt like a person, and looked like one, too.  The clues took us back towards the other end of the strip, so we hiked it quick and then took advantage of the empty streets, too.

Behind this lion-sheep thing in a box is Eddie.

I wouldn't have thought about it until I read the sign.

We got to the Flamingo where we did not find the answer to the question, but we did find out that there are actual flamingos inside of The Flamingo.  Along the same strip live lions in MGM, white tigers in Mirage, and sharks in Mandalay Bay.  And idiots in The Tropicana.  Quite the scene.  We then took off to Caesar's (Italy!), and that's where I found the Sex and the City game that has now ruined any chance of my playing it anywhere else because it was a HUGE game with a HUGE screen and in addition to the regular slot chances, you can get bonus chances on the big screen by hopping in a taxi and speeding around the city.  I was up and down and up and down and then Eddie was like, Do you want to leave soon?, because usually, I simply lose all my money right away and that's when I know to leave the machine.  Instead, this game had no end in sight.  AND I cashed out a WHOPPING 14 dollars ahead.  Yeah, that's right.  14 big ones.

There ended the scavenger hunt, not because we finished it, but because I wanted to end on a high and we had plans creeping up on us.  My winnings got us a cab ride down to Luxor (Egypt!) because today was the day we would do sports.  Being a professional athlete, I was very excited to be doing all the sports.  We met up with C and J at Score!, an interactive sports exhibit that's half memorabilia, half sports challenges.  We walked in and signed contracts.  We looked at memorabilia.  We did sports.

First was football.  The first drill made me feel like I was at the eye doctor because it tests your peripheral vision as well as your reaction time.  The girl showed us how to use the machine and left us to our own devices.  Halfway through my turn I just got very angry at the machine and started smacking every button possible.   Then Eddie became his own hero for a moment.

The second drill was the broad jump.  I think you're supposed to jump at least your height.  I jumped about 4 feet after a very long prep period of deciding how to position my feet to jump, and I wound up kind of cheating anyway because I had one foot in front of the other to push off rather than jumping with my feet parallel, but again, at 4 feet, even the partial cheating was much help.  Everyone jumped about their own height except for my husband the show off who jumped around 11 feet.

Next up was hockey.  Growing up in a family of hockey fans, I was totally going to rock this because watching so much hockey somehow seeps into one's own body so that one might compete at the same level.  Again, I know this because I'm a professional athlete and I'm so good at doing sports.

Slapshot

This is the kid's hockey stick.

This is the adult stick, which is too big.  That's why I don't play hockey on the regular.  Too big sticks.

We went into the boxing room next, but there was nothing to interact with.  I'm guessing they don't want you to punch anything.  I mean, give someone a pair of boxing gloves, and they're going to punch something.  No one wants to be liable for that.  Instead, we read famous quotes and saw boxers' robes.  Here's a good one.

We then played the baseball.  I am an expert at the baseball because I learned all about it when Eddie and I first started dating and watched every single game on television.  Watching so much has made me the go-to professional athlete for the baseball.  The skill was pitching.  Basically, you throw a ball and see how fast it goes.  My first throw did not even register because it hit the top of the cage.  J gave me a second ball and said, You want to throw it lower.  Hahahhahahhahahaaaaaaa.  The ball was going to go wherever it was going to go.  There was no lower, higher option here.  The second one did register.  I throw a ball to go fast enough to be faster than the first one I threw.  Everyone threw pretty hard.  We stayed for quite a while as they kept throwing and throwing.  I didn't go again because I didn't want to put anyone to shame.

Add 15 to the number that registers.  That's what we were told.

Unfortunately, I could not show off my skillz in changing a tire because their tire changer thingie wasn't set up, so we looked at the racecar instead in the NASCAR room.

And then came the basketball room.  Here's a chance to measure your vertical jump.  You measure your reach against the wall and then you jump straight up to spin a roller on a bar.  My vertical jump?  Five inches. Everyone else's? Double digits.  Don't. Be. Jealous.

Because I'm a professional athlete in all the sports, I got offered a huge salary.  Welcome to my locker for the sports.

I'd chosen 00 as my number.  Apparently, the computer didn't like that.

After schooling everyone, we headed next door to Mandalay Bay's Burger Bar (Burma!) and built our own burgers.  Their veggie burger has a lot of stuff in it, including pumpkin.  I got it.  It was delicious.  Who knew that you could put pumpkin in a veggie burger?  When the burgers came out, for some reason E and C did not get theirs on a bun.  They came out with just the burger.  When the server came over and asked if we needed anything, I was like, Can they have buns?  Her eyes popped out as she looked at their plates and she was like, Sure I'll get those right now....and when she came back she was like, I don't know why they didn't give you guys buns.Clearly someone in the kitchen didn't read the ticket right, but the burgers were good and we finished in time to watch the games.

We sat at the SportsBook back in Luxor for the rest of the day, occasionally leaving to get snacks or water.  There were two football games to watch plus lots of horses to bet on.  Every horse I chose lost.  I am giving up horse racing.  I think the horses hate me.  The games were exciting and Eddie's teams won, so that's always a good thing.

After an entire day of playing the sports and watching the sports, we headed out to gamble and do dinner and see some more casinos we hadn't seen.  On our way back to change, we went through Excalibur which was wall to wall screaming children.  And that's why we stay away from anything labeled Family Friendly.

At first, Eddie and I were going to get all dressy.  Then we heard the temperature was falling to 40 and we were planning to walk up the strip.   Umm, no.  So I put on a dress for five minutes in the hotel room since I'd brought it.

Dressed

Then I put on jeans and a shirt and we headed out.  We took the car.  We really don't like weather under 70 degrees.  We ate in a tiny Italian place in the Venetian and then took pictures as if we were in Venice (Italy!).

After a bathroom break, C and I came out to find the guys standing here, not realizing...

We also tried to see the pirate show at Treasure Island, but found only a sign that said there are no longer any shows at Treasure Island.  No pirate.  And it smelled funny, so we left right away.  We went back to the Monte Carlo and played roulette into the wee hours.  Then Eddie headed to MGM to play some more poker into the wee-er hours.  Doing the sports and continent hopping--quite a day.