Day 4

Didn't get up all that early this morning.  I think we had an 8:00am wake-up call and were out the door by 9:00am.  We were going to go to Schnagel's Bagels for breakfast.  We got there, only to find that they were not open on Sundays.  Their ad in the phonebook said that they were open Sundays, but they weren't.  So we breakfasted at the local Cracker Barrel, where instead of giving me a pint of milk with my oatmeal, they actually gave me three creamers.  That was suprising, but apparently that's what they do now.  I hadn't been at a CB early enough to get the oatmeal in a little while, so I'm assuming this new creamer rule applies to all stores.  Oh well.  Well-fed, we headed back to Vegas, via the Hoover Dam.

 

We made our way through Boulder City and traffic slowed to a crawl as we got closer to the dam.  After clearing a security checkpoint and a few more curves, the dam came into view on our left.  Instead of paying ($7.00) to park on the Nevada side, we crossed the dam and parked on the Arizona side.  We hiked down to the dam and crossed it, taking pictures along the way.  We attempted to access the visitors center, but that required an $11.00 admission fee, which we weren't so motivated to pay.  So after visiting the gift shop, we heade back across the other side of the dam to take some photos from the other side.  Getting back to the car, we headed back to town and to check in at our hotel.

 

It took a few passes, but we found our hotel and checked-in.  Our timing was both good and bad.  Bad in the sense that there was a back-up at the check-in desk, but good in that the majority of the back-up consisted of Virgin Atlantic flight attendants.  We apparently chose a crew hotel used by international flight crews (I would see a crew from Korean Air later that night).  After checkin-in, we headed out to snag some dinner.  There's a kazillion places to eat in Vegas, so in my research, I tried to pick out something unique and different.  As a matter of habit, I don't dine at chain restaurants while vacationing unless necessary.  One of the things that Vegas is known for is their lavish buffets.  But I was looking for something different.  And I found it at Le Village Buffet at the Paris Las Vegas Casino.  Le Village is a french buffet featuring food from the five different provinces of France (Burgundy, Normandy, Savoie, Provence, and Brittany).  And it's themed-out to resemble a cobblestone street in a french village.  I got to try some new foods, as well as foods that I often don't get to eat (like grilled lamb and roast duck).  And desert was the piece de resistance.  They had a crepe station where a chef would make a crepe just for you.  I had a crepe with nutella and bananas inside and some real whipped creme on top.  It was tres magnifique!  We then went out and about in an effort to get some exercise in after our substantial dinner.

 

We headed across the street to the Bellagio to catch the water show.  We found the spot where the Ocean's 11 gang hung out in the first movie and watched the performance from there.  It was only water, but I thought it was pretty cool the way they synched the water to the music.  We then headed over to Caesar's Palace to check out the Forum Shoppes.  Getting to the shoppes once inside the casino proved to be difficult.  We wound our way through the casino floor, pass the line for Celine Dion's show and past Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill.  We finally reached the "mall" entrance.  The stores were way more expensive than I had expected.  And I'm talking Dolce & Gabana expensive.  So we didn't last there long at all.  We headed back into the neon-lit night and back to the hotel.

 

And that was day four.

 

Addendum:  The next day we went home, arriving back at around 11:30pm.