Thursday 28 May 2009
Highlights: Hoover Dam, Hitting and winning at various Casinos on the Strip

Having cut the Grand Canyon visit out of the trip we still got to see the enormous engineering achievement that is the Hoover Dam. It’s hard to imagine how they built this; I guess they had problems since they lost 300 men during the construction.

This visit meant I technically visited Arizona, 3 times…. yes I jumped the border line a few times; sue me there weren’t any guards.

I wimped out on a helicopter ride my mum was going to pay for, for some reason I kept thinking it has a long way down and I wanted to save my luck for the tables in Vegas.

We parked at the MGM Grand end of the strip and visited the sights including the MGM Lions (very playful ‘kitty’ cats but keep them on the other side of the windows), Coca-Cola World, M&M World (watched 3D M&Ms in Vegas movie) and New York New York Casino.

We even scored a free Zero Coke and took a survey, on such a hot day I gave good scores to the beverage!’ So finally I had a chance to gamble. First I hit the blackjack tables; well I did after a seat opened up of the cheat table ($5 minimum). Very up and down, if I didn’t tip the dealers (which you basically have too) I might have finished even. Anyway later in the night my mum showed me the joys of the machines.

Now I don’t normally like them but I turned $5 into $75 in about one hour – Viva Las Vegas baby! While I walked away I couldn’t help myself and later I gave a fair bit back but still I won at gambling!!!!!