The rest of my trip

So, I haven't posted in quite a while. I'm just going to post the rest of my pictures so they may be enjoyed.

The following day, we all did the Vegas thing.  We went to the Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace.

Obviously, we liked the fountain that explained the story of Atlantis. We also rode the fabled spiral escalators!

We also saw two shows that night. First, we saw "Ice" at the Riviera. I recommend it, highly. We then got to see "Fab Four Mania" which was also awesome. We got in for free because they hadn't sold out that night. In fact, the audience was so small that "John" made a comment about how all fourteen of us made it there. The four of us girls were the loudest (and the cutest, I may add) that the gentlemen on stage kept using us as their target audience. They threw out a free T-shirt intended for Brigg, but and old man behind us caught it and refused to give it to her. Oh well.

After that I was on my own, and went back to my room at... Treasure Island! I chose there specifically because of the bed they advertised. I can't tell you what kind it was (I think it was from the Serta line), but it was heavenly.

The next day, I hit up the spa and got my hair styled. For some reason, I can justify spending about $100 to get my hair done, but I can't justify $85+ for a pedicure. Fortunately, no one saw my feet (but they weren't that bad).

I went to the Wet spa at Treasure Island.

Then I put on a pretty dress and walked around the strip.

They were redoing the volcano at the Mirage at the time. I haven't heard anything about it since it opened, but I'm sure it's amazing.

 

I walked back to Treasure Island, and a couple was getting married before everyone on the Siren's ship. The dude in the crows nest was the ring bearer. He swung down and presented the ring and then promptly hit on the bride's sisted (the maid of honor).

I had lunch at a restaurant at the Venetian called Cantonello's. It's very nice. The seafood risotto I had was delicious!

The next day was the last day of my vacation, and by that point I was pretty vacationed out. That night, I went to the Improv at Harrah's and it was great.

The comedian listed at the top, John Caponera, was hilarious. My face muscles were actually sore the next day from laughing so hard. I found a video of him on Youtube doing pretty much the same material as he did when I saw him, but his energy wasn't as high on the video as he was in person. Either we were the best audience ever, or he's perfected his act since that video was posted. Seriously, if you ever get a chance to see this guy, do.

Got a pretty good shot of the outside of the Venetian.

I had to get a picture of this. For dinner, I went to a restaurant called BLT Burger at the Mirage. I got a meal that included a 7oz burger, fries and any milkshake I wanted. I discovered I would've been okay with their first option, the burger and shake. The fries were great, but I could really only finish about 5oz of my burger. This is a photo of their twinkie boy milkshake. It's a vanilla milkshake with twinkie blended in.  What you can't see in the back is the half-twinkie garnish sitting in the whipped cream. This shake was amazing... while it was still cold. Once it started to melt, it became a gooey vanilla drink with soggy bits of bread in it. And no one really needs a straw that big. I'm just saying.

After I checked out of the hotel the next day, I decided to get my picture taken at the Mirage by the Love theatre. I'd been thinking about this pose ever since I'd seen the theatre a few days before. It must have been a good idea, because there was no one there before I had my picture taken. The moment someone took my picture like this, a gaggle of girls pushed their way in and started posing like this with thier cameras. What can I say: I'm a trend-spotter.

So that was my ginormous Vegas vacation. In all honesty, I'm not ready to go back to Vegas any time soon. Certainly not by myself. I had fun, and I got to do what I wanted to do, but Vegas is definitely a group thing. At the very least, it's a couples thing, but I've always had the most fun there in groups.

Password reset

So, I haven't posted recently because I forgot my password. I had to notify google to get a new one, and they sent me a url to do that. Unfortunately, I clicked on it a couple of days later (today) and they expire after an hour. That wasn't really a problem. I submitted for a new one, got it a few minutes later and got a new password. I actually think it is my old password, I just finally remembered it. But now I can blog again.  So I'll do that some time this week, not to sweat.

The Rest of Day Three

So, as I mentioned, for most of the rest of the day we all pretty much walked around.  There were always at least two of us working in the tent, which was really all we needed.  I tried working when there were three of us in the tent and I'd feel in the way.  If I was a third working the tent who wasn't showing merchandise or taking money, I'd stand outside and be the "Wal-Mart greeter", as I liked to describe it.  I didn't really need to hawk our wares.  The pretty colors and shiney ribbons pretty much spoke for themselves.

One of the things Brigg wanted to do when we first walked the fair (before it had opened) was archery.  There was an area devoted to archery lessons, and it was somewhat popular.  It came in waves, or as I like to say:

 "Everyone gets the same great idea at the same time."

By this time, we were all pretty low on our faire money, so when we walked by, Brigg said she didn't want to do it.  One of us asked how much it cost, so I looked at the sign: $3!  Along with our booth, this was probably one of the best deals at the faire!  So we all chipped in a dollar and paid for Brigg's archery lessons.

Photo opp!

When Brigg got in line, there were only a few people in front of her.  Once she was the second person in line, the line was super long.

So, you go onto the field with seven arrows.  An instructor shows you how to hold the bow, how to place the arrow between your fingers, etc.  Brigg was a really good shot!  All but one of her arrows hit and stuck the haystack, and the instructor immediately took the credit. "She couldn't have done it without me!" He boasted, so we all applauded him.

This is my artsy-fartsy movie poster-type shot.  I like it.

So Brigg got to do her archery, and we walked around some more.  That was pretty much how our last day at the faire went.  I forgot to mention that on Saturday, we had also seen this show on the Field of Honor called "Blood of Heroes", I think.  It was essentially tag football with armor and (real) weapons.  It was pretty cool.  Our team lost, but it was lots of fun.  After the first play, one of the men from our team proposed to his wench in the audience.  One of the players brought her down onto the field, and the guy got down on one knee.  He was literally her knight in shining armor!  It was awesome, she said "yes", they kissed and the crowd roared!  In the next play, a guy got injured.  He was okay, but couldn't play anymore and had to be escorted off the field.  While we felt bad for him, everyone was extra-relieved it wasn't the guy who had just proposed to his girlfriend.

Once the faire closed, it took us about an hour to take the rest of the merchandise down and pack it up.  But Brigg's uncle insisted on taking down the tent and loading the trailer by himself, so we sat in the van for another three hours.

Once we got back to the room and into our present-day clothes, Brigg's aunt wanted to go out onto the strip.  So all of us ladies went out to Excaliber, Luxor and Mandalay Bay.  We didn't do anything crazy, we just walked around.  If you ever want to go to a coffee shop with great service at midnight, go to the one at the Luxor.  Our waiter was great!  We were really craving ice cream, but there was any listed on the late-night menu.  Our waiter said he thought he could get us some, and when I was a waitress we had to get it ourselves, which could be a time-waster on busy nights.  He came back with these huge sundaes for us!  Jan asked for chocolate ice cream, and he served it to her in a large martini glass with a chocolate swizzle stick!  Put simply, it was above and beyond what we were expecting, so he got a generous tip.

Walking through the Luxor while it's going through it's "ix-nay on the amily-fay" remodeling was interesting.  I hadn't been to Las Vegas in about four years, and the last time I had I stayed at the Luxor.  So seeing it go from it's golden/archeologist theme to it's blue/Chris angel theme was a little bumming, but not so bad.  

After all of the walking we did, we headed back to the hotel for some rest. 

Day Three, Continued

More shots from the last day of the faire.

It's the group that shoot the cannons at that little boat made out to look like a ship!

The Romans.  Yes, the Romans.

These girls danced a lot that day.  I just didn't think they had enough enthusiasm.  I know, when you think ancient Egyptian, the first word that comes to mind isn't usually "enthusiasm".  Still, they weren't my favorite.

This was during the jousting show on the Field of Honor, the arena our tent was right in front of.  We heard this show so many times, we decided to go and actually see it.  Pictured above is the MC.

Random crowd shot.

Did I mention Lord Fred?  He sat beside our tent, and attracted children and adults, alike.  The story for Fred goes that he once ruled over a piece of land in Europe, when a wizard came and stole the land from him.  Poor Fred was turned into a gargoyle by the wizard, and he's been stoned ever since.

 

Brigg and her sister, Bran, who came on Saturday and helped us on Sunday.

Brigg's Aunt, the lady who made all of the wonderful stuff we sold.

We walked around again, and saw the warriors posing for pictures. I decided it was time for a photo opp!

The first time, Brigg accidentally pushed the button too soon.  The warriors were kind enough to pose again.

There we go.

After the picture, the big guy on the left motioned to give me a hug.  I went to hug him back, and the warriors started to close in on me!  It was fun.

I noticed that the atmosphere was much more relaxed and cheerful on Sunday.  Maybe it was just me?  Maybe it was because it was the last day?  Maybe it was because the weather was finally starting to improve?  Who can say.

The heathens love the Romans.

These gentlemen are the King's Swordsmen.  I saw them earlier this year at the Koroneberg Festival in Corona, CA.  They fence to a few Shakespeare scenes that normally don't have fencing in them, such as the wooing scene in "Taming of the Shrew", as shown here.  Richard, the gentleman on the ground, is Kate.

 

The Faire, day three

On the last day, we decided not to have breakfast at Terrible's despite the nice buffet (did I mention the omlette bar? Oh yeah, take that, reorganizational bankruptcy!). Instead, we decided to get to the faire a little earlier and have breakfast at the great coffee and crepe place on the other side of the lake by the stage! Mine had ham, cheddar, mozzarella, spinach and tomatoes! It was a good thing we got there when we did, because the guilds were having a parade right along the lake!

Here are those barbarians I mentioned who looked as though they came out of WoW or a Raiders' game:

One of the gentlemen in this particular guild shouted, "God bless the women!" Then all of the other men shouted, "God bless the women!" Then I shouted, "Yay! God bless me!"

The Scottish guilds seemed to have the most authentic-looking garb.

Why yes, those are samurais.

This is the guild who hosted the fire eater and the uncomfortable belly dancers. The dancer in the picture is not the dancer from the story, by the way.

This is the cardinal who was whispering in the noblewoman's ear (the woman in the picture above, whom the lady is holding an umbrella over). I don't suppose he recognizes me from watching the night before. I'm assuming he's just smiling for my magic devil picture box and blessing the crowd.

We knew we'd reached the end of the parade when the gentleman in the back of this picture shouted, "The end is near!" And then the woman behind him shouted, "The end is here!"