Aylmer Express "MoHo" Extravaganza 2006

Today started like any other day in Vegas. Hot and sunny. It seemed to feel hotter than what the car’s temperature gauge claimed : 35 C (95F). Either way, it was hot. We had some definite plans for the day. Do some laundry. Take Morgan to the Nike Factory Store, which we promised we would do before we left town as he had spotted the store on the way into town. Check out the old “strip” in downtown Vegas. You know, the old Cowboy and the Golden Nugget? Make it back in time to catch the Rick Thomas Magic Show at the Stardust Hotel. Head over to the Bellagio after dinner to catch the water fountain show. Any bets on whether or not we managed to complete all the steps? Actually, asking that question reminds me of a funny movie called Rat Race. Have you seen it? Very funny. All the way through there were people betting on the most bizarre things. Well now, lets take a closer look at how our day went.

STEP 1: We got up early, we got all our dirty clothes together, we brought everything over to the laundry room … only to find the place packed full of people doing exactly what we were doing. Whatever happened to the myth that everyone in Vegas is out late gambling? And why aren't all these people gambling right now? This set us back a bit, but fortunately Chantal was able to battle for all the washers and dryers required while I got things taken care of back at the MoHo. I then popped by just in time to fold everything and then hit the road to our next destination.

STEP 2: We jumped right on the highway en route to the Nike store when we ran into traffic. What is going on? A traffic jam heading south (out of town?) at 11:00 am on Friday. I felt like I was back in LA. Fortunately it did not last too long and we finally made it to the Las Vegas Outlet Mall only a little further behind schedule. We did the Nike thing first and then we were sucked in, as if by an uncontrollable force, deeper and deeper into the mall. You know how it goes, while waiting for Morgan, I find a kind of cool store to spend my time. Then, after they finish, they find an appealing store for them, and so on. Anyway, we end up finding ourselves in the food court at lunch time. This means two things. First, we are running late. Second, we should grab a quick bite before heading to old Vegas. A couple of burgers and chocolate chip cookies later, we are on our way to the far end of the strip.

STEP 3: The first word that comes to mind to describe this updated and refurbished area is … “under-whelming”. But then again, most places are going to seem that way when compared to the over-the-top glitz and sparkle of the notorious “new” Vegas strip. They have built an arching roof over the entore street which I heard acts as a screen although we could not see that during the day. I suppose it would work well at keeping you a little cooler in the daytime since it would block the sun as well. Since we were running fairly late at this point we didn’t even bother to stop. I think the old strip now caters to those looking for a less expensive Las Vegas experience ... if there is such a thing. Chantal snapped a few quick pics from the car, just to prove we were there, and off we went back to the MoHo to prepare for the next destination.

STEP 4: We were off to see a magic show. Yesterday, while we were cruising the strip, we came across a half-price-ticket-sale-kiosk which had nobody waiting in line so we just thought we would check out if there were any reasonable shows available at reasonable prices. They had BlueMan Group tickets on sale for $88 per person. Hmmm, that is not going to work for us. They didn’t even list the Cirque de Soliel so I am sure I couldn’t afford that. But after scanning what was listed, it was the magic shows that stood out as being a possibility. And it turned out that the least expensive show also happened to be the one closest to us. I asked which one the sales person liked best and she picked that show so we decided to go for it. I figured the kids would like it. So we arrived, got registered, got some drinks, and got seated. Once again the off-season worked to our advantage and we got some great seats for the show. Once the show got underway it looked like it might not be too bad. Then they asked for a volunteer from the audience. Morgan raised his hand and the next thing we know, Morgan was on stage with Rick Thomas. You’ll have to ask me about it next time we get together as it would take too long to go through here, but suffice it to say that Morgan held his own and I don’t think he will soon forget his trip to Vegas. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, we were not allowed to take pictures during the show so I have no photos of Morgan in front of the audience. But Morgan did receive a free copy of the magician's, Rick Thomas', DVD so that should be fun to watch. But just imagine, your first trip to Vegas and you end up on stage! Hopefully it was not his Swan Song. The show was actually very good and I was surprised that you could find great entertainment like this at such a reasonable price. Then we returned to the MoHo for dinner and some checking of email.

STEP 5: Last stop, the Bellagio. We found out that the fountain show that we want to see at the Bellagio runs every 15 minutes from 8:00 until midnight. That meant that we should be able to make it to one of the shows on time. I convinced my tired family that it is definitely worth it to go and we jump in the car. I tried to park behind the Bellagio but there was construction so that was not an option. There was a lot of free parking in Vegas but the problem we had was that we have 4 bikes on the roof and most of the parking was in parking garages with low roofs. We needed to find a flat, open parking lot and we finally did, but much further down the road at the Excalibur Hotel. It was only 3 hotels away from the Bellagio but you don’t realize just how big these hotels are until you have to walk from one to the other. We did finally make it to the Bellagio just in time to catch the tail end of one of the shows. These shows are made up of about 500 moving water fountain nozzles working in harmony with one another to squirt water into cool patterns in sync with music that is playing. It is really something to see. I took some video of it so check the video (link near top left on this page) to see it for yourself. It was so good we stuck around for two more shows and it appeared that they use a different song each time. We all loved it but it was approaching 10:00 and we had two tired kids which we needed to walk back down the Las Vegas strip to the car to get them into bed. Time to go.

So we actually managed to check off all five tasks today. Not too shabby if I do say so myself but you will notice that there was not a whole lot of time in there to cover minor things like school work, blog writing, photo uploading and the like. So like I have said before … it is a rough life! I took a few pics of the Stratosphere tower. If you look closely you can see one of the rides which is a see-saw type set up where a car-load of people roll back and forth depending on how the see-saw moves. The catch is that one end of the see-saw hangs over the edge of the tower thereby leaving the car-load of people about 1,000 feet (300 metres) in the air when they are over the edge! A little too much excitement for me.

Today’s word:

swan song \SWAHN-SONG\, noun:1. A beautiful legendary song said to be sung by a dying swan.2. A final or farewell appearance, action, or pronouncement.