Trip 7 Las Vegas – Late August 2000 We left Dallas Love Field late on a Thursday night. The Legend Airlines terminal was right on Lemmon Avenue (not at the main Love terminal) and from the car to the check-in is less than one minute. Legend Airlines was the best. Read more about it here. Arrived app. 10:30 pm at McCarran Airport. The Legend Gate must be located in a new terminal as I have never been there before. You walk a lengthy distance from the gate to the tram which takes you to the baggage area. Also it wasn’t clear as to which baggage area we were to go to, but after making a call to the Legend 800 number, the lady pointed me to carousel 6 and there were my bags! We had to wait a few minutes for a cab and then we were off to Paris. The route from the airport to Paris takes you thru a lot of backstreets and driveways. Paris was easy to check into because there were no guests waiting in line, otherwise Im not so sure. Chad helped us upgrade our room a little. We were on the 29th floor and had a nice view of the Aladdin casino roof and parking garage. The room was the first one off the hub so it had some angles to the floor plan. It was very spacious, maybe 800 square feet. It wasn’t extravagantly decorated, but kept with the French motif with pretty red carpet and bedspread and wooden desk. Very comfortable. The bathroom had marble floors, shower, and a jacuzzi. Sharlette was tired and retired, I went to the casino to check out the action. A walk thru the casino, I went outside and stared up at the Eiffel Tower. Its pretty dang tall and only half the size of the original. I looked over the sports book and donated $20 to a slot machine then went back up. Friday morning, we got up around 7, showered and headed to the Le Village Buffet. Made to order breakfast, pretty good. 11 bucks each. Afterwards we went to the top of the Eiffel Tower for a panoramic view of Las Vegas. Back down to earth, we walked to the Aladdin next door and into an entrance labled “Desert Passage”. We soon figured out this was the retail mall that surrounds the casino. It took an hour or so to walk thru looking at the shops, eating, and getting a tattoo. We crossed the street towards Bellagio and walked past the fountains, Caesar’s, Mirage and Treasure Island. Its about a 20 minute walk. We picked up our tickets to Mystére and lounged for a few minutes outside by the battleship area. We took a cab back to our room at Paris, rested, then got ready to go out for the night. Back at Treasure Island, we took in Mystére and it was merely fantastic instead of its usual unbelieveable. Maybe since we’ve seen it five times its starting to get stale. Its still worth it tho. We ate some pretty good filet mignon at the Terrace Grille and walked around a little before catching a ride to Bellagio. When we got there we made some arrangements with the photo dept to have some pictures made and Angel met us in the conservatory and snapped some photos of Sharlette and I. We then did some casinoing until the pictures were ready, bought more than we needed and walked over to Paris and turned in for the night. Saturday morning, we packed our bags and had the bellman come get them before we ate breakfast at the buffet, then we taxied to Hertz Gold Club space 62, and said “Californee is the place we ought to be”, so we loaded up the Lincoln and we went to Anaheim. Palm trees, Mickey Mouse. CAB FARES Airport to Paris 8.00 Treasure Island to Paris 7.00 Paris to Treasure Island 6.00 Treasure Island to Bellagio 7.00 Paris to Airport 8.00 Mystere 80.00 (continue to Disneyland and California) (continued from Palm Desert) Now we are starting to get close to Las Vegas and it is late in the afternoon. I had made reservations to see Danny Gans at the Mirage and showtime was at 7:30. it was now close to 6 and we could not see Vegas yet. It was almost 7 when we wheeled into the Venetian driveway and we had already made the plan. Sharlette would get someone to get our bags out of the car while I ran to the desk to check in. I think the lady could sense my urgency and fortunately it only took a minute to check in. We wanted to run up and shower and change clothes so we opted to carry our own bags to the room, and ran thru the casino pulling all these bags. We usually laugh at people who do that, but this time we were the laughees. It was the quickest change in history as we cleaned up, ran back thru the casino and out the door for the Mirage. It only took 2 minutes to get there because it is across the street. However it took about 10 minutes to walk thru the building to the showroom. We calmly walked in, found our seats (at the back of the showroom near the entrance) and sat down. I even had time to go get Sharlette a lemonade. The Danny Gans show is a very good show. He is quite talented doing impersonations of just about everybody. It is a family show and if you get to Las Vegas, you will want to see this one. After the show we lounged around the Mirage casino and out in the drive to see the volcano. We enjoyed our room at the Venetian that night. It was a split level room with a good view about 20 floors up. The bathroom was marbled and gold fixtured – very pretty. It had an entry hall, a large round table, king bed, and a sofa and chair in the living area. Next day I wanted to get the car back to Hertz so we wouldn’t have to pay an extra day. Even tho our flight wasn’t until late in the evening, I figured I would go ahead and take the car back then we could do some sightseeing and take a cab to the airport. We did eat breakfast then I took the car over to the airport while Sharlette waited at the hotel. When I got to Hertz there weren’t any cabs unless you rode up to the terminal, but I didn’t want to do that so I got the bright idea I would walk back to the strip. It turned out to be a little farther than it looked but I enjoyed the walk anyway. Shoot, I got to give a drunk two dollars and I told him God loved him. MGM Grand is the first hotel you come to from the airport so I went inside and got on the monorail that goes to Ballys, next door (which is about half mile away). From there I just walked down the street and ducked into each casino I came to to get some cool air and a pack of matches. Back at the Venetian, we went to Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum. That was a lot of fun because they encourage you to take pictures and let you touch the figures. We spent the remainder of the day cruising the shops in the Venetian Hotel. There was a golf shop that had lots of cool stuff you don’t see in other golf stores. Oh yeah, there is a river that goes thru the Venetian lobby and you can take a gondola ride thru it. Later we rested up for our flight, then went to the airport and caught the Legend flight back to Love field. Its great seeing those Las Vegas lights at night from the air. Can’t wait to go back.