Pumpkins, Parks and Picnics

“No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,/ No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds, - November!” 

~Thomas Hood

  hahaha okay, first of all....what? This is so depressing. I was reading some fall poems & quotes and came across this one. Luckily, Today was totally opposite from the above quote...yessssss!!! Opposite Day!!! (Oprah voice)

What a gorgeous November day to see Las Vegas and walk 'The Strip'. We slept in The Rio's self-parking back lot last night and had a restful nights sleep.

[caption id="attachment_2203" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Good Mornin' Vegas[/caption]

The parking lot is lit up at night but we have blinds so it wasn't too bad...would rather have to block the light then not have them at all. Felt good to have a good nights' rest under our belts and the weather is rockin'! We took Nana to the dog walk but she wasn't feeling very well so we sat and talked on the benches while she did her thing.

[caption id="attachment_2204" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Poor Baby[/caption]

After our morning walk, brekkie and coffee we turned up the radio and proceeded to The Las Vegas Strip to find a parking spot. We had read that almost all of the Casino's let you park for free or even have free valet. That part was easy. The hard part was actually finding a garage or back lot that we could fit into. Even though we are in a Chevy Astro, we have that huge 'pimple' on Joon's A$$ so we can't fit into any garages less than 8 feet...I think, maybe higher. We tried one garage and definitely couldn't have gone under at 7'6. We wanted to walk certain Casino's for memories sake so we wanted to park around them. We found a back lot that looks like overflow from the garages or Convention Center. FREE and no permits, no passes, no stickers, etc.

It was nice to be able to pull in, get out and after walking a small way, we were right smack in front of The Paris! Don't think we could have planned it better...this is why we don't make plans! haha

[caption id="attachment_2206" align="aligncenter" width="225"] We are here![/caption]

Not even on the strip for 10 minutes and we get "talked into" and pulled into the Miracle Miles Shops by this sales guy...(SBD) These people give you "free" stuff...but nothing is really free right!? They were talking $100.00 dinner vouchers and a couple of free comedy shows. After repeatedly asking him what the catch was and his answer always being the same...Nope, no catch. J' went to the bathroom and I was left to make the decision. Of course there was a catch ~ big or small we knew there was a catch. The first one was, we had to sit through a 90 minute tour of suites at their building across the street. If it weren't for that dinner voucher I could have cared less, but it sounded so yummy and different and exciting so we gave him the $20.00 to hold our place even though we were going to be escorted over there at that very moment. We were told our $20 would be given right back to us as soon as we walked in the door.

[caption id="attachment_2207" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Dickhead Dave[/caption]

 We were escorted across the street, up 4 floors and straight to the check-in desk. We were now told that we would get our $20 back at the end of the tour. We sat in the waiting room and talked about it for a minute and decided this was not how we were going to spend the next 90 minutes of our day maybe more, so we went back to where we started a half hour ago and asked for our money back. All we did was walk back to where we started with Dave and told him we weren't going to do it, we would like our money back...he threw thee biggest hissy fit I've ever seen. He was telling us we needed to go get it from the place we just were...dude we just handed YOU a $20 like 30 minutes ago...what!? J' went to get security to handle it instead of escalating it. Dave was on the phone hootin' and hollerin', yelling at the staff member that brought us to the desk in the first place...(SBD), because he was trying to mediate the situation and was trying to chill him out. Then Dave came over to talk to me & the other dude, (mind you he was a tall, older, black gentleman with spunk) came over too and this is how it went:

Dave: (all fired up) You can't handle this, this is something I have to do....

SBD (Spunky Black Dude): (still with a smile on his face) But you can handle it a better way...

Dave: Dude, get out of my face...angrily putting the 20 in my hand.

Meanwhile, I am backed up to a wall with people walking in the doors passing by watching all of this go down. I'm in tears...just go away please, thanks.

SBD: (in Dave's face, not smiling) And you are F*ing  up my tour man, there's a better way, you don't have to make a big deal out of it.

Dave storms off back behind the Douchebag Desk. I'm standing there being consoled by SBD and finally J' comes back and Security comes to check on us. We walk out and Dave yells out, "Ya can't get free stuff if you don't follow through"...or something like that. Peace out Miracle Miles.

[caption id="attachment_2208" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Journey thru Miracle Mile[/caption]

And we are on with our day...with our $20.00

We walked down to the MGM Grand, we have grand memories there from years ago and wanted to reconnect. They are under construction and renovation. They got rid of the Lion/Tiger exhibit and are putting some kind of show where the exhibit was. It was fun to walk around and see what was the same and what was new. It's always fun to take a stroll down memory lane...and that's one hell of a memory!!

[caption id="attachment_2209" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Rolled out the Red Carpet[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2210" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Chomp Chomp[/caption]

 After reminiscing we jumped back out onto the strip...it was time for lunch. What better place to have lunch than Outback Steakhouse!? It just so happens that there is an Outback at the top of the Coke bottle...time to chow down.

[caption id="attachment_2212" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Going up[/caption]

We have been scoping out Outback's since we left but wanted the timing of the meal to be perfect. My bestie, Duckie, gave us a gift certificate to Outback before we left and every time we are near an Outback it's just like, eh...we'll wait. Well, all that waiting paid off today. Everything was perfecto!!

We ordered two sirloin steak sandwiches with the works of mushrooms, onions and cheese and let me tell you, this was a sirloin steak in between bread, among all the other goodies! The sammies came with fries and a loaf of bread...Hell yeah! We got our food to go, we thought we would find a bench or wall or who knows, maybe even a table somewhere...so we walked with our big bag of food in hand down the strip, looking for places to sit. The more we walked the closer we got to the Bellagio and that was our next stop anyway so we kept on...don't want the food to get cold! We pulled over to the wall on the side of the water in front of the Bellagio and set up our Vegas Picnic. We were the only one's around, a few people passed by always looking on to see where the wonderful smells were coming from. We had a speaker right under us and a trashcan next to us and this immaculate view.

[caption id="attachment_2214" align="aligncenter" width="300"] About to get 'down'[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2215" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Picnic with a view[/caption]

We were there for maybe 15 minutes and all of a sudden "Time to Say Good-bye" the most beautiful Opera song comes on the speaker below us and the fountain show starts. Like I said, perfect timing on the use of the gift! Thanks Duckie! What a moment. The food was excellent, the view was gorgeous, and the music and water get my emotions going every time. Couldn't have planned it any better....haha

After the show we mozied on inside to go see the 'Garden'. The last time we were here it was during July, they had the liberty bell with lots of red, white and blue decorations. We are here during the Fall this time so we walked into a pretty cool scene. Check it out for yourself...

[caption id="attachment_2218" align="aligncenter" width="300"] So rad...He freakin' talked!![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2219" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Real Pumpkins & Gourds
820 lb. Pumpkin[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2220" align="aligncenter" width="300"] I planted you a picture[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2221" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Rainbows of Water[/caption]

 It was amazing. I loved it. We checked out a few more places and trucked on back to the van. Time for Nana's relief and for her to get some fresh air.

 As we drove more and more off the Strip, we decided a nice park would be nice right now for all of us, so we punched in parks into the GPS and drove to the closest one. Turns out there was a cute little park right next to a school, in a cute little neighborhood. Savannah was ecstatic!

We hung out for a little bit and when the sun started sinking we thought it would be nice to find a car wash and give our rug a little scrub down so we drove to three car wash's only to find out they are not self-wash so we just rolled up the dirty rug, strapped it on top and moved on back over to The Rio. We had driven like 9 miles+ from all the action trying to find the car wash, so we hopped on the Interstate.

[caption id="attachment_2224" align="aligncenter" width="300"] zoom zoom[/caption]

When we pulled in, we thought maybe it would be better to go to a different lot where there weren't so many people. The lot we were in last night was almost full, there was a car show at the Convention Center for the next few days, so it was packed. We parked out of the way, but still close to people.

[caption id="attachment_2226" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Loaded & Level[/caption]

We took Savannah for her "midnight stroll" or maybe her 8:00 stroll...whatever! haha The grass was wet so she stood in the same spot the whole time, she does not do water on her feet!!

[caption id="attachment_2225" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Wet Pet Walk[/caption]

So now we are going to turn the bed down and get some good quality boob tube time in before we snooze on over to sleepy town.

I hope your day was just as fun minus the douchebag. Remember you can add a little fun with even the smallest amount of mystery added to your day.

What little mysteries are out there for you to discover?

PEACE