©Robert William Baker
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Tuesday, 16th May 2006
We're sleeping late this morning - it's 1044 and I'm in bed as I type this. It's not sunny today, it's mostly cloudy outside (but I'd put money on it that it's still hot outside). What amazes me is the amount of money people are prepared to lose whilst gambling. Las Vegas is a 24/7 gambling machine - yesterday at 0630 as we walked through the casino (to get outside we have to walk through a long casino floor) there were people gambling - no doubt some who had gambled through the night. At the laundromat there are slot machines to play as you wait for your laundry. And around 8pm the tables and machines in the casinos are packed with gamblers. And it's this gambling which finances all Las Vegas's amazing structures - every light is financed through somebody's heartache.
We went to relax in the Tropicana's spa bath, which is open 24/7. The water was lovely and warm, and there were plenty of bubble machines (but only 1 jet). By the butts lying around, it was clear that the previous group at the spa bath were smokers! Two Americans came and joined us at the spa bath...two pretty sozzled Americans. We chatted with his wife, but he was so drunk he could hardly string a sentence together and his wife told us to ignore him! They were from Missouri - I questioned whether that was one of the southern states, apparently this isn't the thing to ask as it implies they might be rednecks!? She was very interested in Africa, and we had to start off by letting her know that no, there aren't actually lions and tigers (!) running around everywhere and the entire Africa isn't a tropical jungle.
We dined at the Calypso restaurant in the Tropicana. We ordered onion rings for starters, and they brought us so much we couldn't finish it! For the main course I ordered a veggie burger with cheese and jalepeno with french fries and Karen ordered a chicken burger with french fries....neither of us finished the main course either!
These photos weren't all taken on the same day, but I decided to keep the photos of each hotel together.