Thursday, May 17, 2007

Click here to see Set 5 of our Road Trip 2007 photo gallery.

It was a good thing we decided to stay an extra day in Las Vegas so Joel could have an opportunity to see some of it.  He was still sick through most of the afternoon so he didn’t get to go to the Stratosphere with us to ride the rides at the top of the tower.

They used to have a roller coaster at the top of the Stratosphere, but they’ve discontinued it because it was more of a kid’s ride than anything.  So they’ve replaced it with the X-Scream, and the Insanity.  The Big Shot is still there.  The first two rides basically hang you over the edge of the 1000 foot tower and do things like tilt you down toward the ground and spin you around or drop a car over the edge on this sliding track and stop you when you think it’s about to keep going.  The Big Shot is your standard shoot you way up in the air pneumatic ride, but the kicker is that you’re on top of a freakin’ building.  So when Daniel, Garrison, and I (Amy) got onto the X-Scream we boarded while the ride operator joked about our last moments and that if we weren’t scared we should be.  I like how the ride operators say things like “good luck” as if to imply you have some control over the outcome of the ride.  Personally I wasn’t all impressed by the ride, probably because I couldn’t see anything but the back of the seat in front of me.  However, the best part of this ride by far was the guy in the front seat cowering into his neighbor’s shoulder emitting the highest pitched squeals I’ve ever heard.  Until we got off the ride and I saw his face I swear I thought it was a girl.

After we rode the rides, we went to try and see the White Tiger at The Mirage, but he was bein’ all asleep so he didn’t do anything interesting.

Joel called and said he was feeling better and wanted to eat supper with us.  Wolfgang Puck has a restaurant in the MGM Grand, so we decided to give it a shot.  You can see some of the food we had in the photo album there.  Amy had a pork tenderloin thing and I (Garrison) had some shrimp with Parmesan cheese risotto.  Joel got a flat iron steak (not pictured) and Daniel went with a calzone.  It was delicious to say the least.

After supper we headed back down the strip to see the fountain show at the Bellagio and the pirate show at Treasure Island. Initially we had planned to see the 10 PM showing but it was cancelled due to gusts of wind excelling .346 mph. It was scary stuff; I totally understand why they cancelled…

The pirate show has apparently been overhauled recently as well.  We understand that it used to be two pirate ships fighting.  Now the same two ships still exist, but one of the ships is filled with the Sirens of Treasure Island (read hot chicks) and they seduce a sailor from the other ship and some fighting (read dancing) ensues.  I’m serious, even stepping was involved.

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