Monday, April 6th

Pretty late by the time I got around to this posting, we are keeping that busy.  Our last day & night in Las Vegas, so a pretty busy day.
  It was a windy day, it blew pretty much the entire day and it was a cool wind.  I think the max temp got into the low 70's, pretty chilly for us Arizona folks, LOL.  It was a nice bright sunny day.
  I was up and out of the hotel by 7:30 looking for some early morning munching material.  Ended up at a neighbourhood Walmart and picked up enough to keep us from starting out the day hungry.  Dropped some for Phil & Char and then the 3 girls showed up in our room to share some.  It was just Gatorade, banana's & donuts; but it seemed to fit the need.  We got moving in the late morning and went down to the Outlet Mall south, which is just south of the airport, so not far from here.  The kids scored a few things and then we all grabbed some pizza for lunch.  It was pretty good, some of our group thinking that pizza works for any meal, even dessert.

   There were still unsatisfied appetites for shopping in our group, so we went up to the other Outlet mall [the north one] and the rest of them made out pretty darn well there.  It seems everyone managed to find something they needed.  Bill & Patti's group shopped a bit longer than ours, so we left a bit early.  I was getting a bit antsy about the parking situation.  We found some excellent parking on the first level, but there were hardly any stalls taken.  It was a state of the art parking system in the parkade.  There were overhead indicators telling drivers how many empty stalls were ahead and green lights over the empty stalls/red lights over the occupied stalls.  The stall we had was very good on the first level, but had to drive thru an opening in the barricade tape and posts to get to it.  When I asked the security guard about it he said there was no parking in that area, to which I said there were others there when I drove in.  After a bit of grumbling he said we might as well stay there, which was good.

   On the way back we stopped at what is reputedly the largest souvenir shop in he world.  Again our guests managed to get a few   lt was a good opportunity to pick up the stuff that only tourists buy.  It was a pretty darn big shop and had an amazing assortment of knick knacks, some of which will going home with Char & Katie.
  After we got back to the hotel we all went for the buffet in the Mandalay Bay.  It was easily the best one we have eaten at both for variety and quality.  We managed to get in before the big rush for supper, we seemed to be lucky with that this trip.  The buffet was very good value and even included beer, wine or champagne.  Bill didn't join us because he was to meet up with a guy who stars on a tv show that does tattoos.  That was his second celebrity encounter and this one came about as a result of some sponsorship they had done from home through their company.  Phil had a funny encounter when he commented to a stranger in the dinner queue about good food up ahead.  Later he ran into the same guy at the dessert tables and said something like - are you following me around?  The guy apparently said as soon as he saw Phil he knew there were good eats in that location, so homed in on him.  I guess they had a good laugh over it.
  After supper Bill, Patti and their 4 kids went to the Cirque do Soliel show at the Treasure Island hotel. They had bought the tickets earlier in the day.  The rest of us passed, having seen one of their performances previously.  Instead the Smith's and us went to see the Venetian hotel, which is pretty posh and then on to the Flamingo where they wanted to get souvenirs to take home.  Then Char wanted one more stop at the ABC store.  It was kind of nostalgic as these are everywhere in Hawaii, so we drove to the one on the Strip [Las Vegas Blvd] where Phil & I waited in a construction zone, kind of like a keep your motor running stop.
  Back at the hotel we had a night cap or two and that was our day.  Brennan [who is staying in our room] showed up back in the room sometime in the middle of the night.  Not sure when as we went to be about 12:30, must have been a full day for him as well.