I woke up feeling a distinctly strange mixture of being refreshed from full night's sleep, and being sick. It wasn't an illness, as far as I could tell, something in the weather of Las Vegas didn't agree with my sinuses. My head felt like it had doubled in weight and the pressure difference moving from the top floor of the hotel to the ground left me deaf my left ear. Not one of be discouraged, Giggles and I ventured out on our own, to pick up tickets and explore more of Vegas. We a cab to the strip. Outside of Paris we got ice cream smoothies to energize our day mission. It was a long trip, but getting inside and exploring the Venetian was worth it. Exploring is exactly what we did too, because of bad directions to the Phantom ticket booth. When we finally did get there we both wished that Blackmail or Moonshine were there. Neither one of us knew which seats were best to pick. We picked some out that seemed decent and hoped for the best. After that we wondered the upper levels of the mall area. The main attraction of the Venetian is of course the illusion of Venice Italy, complete with gondola boats moving around the indoor waterways. Considering the original Venice water canal doubles as a sewer system, the pristine clear blue waters of this mock up made me very aware that what I was experiencing was a romanticized fraud, but it was still a beautiful place.

We also went a head and bought tickets to the wax musiem. Here wax statues of famous people stood for people to pose and mock for their own enjoyment. Giggles got to poke Oprah Winfrey's nose and shook the hand of porn star Jenna Jameson (well a porn star handshake). I realized how short Mathew MacConnaughey really is, refused George Clooney's wedding proposal (they had him set up in a chapel for some reason), and scolded Lucy for beaking my babaloo drums. Hilarity ensued all around. I was surprised how much fun it can be making fun of well known people to their own prop faces. Before we left, Giggles offered to go see Blue Man Group with me the next day, so we bought our tickets.

Leaving the Venetian, we were surprised to run into the girls. What were the odds of that happening?! The two of us decided to head back however, hit up the M&M store on the way back, buy a day pass on the Monorail, and take the shuttle back to the hotel to get ready for Phantom of the Opera. M&M World was a massive store four floors tall. They sold the actual candy, various dispensers, plushy toys, jewelery (?), and other shenanigans. I went a little crazy when I saw the 'fill your own bag' wall of colored candy and spent beyond my reason (Oops). I happily left with a massive bag of mostly orange and gray M&Ms (for whatever reason they were out of red and blue). The monorail turned out to be surprisingly helpful getting us back to the shuttle site. We ended up using the hell out of that one day pass. Unfortunately the shuttle service for our hotel was pitiful. We waiting for close to an hour (it was advertised as making 15 minute trips) and ended up being so late that we had to pay for a cab to drive us back to the Venetian to make it on time.

Phantom of the Opera was definitely one of the major highlights of the trip. I'll write up a formal review for it, as just mentioning it here wouldn't do it justice (and I have no corresponding DSi photos). Afterward, we wondered the nearby Cesar's Palace to rummage for food. We were all dressed up so this outing became our 'fancy dinner'. Hotel staff pointed us in the right direction, to a ritzy upstairs establishment. I don't remember the name of it, but it was so fancy they poured our free tap water from chilled glass decanters. It had been another long day, Benny and I retired and left the girls to go on another night out.