Started out the day the same as all the others. Woke up around 7:30-ish, had some breakfast.  Walked around almost pouting, knowing the next day we were going to be heading home, back to the real world.

One of the few hotels out on the strip that I had always wanted to see was the Luxor. I guess it is because seeing it from the outside, looking at that HUGE black pyramid was just drawing me in.

On the way to the strip, we decided to swing by one of the outlet malls. It was a nice sunny day, so walking around an outlet mall sounded like a good plan.

Well, sunny the day was. Guess what else it was? WINDY. Not just a little windy, I mean WINDY as hell. It was like 15-18mph sustained winds, with gusts up to 50-55mph. The gust weren’t just occasionally happening. The gusting happened A LOT.

So we walked around the outlet mall quicker than we wanted to, but the wind made it necessary. We did stop in the “Coach” factory store so Michelle could pick up a couple things. I also made a stop. Some of you that have known me for awhile should remember I have a thing for sunglasses. I have always liked sunglasses & owning many pairs of sunglasses. Unfortunately about 4 or 5 years ago I found out I needed prescription glasses. This put an end to my collection of sunglasses. I wound up having 1 pair of prescription sunglasses & that was it.

Well about 2 or 3 months ago I found an eye doctor that worked with me for about 1 & 1/2 months getting contacts to fit me just right. So guess what that meant? I could start buying sunglasses again… WOOHOO. Anyway, back to the Vegas story. I stopped by the Oakley factory store & picked up a pair of Oakley Crosshairs. Of course I couldnt just buy a pair & walk out. I spent over an hour trying on different frames & different lense combinations. What Michelle says took the most time is the salesperson told me about the custom lenses that had different gradients (where the lense color gradually gets darker as you go from bottom to top). I finally settled on a pewter frame with bronze gradient lense.

Here is a picture of the frames - LINK

After all this we finally headed out to the strip to see the Luxor.

Here is a pic from outside -

Here is a pic from the lobby -

After walking around for less than 5 minutes we decided we really did not like this hotel/casino. It was confusing trying to get around anywhere inside it. There was no central casino. Instead there were “pockets” of slot machines & card tables scattered all over 1st & 2nd floor. We only stayed long enough to walk around once twice get lost & find our way back to the main entrance.

Here is a picture of the ONLY thing that the Luxor had that may have made staying there ok -

So we headed back to Fremont Street & by this time had definitely decided downtown was for us & we may not venture back to the strip if when we come back to Vegas.

We wandered around Fremont Street for a little while & wound up back at bingo. So many times we were both 1 number away from winning. Oh well. Bingo over. Time to head back to the 4 Queens.

Once back at our hotel, it was time to play for real (bet more money than we had previously), after all this was our last night in Vegas. Remember we are not “rich” so playing BIG for us may still seem like small bets to others.

The previous evening I had found a video poker machine that also played blackjack. I had put in $20 and was betting a quarter a hand. I played on that machine for almost 90 minutes before I lost all of it. So tonight I decided to put in $40 and play the max bet of 50 cents a hand. Whenever I won on a hand I would “let it ride” so essentially I would be betting $1 a hand. A couple times when I won after a $1 bet I would let it ride again. Within about 20 minutes I was up to around $120. Of course I didn’t stop. Once I was down to $100 I figured I had done so good earlier I could get it back no problem. Well in about another 30 minutes I had lost it all, so I decided to go find Michelle.

I found her at the 3 card poker table. After watching for a couple minutes I decided to sit down & play. I put down $40 and this time watched how many chips I had so I would not make the mistake I made before.

I made sure I kept $40 worth of chips separated so I could easily tell if I was actually winning or not. I decided to walk away once I had about 4 losing hands in a row. Luckily I was up to around $140 or so.

All in all it was a good night.

I think we got to sleep somewhere around 1 or 2am, had to be up early so we could get everything ready to leave…….sniffle….

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