Tuesday

Today after a marathon drive from Florida my fiancé's son finally arrived in New York.

The funny thing was that we were at home waiting for their call when we found out that he was almost at exit 13 of the New Jersey Turnpike. From there he had to drive through Staten Island, the Verrazano Bridge and the Belt Parkway to Manhattan Beach. Not a short drive and it was rush hour.

So, we figured we have plenty of time to get to Manhattan Beach from our place. We didn't count on that we would get caught in rush hour traffic, too. Anyway we were half way there when he called saying that he was there at the address already. That was very funny.

We finally got there and had a very pleasant and emotional reunion. This guy used to live in New York so this was not a strange world for him. He remembered the places, he remembered the apartment. It was more like a homecoming.

We honestly hope that his job interview(s) go well and he will decide to move back to the Big Apple. It would be nice to have the majority of the family in one place.

As far as I am concerned I never had a large family and being surrounded by one does sound strangely inviting. The sad thing is that I am getting this gift at this late stage of my life.

But hey, que sera sera!

Monday

Today is Monday and a new week is beginning. It promises to be anything but restful. My fiancé's son and his girlfriend are driving up from Florida for a short visit. They are supposed to arrive sometimes Tuesday afternoon. We don't know when, it depends on their driving stamina and traffic. We will naturally be very glad to see them and spend time with them.

Unfortunately, there is also school for Abigail and her schedule governs. But we will make the most of it. He is a very nice and personable young man and I am looking forward seeing him in our court. I saw him in Florida three times so far and I always enjoyed our get togethers.

He is also a computer genius and his look see at my computer is always welcome.

Today, after realizing the we both need to do some exercise in order to shed some of our excess pounds, we went to Planet Fitness where I have a membership and signed up my fiancée. Now that we are both members all we need is the time to get in the car and do some exercise. I think we plan to start next Monday!

After we picked up Abigail from school we took her home and did some errands. Later in the evening we did our weekly laundry in our building's laundry room.

It wasn't an exiting day but we were together all day and I really don't care what we do as long as we are doing it together!

Sunday

We lately got used to watch late night Hungarian movies on YouTube. Because of the extensive library there are plenty to watch and most of the time by the time it is over we realize how late it is. But we are doing it diligently. Today again, we didn't get up until about noon and then started the day.

It was Sunday today and the first time the weather was really Fall like. Cloudy and chilly. Tonight we had a chance to see a moon eclipse. It was really interesting to see the Earth's shadow on the Moon.

I came to the sad conclusion that I am overweight and underappreciated. I guess the easy life I lead brought me to the overweight status. We really live in a loving harmony with barely any problems. Eat regularly and do not much outside of doing nothing. So we just decided that we would resume attending a gym. Exercise can do wanders to one's figure.

Tonight I received a preliminary lesson in fatherhood. Abigail had to do a school project for Monday. Now remember, it is Sunday night and it is 8:30 pm. The project included a blue balloon she had to place in a box. Give her credit, the project was done by Friday night but unfortunately the balloon deflated by midday Saturday.

So around 8:30 tonight she announced that she had no blue balloon and she must have one because the project was due on Monday. So, what does a good father do? I bitched and moaned only because it felt good but got my car keys and we went out to hunt for blue balloons.

Thanks for Sunday store openings we were successful and found our target without much searching. Now, Abigail is happy and I feel good too.

Saturday

Today is Saturday and we had a really late start for the day. Last night, almost this morning we started to watch a Hungarian movie on Youtube. "Unfortunately' it was a very good movie and it was almost two hours long. Several times we made an effort to stop and go to bed but we just couldn't. So by the time it was over it was well over three in the morning.

As a result we didn't get up until about noon today. But it was worth it. We both enjoyed it a lot.

I said it before, Youtube is a great invention. Anything and everything can be found on it. And it is free!

Anyway next time we won't start to watch something that late because it is just stupid.

So, around one o'clock in the afternoon we had our breakfast than went to Long Island for some shopping. Lately for several weeks the weather has been holding out and every weekend actually during the weeks too we have been having real summery days. Just because of that I didn't give up wearing my shorts. I might wind up to be a lone hold out on shorts wearing.

But there is another reason. One day this week I wanted to wear jeans. I have four jeans and unfortunately three of those would not close at the waist. I think I am still growing that is why my clothes suddenly don't fit.

It is the good and love filled life that I live that contributes to my well being. I love every minute of it!

Friday

Today Abigail bought some balloons for a school project. She took a few out of the package and was using them for recreational purposes. That means that my fiancé and her are playing volley ball in the middle of the living room. It annoys the heck out of me but then I am outnumbered two to one. So, I just have to bear it.

By the sound of it they're having a great time playing.

I will have to get used to this because I always will be outnumbered two to one. So what a prospective (step)father to do? Take his lumps and smile. And be glad for whatever good fortune life throws at him.

Abigail is 13 and a quarter years old. She just started the eight grade and we are heaving heated arguments about what high school she wants to go to. She doesn't take it seriously enough but soon we all have to make some choices and they have to be recorded.

It is without a doubt that we want what is the best for her even she doesn't realize it. We also want a school that is not on the other side of the universe since she will have to be driven at least in the first two years.

Her mom and I have some ideas and we plan to visit open houses for those schools. True to form Abigail is against all of our choices and she has some thoughts where she would like to go but not all of them are practical.

When the time came my parents chose the school I went and in hindsight it was a very wise choice.

Thursday

A very interesting thing happened today. Not to me but to my fiancé's son who lives in Florida. He called his mom and told her that this morning he received a UPS delivery of a letter. The letter contained a check made out to his name for the amount of $1895 and issued by Citibank.

There was no explanation attached and he asked his mom if she knew what that money was. She didn't have any idea and he didn't have any idea. So, he called Citibank.
The bank told him not to deposit the money.

According to the bank this is a new type of scam where they send money to people and when the check is deposited the scammers can get access to the bank account, ss number and every other sensitive and personal information.

Now this message is to the world. Whenever anybody get a check like this and no matter how inviting and attractive it looks do not deposit it!

Something else.

Today we went out to Manhattan Beach to my fiancé's apartment. She used to have Verizon TV and internet service but recently she cancelled it. Verizon sent a box in which she had to return some items that belong to Verizon. That was what we were putting together.

Verizon sent a list of what needed to be returned. I wished they would have spoken English. I had to call Verizon to find out what really needed to be returned. They make these lists for ordinary people but the descriptions are very high tech.

They all assume that the world speak their language. And when you don't they treat you like an idiot.

Post Fast

We had a beautiful dinner last night and that prepared us for a day of fasting today. We ate a lot and tried not to think of food all day long.

And it worked. We broke our fast at 6:50 at night. For me it was a personal best. In previous years I always stopped between 3 and 5 pm. But today we were busy, we had thing to do and by the time we got home it was almost 7 pm.

We had our dinner around 8 o'clock but I got so used to not eating that I said we should continue just for losing weight. It didn't work, we had dinner.

Now I am a new man. Not a sinner anymore, pure as the driven snow!

Something else.

Tomorrow is a Muslim holiday called Eid al-Adha. Actually it is tomorrow and Friday. This means that alternate side parking is suspended and streets will not be cleaned. It also means that New York City public schools are closed on the first day.

I never heard of this holiday and since I am a curious person I looked it up in Wikipedia, my bible.

It seems that it is very important Muslim holiday that is celebrated worldwide. It honors the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son, as an act of submission to God's command, before God then intervened, through his angel Gabriel and informed him that his sacrifice has already been accepted.

This is all very nice but my question is why the Jews don't celebrate it? They celebrate every single thing under the sun that happened back in that time.

Yom Kippur

Today is Yom Kippur eve. It is not a happy holiday it is the Day of Atonement. On this day good Jews do not eat all day long. This is the way along with many hours of praying to atone for their sins accumulated since the previous year.

Since last year everybody's slate was washed clean the atonement is for the current year.

Anyway, since I am in this country I have been observing it in my own way. I am atoning for my sins and for the sins of all my loved ones. It might have not been written exactly this way in the Good Books but that is the way I do it.

We had a lovely diner with all the necessary pieces and I am ready to face the next many hours without food and liquid. Actually as soon as I feel a headache coming on the fast is over.

Jews are atoning for their sins. But last year we already atoned for our "current" sins. This means we only have to ask for forgiveness for the 2015 sins? Those shouldn't be too many for fasting an entire day.

At least not for me!

Fish

Why do the more religious Jews pray at the water?

That is a question that was puzzling me in the last week or so. We were out on Manhattan Beach a few times and I couldn't help but see orthodox families standing by the water or rather the protective handrail and pray. After praying they were throwing bread into the water like feeding the fish.

Manhattan Beach in Brooklyn is around Sheapshead Bay and that means there is a lots of water to be found there. Just before Rosh Hashanah I saw really large crowd praying. Yesterday it was Sunday and we saw people here and there praying and throwing bread into the water.

Funnily, some people threw matzos in the water. They think these are Jewish fish who only eat kosher?

Anyway, this waterside praying looked very interesting and until now I couldn't figure out what purpose it served. I'm sure sooner or later I'll figure it out because I am really very bright!

Shirt

Here is a very interesting consumer information.

I bought a beautiful white shirt at Century21 in the middle of July with the plan that I will wear it at our wedding in Las Vegas. Unfortunately the wedding didn't take place at that timeframe and the shirt was not worn. So, the other day I tried the shirt on and lo and behold it did not fit.

I am living a very relaxed life, meaning that I am putting on weight. Putting on weight also meant that I could not button the shirt in my midriff. Following that sad event we decided to return the shirt and exchange it for a larger size that will look good on me at our New York nuptials.

So, yesterday (Saturday) we went to Century21 and tried to do the thing. I bought the shirt 49 days ago and the store has a 45 day return limit. The blond ditz at the service counter told us there was nothing she could do because this was over the deadline and her manager was not allowing any exceptions.

I used all my charms trying to explain that this was an even exchange but to no avail end eventually as far as they were concerned I was stuck with a shirt that would not reach through my girth.

I was really pissed and on our way out I saw a man in a suit walking around doing absolutely nothing but with a nametag on his jacket. I asked him if he was some kind of a manager. It turned out he was the general manager of the store. I told him my problem and he listened and told me to wait. Went to the service desk and when he returned he told me they would make a one time exception!

Hallelujah, I prevailed!

The essence of this is that never believe what the little people tell you. Go to the top and you will prevail!

Saturday

Today is Saturday and I can't say it was a quiet day. We decided that by trying to organize our humongous volumes of paper we should buy some kind of cabinet and place the stuff there in some kind of order. I am all game for order because I admit that I'm a extremely bright individual, filing or set up files is not one of my strong point.

So two days ago we bought a cabinet that looked very nice and commanding on the floor in the store. Naturally, it came in a flat box and the assembly remained to be our problem.

I always hated to put together these pre drilled, pre prepared furniture. There was always problem putting them together. Holes missing, holes didn't match with each other and other problems.

Well, today was no exception either. We worked on that damn thing for about three hours before it was finished. But before we finished it we sweated blood.

First, the pieces are heavy so handling them was not easy. Second, I didn't have all the necessary tools, I had to borrow some from the building superintendent.

Third and the worst thing was that many of the pre drilled holes were not drilled deep enough meaning we had to drill these holes in order to have the screws fit. Those damn Chinese who fabricate this stuff are just too lazy to do their jobs correctly. I'm sure this is done purposely to annoy the Americans! They probably get a directive from their government. We think hacking computer systems is bad. Try to insert screws in half drilled holes. Now that is bad!

But now that this thing is done it looks good and I am very proud of our collective effort putting it together. Regardless of the Chinese sabotage, American/Hungarian ingenuity conquered it all.

Friday

I had a great disappointment today. I always thought that I was genius but today I realized that I was not. Yesterdays heroics with Abigale's math homework didn't work out too good. For her I mean not for me.

There were two possibilities.

One, that I didn't advise her correctly and some of the examples were not solved the right way.

The other one, and I am inclined to believe that one is that the math teacher is an idiot who does not know math, has a bad home life and takes it out on the kids.

Unfortunately I came across a few of these types during my school career who never understood my high level problem solving. But anyway, I got through all my schools with fairly good grades.

Today is Friday and we had a pretty busy day. Started with taking Abigail to school. After we had breakfast then went to a store because I had to exchange some shirts that my fiancé bought me but were not the right size. That took some time.

In the afternoon we had to pick her up from school and then went home. At home we were busy doing paperwork that took more time than we anticipated it. There now the days is gone!

But it's all right, tomorrow is another day and we can start all over again.

Math

Today is Thursday and right now it is past eleven o'clock at night. This is when I finally got to sit down and begin to writes lines. I or rather we had a busy day. Actually lately we are having many busy days.

Things are just happening around us that we really do not have much control about and those just eat up our times. It is a good thing that we have nothing to do this way we can keep ourselves occupied with the other stuff.

But tonight was tough.

It was tough because, against my better judgement I decided to help Abigail with her eighth grade math homework. All my life I worked with numbers meaning I can do calculations and whatever is necessary. But I do and did not understand most of the terminology there fore it was hard for me to determine what the questions were.

I learned basic math in Hungary and the American way is totally strange to me. Primarily the simple multiplications and divisions. We did it so simple and the Americans complicated it so much that I can just not understand it at all. Fortunately in my line of work it didn't matter how the stuff was calculated as long as the correct results were achieved.

So, I struggled and struggled but heroically stood my place. At the end I was totally exhausted and was glad when she said she could take it from here on.

The problem is that these kids are very opinionated. I was trying to explain something that I was confident that I knew and we got into an argument because I said it differently than the teacher explained it. So what does a good stepfather does? Keeps quiet and agrees with the kid. If he or she gets a bad grade that is his/her problem, right?

Sitting there and watching her and trying to help her made me think back when my Father was sitting with me and was trying to help me with my homework. I was about 14-15 years of age and had some problem with math. He must have been in the same boat as I was today. He was an engineer who worked with numbers all his life. But understanding school assignments is a totally different animal.

I can now just imagine how frustrated he must have been that after a long day at work he had to sit with me and help. But he did it and I was very grateful for his help.

5776

This Tuesday was Rosh Hashanah the first day of the Jewish New Year. In the Jewish calendar it started the year 5776. In accordance with custom the night before, meaning Monday we had a lovely family dinner.

My fiancee cooked Sunday and Monday and prepared a beautiful table with all the traditional stuff. I had many Rosh Hashanah dinners but this the best. With candles, honey, nuts and fruits, challah and soup and main course the dinner was just great.

I bought my favorite wine: Manischewitz Raspberry Wine. I bought a bottle of real vintage, last Wednesday's. Can't help it, I love that stuff.

Tuesday and Wednesday we celebrated the holiday by not doing anything as it commands in the good book. Wait a minute! It seems we celebrate every day because we don't really do anything on other days either.

Rosh Hashanah is a school holiday in New York City. Schools are closed for two days. And one more day for Yom Kippur. It is unbelievable, school started on last Wednesday, went on for four days then off. It will be closed for two more days next week. One for Yom Kippur and the next day is some kind of Muslim holiday. New York schools are equal opportunity educational institutions!

I never had that good back in Hungary when I went to school. But there we didn't have any Chinese, Indian or Muslim students. We had Stalin's birthday, Lenin's birthday and similar stupid holidays. We didn't question it, we were glad when we didn't have to go to school.

Anyway, good country America!

Florida

I don't know if there was any blog published on Tuesday morning but if there was none I apologize. I wrote most of these previous ones at one or two sittings and scheduled them to be released daily. I think somewhere I lost the count of days and that might have been the reason for my shortcoming.

Mea culpa! I'll try not to have this happen again.

I think I wrote enough about our Las Vegas trip. If I missed anything, no big deal. The stuff that left us with good memories were all listed, so the rest maybe next time.

Now back to the quiet life! Or not.

We got home from LV on Saturday, rested on Sunday and Monday afternoon we embarked on a whirlwind trip to Florida. School starting in New York we had to go down an collect Abigail who was spending her Summer with her siblings there.

So we left on Monday night, got there Tuesday afternoon, spent a few hours there then turned around and drove back to New York with Abigail. We got home Wednesday evening.

It was an exhilarating trip and the only person who was totally unhappy was Abigail. Shed a wonderful time down there and was not looking forward to coming back to New York. She cried and crie almost all the way to home.

But kids are very resilient creatures. This happened two weeks ago and all the heartbreak is forgotten. Now school is open the friends are here and Florida is a distant memory.

The City

Las Vegas is an interesting city. At least in my eyes.

Like every city in this country it has an uptown and a downtown.

In New York and the way I am used to it if a city is laid out in the north-south direction uptown is north and downtown is south. And the numbering goes from downtown to uptown.

Not in Las Vegas.

There uptown is in the south end of the city and downtown is at the north end of the city. The numbering on the Strip follows this layout. So when people were talking about Downtown Las Vegas they were talking about the north end of the city where Fremont Street was.

Very confusing.

Something else.

We walked in the Trump Hotel and just as fast walked out of it. In my opinion it reflects Donald Trump. Colorless, no charm, strictly business. Even though it is visible from everywhere on the Strip there is absolutely no reason to go there unless somebody stays there.

Something else.

I drove all over the city and found driving very easy. I found the drivers very accommodating to whatever faux pas I did while driving. Like unexpected u-turns, sudden lane changes or very slow driving because of looking at the sights.

Also the streets and avenues are wide with good visibility, intersections are well marked meaning that getting lost is not easy. Although I did get lost a few times but eventually always found our way back.

Side Trips

When one is in Las Vegas not to se the Grand Canyon is a crime. We prepaid a trip while still in New York and it went down without a hitch.

The bus picked us up at our hotel at 6:20 am (yes 6:20 am!) took us to a central location where we boarded our Grand Canyon destined bus. The trip was long but we stopped for breakfast and a buffet lunch and when we got to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon it made the long trip worthwhile.

This was a sight that words can not describe. The weather was great, clear skies with good visibility. What we saw, what nature created is something that is unimaginable, it must be seen to believe it. It is unfortunate that I am colorblind and was not really able to appreciate the colors but I am sure they were there. That was what I as told.

We walked around the perimeter and interestingly at every turn one sees the view from different angles.

I think we spent about three hours at the Canyon then headed back home. Along the way we stopped on the shoulders for a minute to get a peek from the highway at the lit up Hoover Dam. It was an awesome sight.

We were dropped off at our hotel by 9:30 and in bed by midnight. It was a long, very eventful, tiring but pleasant day.

Next thing.

The next trip outside of LV we took on our own. We decided to drive over to the Hoover Dam. Actually, while it is outside of the City in the middle of a total wilderness it is only about a forty-five minute drive and a pleasant one, too.

The Hoover Dam is using the Colorado River to generate electricity. It is a technical marvel how they were able to carve that thing out of rocks and build it in such a short time, about three years.

(The Second Avenue Subway in Manhattan is being built for several years now with no end in sight and with better technology than they had in the 1930s.)

The dam itself is divided between Nevada and Arizona and we walked back and forth between the two states. We walked the entire sight and saw what there was to see from high up and from down low.

These two sights left us with such impressions that it is very hard to put them to words.

September 11

Today is September 11, the fourteenth anniversary of the destruction of the World Trade Center. And, as every year before there was a remembrance at the site where the two Towers stood.

I was in Tower Two on that fateful day and thanks to my Guardian Angel I got out without a scratch. Sadly though, thirteen of my colleagues were not so lucky. They lost their lives right there and then.

It was a very sad day for all of us that we will always remember. We will remember the events before, during and after. We remember the friends we lost whose lives were cut short by some idiotic political machine.

But...

We gathered our remaining forces and went back to work in about three weeks and tried to continue life as normal as possible. We got new offices, we had work and with the exception of a few people we all went back to our duties and responsibilities.

Ok, every September 11 we had a few minutes of remembrance in the office of the past events and about our lost friends.

But not the magnitude the victims' families are forcing the government to make each and every year.

I resent the hullaballoo they are making Downtown with the reading of the names. Some people can not pronounce the names on their lists. Why put such idiots up there? I can not imagine more frustration of a family than hearing their loved ones' names mispronounced. Not to give that small respect to the person than say his or her name correctly is a straightforward insult.

I guess the victims' families are so well organized that no government official dares to say no to them meaning this circus will go on and on until eternity or until one politician will have the guts to say finally that no! No more ceremonies but just maybe a quiet remembrance.

Its time to let go and let the world go on, on its own path toward some kind of normalcy.

Las Vegas Shows

We made arrangements from New York to see three shows in LV.

The first was Las Vegas Revue at the Planet Hollywood, the Second Cirque du Soleil's Ka at the MGM Grand and the last but not least was Celine Dion at Caesar Palace.

Each was great and each left us with good memories. Celine Dion took a year and a half off from giving concerts because of the health of her husband and the day we saw her was her first day back. It was a huge theater At the Coliseum and all tickets were sold even the $500 ones.

I have never seen a concert of this kind and was awed by it. We had great seats (not $500 ones!) and the show was just fabolous. It lasted almost two hours and it was pure entertainment.

The first show we actually saw was Las Vegas Revue at the Planet Hollywood. This was a song and dance show reminiscing about the golden and olden days of Las Vegas. Good seats and good entertainment.

The second show we saw was a Cirque du Soleil production called Ka. Cirque du Soleil has about seven permanent shows in Las Vegas and we picked this one. The theater in the MGM Grand was built particularly for this show. I never saw a Cirque du Soleil show and was just stunned by the acrobatics and technology that was presented.

Generally, ticket prices vary from inexpensive to really high priced ones but regardless, every show we saw was always full house with no empty seats. And they talk about the bad economy.

Just like in New York people dress differently for these shows. At the Celine Dion Concert we saw the best dressed crowd. Some women wore long gowns but over all people dressed up for this event.

Cirque du Soleil they dressed down. Some people brought drinks and popcorn to their seats like in the movies.

That same behavior is visible in New York. Even in the Metropolitan Opera we observed people in tee shirts and jeans.

Americans have no class, this would never happen in Europe!

Second Day in Las Vegas

I will not give a day to day count of our Las Vegas events because I don't want to be boring but will describe our impressions and highlights.

There is a great institution in LV at the hotels. It is called Self Parking. This is a part of the parking garage in each hotel where free parking is provided. Every single hotel have it and that made getting around very easy. Ok, sometimes we had to hunt for a parking place but since one needs only one spot at the end we always succeeded.

Our hotel was not on the Strip and the use of the Monorail was not very advantageous for us that's why we decided to rent a car for the duration. Besides I am a car guy. I don't like public transportation much even though my career was working on public transportation.

Anyhoo, on our first full day we set off from the North end of the Strip and visited the Wynn, Palazzo and the Venetian.

The Wynn was amazing. Not because that was the first hotel we saw but the quiet elegance and the style was something else. Actually all the way through and after seeing all the other establishments the Wynn was what I liked the most. Everything was decorated with fresh flowers in a very elegant way. It looked like the Macy's Easter Flower Show but much classier.

We walked through the Palazzo and wound up at the Venetian. We naturally went on a gondola ride which was very interesting and pleasant.

Around eight o'clock we saw the Volcano light show at the Mirage. This is a light and fire show at their waterfall that is being presented every night. Amazing!

This was the night when we had problems with dinner because due to the lateness of the hour we had real difficulty finding a place to eat. But we ate.

In bed by 12.

First day in Las Vegas

I am back!

Vacation is over and what are remaining are the good memories. We had a great two weeks in Las Vegas!

For starters the weather was a constant balmy 107 degree Fahrenheit and up with no clouds on the sky for the entire time. People say yeah, but it is dry and no humidity.
At that temperature it does not matter. Hot is hot and I sweated like a expectant cow.

To start at the beginning, we flew first class from JFK to Las Vegas. This was not because I am independently wealthy it was because that was how the flying with mileage turned out. Man, it was nice. They were kissing our behinds all the way. One can really get used to this. Ok, so on the way back we flew with the riffraff in the tail end of the plane but hey, half good is better than no good!

We got to LV on time, picked up our rental car and drove to our hotel which we found fairly easy. Checked in, unpacked and set off to the first of many discovery trips.

Anybody who ever was in Las Vegas doesn't need a description what the Strip looks like as a first or even second impression. We just stood there with our mouth open and jaws dropped at the sights. It was unbelievable. The sights, the lights, the mas of humanity and all this thrown together is something for the senses.

Anyway, we walked around and eventually went to our first Las Vegas buffet for dinner. Buffets are a Las Vegas event as much as gambling. Every hotel offers it at variously high, medium, low or lower prices. We went to a few and liked them but found that basically they were all pretty much alike. None of them offered caviar or oysters or champagne but roast beef, pasta and meat balls and chinese food. But regardless they were mostly good.

One can not die of hunger in LV. Restaurants overwhelm each other. Every possible and impossible chain is represented there. From White Castle through Mac Donald's through Cheesecake Factory through all the name chefs have places where one can eat.

One problem we had that that it was not easy to get in to better restaurants later in the evenings without reservation but eventually we solved that problem too.

At the beginning we started at one end of the Strip and diligently walked from hotel to hotel and looked at everything lookable carefully avoiding the casinos.

First day we actually didn't do all this but just drove around the Strip, got ourselves oriented, went to a buffet and then walked around. In LV one can not tell time out on the Strip. The mass of humanity does not reduce because of the lateness of the time. It can be two, three or four o'clock in the morning and one can not tell the difference. Still it was around 3:30 in the morning by the time we got to bed. Dead tired, naturally.

With the travel it was a really long day.

Hotels

Like I said earlier we went through most of the hotels. We saw the Rio, Encore, Wynn, Palazzo, Venetian, Flamingo, Hard Rock, Bally's, Paris, Planet Hollywood, Hilton Elara, MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur, New York New York, Arias, Cosmopolitan, Bellagio, Caesar's Palace, Mirage, Treasure Island, Trump, Circus Circus, Westgate and naturally the Stratosphere.

I might have left out a few but this is enough.

Every one of them is an event on its own. The richness, the shops the environments are unbelievable.

In the Mandalay Bay we went in the Shark Reef. This was a huge aquarium type thing where we walked under the fish and sharks and other sea creatures. Very interesting.

In the Luxor we saw the Body exhibit. Extremely educational to see the composition and workings of the human body.

As I mentioned earlier, parking was never a problem no matter where we went.

Until...

We heard a lot about Fremont Street so one day we drove down there. Parking was not easy so we drove into the Golden Nugget and followed the self parking directions. Big surprise came when we had to take a ticket. Bigger surprise came when we had to pay $12 at leaving. Cheap bastards!

Speaking of Fremont Street. We walked through and were not impressed by it at all. Very Time Squarey atmosphere and a lot of homeless all around. The whole thing had a sleazy look about it. Maybe because it was around lunchtime and not evening when there supposed to be fantastic light show but anyway we didn't go back again.

However we did see the Mob Museum. This a museum in an old courthouse about the Mob in America. Very interesting.

Stratosphere

There is a hotel at the North end of the Strip called the Stratosphere. It was not far from where we stayed and it became a kind of home base for us. The hotel's attraction is a 109 story free standing tower with a revolving and pretty elegant restaurant on the top.

We made reservation to this restaurant and had a very pleasant dinner there. Service and food were excellent. The restaurant makes a full revolution in one hour so when we sat down we saw the strip and an hour later we saw the Strip again. In between we saw the rest of the Las Vegas scenery. The sight is awesome and since it is constantly changing never dull.

In the evening sightseeing helicopters fill the LV skies and when they flew over the Tower they were pretty close, at least that's what we thought. Also, on top of the tower there is an observation deck and some scary rides. After dinner we went up to enjoy the night air and the view. No mater how many times one sees it it never gets dull.

After this we went down to their casino and played a little. I like to play blackjack but only at a five dollar table. At the bigger casinos five dollar tables are far and few and only can be found during the day. At the Stratosphere casino these tables are all over. So I started frequenting that place to various successes.

My fiancé and I played the machines to almost no success but at the blackjack tables I finished the two weeks with a small winning.

During our two weeks stay we returned to this casino several times and even if we didn't make any money at least we had drinks on the house. Small consolation but at least something.