Day 12 (July 15): Surfing the Strip

Total Driving Distance: 0!!! (trip total: 3,701.3 miles)

States Traveled To: Nevada

Main Activity: Sleeping, walking the Strip

After going to bed at 5:30 in the morning the previous night, we predictably slept until about 4:30 pm. Luckily, we didnt have much to do that day either. We finally started our day around 6 pm when we went to the pool on the 8th floor. It was blistering hot so we stood in the warm water for a little bit. Then for the next hour or so, we laid out by the pool. Liz read a magazine and I read one of my travel books.

the view of the hotel from the pool

After the pool, we showered and got ready to hit the strip once again. Before we left the hotel, we had to get our free passes (as guests of the hotel) to the top of the tower. We road the elevator 866 feet to the top and stepped out to a gorgeous view of the Strip.

As you can see, our pictures did not turn out great. But the view was awesome, trust me.

There are several famous amusement park rides on the top of the Tower, such as a rollercoaster and ferris wheel-type thing, but we decided not to do those because the lines were long and they were kind of expensive. So we took the elevator back down and went out to see Las Vegas from ground-level.

We really wanted to go to this Hookah bar that we had seen the night before but had been closed at 4 in the morning. We slowly made our way there, stopping to look at different places along the Strip. When we did reach the Hookah bar, we noticed that no one was in there. We walked inside the dark room and asked the lady working there if they were open. "No, sorry, we are closing," she said. "But the sign out front says you're open until 1," I told her. It was only 12:20. "Sorry, we are closed." When I asked her if there was another hookah bar nearby, she said that there was one inside Treasure Island. So we walked there.

Treasure Island is a really cool hotel and casino. If I go back to Vegas when I am 21, Treasure Island is the place I want to stay (unless I am rich enough to stay at Caesar's or the Bellagio). We walked through the whole casino and checked out some of the hotel before we asked someone where the hookah bar was. It turns out that the hookah bar was inside a restaurant/night club where you had to be 21 years or older to enter.

Treasure Island was pretty far from our hotel, so once again we had a long walk ahead of us. This time, we decided to stop for a bite to eat at one of the few places open at that time that we could afford: McDonald's. After finishing our food, we were craving some McFlurries, but when we went back up to order, the girl told us that they were closing, too! And we thought this was a town that never slept.

The walk back to our hotel on a stomach full of McDonald's was arduous. We stopped to get ice cream at a CVS Pharmacy, but once we were inside I felt like I couldn't eat any ice cream...so I bought two Charleston Chews instead.

When we got back to our hotel room, we pretty much passed out. But before we did, we took a look at our extremely dirty feet and the bottom of Liz's flip-flops and decided that the next night, we were wearing tennis shoes.