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Originally uploaded by silverlantern

We ended our trip at a quaint little breakfast and lunch place called the Hash House (not Hash House a Go Go which also has a location in Vegas) a few miles from the strip. We discovered it searching online for “best breakfast spots” that were not buffets.

When we came in close to 11am, the place was packed, two waitresses rushed about trying to get coffees filled, orders taken and food delivered. It was as if the number of customers that morning caught them by surprise. We ended up sitting at a table before it was bused. The wait was long, it was a good 15 minutes before we ordered and another 20 for the food.

To their credit, the food was really good. Good enough for a 20 minute wait, but as a breakfast, kinda pushing it at 35. We both ordered their hash, I got their roast beef hash and Jae their everything hash, it came with 2 eggs, fruits, and toast. The hash wasn’t too greasy and we had a generous serving of sliced bananas and strawberries instead of the usual crappy canned fruits diners always give.

The homemade strawberry jam that came with our toast was so delectable that I picked up a jar. I usually don’t buy jam at $6.50 a piece, but it was really just that good. I was even more pleased when the cashier kindly gave me two dollars off the jam for our patience with their service. As I was paying, she gave me a weary look and said, “I suppose we’ve been discovered.”

Yes, I suppose so too.

On our way back we stopped by the outlet and stocked up on new clothes. I didn’t find much for myself, shoes and a skirt, but Jae was able to find some great deals on slacks and shirts for work. We were able to make it back by 8… 48 hours later from the time we decide to go to Vegas…

So ends our weekends.

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Originally uploaded by silverlantern

While waiting for the rail in vegas, we saw this digital koi pond on the floor. Dismissing it as another marketing gimmick we didn’t give it much attention. That is until I started to walk across it. When I put my foot down on the image, the floor ‘rippled’. Shocked, I pulled my foot back and looked again. Is it an LCD screen? Did I break it? Why would they leave it out in the open like that? Then I took a few more steps and watched the image dissove in ripples. Afterall, if they didn’t want people to step on it, they would’ve put something up right?

Looking around, we soon realized that it was a projection and we were doing no harm other than looking stupid, stepping on and off the projection whenever the image returned to it’s original state.

The projection then changed to an ad with a beach ball. Jae walked over to it and ‘kicked’ it. The beach ball flew and bounced around the screen to my side and I had to block it. The system kept score for us and we played until our ride came.

Pretty cool, even better than the wii. I couldn’t stop thinking about it all night.

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Originally uploaded by silverlantern

After dinner last night, we sat around wondering what to do for the rest of the weekend. I had planned to go shopping with a friend the next day, but other than that it was looking to be a quiet weekend.

Then Jae said, “Let’s go to vegas.”
“Uhh, like this weekend?”
“Sure”
“… ok”

We pulled out the laptop, booked a room at the Hard Rock, packed our , hopped in the car, and 4 1/2 hours later at 2 am we arrived.

Las Vegas

Havn’t been here in a while. We’re not big gamblers, drinkers, or even party much in general. But it was nice to get out of town, somewhere different.

The hotel room was nice, we even got a big flatscreen on the wall which made the room look even bigger. The only problem was that there wasn’t any hot water. We had to call maintenance to come fix the problem. Next came some banging sounds in the stairwell next to our room. It sounded like someone was sweeping. In the middle of the night?! Few minutes later, he left and we could finally sleep. Well, sort of. since our room was an end unit, there seemed to be some maintenance room next to us. In it was a machine that sounded like a dryer. That thing stayed on for the rest of the night. Good thing that we were tired and soon fell asleep.

Even though we didn’t get to bed till amost 4am, we woke up at around 10:30. We swapped our room for one that wasn’t so noisy and faced the pool. I went to the window to check out the pool that the hotel was so famous for.

Unfortunately, the pool was dry. Not a drop of water in it. ~sigh. I was looking forward to that pool. I called guest services again and they said that the pool is closed during the winter, and that many hotels did the same. How crappy huh. With the amount of money we paid for the rooms, they should keep the pools open year round! Dissappointing, I have half a mind to write a complaint after I get home….

But, Vegas isn’t just about the hotel or the pool. We had a weekend ahead of us! For lunch, we ate at a nearby Malaysian restaurant that we discovered a few years ago when we were last here. After lunch, we took a long 4-5 hour stroll down the strip, starting at the big mall and ending at the 4 floor M&M store. I just can’t believe how many stores are here. We didn’t buy anything since everything they had was either too expensive or could be found in a mall at home. We were also planning to hit the outlets on our way back tomorrow, so we’ll save our money for that. The M&M store was fun, they even had a little 3D movie.

When we got tired, we’d sit at the slots and play the penny machines. I think the penny machines are actually worse than the 25 cent machines. 25 cent machines usually allows you to play 1, 3, or 5 lines. The penny machines, aside from having 5 variabls, you can play 1-20 lines, with 1-10 cents per line. Which means you could be playing multiple dollars for worse odds! All in all, we lost about $15. Not too bad.

By the time we were done, we were exausted and hungry. There was no way we were going to walk all the way back, so we took the monorail. We went to Bellagio and stuffed ourselves silly on the buffet.

We’re now back in our room, Jae’s passed out. We had planned to go back out later tonight… we’ll see.