(This part of the trip report has been cross-posted to a few Beach Boys
Groups)

Trip Report, Part 2 of 2 (July 1-July3)

Photos can be seen at http://www.matty-o.com/vegas.html

July 1st- We always seemed to get late starts on this trip. We got up late
in the morning and ate our first meal at the restaurant in the Tropicana
(Calypso's). It was a decent meal for the money. John and I had coupons
for the burger. The chicks ate, well, chick food.

Next, we decided to see the bodies exhibit at the Trop. It was O.K., but I
didn't think it was superb. I kinda wish we had seen the Titanic exhibit
instead. It's very interesting seeing what an authentic human body looks
like, but by about half way through the exhibit, I found myself yawning and
saying, "wow. There's another body with no skin. Wow. There's ANOTHER
body with no skin. Wow...". We went back to the room and changed. Wifey
and I had a concert to go to that John and Laura weren't interested in
seeing. We dropped John and Laura off at Caesars, and got onto the highway
toward the Cannery. We got there a little early to eat and check out the
place. I had never been so far off the strip, and I was impressed by how
BIG this place looked. The parking garage alone seemed to be miles long.
We ate at the Mexican joint inside the cannery. There was a small wait when
we got there, so we took a pager and walked around, sightseeing and using
match play coupons. The meal was very tasty and reasonably priced, and the
service was fast and friendly. After dinner, we headed outside to see the
concert: Brian Wilson (BTW, I'm about the biggest Beach Boys/ Brian Wilson
fan you'll meet).

We didn't have the best seats in the house, but I didn't think any seat was
bad in this place. It's an indoor/outdoor venue that seats ~ 2000 people.
It was about 2/3 full for this show. If you don't know who Brian Wilson is,
he's the founder and the "brains" behind the Beach Boys. He's been doing
solo concerts pretty regularly since 1998. As much as I love the music,
this guy NEEDS to retire. At the very least, he needs to stop doing live
concerts. He didn't sound or look good at all. He has zero confidence on
stage, he was off-key, he missed notes, and he screwed up some words (that
he was reading from a teleprompter). His current band, who has done an
admirable job carrying him in the past, didn't sound good, either. Although
I'd have to say I liked the concert overall, simply because I'm a HUGE fan,
a more casual Beach Boys fan would have been embarrassed for the man.
Retire, Brian.

After the concert, we promptly got back on the road, and I promptly got us
VERY lost. Wifey needed to stop at a CVS or Walgreen's, so I headed north
and ended up in Nowhere Ville. There were a couple bright spots on our
little quest to find I-15: We looked at a few homes for sale (granted, it
was dark, but we grabbed fliers). I've always had an interest in possibly
making Vegas our home. But this was several years ago, when the home prices
were apparently much more reasonable. The houses looked very nice, but a
house similar to ours in square footage ran around 489. Ouch. We also saw
one of the most incredible electrical storms I've ever seen. The lightning
going off near the mountains was fantastic.

Once we found our way back to the freeway, we called John and Laura. They
were wandering around on the strip just north of the Frontier. We came down
the strip and picked them up at the Stardust. We then drove to the Rio,
another off-strip joint I've never seen. It was VERY crowded, and it
smelled a little like a backed up sewer, but I'm glad we checked it out.
Before we left, Wifey wanted to check out the World Series of Poker. We
wandered into the convention area where the WSOP was being held, and watched
for a few minutes. It was amazing to look into the room and see what looked
like miles and miles of poker tables. We saw Chris Ferguson, Johnny Chan,
and Humberto Brenes. After the chicks got bored with the people-watching,
we packed it in and headed back to the Trop.

July 2nd- We had decided the night before that we would get up and head over
to the Palms for breakfast, since we didn't make it there the night before.
Once everybody was ready, we drove over there. We ate at the Buffet (I
think we used our 50%% coupon, but I can't remember). The food was decent,
and the price was good. We walked around the casino and dropped a few bucks
into the slot machines. Overall, it was a nice place, although I don't know
if I'd go out of my way to stop there. After breakfast and some light
gambling, it was back to the hotel. John and Laura donned swimsuits and
sunscreen and headed down to the Trop's beautiful pool, while Wifey and I
headed over to the Excalibur for some poker (I found out later that John and
Laura didn't do much swimming, since they were too busy getting absolutely
plowed). This would be Wifey's first session at a live poker game in a
casino. She was a little nervous, so I assured her that the tables at the
Excalibur were pretty laid back. We both managed to sit together at a 1-3
table. We had a great time. I'd say we played about 4 or 5 hours before
Wifey lost all of her cash. She walked back to the hotel, and I stayed and
played for another hour or so. After cashing in, I walked back to the hotel
to see what everybody was doing. It was the middle of the afternoon, and we
had a concert to attend later in the evening: The Beach Boys. When I got
back to our room, I found wifey napping. I woke her up and threw her in the
shower. Then, I called John and Laura to make sure they were up. Within
about an hour or so, we were all ready to go. We were also starving. I
suggested that we grab a bite to eat at Mandalay Bay, since we were going
there anyway. Well, that turned out to be a mistake. We got there about 1