ANYA’S 3-DAY TRIP TO LAS VEGAS—PAGE TWO
The Mirage Hotel features an hourly night time light and fire diplay of its volcano erupting which had impressed Lena and I on our first trip to Las Vegas.
Needless to say, Anya was also fascinated with this show and we ended up watching the sequence several times while shooting pictures from several different angles.
The volcano erupts at the top with fire shooting high into the night sky and then the fire flows down the sides of the volcano in several different channels of water.
Next to the Mirage is the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino which features a night time pirate ship battle.
The Mirage’s buffet is simply OUTSTANDING and features Alaskan King Crab, giant prawns, and Lox (along with too many other delights to mention). Anya had never previously eaten a number of these seafoods!

This is one of the GREATEST MEALS we’ve ever eaten!

Of course, Steve was VERY impressed with the extensive DESSERT selection featured at the Mirage buffet.
As a long time lover of ELVIS, Anya jumped at the opportunity to have her photo taken with him at one of the shops in the Mirage’s arcade.
Treasure Island features an impressive battle between two pirate ships in front of the Hotel every 1.5 hours each night.
The one ship sails around the side of the hotel and opens fire with its cannon on the other ship.
Soon both ships are firing their cannon at each other and the night is filled with exploding shells and men jumping off the ships into the water.
The one ship is finally destroyed...
...and sinks slowly into the water (only to be refloated moments later).
While good, the buffet at Treasure Island did NOT begin to match the one at the Mirage.
The Venetian Hotel is another one which Lena and I had not previously visited and we were totally impressed with the...
...real canals with WATER flowing all around the inside of the building. The huge vaulted ceilings were lighted and painted so as to realistically make one feel they were outside rather than inside a casino.
The canals, of course, feature real gondolas being paddled along the water from point to point inside the casino.
This is the ‘central’ section of the shopping arcade which looks sort of like a ‘town center’ in the Venetian Hotel. Again, the lighting and paint of the very high ceiling make one feel they are outside.

Of the hotels we visited, we felt that the Venetian was the most impressive in terms of the ‘theme’ lighting and decor used to depict a desired setting or place. While the Paris and New York hotels used very high painted ceilings, lighting...
...and other props to create their desired theme, the Venetian simply carried off the ‘deception’ most convincingly!
Before we checked out of the Excalibar Hotel, Steve just had to get a photo of this statue of a Friar 'sipping' wine: THIS particular technique was Steve's preferred approach to sampling the fruits of the grape!
On the return trip to San Diego, we stopped off at the “Whiskey Pete’s” Outlet Stores on the border of California and Nevada. Steve and Anya decided that a huge slice of PIZZA would hit the spot!
One of the outlet stores featured an extensive collection of ALPACA wool (as well as lambskin) rugs, pillows, and related articles. We liked the small lion pillow next to Lena (made from Alpaca wool).
While some of the other larger skins were beautiful, we simply do not have any place to display them in our home. [Lena suggested we could get a larger home!]