The Lane's next BIG trip: Day 28. Las Vegas. Thursday 16th January

After our cheaper BYO breakfast of cereal (no fridge in the rooms so the milk was in the ice bucket all night) we left 'New York' again and walked south along the strip to the Luxor Hotel Casino to have a look at the Titanic Artifact Exhibition. It was a magnificent exhibition and the kids thoroughly enjoyed it. The Titanic story is one of Cameron's favourites and he has quite a bit of stuff at home regarding the Titanic, so to actually see artifacts was a real buzz for him. When we went into the exhibition we were all given a name of a passenger who had sailed on the Titanic and at the end you could see if your passenger had survived or not. Chelsea and Christine's passengers survived but sadly Cameron's and Jacob's didn't. It gave the kids a very personal experience. Andrew decided not to go in, as he had recently been to the Titanic Museum in Belfast, so he explored the Luxor and the adjoining Excalibur Hotel Casino. It was only 10am and there were a number of people at the gaming tables and machines. Some looked like they had been there all night and with smoking permitted on the gaming floor at all the casinos, they all stank of stale cigarette smoke. It is hard to get used to seeing people smoking inside a building. We met up after Christine and the kids had finished at the exhibition and left the Luxor to walk an hour back up the Strip to the Harrah's Hotel Casino to see the Mac King Comedy Show. It was very funny for all ages and had 2 special guest appearances by Cameron and Andrew. We sat in the second row and Cameron was picked to go up on stage to help Mac with this trick (as seen on the Letterman show). Any of you that have witnessed Cameron's magic tricks will know what a thrill it was for him to be picked to be a part of this show. Unfortunately cameras or any recording devices are not allowed to be used while the shows are on so we don't have any photos of his 10 minutes of fame. He was rewarded for his efforts with a Magic Kit. 15 minutes later, Andrew was asked to go on stage where he was part of a card trick and also handed over a $100 note that 'magically' disappeared. The whole audience thought it was hilarious that the dumb Aussie had lost $100 but it then 'magically' re-appeared inside a telephone ear piece 5 minutes later. Andrew's thank you gift was a Budweiser beer that 'magically' appeared out of a handkerchief. After the show had finished we bought a Magic Trick book and Cam got his kit signed by Mac. On our way back to 'New York' we stopped to watch the fountains performing in front of the Bellagio Hotel Casino. We had a rest back in the room for a couple of hours and before dinner Andrew, Christine, Chelsea and Jacob had a ride on the roller coaster that's part of the New York New York Hotel. And yes, one of us screamed the whole way around (I wonder who that was?). As it was night it did give a beautiful, but very brief, view of lights of Las Vegas. Here is a link from someone else's experience. For dinner we went to the Medieval themed 'Tournament of the Kings'. The show combines arena style entertainment with jousting on horseback, sword fighting and signing & dancing with a bacchanalian feast befitting a king. We became Hungarian for the night as we sat in front row seats and supported our new king with cheers and boos to the other 5 kings. Our food was tomato soup, a whole chicken with potatoes, broccoli and a bread roll and a apple pastry for dessert. We ate with our fingers as there was no cutlery in medieval times. It was very entertaining and great fun. Unfortunately even with the raucous cheering our King didn't win the night.