Okay, a little about Vegas and Lion King:
Thursday, Aug 27th we met Jim's family for breakfast at 9:30 at Tom's Place, a neighborhood celebrity who started with a greasy hamburger place - (think California surfer dudes in the 70;s) and now has several stores and is very wealthy. Lives down the street from Uncle, and his house looks like an entire small village. Anyway, Tom's is a tradition for us on the way to places in LA.
We headed out for Vegas, a 4 hr. drive usually. Well, this trip my leg had been hurting so bad - with a swollen hot knee - that it was keeping me up all night, and I couldn't sit still for more than half an hour. This day was horrible. There were times I was crying because there was no place to stop. As soon as I got out and walked around, I'd be fine again - for half an hour. If I found a comfy position, I couldn't move at all until it quit or else!

So our 4 hr trip took about 5 1/2 because I had to stop and walk around at every gas station and rest stop. (there aren't many in the desert)
We pulled in to Vegas - it was
110 degrees! and found our hotel, Palace Station Casino just fine - problem? I meant to book at the Sunset Station - That is the one we checked out before - really nice and deluxe. Palace station was okay, but old. The first people who greeted us at the front desk were short and very unwelcoming and unhelpful. Not a good start. We later found other very pleasant staff members, and the pool area was nice enough - and there was a pool bar. The room was redecorated and very nice except for the smoke that poured in from the A/C. Same problem here, though - I don't know why?
We had a little time to get a snack and take a nap, so we did that and then got ready for our big night out at LION KING!!!! That's why we came to Vegas!

We headed over to Mandalay Bay and gave the valet the car - felt like quite the movie star!

We picked up our show tickets and looked around that beautiful casino for a little while. I promptly fed a slot machine $20 in about 2 min - yay. We walked around and looked at the restaurants and settled on an upscale Mexican place. Let me tell you - other than burgers, everything in this hotel is upscale. We paid $100 for Mexican food and one margarita!

Water service was even $.50 each! We even had a waiter who just followed our server around and smiled behind her - I guess that's the movie star part
It was getting close to show time, so we looked around in the Lion King gift shop - here's a sample of what was there:
http://www.playbillstore.com/likigime.html
We showed our tickets and entered the lobby area - I got a Safari Sunrise - fruit juice and tequila and citron vodka - really good!

I walked around alot to keep my leg movin' - we got our seats and it was almost time to start! Thankfully, I had an aisle seat on the left and I was able to move my leg around without bothering anyone, although I did have considerable pain during the show.
The curtain:
I tried to take pics of the drummers before the show but they didn't turn out. The show was amazing!!!! When it started, the characters came down the steps from the back singing and making their way on stage - all kinds of amazing animal costumes - much like the way they do Nemo at AK in the world.
I was able to snap a couple of non-flash pics before an usher told me to put my camera away - I listened, cuz I didn't want to lose my camera
We loved this show and we even got a free souvenir - the playbill! I kind of wish I had bought a pic of us all dressed up, though.
Friday, Jim wanted me to rest my leg, so we ate breakfast in coffe shop, lounged by the pool and had bloody marys until it got too hot -
113 today! We changed and walked over to Macaroni Grill for a late lunch - delicious!
Later that evening, we drove to Henderson to see Jim's uncle on the other side - he and his wife are teachers - it's his second family - they have adorable 6 yr old twins - a boy and a girl! We enjoyed a nice dinner and visit there, and turned in early - we were leaving for Boise at 5am on Sat!
Next: Feelin' no pain!
