Day 11

Today we finally checked in at our fancy Vegas hotel: "The Mirage". We are very pleased indeed.

All the hotels here are huge and of course you can't get anywhere in them without having to go through the casino. Even when you arrive to check in they make you walk all the way through it. By the way, the casinos are probably the last places in the US where you can smoke as much as you like. Every time we go in and out of the hotel we smell like an ash tray.

We've been to almost all the hotels on the strip already, even the older ones. We both agree that out of all of them the best looking one is Paris, although once you've seen a couple of them you get the idea: casino, shops, buffet, fine dining, some more casino, an attraction or two etc. (Our hotel has a volcano that erupts every half our and we can see it all from our room window, which is on the 24th floor – magnificent. Also here are the famous white tigers that bit Siegfried's or Roy's head off, some dolphins and even an elephant).

The first thing we did today was to go and get a marriage license. We drove down town to the marriage license bureau, filled out a form, paid 55 dollars and that was it. Yes, as simple as that! After that we had a short nap and at night we went out to see some more hotels. We also bet, but our luck from yesterday ran out and we lost all the money (don't worry – we only bet 5 dollars).

Finally we went to the Stratosphere Hotel and rode all the way to the top of it's tower, about 1000 feet high, along with a couple of Sumo wrestlers that came to visit Las Vegas, dressed in their robes and sandals and with their funny hair do. On top of the tower there's a really good view of the city and also some of the scariest thrill rides you can imagine, like a short roller coaster that literally dangles you out over the edge of the tower (and aptly named "X Scream") and a carousel that tilts you in a 70 degree angel over the top and spins you at about 3 G's (named "Insanity"). You probably guessed by now that neither of us went on these rides. Actually we got quite sick just from watching them.

We don't have many photos for you today because they don't come out that well at night. We might try to take some day time photos tomorrow. Have a good night!