I had to abandon it after we couldnt find any more takers. This is in front of the Bellagio, where they have "dancing waters". Note the stripper cards. There were pods of mexicans along the blvd handing these out. They were all over the ground etc. They had this curious tactic of slapping the cards in their hands to get your attention... 

We finally found some takers for the free cake.  

Our first big meal there was at the Seafood Buffet @ Boardwalk casino. It was amazingly good in selection and freshness. Some of the workers there were Ethiopian. This sweet lady, Tizta, gave me a cake for my birthday... 

Sadly, we ran out of time for the pool. 

One of our stops was the Tropicana for the free pull on the special slot machine. After waiting in lines and fallling for the "play $50 for $20 special slots (we got to pick out a gift each-I got a new purse and binoculars), we headed to the Celebration Lounge for cheap margaritas. They had a live show of eastern european acrobats. The barkers out front with the free pull were funny too.  

It was raining when we left. It started Mon. nite as low clouds and sprinkles. we had been walking Las Vegas Blvd. to take a bus to Fremont St. Too bad the light show didnt play. Without it, Fremont St. was looking seedy. 

Our suite at the Luxor on the 16th floor overlooked the pool. What a sight!  

The raw beauty of the Sierras as seen from the plane. 

Well, well, well.
Guess who made it to 40!
It's been a long 5 days filled with more activity than i usually do in a month or more.
First to the Bay Area, then to Las Vegas via Southwest in Sacramento.

It's been downright magical the way everything came together and flowed. Everything from traffic to weather to people came out right. Clearly the best birthday EVER.

It's not often you can go somewhere, lose yourself and find yourself at the same time. On the last nite, one of the things we did was to get a neck/back/arm massage. I visualised the masseuse squeezing the negativity, the baggage out of me. My arms, like tubes of toothpaste, squeezing it out, oozing back out to the universe. Freeing trapped energy. Hokey, but works for me! I feel like i really was able to leave some of my unhappiness etc. behind after that. Being with H for all that time was great because she is really good at reflecting you. What I mean is, she listens carefully to what you are and arent saying, and can pick out the core. I'm a little nicer to myself now.

One of the cool things i did to celebrate this important passage in my life was to have some fun with the huge heart surgery scar. There is a henna tatoo parlor on Harmon and Las Vegas Blvd. tatoo of a stylized dragon, with the ridge of it's snout over my scar. Thank you, Dikla. She is the artist that did it for me. She has a very interesting story of how she ended up there, and her future plans to return to Isreal for Vet degree. It takes going to take her 7 years to get one!

Our first big meal was at the Boadwalk. they have an excellent seafood buffet. The seafood was fresh and seasoned right. The house wines were decent and the glasses generous. Our wait person was just too cute. She brought me a birthday cake! Thank you, Tizta :) We tried to give away pieces of it, but most people turned me down flat. I abandoned it in front of the Bellagio...