Mirages of All Kinds

After we left the wax museum, we went to the Venetian. The shops were designed to look like shops along a canal (complete with gondoliers) with a vaulted ceiling painted to look like a blue sky with clouds. We managed to get lost, mostly because I got the two ends of the canal mixed up. You can be assured I was more careful about map reading after that!
Next, we went to the Mirage, where they have Siegfried and Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat. The dolphins were adorable, as usual. They had a young, maybe 10 month old, dolphin that hung out near his mother the whole time. They didn't really have any "shows" while we were there. The trainers did come out to interact with them, but it was more for maintanance issues, and not really for entertainment. I know that it's just anthropomorphizing, but I love the "expression" on dolphins' faces. It appears to be serene happiness. I know it's not, but it sure looks that way. Further into the "secret garden," they had white tigers and lions and (I suppose like lizard owners keep crickets) llamas.

The cats were obviously very high strung. ;) I loved how relaxed the animals were. Time was early afternoon, I believe -- prime napping time. Normally, I find it a little disturbing to view captive animals, especially if they are unsettled or pacing. That was not the case here, except for one leopard who had a smaller cage than the rest.

Eventually, we had to leave. :(

We went back to the hotel to change. One of the good vibes we got from the hotel was from the two doorcats. One was a tabby and the other gray. They didn't beg for attention, but merely took turns sitting near the door. (Yes, there was a bowl of food set out on the porch. Of course!)



The show for Friday night was playing at the Rio. After picking up the tickets, we went to the Carnival World Buffet. They had a really wide variety of food, from sushi to crablegs to a Mongolian BBQ. I stuffed myself on crablegs, actually. The weird thing is, despite the wide variety, I do not remember all the stuff they describe in that link. Aileen? Stacey? Did you see the dim sum station or the Mexican food?

Anyway, we ended up having to run for the magic show. Penn & Teller are slight of hand magicians who include a little truth and a lot of comedy in their show. They show how some simple tricks work and then do something more difficult to amaze the audience. Penn obviously has a bee in his bonnet about charlatans (being a professional liar will do that to one ;) and he did a bit showing how "psychics" fool audiences into thinking they can read minds or talk to the dead. He explained "cold reading," but only demonstrated "hot reading" (not sure how that technically worked) and a bit with the punchline in an envelope from the beginning of the show. I think Penn and John the Scientist may actually be the same person, but I'm not positive. ;)

After the show, we briefly considered going dancing, since we had dressed up and all looked fabulous, but we knew we were going out on Saturday and we wanted to conserve our strength. So we went back to the hotel and hung out in the hot tub. Yeah, it was a real hardship. (Ok, who's giving me the hot tub for my birthday?)

Tomorrow: My Birthday Begins