Mama Mia!

Fortunately Polly's work schedule has not interferred with my fun. I brought my laptop and fully intended to work while she was in class but my laptop does not like the internet at The Flamingo and we won't talk about my cell phone except to say I DON'T HAVE A CELL PHONE BECAUSE OUR COMPANY SERVICE WAS TERMINATED BEFORE OUR NEW PLAN WAS EFFECTIVE. Sooo, without a cell phone, laptop or Internet I had no choice except to have fun. After arising at the crack of 9:30 AM I ventured down to the casino just to make sure all the machines were working correctly. Before I started feeding the one armed beasts I stopped by the sidewalk cafe and devoured a yogurt parfait topped with fresh blackberries the size of my head. The slots were not so kind to me today so we just won't talk much about that. I was a pumpin' in the quarters and the machines were a dingin' but unfortunately I kept a pumpin' long after the machines quit a dingin'. Polly finished her class around 4PM and we did some shopping before heading over to Mandalay Bay for dinner and to see MAMA MIA. We decided to order something light and then after the show we would get a fabulous dessert. Mandalay Bay is probably the most gorgeous hotel I have ever seen. I cannot begin to describe how plush and upscale this property is and way out of my league. Pol and I walked in the front door and I immediately felt like brown shoes at a black tie dinner. We found a lovely seafood restaurant right around the corner from the theatre where MAMA MIA would be performed. Perfect! Right? Ummm, maybe if you own your own goldmine. Polly and I have been talking nonstop for the past two days and this was no exception so we paid little attention to the pricing. We were having soup and a salad...whooptido, how much can that be? No big deal, right? Well ha ha...have you ever had a $12 tomato? Neither had we until tonight. The tomatoes were the best I have ever eaten but come on...$12.00 for a tomato seems a tad bit high! I had a bowl of clam chowder and Pol had a bowl of pumpkin something or ruther that was also very good but NOT as good as the bill reflected. Pol looked at the check when it arrived at the table and said, "OH MY." That is when we discovered that we had $12 tomatoes and with the addition of the soup our tab was well over $50. Guess I should mention that we had nothing to drink other than tap water...not even iced tea! Whew, probably a good thing too. I'm afraid we would have had to get a second mortgage if we had actually ordered meat. After we got over the shock of the $12 tomatoes (yes you are right we still aren't over that and I sincerely doubt if we ever will be and from this day forward this trip will be known as the time we ate $12 tomatoes) we decided to try the slots at Mandalay Bay. That did not go well at all. We lost a total of $40 in less than 15 minutes on a PENNY MACHINE! Now that takes some work and dedication. Fortunately for our pocketbooks it was time for the show to start. I had ordered the tickets online and thought they were good but it was hard to tell without a seating chart. I have never actually sat in the orchestra pit until tonight...what fun! We again had front row seats and the musicians were talking to us prior to the performance. MAMA MIA is a wonderful show and since my children grew up hearing ABBA we both knew all the words. What a great show! We returned to the Pepto Bismol Palace and started packing for our return home. This trip was just not long enough.