Friday morning was poker time. I entered myself into a poker game - not the type where my life savings could be wiped out in one hand, but everyone paid $50 and were given a set amount (I think $1000) of tournament chips. Therefore the most we would lose was $50. The game went very quickly - for some reason I imagined that I would be playing for hours, but it lasted for just over an hour. Luckily most people were acting like they knew what they were doing, so I just followed suit (I had never played poker like this before). Thanks to a few lucky hands, I came second out of 12 people, and won $100 and a t-shirt. When it was me and the last guy, it was really cool because everyone was gathered round the table and in true American style, were going completely over the top with the shouting, cheering etc. I told the guy who won that it was my first time playing and he said I played like a pro....obviously not good enough to win though :-( The only down side is that I couldn't take any pictures.
With poker finished by around 11am, I had the rest of the day to spend just exploring. I headed to the Hard Rock Hotel, which is actually not on the Vegas strip itself, it's about a mile away (or 2 or 3 miles if you count getting lost...) - it was really cool and the people there were probably the most friendly out of all the casinos. I also learnt that if I wanted to get a poker chip, I just need to go to the cashier and ask for one, and not necessarily have to gamble (before now I had been playing roulette/blackjack, and sneaking a chip into my pocket to keep as a souvenir).
With my winnings, I went to see another(!) show - Lance Burton - Master Magician (apparantly). I was going to see another Cirque du Solei show (I'm seeing one tonight) but they were all sold out, and so it was a choice between Lance Burton (who I had seen on the television a few times) or Carrot Top - a comedian who is big in America, but I didn't really know who he was. Lance Burton represents everything cheesy about Vegas - it didn't have the comedy element of Penn & Teller, and the tricks he did were typically over the top in cheese...but I loved it. He seemed like a genuinely nice guy, and he interacted with the audience a lot too - he even had about 50 kids on stage at one point to participate in a trick. I wasn't expecting much, but I have to say I was very impressed - everything he did was very slick and even though I was fairly near the front, I couldn't work out how he did it at all. He did one very cool trick where he did a standard trick from behind - he said that he was going to teach us all how to do a trick, and the best way to teach is by showing you from behind. So he basically turned his back on the audience and performed to the back curtain. He did the typical 'enter into a box, put swords through the box' trick, but with a comedy element to it because it showed him leaving the box from behind (but we could all see it because he had his back to us) and sneak into a table. Whilst in there, he was handed a magazine, pizza etc all to add to the comedy. Then, he emerged from the box that the swords were placed in. It was very clever and I can't for the life of me work out how he did it.
Saturday morning, and I had to get up really early for my parachute jump. I had to get to a hotel about a mile away by 7:15am. Once there, I was greeted by a mini-van that took us to a small airport where we all had to watch a video about parachute safety, sign a legal agreement waiving our rights to sue if we died (though how we would sue if we are dead is a mystery to me...). We had to put on these jumpsuits which weren't very comfortable, and then this harness that was very tight. After that, we were taught how to leave the airplane, and how to land. When leaving the airplane, you are on your knees, with your head back on the instructors right shoulder (it was a tandem jump, so you are strapped to someone else). To land, you just stick your legs out and land on your ass - not very easy when your legs are killing due to all the walking you have done. We all boarded the plane, and it just kept going up, and up, and up, and up, and up...it wasn't until the plane doors opened (with a huge alarm sound) that it really started to occur to me what I was putting myself through. I was the last person to jump out, so I had to watch everyone else fall out first. The plane doesn't have seats, but rather benches, so I had to slide myself up the bench towards the door. Then, I was right at the open door looking down, down on my knees. This was probably the most terrified I have ever been in my entire life (and I have been in a situation where there were TWO massive spiders in my kitchen). With my head back, I jumped - and it's the most incredible feeling in the world. After about 5 seconds, the instructor tapped me on my shoulder, which was an indication I could free my arms (they had to be tucked into the harness up to this point). I was free to do whatever I want for about 30 seconds complete freefall. It is difficult to describe the feeling - it's like a rollercoaster, but 100 times more thrilling. After the 30ish seconds, the parachute opens, and you are pulled right up into the air before you start to float. This is the part where he hands you a sickbag as you start to feel really nauseous. The other cool part is that you put your hands in these straps in the parachute, and you can control it by spinning around. Not the nicest feeling in the world when you already feel sick. Landing was actually quite easy and soft - the instructor lands on his legs, and you land on your ass, so he breaks your fall. I don't know how they do it, but all of us landed within very close proximity of each other - I didn't realise how much control you have when landing...very impressive. We all boarded a mini-van back to the airport, and then on a limo back to the Vegas Strip. The whole thing was recorded and put onto DVD. I haven't watched it yet, as for some reason the DVD drive is playing up on my laptop - I'll have to get this fixed by Apple when I get back to England. Also, as it's on DVD, it means that I don't have any pictures to upload yet, but what I'll do is get some screenshots when I am back in England and upload them here. The thought of a skydive is scary, but I think everyone should give it a go - it's such a great feeling.
I got back to my hotel room at about 10am, and actually slept until about 1pm because I was feeling a bit dizzy and tired. This was the first time I had slept during the day and I kind of wish I had done it a bit more, because afterwards I felt great - so much so that I walked the whole length of the strip (again) - amazingly it rained (though only a tiny bit), the weather was sunny but very cool (I was wearing my jacket) and all in all it was a very cool afternoon just walking and soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying the sights.
Today is my last full day in Vegas - this afternoon I'll have to start packing (my hotel room looks like a bomb has hit it). I have a show to see at 10pm, called 'Mystere' - it's had great reviews and looks pretty amazing. I don't quite know what I'll do for the rest of the day yet; I'm collecting a shot glass, deck of cards, and a casino chip from every hotel - I only need cards for Caesars Palace and The Venetian to complete my collection, but nowhere seems to sell them. I'll keep my eyes open.
Oh, and I keep bumping into Jerry Springer. It's quite annoying.
