Rosie, Monday 18th - rehearsals, strong winds and freemont street

Monday morning saw us meeting with Lori, our wedding contact at the Bellagio and Cecelia who was taking over procedings for the actual day. The Terrace of Dreams was beautiful, if perhaps a little hilariously named. it sounds less cheesy in Italian, but I couldn't pronounce it correctly, let alone spell it.

Jon and Emma came along too, to see where they would be going and what they would be doing. Both the ladies from the Bellagio were very helpful and enthuaiastic about our wedding, which was lovely. The meeting didn't take long and was mainly stage directions with a small bit of paperwork. It was fantastic to see where we were actually getting married, we'd purposely avoided looking for it so it would be a surprise. It was positioned so you could see the Eiffel Tower across the road as well as the fountains, which I hadn't realised. Anyway, fully rehearsed we had 3 hours to kill until we were being collected to go on a hellicopter to the Grand Canyon so... Pool?

Lying in the sun it was very windy, I lost my hat and they had to switch the fountains off because everyone by the pool was getting soaked. Emma and I had a brief conversation saying we hoped that the wind wasn't going to affect our helicopter ride...

Of course it did, we found out after an hour long drive and a switch from a small mini bus to a full sized coach, and queuing for twenty minutes in a long line..

After the long bus ride back and the discovery that Gina *really* loves castles we decided to go out for dinner and see the light show on Freemont Street, something we had been told time and again that we could not miss.

Dinner was to be very special for my soon to be husband and one of his oldest friends, Justin. We were going somewhere that they had been dreaming of, and preparing for, for a long time. This place was most definitely not vegetarian friendly as even their fries had extra lard added. We were going to the Heart Attack Grill for the boys to attempt their famous Quadruple Bypass Burger. At 8,000 calories and a full two pounds of meat this is a true man challenge. If successful they would be wheeled out by nurses in a wheelchair. George finished his in around 18 minutes but sadly Justin only just didn't finish his. It was a very close thing though and impressive/gross to watch.

We got a limo to Freemont Street, which was great fun, and we all agreed that limos are the best way to travel. We went there via New York New York where most people went on the roller-coaster which goes around and through the hotel and casino. I'm a bit lame with that kind of thing and didn't do it so George will have to describe how great it was. I can report that they do a cracking cocktail in the casino though!

Freemont street itself was mad, mostly covered over with light or screens going down a large part of it. Therd where zip wires which you could go down the street on, casinos, bars, stalls, performers, bands and just people, everywhere. The light shows were stupendous, videos of Queen, set to their music with photos and graphics set inbetween the photos. It was almost unforgetable. I say almost because someone (mentioning no names *cough*Hannah*cough*) might have had a daquiri too many and forgot all the good stuff.

Taxi back to the hotels, where we arranged to meet Gina and Jon for a pre wedding swim..