Daily Deal Websites = Great DEALS!

I've recently discovered a bunch of the daily deal websites and thoroughly enjoyed my second ever afternoon tea at Adonia's. My first high tea was at the Fishhouse only a few days before!

If you ever buy anything from one of these group coupon sites using my referral link then I will get $10 in shopping dollars towards that website. Thank R for buying the afternoon tea at Adonia's and getting me $10 in Indulge Living dollars. I can't wait to spend it on their next great deal.

http://www.groupon.com/r/uu2645748

http://www.indulgeliving.com/?utm_source=uu1048

http://www.socialshopper.com/?ref=26289

Well, a long time has passed since I've blogged on this blog. The Olympics and Paralympics came and went and I was really excited and enjoyed that time earlier this year. I created a pin blog after the Olympics and Paralympics were over so updated that for a while: www.olympicsparalympics.wordpress.com

I used to blog regularly then just blogged about my vacations. Here's a recap of my latest vacation with N and A. Thanks to my physiotherapist L for recommending great restaurants to eat at: Salty's, The Hooded Merganser, and the Barking Parrot in Penticton and Village Grounds in Naramata. All were really good!

We were in Penticton from August 4 to 8. We went to Summerland and rode the Kettle Valley Railway steam train, went to Sumac Ridge Winery (official winery of the Olympics), Summerland Sweets and had lunch at Local Lounge Grill. We got peaches, cherries and blueberries. The peach and cherries were delicious and juicy! We walked around Lake Breeze Winery then went to Naramata for lunch at the Village Grounds and then walked around the Naramata Heritage Inn and Spa which L said had a good wine bar. We went on a dinner cruise on Okanagan Lake. The scenary was so beautiful everywhere we went. A got heat stroke but luckily recovered by the next day.

We watched a spectacular lightning storm from our motel along with the rest of the guests there. Kids were splashing around in the deep wide puddles in the parking lot and we saw people running back shortly after the downpour started.

We went to the fair at the Peach Fest and saw an Elvis impersonator perform named Relvis and then later saw him in the Aboriginal Cultural Village behind one of the concessions. N and I joined the aboriginals in their pow-wow. They were in beautiful bright coloured costumes and the men had a lot of ornaments and feathers. There was a dance competition for the audience and N placed in the top 3 women! I got knocked out the first round and I was so hot and tired as it’s quite a high-impact aerobic workout where you bounce twice on one foot and then twice on the other foot! My back, neck, arch and knees were sore for the next few days. N sprained her ankle as we were dancing on grass and she couldn’t dance in her sandals so went barefoot. A didn’t want to dance and just watched us.

January 8 to 13, 2010 Las Vegas

January 8, 2010 Vancouver to Las Vegas

Our flight was scheduled to leave for Vegas at 7:30pm. I checked us in from home and printed out our boarding passes. This was the first time I checked in ahead of time. I can't recall what time we got to the airport. We left my car at the Park N Fly. I filled in a US declaration card for us. Because we had checked in already we didn't have to line up at the regular check-in and just went to a different line where we would just check our bags. There was no line-up for the baggage check but there were a few people at the regular check-in. I just had my back-pack style purse and Ray had his briefcase-style laptop bag. You're not allowed to bring a back-pack style laptop bag but could bring a briefcase-style one as long as it wasn't over certain dimensions.

After we got our luggage tagged we went to the next step and the guy put them on the conveyor belt. The X-Ray area wasn't that busy, just a few people in front of us. We emptied everything into the plastic trays along with our shoes. It took longer than normal and Ray forgot to take his knife/scissor/plier thing off his keychain so they took that after his stuff went through the X-Ray. They said it would've cost about $15 to mail it home. Ray said he paid $40 for it but didn't want to bother having it mailed. Our gate was E81 and there was a Timmy's, Chinese food, Burger King etc before it but I didn't go that far as I was too hungry and I checked out the Starbucks and a Skyway and ended up getting a turkey wrap. Starbucks' sandwiches all had cheese in it which is not good for motion sickness so I got the wrap from the other place. There was a sit-down restaurant right outside our gate so will need to note that for future reference.

Our Westjet flight to Vegas was delayed an hour and a half as there were mechanical problems in Prince George that they had to fix. So we ended up flying out about 9pm. The flight was surprisingly calm except for a few bumps at the beginning as it was foggy and raining when we left. Ray and I both watched a few episodes of Criminal Minds on our individual tv's. They were the earlier versions when the team just met. Ray doesn't normally watch Criminal Minds and I record it on my PVR every week so they were new to him. I had already seen these episodes a few months ago during one of the Criminal Minds marathons that are on during the weekends.

There was an older man beside me who was on his first trip to Vegas although he was actually going to Lake Havartu or something like that in Arizona to go golfing. His buddy was picking him up and he wasn't sure if they were going to stay in Vegas one night or go right to Arizona. He has a 14 year old daughter and 17 year old son and was recently separated/divorced so he said this was the first time he was doing anything like this. I didn't need to wear my eye patch on the descent or anytime during the flight which was probably one of the first times. The descent was so smooth and I didn't get the usual quease at all. Even when we touched down it was smooth and I didn't need to wear my eyepatch during the drive to the terminal.

We were going to go to the Denny's at the hotel by the airport but there wasn't any parking and then Ray wanted to go to McDonald's. But I suggested In-N-Out Burger as their burgers are better. The first time I went there was with April on our trip to Vegas in 2009. Her friend in California said their kids raved about this place. I had also heard it mentioned on 90210 I think by Naomi as a good place. It was Ray's first time. They only have burgers, fries and drinks and you have to wait awhile for your food but it's worth it and it's cheap.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

I went to the Starbucks by the resort and got a strawberry banana smoothie. Ray got his usual through the McDonald's drive-thru and then I dropped him off at the Consumer Electronics Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center which ended at 6pm. It was after 2pm and the zoo closed at 5pm so I didn't want to rush and the spring preserve closed at 6pm and there's so much to see there so I ended up going shopping instead to the outlet mall at the north end of the strip.

I picked Ray up shortly after 6pm and he wanted to go for dinner in Chinatown. So we went to the same place we went to previously: Sam Woo BBQ restaurant where Ray had shrimp with egg and rice and I had cod with bok choy and rice.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

We were going to go to Denny's for lunch but didn't see one east on Tropicana after Decatur so ended up going through McDonald's drive-thru to save time as it was around noon and the CES closed at 4pm today. I had OJ and a fish burger which I haven't had in years. I dropped Ray off and since I was too hot (wearing jeans and didn't bring lighter pants as the highs were forecast for 16 degrees and the low 4) I decided not to go to the zoo as I would be overheated. I used the aircon in the car and ended up going to the outlet mall on the south end of the strip and got more Nike Dri-fit badminton clothes. This one had the same tank and shorts I got from the Sport Chek at home except it was half the price. At least at home I had gift cards so didn't have to pay for it myself.

I picked up Ray shortly after 4pm and we went to the Envy Steakhouse for dinner. It was right next door to the CES and I had looked up best steakhouse in Vegas a few days ago and found this one. Ray said the filet was good but nothing great about it except for the black volcanic sea salt that they had in a little tray with 2 other salts. I had chicken...there were way too much carbs as the dinner came with mashed potatoes and small plate of zucchini and potoates which was mostly potatoes.

After dinner we went go-kart riding at Pole Position Raceway which according to one of the Vegas booklets I had has the fastest karts in the U.S. I saw a group of guys speeding around the track and got nervous as I knew that I wouldn't be able to keep up with them. So we just went by ourselves and didn't race with anyone else. Ray lapped me about 3 or 4 times and my fingers, neck, ankles and back were so stiff after just one race...it was supposed to be 12 laps but since Ray finished before me I just did 8 laps. I also kept hitting the back of my helmet against the back of the chair...didn't even think about moving my head forward like Ray suggested later. Ray crashed a few times but just ended up bouncing off the divider and turning around a bit. I grazed the divider a few times around curves but not enough to slow me down. Since I was too sore and didn't really enjoy it I told Ray to use my race so he could go 2 more times. He went with another couple and the woman had to rent shoes as she was in a skirt and you have to wear closed-toe shoes. It was funny watching her try to pull her skirt down as she was driving as it was past her thighs as she was driving. She gave up after a while. Ray was trying to pass her for quite a few laps...for some reason she wouldn't pull over and the race attendants weren't paying attention and didn't wave the "you're too slow flag" which was a blue flag with a yellow strip in the middle. Ray went by himself in the last race as he said it's better so you don't get stuck behind anyone. He had his best time then. We played a few arcade games after the race as that was included with admission as well as t-shirts.

Monday, January 11, 2010

I was up in the morning as my back, neck and hands are sore when I get up due to the bed. Ray wasn't up by close to 2pm so it was too late to go to the Extraterrestrial Highway and see how close we could get to Area 51. I didn't want to be getting there when the sun was going down. I had already eaten yogurt, a banana, triscuits and some soy milk in the morning and since we weren't going anywhere I took a nap. My arms were sore from driving the go-kart the night before. The concierge called about 4pm and woke me up...a vendor had dropped off some free show tickets and you don't have to go to a timeshare presentation! Just pay $5 per person for the box office fee. Online tickets were $40 each and they're supposed to be worth $60 each. Cool...so we got free tickets to a comedy hypnosis show at the Planet Hollywood Hotel's V Theater called Mesmerized with the hypnotist Marc Savard. We went to eat down the street at the China Star Buffet and then Ray went and took a nap. I went to Planet Hollywood to pick up the tickets...there was an option to pay $16 per ticket and be in the VIP area which was the first few rows...no thanks...I didn't want to be that close in case he picked on us for something. I watched the fountain show right outside of V Theater which was on the hour. I went to look for whole bean 100% Kona coffee at the Hawaiin ABC store which was by the theater. One of Ray's sisters wanted the coffee. Turns out whole bean coffee is quite scarce and is only sent to this store in error. The clerk Remy called all the other ABC stores in Vegas except for one. For the last store to call she didn't want to talk to that store in case someone answered the phone (that she didn't want to talk to) so she got her manager to call and voila there was whole bean coffee there. It was the store on the strip by the Hard Rock Cafe and Denny's by the Coke and M&M store and MGM. Hmm, I don't recall Hard Rock being there before...must be new. I wandered around the Miracle Mile shops and went to the casino and lasted about half an hour on the 5 cent poker slot machine with $3 and then cashed out when I got back down to my $3 and went to pick Ray up.

We ended up sitting only about 5 rows from the front. The rows were staggered with a small round table in between chairs for drinks. For a Coke and Cranberry/OJ it was $12!!! Marc asked for volunteers...I think there were about 30 or more that went on the stage. I was too chicken to go up but now that I've seen the show perhaps I would go and see if could be hypnotized. He got the volunteers to keep their eyes close and relax and do simple movements and deep breathing to determine who was more susceptible to being hypnotized. He ended up with 10 people and rest went back to their chairs. This link to a review sums up the show well except instead of jock itch he had one woman find him repulsive every time he went near her. It was soooo hilarious. Also when a certain music was played 2 guys were competing for the Riverdance competition and the rest were background dancers. Their feet sure moved and their dancing was really good! He also had them all act out being a playboy model where some were writhing on the floor; he said the temperature was really hot and getting hotter so people were taking off their sweaters etc and fanning themselves and one woman rolled up a guy's pantleg. It was sooooo hilarious. Then when Marc said it was getting cold they bundled up and huddled together. It was cool how he could make them slump over so easily and be asleep. He got one person's belt and got everyone to think it was a snake so one woman ran to the other side of the stage as she was terrified...Marc slowly brought the belt close to her and she was so scared there were tears running down her face and put the belt around her neck slowly and kept giving her "courage pills" that she ate...it was actually just air. Another thing was passing a hypnosis joint that everyone took a puff of...it was just like miming there was nothing there but as each volunteer passed it to the next person some were coughing and really wanted it. This was really adult-oriented and I can see why you needed to be 18+ to go in.

You could buy DVD's of the show which I'm sure a lot of the people who came with the volunteers would want to use for blackmail plus the volunteers would see what they did without realizing it! Photographers took photos of us when we entered the theater so those were posted. Since I don't have any photos with Ray's long hair I decided to buy it which was $10. They were also selling Marc's other DVD's to quit smoking, lose weight, improve memory etc.

I went to the ABC store on the strip after the show...I think it was about midnight...to get the coffee...there were only a few packs of whole bean left but shelves and shelves of the ground ones. Ray and I went to the Denny's by the resort to eat.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

We went to eat at Kabuki Japanese Restaurant at Town Square. It was quite a quaint area of stores just west of the south end of the strip. I had edamame and ramen. The ramen was tart.

Ray wanted to play badminton so we went to Club Sport which was a really cool fitness resort. It has indoor tennis courts and the weight room on the bottom floor and the indoor running/walking track on the second floor were looking into the gym where there was basketball and then badminton. On the other side of the gym was a viewing area and the reception area.

I didn't feel like playing badminton as my back and neck were still stiff. Plus I wanted to check out the newest hotel/casino/residences on the strip...City Center. It was quite impressive. High end shops and an interesting club in the middle of the mall. No theme to it but interesting to see. It's got a new Cirque du Soleil show there: Viva Elvis. I went to pick up Ray from Club Sport and then we went up to the observation decks at the top of the Stratosphere as he hadn't been there before. I was there over 10 years ago when there was a roller coaster and a free drop at the top. The roller coaster was gone and there were 2 new rides outside at the top.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

I got up as usual in the morning to go to the bathroom...I think about 10am and then went back to sleep. The phone woke me up at 2pm so I got up. I guess I was getting used to the bed and was able to sleep in to my regular afternoon time when not working. Ray didn't get up for a few more hours. We went and ate at one of the 24 hour IHOPS. It was on Decatur just past the See's Candies store that I wanted to stop at.

Our flight left on time at 11pm. It was turbulent at times and the descent was quite rocky so I had to wear my eyepatch for most of the trip. At YVR there were lots of Samsung Olympic banners with the various Olympic sports on them. There were also some signs with the mascots on them.