DAY 3: WE'RE OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD!

Rise and shine, bright and early and the hubby already went down for his $7 cup of hot caffeine go-go juice and this time a bottle of cold caffeine go-go juice for me. Score! We tried to be as quiet as possible to let our poor tired "Karl" sleep as much as he could.

After the kids were finally up, "Karl" decided to extend our wait on breakfast and take a shower. He said things went pretty well with the ADA shower and we were now ready to roll. So, where does everyone want to eat? The kids immediately shouted 'DENNY'S!!!" This was also something both of them talked about prior to the trip. On our last trip, we went there several times because it was so good and you get your money's worth.

Now being in a different hotel meant there was a different Denny's location down by us. We had passed it while walking to Palazzo yesterday so we headed off and down the street, dodging all the area's in the sidewalk that could potentially throw "Karl" back onto the ground. He was refusing that seatbelt still so it couldn't have been too traumatic of an experience I guess.

This time Denny's was located upstairs on the second floor of a building at Walgreens and thank goodness the elevator worked. This place wasn't crowded at all. I know on our last visit people were standing outside Denny's forever to get in and it was so crowded at the other location. We were able to walk/roll right in and be seated and there weren't too many people there. I really liked this one better too and the layout was better.

We put our order in and sat around talking about our day today. We were excited to go to the Sphere for the Wizard of Oz show. I was glad that I had booked an earlier time than the MJ One show. At least we wouldn't be completely worn out by that time. We just needed to figure out how we were going to get there and what route. "Karl" said this trip was going well for him and he was enjoying himself and his little extended weekend getaway.

Our order quickly came and we had a great waitress that was extremely nice and talkative. Some people are just meant to be in this business. The great thing about Denny's is you get a lot of food for the price. Our total bill for all 4 of us would be $99.17

The weather was nice out today and it was going to be a balmy 66° out. Yep, back home it was snowing and freezing out. But would you look at the temps for the following week??? Man, why couldn't we have waited to come down the following weekend???

Every vacation we have been on with "Karl" he has always walked WAAAYYYY ahead of us. He has such long legs at 6'2" and was a runner on the track team in High School that he's just naturally fast. It's been a constant battle with him on every vacation constantly yelling "Can you slow down?" "Walk with us" "Quit going so fast!" "Get back here and walk with your girl" He would walk, pick up speed, be way ahead of us and then have to stop for the rest of us to catch up. Then the cycle would repeat. Do you think him being in a wheelchair would change anything? NOPE! Not at all. 🤣

There was even a time he got ahead of us in the hotel and we all hid behind a vending machine. That'll teach'em....or would it?

We decided to head back toward the hotel and wait for our show to begin and rest our legs. We were still kinda sore from the day before. Once we were out on the street, I decided before we started our journey back I wanted to head into Walgreens for a little something to celebrate my birthday weekend. It was time to find myself a birthday drink! I decided a bottle of Margarita would do the trick. What better way to watch the Wizard of Oz with hepatic seats and things flying through the air than having a few Margarita's before the show right? 😀

Would you look at that beautiful blue sky?

Back at the hotel I had enough time to cheers to my birthday...and we finished off the bottle. Oopsie.

Our show started at 2pm. The doors opened at 1:15pm I believe. The Map said it would be around a 26 minute walk from The Flamingo. I wanted to get there in time to take pictures outside. So, we decided to leave around 12pm. You never know what barricades you were going to run into with a wheelchair. At least it was a nice walk in nice weather.

Our directions said to walk down Flamingo Road but we can't follow directions and since the pedestrian walkway was right outside closest to our exit from Flamingo, that was the way we went (toward the High Roller). Eventually we made it out to the street and was on Winnick Ave.

The street ended and now we were on Koval Ln, which I knew if we went left and we would run into the Sphere. We were on the right track and I didn't even need my personal GPS (the hubby) this time around. I'm a big girl now...or maybe it was the alcohol? The Sphere was in our sight so I was doing something right for a change.

We were getting closer!

We were now at Sands Ave and turned the corner to the right and made it up to the Sphere. It was definitely a different experience being right up underneath this massive dome full of lights. My goodness it felt huge. You could see each pixel. It was so cool.

Info on the Sphere:

*The cost to build was $2.3 billion

*366 feet tall by 516 feet wide (875,000 sq ft)

*Opened in September 2023

*16K resolution

*160 degree wraparound LED screen with 580,000 sq ft LED panels, which is the largest on earth

*167,000 speakers

*4D audio-visual experiences

*Can hold 20,000 people

*Took 5 years to construct

We decided to head over to the wicked witches legs for a picture. I figured there would be some type of line to stand in but there wasn't. Lucky us.

They had a special line for handicapped to get into the show. Having "Karl" with us does come with some perks. Thanks "Karl". We may have to keep you after all. 😁

The hubby and Sakari both had to use the bathroom but for some reason they do not have any bathroom's outside before you go in and they absolutely refused to let anyone in for that. They told them the closest is about a 10 minute walk from there. When the hubby looked it up, it was more like a 15 minute walk back down the street and around the corner and into the mall. Yea, I felt like that was gonna take a lot longer than expected. So if you go here make sure you go potty first (which we did, but we all are fountains).

They did tell us they would probably be letting us in earlier than usual as well.

We finally made it in and sprinted to the bathrooms. Of course our seats were upstairs and we took the elevator up to find our spot. This is where things start to go downhill. We walk into our area and a lady standing there tells us where our seats are. Once we get in there and see the 3 stairs going down to the top row handicapped section I'm pretty sure our eyes got so big it appeared as we had seen a ghost. Um...wow. These were very steep stairs and to be exact the entire stadium/globe/whatever you call it was VERY steep. Like if you have any slight vertigo, difficulty walking, difficulty with stairs this place is crazy hard to navigate. There were so many people hanging onto the handrails for life, step by step with help. It's very dangerous and made me wonder how many people have fallen down these or gotten hurt.

Things continued to go downhill. The lady "directing traffic" was very rude. We told her that our handicapped person was paralyzed and we had called ADA prior to booking and they said they would have people to help him down and into his seat. She told us we'd have to do it on our own. The hubby inquired about the wheelchair area and she told us he could not sit up there (There were tons of space up there). We asked how are we supposed to get him into the seat they told us they would help. She told us we needed to find a way and go sit down. We asked over and over what we were supposed to do and she had such an attitude and was so rude and really didn't care at all. Those were our seats and that was that and we needed to move as people were coming in.

Ok, well I guess it was left up to the hubby to carry him but this was so scary because he wouldn't be able to hold onto the railing and the stairs were so steep and small. "Karl" kept saying "we'll be fine, just do it". I think years of traveling with us he's become a daredevil. I got on the steps below in case the hubby needed help. Sakari grabbed "Karl's" legs and the hubby started the "hug" and step by step we went. Eventually he made it and we were so relieved. The lady started yelling for us to move the wheelchair. The hubby went to move it over to the wheelchair area. She yelled and said "No, you'll take the chair downstairs to the ADA office" Say what?!? Her and the hubby really got into after that. What if there's an emergency? What if he has to go to the bathroom? What if there's a fire? He won't have a wheelchair!!! What kind of bullshit is this? He pushed the wheelchair into the section behind a wall and she continued to scream at him then stormed out to get ?security? I really don't know. I was so agitated with this situation but this was the main reason we came here and I wasn't about to get kicked out so I stormed out with the wheelchair to head downstairs with it. Like seriously this is some bs!!! Where is all this ADA help? Where are the very nice, caring ADA people that worked there that people told me ahead of time that they are sooooo helpful to those with disabilities? They didn't exist!

I rode the elevator down and don't you know the ADA area was all the way at the very end. I now had to fight the crowd. This was a nightmare.

After checking in his wheelchair, which was basically an area beside the wall, it was time to make it back upstairs. I decided to ride the very long escalator up this time around. Longest escalator I've ever seen.

Don't you know as I walked back in the rude lady smirked at me and said "Welcome, can I help you to your seat?" As my blood was boiling at this point the only thing that I could think of is "Yea, you've been quite the help so far I wouldn't let you help my dog at this point" as I stormed right past her.

Ok, finally settled back in and waiting for the show to begin. Temps had calmed down now. Give me the experience I've been waiting for! Bring it on!

The hubby decided to go get some popcorn and drinks before the show. It came in cute little boxes.

I will share a few pictures we took during the show. I doubt I need to explain any of them since anyone who's anyone has seen this movie...except Sakari. She's the odd ball who has never watched this movie... like ever. But, I found it funny that she knew some of the songs. ♪ ♫ Somewhere over the rainbow ♪ ♫ We're off to see the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz ♪ ♫ Yes, she was singing it.

Oh no! Here comes the TORNADO!! Run Dorothy RUN! The wind was blowing in the Sphere along with fog and at times the seats were shaking. Leaves were flying from the sky in the Sphere and I managed to catch one (they are made out of tissue paper)

I can tell you that when that house fell, so did our chairs and so did "Karl's" heart. I seen him really jump. 🤣

Landing in Munchkinland...oh so pretty!

Glinda the Good Witch is arriving. Hey, we were in that bubble yesterday at Palazzo!

Dorothy was making her way down the yellow brick road and coming across the characters (Tin Man, Scarecrow, and the Lion). When she got to the apple trees and decided to pick one, and apples start falling from the top of the Sphere. This has been a big debate over where to sit in the sphere in order to catch one of the flying apples (made out of foam).

See all the apples falling from the top of the sphere? Then people down below trying to catch them?

Entering the field of Poppy's the Wicked Witch of the West created to put them to sleep. We started to smell flowers in the Sphere as Dorothy was put to sleep. No worries, Glinda would save the day and make it snow (in the Sphere) to wake her up. You can see the snow falling from the top in the picture.

The Wizard had smoke and fire (on the stage in the Sphere)

Remember the flying monkeys? They actually had flying monkeys flying over the crowd down below as well in the Sphere. They looked like something out of Avatar. Sakari yells "Hey they copied that from Avatar! No wait, this movie was before Avatar. Does this mean Avatar got their idea from this movie?"

Dorothy made it back home. Do you realize that as many times as I have watched this movie growing up that I didn't even realize that the Lion, Tin Man and Scarecrow were the farm hired help members back home? Seriously. I had no idea until I was much older as an adult. LOL

Fun Facts regarding the Wizard of Oz:

*The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was a children's book written in 1900

*The movie was produced as a musical fantasy film in 1939 and was not successful in theaters

*In 1956 it was broadcasted on television on CBS and became the most seen film in cinematic history

*Shirley Temple was considered for the part of Dorothy

*Dorothy's dress wasn't really blue and white, but instead it was light pink and blue

*The Ruby Slippers were originally silver

*They actually used chocolate syrup for the Tin Man's crying scene as oil

*Toto made $125/week but the munchkins only made $50/week

*Dorothy almost wore a blonde wig

*Jell-O was used to color the horses

*Temps on the set exceeded over 100 degrees from the lights when filming

*Judy Garland was 16 when she starred in this film and was made to immediately lose 12 pounds, binding of her chest and was abused during the set while given Benzedrine along with uppers and downers. (Her mother had started her on at just 9 years old it was reported)

If you want to watch a very informative documentary with making the Wizard of Oz and things that happened on the set, this is a good video: (not my video and belongs to "It Was A Sh*t Show)

When it was time to go, we waited until almost all of the people were out of the dome area. I headed down to get the wheelchair from ADA and fought the crowd on the way back, including everyone on the elevator. It was time for that wonderful hubby/"Karl" hug moment as he carried him back up the very steep small stairs to his wheelchair.

Once we made it downstairs it.was.crowded! There were different areas where you could get your pictures taken with different props, buy memorabilia, clothing and so on. It was a mad house and the lines were L-O-N-G! People were going crazy over this stuff. I had no desire to buy anything OR wait in any of these lines.

A better look at the flying monkey's used in the audience during the show (honestly, Sakari and I thought they were real people in the show but they were not):

The Wizard yelling at everyone as they were leaving:

To get a feel of just how massive this place is, here's an overall view of inside the Sphere:

This time, instead of walking down the street, we were able to walk across the bridge to the Venetian (this bridge is not always open and will be closed if something is going on at the Convention Center)

We made it to the Venetian and obviously at some point the hubby and I decided we needed to donate some more money to slots while "Karl" headed to the restroom.

Back out and on the way back to the hotel:

The statue bicycle guy was setting up on the way back.

We may it back to the Flamingo...but kept going. Sakari said "Don't you want to go get another sweatshirt mom?". She told me where I bought the last one was at the mall on down the street (where the elevators didn't work for "Karl" AKA Miracle Mile Shops). Well....I guess we will keep walking then. She reminded me of this cute little area that we had seen the other day, that was back in the cut, and she wanted to check it out as well.

We came to the corner past Flamingo and crossed across the street. At that point, we came across the area that Sakari wanted to go to and walked down where we seen little shops lined up and down the area. It say's it's called the Grand Bazaar on Google Earth?

There were cute little shops and places to eat along the way. AND....I actually found a shop with the perfect Las Vegas Sweatshirt! That meant I didn't have to walk all the way down the rest of the street to the mall. SCORE!

It's a real pretty baby blue shirt and the picture doesn't bring out the color but here it is:

There was a place called Duck Donuts and honestly I really couldn't figure out what the significance was of the ducks? But they were every jeeps owners dream I suppose. Maybe you get a free duck with every order?

Of course Sakari found a Boba Bubble Tea Shop and she wasn't about to pass that up! Her fav! (They were doing a dance when I took their picture)

Ok, mission accomplished and time to head back to the hotel because my legs need a break!

As we crossed the street we came across some street performers. We stood and watched for awhile but we started noticing that we've seen this in the past. They happened to be the same performers that we seen last time we were here but over at Fremont Street.

They did the same exact show we seen last time that involved tricks, flips, defying twisting of body parts that just didn't make sense and the ending that NEVER ended because they would spend 20-30 minutes after picking 4-5 people from the audience to participate in their ending stunt but those 20-30 minutes were spent begging for money, telling the people that were participating had to pay $20/each at least and going around the audience begging for $20 saying you can't get this entertainment at Cirque de Soleil for this price. It was a put off last time and it was a put off this time. You don't beg for money THAT intense and expect people to contribute to your request. Most people (and most did) walk away. It was a big hype and all he did was run and flip over the people. Maybe they moved to the strip because people weren't receptive enough at Fremont?

At the same time the roads were blocked off up and down Las Vegas Blvd. I guess they were having a marathon: Rock 'n' Roll Marathon. It was a half marathon run that takes place annually. The former marathon was annually and was one of the oldest running marathons in the United States and was from 1967-2019.

"Karl" insisted on eating at the In-N-Out Burger. He wasn't going to let this vacation end without going there. So that's where we headed next. The lines weren't as long as the last time we were here and gave up, so that was awesome. After ordering, there were plenty of people standing around waiting on their order to come up and all the seats in the dining room and outside were taken. I stood beside the handicapped table for awhile and the people eating there (who were not handicapped) finally got up to leave and as I went to grab the table another lady came and swooped in and sat down. Um....ok. Like I've been standing here waiting. The hubby seen the look on my face and handed me the cups to get our drinks and he headed over to the table and asked the lady if they had someone handicapped in their party for them to sit there. Of course she said "no". He said "Well my wife right there was waiting on the table because we have someone in a wheelchair and you sat down in front of her. If you don't have someone handicapped, should you be sitting here?" Of course she got pissy and her reply is "Well you could have asked nicely for me to move" and got up and left. 🤷‍♀️ I don't know what she expected but we got our seats I was waiting on and was able to give "Karl" a place to eat. Was it worth the wait to try it? I can't speak for myself because I guess what makes them different is they come with a "special sauce" on them. When I received my cheeseburger, it didn't even have any on it! Everyone else's did. They said it tasted almost like Big Mac sauce but I wouldn't know. Oh well.

Once back at the Flamingo I had said that we can't stay at the Flamingo and not visit the flamingo habitat so we were going there even though we have been here before. It was getting dark but that was ok.

Here was a Buddha that claimed if you rub his belly it would bring you good luck. RUB THAT BELLY "KARL"!

The grounds are not very big and doesn't take much time to look around. So, we headed back up to the room so that we could start packing. That dreaded packing procedure that is happening way too soon this time around. Such a short vacation but a nice one.

After packing some, the hubby and I decided we had to play a few more slots because well, this is Vegas right? We both headed down with $100 each in our pocket. We were going to play until we won something or play until it was all gone.

I was having fun but wasn't winning much. So this would also be a donation play. The hubby however, he must have rubbed the buddha pretty good because he was doing decent. He was doubling his money and we have a rule, when you double, you cash out. We put $20 in and if you make $40, you stop on that machine, collect your ticket and pocket it and then go on to the next. Well, he was more than doubling on some machines. However, since he was doing good, he finished way earlier than I did. Just some of my favorites I played.

Before we left the room, "Karl" said "You have to play Queenie if there is one". Queenie was "Karl's" favorite slot on the last cruise and he did really well. Well, guess what...they had two. I played one and did decent on it and by decent I mean I didn't lose my money but I didn't double it either, close but not double.

I wanted to move on to the other Queenie located along the wall but 2 girls walked up and stood there forever trying to decide if they wanted to play or not. I stood back, I tapped my fingers, I was trying to patiently wait for them to move. I was going to go up and ask if they planned on playing just to get an answer because the suspense was killing me at this point and they finally sat down. Darnit. I stood back and waited for awhile and don't you know she hit for over $250 on a .50¢ spin right off the bat. Ok, I'm kicking myself now for not pulling her away from the machine and claiming it was mine as she stood there. j/k UGH! Alrighty time to hang my tail between my legs and head back to the room with the hubby's winnings only where I would display "my" proud winnings from "Queenie" to "Karl" just to see him pout. I'm honestly not sure if I ever told him that those winnings didn't come from Queenie or that those winnings actually didn't even come from me. 😁

Ok, it was a long day so time for bed. 💤

Today's steps and distance (6.43 miles):