Goodbye For Real This Time

Sunday dawned the last day in Vegas for me.  We went for breakfast, laid out by the pool as long as we could, said goodbye to the Edmonton crew, and headed out for one last adventure minus the Dev, who muttered "Vegas always wins..." and stayed in for a nap with one eye on his Vegas prize....the 64 ounce leg glass from Freemont Street.

So as it was, we met at the Aurora in the lobby, and dabbled in a little electronic poker.  Kinda looks a bit like Flanagans when you put the usual faces in place.

The plan for the evening was to get some pictures of the Bellagio fountains, and so we hopped in the cab and headed that way.  One good thing about Vegas in August is that its not as crowded as some of the cooler months. 

Ah, pretty Vegas lights

And 5 years in Bermuda makes summer in Vegas easy to handle.  We stopped for a group photo -- now Joy from Bermuda gave Siobhan a "selfie stick," and this delighted the crowds wherever we went...especially Eileen as you can tell by this grin.  Most of the time we still missed a head, but we had a lot of fun trying, and refusing offers from people passing by offering to take our photo.

We had a great spot to stand and view the fountains as they "danced" to what I think was Pavarotti playing over the strip.

Once the fountain show was over, we started making our way down the strip towards the Cosmopolitan.  Music was still playing over the street like an extra companion, and an oldie but goodie "Queen of Hearts" by Juice Newton came on.  Eileen was bopping and dancing down the street as we sang along (which reminds me that Lizzie was dancing along to the music of a street performer the night before, and soon a crowd was watching HER perform...someone even threw in money so she is officially a Vegas showgirl in our legends).  It was one of those moments that the world slows down a moment, and I looked at my smiling, laughing Bermuda friends and realized that after months of putting it off, this was really it, the last night before time and distance would interrupt our usual and casual unusual and awesome flow of our escapades.  Eileen, Lizzie, and George would go back to Bermuda.  Siobhan would complete her disjointed Bermuda-Canada-US move back to Ireland.  Dev would go back to Qatar, although we always know he will pop up again soon, and I would be off to the States soon (or so I thought at the time).  So the moment in time is frozen in memory, and whenever I need a smile I can pull up these guys, bopping down the strip in Vegas.

Our next stop was the Chandelier bar at Cosmo.  We decided to get some Veuve Cliquot and toast the good times.  I don't think there is a sparklier place in Vegas than this, so it was the best spot we could think of!  So we toasted a good weekend, a good run, and future meetings, and ended our little journey on the same path...for now.

And on the way out the door I finally consented to letting Siobhan buy me something for a birthday present.  We found a vending machine that dispensed gifts...souvenirs, electronics, flasks, watches, and I had been determined all week not to accept Siobhan's offer of a gift.  But....there was a little stuffed dog wearing a bear suit, and when it was pointed out, I couldn't deny that it was adorable.  And so we headed back to the hotel, 2 scots, 1 Brit, an Irish lass, a Canuck, and a dog in a bear suit -- now adorned with lipstick kisses from all the girls and even George...the perfect souvenir :)