542. Walk the Vegas strip

The Strip was not exactly what you might expect from watching random movies that occur in Vegas.  Although, we did go check Circus Circus to see if they still had that rotating bar from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.  There is now a non-alcoholic snack bar there.  But, speaking of alcohol, it is legal to drink in public there, so every time I went out, I would see at least one woman walking down the sidewalk, holding a tropical drink in her hands, giggling, and looking furtive.  There are also huge numbers of people handing out postcards advertising hookers.  The postcard guys are on every corner.  Prostitution is not legal in Vegas, but I guess that doesn't stop them.  I also saw one pregnant young woman handing out the postcards.  I guess the look on her face is what people mean when they say someone looks dead inside.  There were also a lot of people dressed as tv and movie characters and panhandling.  There was Batman, Bumblebee the Transformer, Homer Simpson, Dora the Explorer.  It was kind of weird.  Also, Harrah's is terrifying.  There are huge harlequin statues on the outside.  They look they might reach down to the street, pick you up, and bite your head off.  There are a lot of statues on Caesar's too, but they're just plain white Roman-looking things.  Treasure Island also had their pirate show closed so everybody could go on vacation.  I haven't seen the real Eiffel Tower, either, so I can't tell you if the one in Las Vegas is any good.  

302. Go spelunking

It counts if you  use an inner tube, right?  This is Waitomo, New Zealand.  You get to take an inner tube through a cave system with water in it.  We had wetsuits, rubber boots, and helmets with lamps.  They also had glow worms in the caves.  The caves were yellowish stone, with a stacked look, like the Pancake Rocks on the South Island, except there were long black streaks where people had held onto the walls.  I'm generally not claustrophobic, but there were a couple places where we had to lean way back in the tube to go under the low ceiling, and I wasn't very fond of those parts.  There was a lot more walking than tubing, it seemed.

616. Eat at a cheap buffet in Las Vegas

I had the breakfast buffet over at the Gold Coast.  It's across the freeway from The Strip, and it was fairly warm out, even in December.  It wasn't too terrifying a walk, but there was a big parking lot with no walkways in front of the casino.  I didn't see many other people walking, but there were a couple joggers, possibly left over from the marathon the day before.  The buffet wasn't bad.  I think it was $6.99; it was definitely under $10 anyway.  There were many tasty things to eat, and it was all-you-can-eat.  It was a huge, huge room.  There were several other cheap buffets going, but they were also at casinos that were off the strip and would've been a very long walk. 

121. Visit the Hoover Dam

I liked the architecture at the Hoover Dam.  Even their picnic tables were spiffy, with metal umbrellas and art deco-adobe-looking things at the visitor center.  I was fairly disappointed in the tour, though.  We got to go in a tunnel, and later look down at the generators, but we didn't get to go near them.  Apparently it's some September 11th thing.

174. Hold a bird

I've held chickens before, but I did catch a wild bird in my hands one time.  The school I went to had a building with a big rotating wall, and a lot of skylights inside, so it was not unusual for birds to come in, but they usually stayed pretty close to the way out.  But one time I was upstairs, and there was a blackbird smashing its head against a window trying to get out.  It was concentrating very intently on the window, so it was easy to catch.  I grabbed it, and managed to hold it tightly enough that it didn't get away, and loosely enough that I think it was okay.  I used sort of a scooping motion around the whole bird to get the wings, since they were sticking out from the flying and all.  It had its mouth open while I had ahold of it, and it looked rather nervous.  It didn't poop on me, though.  I took it to a door and threw it out, and it flew away as soon as I let go of it.  Fortunately, no one stole my backpack while I was gone.

425. Send someone flowers

This is the Thinking of You Bouquet by FTD.  This is the medium size one, and it comes with the vase.  I sent it to my mother.

558. Gamble at the Bellagio in Las Vegas

Well, I spent a dollar on the slot machines across from their prix fixe restaurant.  The stuff on the menu looked interesting, but they didn't open until 5pm or 5:30.  I'm not really a fan of slot machines; you push a button and it beeps and makes flashy lights, and then you have less money than you started with.  I haven't found any other forms of gambling I like either, since the odds are so bad.  I'm bad at lottery tickets, too.  Even if someone buys me one and gives it to me, it won't win. 

309. See a sheep in New Zealand

Turns out it's sort of hard not to see a sheep in New Zealand.  Although, apparently they're raising a lot more cattle and deer than they used to.  They used to have feral deer that somebody imported to hunt, and then venison got popular, so they went out and caught all the deer, and now there are deer farms all over.