I see dead people....
More Continued…….
An hour and a half later we were finally pulling into the 
What’s an inclinator, you ask? Well, the
But first we had to get there. We got about half way inside the casino, carrying luggage, and looking up for signs.
Our room was beautiful.
As this was my present and Margo had suggested Laughlin, she asked me what I wanted to do first. I had a small surprise for her. The prior month she had wanted to see a roving exhibit of HMS Titanic artifacts that was being displayed in 
Well, you don’t get to stayed married for 21 years and get your way every time, so we ended up buying tickets to seem both exhibits. We started with the Titanic. We were given a card upon entry.
The actual exhibit took you through the construction of the ship, and boarding.
Oh, Joy! Now it was time for the dead bodies. Neither this exhibit nor the Titanic one allows you to take pictures. So I have only the sign to show you. I borrowed that pic from their website. But, you get an idea of how graphic these things are. The process was turning dead people into a display was explained in one of the first few rooms. First the Dead Guy is dissected in such a manner as to display the anatomical feature they wanted to highlight. This might include cutting out front muscles to show back muscles. Or cutting away most of the muscles to show nerves or veins. Whatever. Then Cut Up Dead Guy is placed in a bath of acetone. The acetone drives out all of the water in the body. Next Dehydrated Dead Guy is placed in a bath of a polymer compound, while in a vacuum environment. As the vacuum takes care of evacuating the acetone, the polymer leaches into the space that first had water, and then acetone.
We saw all of the major systems in the body. Most were male by the way. Plastic Dead Guy is anatomically correct. Freaky. All of the Plastic Dead Guys had the skin removed, which was the really freaky part. One of the final displays had just skin and no body. Equally as freaky. It was like something from Texas Chainsaw Massacre. There was display with a cancerous lung, and a large bin to throw out your cigarettes. It was half full. They had Plastic Female Dead Guys in one of the last rooms. Boobs just don’t look good without skin. Nope, not at all.
The most disturbing part was the last room.
The gift shop was not an option. I had seen all I wanted to, and my feet hurt. I had gotten brand new shoes.
The Hooters Hotel and Casino was close by so we walked there in about five minutes. We have been making a point of visiting a Hooters Restaurant for the last six years or so. My youngest daughter started collecting the clothing. It’s like the people who have a Hard Rock Café: Moscow T-shirt. She has a Hooters Honolulu T-shirt, and many others, as that is great excuse to drop by while I’m traveling on business.
We had a short wait so I got my picture taken right away. Margo took it, and commented, “At least you smiled in this one” On the ones I didn’t smile one, I can assure I was happy on the inside. We had a nice, far from quiet, meal. But, we had had all the quiet we could stand until our eventual collapse later this evening. When we were done, we picked up our drinks (I love Vegas) and walked out with them.
We had a lot of people on our shopping list, so we decided to head over to the Showcase Mall by the MGM Grand.
The Showcase Mall has two main businesses M&M World and World of Coca Cola. For reasons we did not even discuss, we skipped World of Coca Cola all together. But, I decided I needed a chocolate fix, so we went inside M& M World to both shop and take care of my fix. There are four levels to this store. It’s like Macy’s. I think we skipped the top floor, as we had taken care of everyone we could shop for here, and decided there was more to see.
From here we continued north on the Strip. We stopped to check out t-shirt vendors and other such kiosks set up. And of course there were the ever present “canvassers”. Canvassers are hired help of the various escort services around town. There job is to pass out playing card size flyers to advertise there services. I recall them vividly from my first trip in 2003. The cards featured a naked woman on the front. I’m not against pictures of naked women, but it just seems wrong to have they thrust upon you. And that is exactly there job. They pop and snap the cards then hold them right out in front of you. It is very rude> I’ve been told the courts have ruled they are within their rights to do this, but it’s a real pain in the ass.
The night had been a touch chilly and windy, so we were getting cold. We had worn shorts and had not changed. We had wandered down the strip as far as
When the show was done, so were we. It was
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Check in went smooth. We had to wait in line for less than two minutes, and then the whole transaction took about that time as well. We arrived after standard check in time (4:30 PM), during mid-week. That was likely a factor.
Our room, on the 9th floor, offered a view of Mandalay Bay. The room was clean, and showed just some tiny evidence of wear. We liked the Egyptian theme, and of course the slanted wall that comes with the pyramid. I thought the bed a little uncomfortable, but it wasn't like I had trouble sleeping. The shower (no tub) had fair water pressure.
The Luxor has several restaurants and a buffet. I had tried, and really liked, the buffet on a previous visit. But we did not spend a lot of time actually in our hotel on this trip, and we did not eat here.
There are plenty of diversions to keep you busy, with a museum honoring King Tut and numerous shops. You are also connected to Mandalay Bay via a walkway and tram, so that hotel can be explored relatively easy.
The one bad part about the Luxor is the location. While it is on the strip, it is on the far south end. Getting to anything else requires a bit of walking, a car, a taxi, ot monorail. But, it is easy to cross Las Vegas Blvd at the Luxor, as an overhead walkway connects it to the Excaliber, and from there you can walk across another walkway to the MGM Grand, to catch the monorail. Be forewarned, he distance is deceiving to walk to the MGM monorail. It takes about 20-30 minutes to get from the Luxor lobby to the monorail.
We would likely not stay at the Luxor again. It was OK and a nice experience, but it is more a place to visit, than to stay. There are better deals if you don't want to be in the thick of things on the strip. And there are places in the same price range closer to mid-strip
The company that does this procured the corpses of people from China. They were people who died and had no family to claim the body. As we are talking about a county not known for their policies concerning human rights, take that for what it’s worth. After getting the bodies they are dissected in a manner to show off whatever system or area of the body they are trying to highlight. Then the body is positioned in the pose they want it in, and is immersed in a bath of acetone. The acetone forces all water from the corpse. When completed, the body is then placed in a bath of polymer, in a vacuum environment. As the vacuum sucks out the acetone, the polymer leeches into the space left, and the corpse is now preserved forever.
If you can get past the whole dead person thing and are not squeamish, the exhibit is very well done. You get to see the various muscles, organs, bones, nerves, or whatever, very clearly. It is like looking in a 3-D text book. I imagine surgeons would positively love this, as it offers such a broad and extensive view of the human body.
There is one area I found disturbing. There is an exhibit of babies. They had one exhibit showing the growth on a week to week basis. While very interesting, it was also hard (for me) to forget these were not models. There was a pair of conjoined twins and a baby who had died as a result of a serious and dramatic birth defect. You do not have to tour this area. You are warned in advance and given a way to bypass this display.
Would I see this exhibit again? The answer for me is No. But that is only because I found it disturbing. Factoring that part out (which might be hard to do, your mileage may vary) it was well done. We paid $108, for two adults to see this and the Titanic exhibit. So it is a little steep.
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The tower itself is 586 feet tall, has an upscale restaurant on the 11th floor, and is about half the size of the real thing.
The Observation Deck is completely enclosed with mesh so there is no danger of falling off. There is also little danger of taking an unobstructed picture. They do provide larger holes in the mesh for picture takers, but they did not necessarily allow for the shot you might want. The Tower overlooks the Bellagio, so it is possible that you might get to see the fountains from a completely different perspective.
The cost is $10 per person, and waits during the high times could take awhile. If there is wind when you are on the ground you can count on it being worse at the top. During the cooler months it will get chilly. We went in mid-April, and that drove us down sooner than we might have liked.
Would I do it again? I might, just because we didn’t stay very long. If we had stayed up longer? Probably only if I was with someone who hadn’t gone up before. Enjoy!
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