My Las Vegas Review

By Kerry Mann

Recently I took ten days off and went to Las Vegas! This was my sixth trip there in the last three years In the last 6 visits I think I have found out some great places to eat gamble and sleep- So I am posting this as my offical Las Vegas Review.



If you have never been to Las Vegas or haven't been there in 2 years than this review will be helpful to you. The city is constantly changing and growing. I love playing Texas Holdem poker online but after playing everday for quite some time it is nice to get away. And it is nice to be able to afford to take a nice vacation like this. Before I became an online poker player as a profession I would never have dreamed of going to Vegas for ten days and satying at one of the most beautiful hotels in the world- The Venetian....



Transportation



On my first trip to Vegas we didn't rent a car. We took a shuttle for 8 bucks from the airport to out hotel and walked or took the bus/ taxis for the rest of the trip. Ever since then we have rented a car. If you go midweek or offseason It is very cheap to rent a car in Vegas. We never payed more than 25 bucks a day. If you add up the cost of taxis and shuttles, it seems much smarter to rent a car.



Beware if you are a timid driver, people drive like maniacs there! If you prefer to get the exercise than the shuttle may be the best bet for you. There are buses every 10 min going up and down the strip, and there are many free mono rail trams going beetween many of the casinos on the strip.



My reccomendation is to rent a car and bring a wad of singles with and valet it. If you are like me you will want to go and see all of the beautiful casinos. There is nothing better than driving to the front door and having it parked. I usually tip a buck or two. Otherwise you can park in the parking structures for free.



Hotels



On my most recent vacation I went with my friend Kurt. Below are some pics of our hotel room at the Venetian. If you can afford to I would highly suggest staying here. It was by far the nicest hotel I have ever been to. The bathroom was HUGE, with a jacuzzi tub, double sink, seperate shower, the toilet was in a seperate room with a phone, marble floors.



Our Room



The Venetian and the Bellagio are the 2 nicest hotels in Las Vegas. They are expensive. I have been to many hotels in Vegas and it all depends on what you want out of your vacation. Most people will gamble and drink into the wee hours of the morning so the hotel won't matter much. If you want to stay at the cheapest hotel possible and stay close to gambling I reccomend staying downtown. I stayed at the Las Vegas Club downtown last year. Midweek you can get a room for 35-45 bucks a night. On that trip we only slept about 10 hours total the 3 nights we were there, so the hotel didnt matter much.



However the Las Vegas Club was pretty nice the rooms were very large thay had a couch. I have stayed at other hotels downtown and most are in that price range and more expensive weekends and peak season. So If you want to be pampered and stay somewhere nice find a hotel on the strip- The Venetian and the Belagio are very nice, and very expensive. The MGM or Luxor or New York are mid priced.. If you want to go cheap stay downtown.



Drinks



If you love to gamble and love to drink PERFECT- If you are gambling drinks are free. So dont spend 8 bucks at the bar, hit the tables or slots and drink on the house.



Gambling



I have gambled at many-a-casino in Vegas. I think on this last 10 day vacation we hit most of them. My suggestion for gambling comes down to preference and cash. On weekends and peak times it is hard to find a blackjack table with a 5 dollar minimum on the strip. Most are ten bucks and up. So If you are on a budget I suggest gambling downtown. They have plenty of five dollar tables and even three dollar tables. They also have single and double deck blackjack games downtown for lower limits. We found most casinos on the strip use auto shufflers and are 6+ decks- This makes for very bad odds. On this trip I mostly played blackjack. I consider online poker my profession and being on vacation I needed a little break. So I played mostly blackjack and the horses.



Some must see casinos are the Venetian, there are shops and the Venice canals, and beautiful paintings and artwork. Also the Belagio is a stunning casino, they have a water show in front set to music. If you are going to bet on horses or sports I suggest the sportsbook at the Belagio. They have personal flat screen TV's leather chairs and they have plenty of cocktail waitreses supplying the drinks. We spent a lot of time here.



Food



Where to eat? We ate so much food on this trip, I must have gained 20 pounds...Lets start out with the buffets:



The best buffet I have ever had is The Spice Market Buffet in the Aladdin Casino. It was around $25 and the food was amazing. They had food in diferent categories, American, Mexican, etc. Everything I tasted was delicious. The fruit they had was fresh, the desserts were amazing. I highly recommend this buffet.



Another great buffet is The Buffet at the Belagio. This buffet was very close in price and taste to the Spice Market buffet. If you like seafood I would recommend this one. They also have Beef Wellingtion, Prime rib and Colby beef, very delicious.



The largest buffet would have to be the buffet at the Rio, The Carnival World Buffet. This buffet was 25-30 bucks. It had a huge selection but I was not impressed with the food.



The worst buffet we had was breakfast at Bally's buffet. The food was not very poor. The Orange juice tasted like Tang.



Non- Buffet Eats



Burger?



The best burger would have to be at The Burger Bar in Mandalay Bay. they have Colby Beef burgers, which are not cheap. Around 16 bucks, but the were very good.



Want a great steak? The best steak I ever ate in Vegas was at Alan Alberts on the strip. It is a very nice restaraunt, great service, great food. Pricey but well worth it if your looking for a mouth watering steak. 3763 Las Vegas Blvd



Italian Food



Want some great Italian food, at a great old school eatery? Try Batista's Hole in the Wall. The restaurant walls are lined with celebrity autograpghed pictures. They even have an accordion player walking from table to table. The food is excellent. Meals come with your choice of wine, a salad, entree and complimentary cappuccino. I had the Chicken parm and it was very good. It was around 20-25 bucks a meal.



Cheap Eats



Lost all your cash at the tables? There are some great deals on meals all over Vegas. Kurt and tried most of them. If you are looking for upscale dining skip this section!



At The Las Vegas Club's Upperdeck downtown- We ate NY strip steak, eggs, hashbrowns and toast for $2.95!!! And it was actually very good.



Another great deal is the Prime rib at San Remos across from the MGM. You get bread, salad, prime rib, baked potato, vegetables all for $5.95. The slice of prime rib was pretty thin but for 6 bucks it was worth it. Another cheap meal we had a few times is, Steak and Lobster dinner at Careful Kitys in the El Cortez downtown. It was like 10 bucks and pretty good.



Bars and Clubs



Wanna hit the clubs? One of my favorites is the Ghost Bar on top of the Palms casino. They filmed MTV's Real World las Vegas at the Palms, and the cast frequented the Ghost bar.. Its part outside on the top of the building. The views of the strip are amazing. Mostly a younger crowd.



Tangerine at Treasure Island was also pretty good. You could also go outside with views of the strip and the Pirate show.



If you run out of cash and still want to get some drinks- go to a sportsbook. Kurt perfected this method! Grab a program and a seat and wait for the cocktail waitress to come around. Make sure to tip her and she will keep coming back!



About the Author: Kerry Mann is a professional Online poker player and writer.
Visit his website for more information on making a living at online poker: http://www.pokerliving.net




Source: www.isnare.com

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Parenting - A job for life

Raising children is like arranging water into a square. It is a wonderful and challenging life experience. But is much harder than it looks, with patience and hope, children can mature into very emotionally-secure adults. Raising children is obviously one of the harder things in life to do, and in most cases parents know best., but bringing up children is one of the most rewarding and challenging undertakings anyone can take on. As a parent of a daughter, and also two step children, I can honestly say that parenting is certainly in no way easy. I believe that parents are best placed to decide what is right for their children and family based on their own values, circumstances and lifestyle.



Parents need to build a bond between themselves and their children. They are the single most important influence in their children's lives, and need to recognize and deal with their children's most challenging traits in a positive manner. On average parents and care givers are spending between 20 and 30 percent of their salaries on raising their children. Both parents are working nowadays, while 40 years ago, mother's were usually home. Single parents often have to work 2 and 3 jobs, so the kids are with other people. Which means that they are absent from the home which in turn leaves children exposed to increasingly more stress-filled situations which compromise their capacity to develop a resilient mindset and the skills necessary to function effectively in every day life.



Demanding jobs and escalating debt are resulting in high levels of stress and enormous pressure on family life. But there's little question that emotionally, children are growing up faster and that they are more integrated into adult spaces and activities and wield far more power in family decision making. Being a teenager can be a challenging time for children because they are trying to figure out who they are and their role in the family. Poor family values and poor communication skills with children is what leads children to rebel.



Raising successful children requires a lot of patience, practice, and some luck. Raising children successfully providing them with care, protecting them form danger often becomes the most important goal for both couples and single parents. Raising any child, boy or girl is a huge undertaking. Times change and the issues we face change, but the fact that raising kids is hard doesn't.



Yes children are incredible, but can be very difficult, the good things in life are always more difficult. Children tend to treat others the way their parents treat them. They will usually grow up to respect their parents and to be able to handle conflicts and problems in a reasonable manner. We do find however that children and adolescents whose parents are uninvolved perform most poorly in all domains.



You will find that gaining experience in parenting means sacrificing your personal time. When reading a parenting book, we usually adopt a viewpoint that the author of these books has written the book while taking a look at their personal experiences as a parent and thus offering suitable parenting advice to handle the different and difficult situations involved in parenting. There are many parenting books around you which are usually written by people having individual experiences worth sharing while parenting. Parenting is likely the single greatest personal challenge possible. It is the oldest and most important job in the world and there are no schools to prepare you for it. If you need some parenting advice, you have to remember that all children and parents are different and need different sources of parenting advice to succeed in parenting. One great piece of advice I can give you is to let your children know that you love them.



If raising children is so hard, why do people still want to have kids? It is time to face it, bringing up a child is the responsibility of the parent. Bringing up our little treasures is by far one of the most difficult yet pleasurable tasks that there is in life. Enjoy your children while they are still on your side, it doesn‘t last long as I am already finding out from my seven year old. Like every parent out there I have found that raising children is both challenging and unpredictable. Parenting is tough but well worth it.



Raising your children is something that usually comes naturally to people but it tends to be a full-time job even when there's both a Mom and a Dad around. It is probably one of the hardest jobs you will ever do and it gets harder as our children get older. Parenting your teenager can definitely keep you on your toes. You need to be adaptable to the many changes each child goes through as they begin to develop and mature.



Kids need help, ideas, support, input and attention. They seem to have boundless energy while the rest of us just want to nap on the couch. They thrive on old fashioned parental attention things like talking to them, playing catch, reading stories, and taking their friends along to fun places.



And just remember parenting is too individual and children too complex for there to be only one way to do it.

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Rachel Harding is a registered nurse and mum of 3. She offers articles, stories, forums, recipes and much much more at yourkidsshop.

3 Shortcuts For Helping Your Baby Sleep Through The Night

Many parents have the erroneous belief that if they don't use the latest technique to get their baby asleep, it won't work. Unfortunately, complicated or latest doesn't necessarily mean better.



Here are 3 better choices for getting your baby asleep.



Where Your Baby Goes To Sleep



It is quite normal for parents, and in particular first-time parents to allow their baby to fall asleep wherever they want to. Sometimes of course, it may seem like a godsend if they fall asleep at all and you would be happy for them to just sleep anywhere!



However, allowing your baby to fall asleep while breast-feeding, in your arms, or even in a pushchair in your living room could be what is causing their sleep problems.



You may well be asking how this could possibly cause sleep problems?



Well, quite naturally, when your baby goes to sleep somewhere that is not his or her bedroom, you will then move them to their crib or cot so they can continue sleeping peacefully.



But when your little one then wakes during the night, as most babies do, they will suddenly find themselves in different surroundings to what they expected... and this can be very unnerving and scary for them.



So, your best bet on location is for your child to fall asleep in the same place as he or she will spend the night. All children wake briefly many times during the night... this is perfectly normal.



If they wake in the same crib, in the same room, with the same lighting, and the same sounds, as when they fall asleep, they will slip back into sleep much more easily.



Develop a Proper Bedtime Routine



Going to sleep is a habit. And a consistent bedtime routine helps your child develop this habit.



Typically, a good Pre-Toddler's Sleep Routine will go something like this: Take a bath, have a bottle or breastfeed, burp and cuddle a bit until tired, lay in bed while still awake... and sleep.



If your child is a newborn, washing his or her face and hands may replace a full bath.



For a toddler, the routine may be a little different. The need for a pre-bedtime feeding is gone. Toddlers also need more mental stimulation, so stories or lullabies are often a good bet.



Whatever you decide to include in your baby's bedtime routine is entirely up to you. A bath is a good starting signal for the routine, some element of relaxed cuddling is helpful, and most of the rest is based on what you need to get done for your child.



But, the most important thing is that when you've developed a sleep routine for your child it is very important to keep the routine consistent and to follow it night after night after night.



This consistent routine will help your child to quickly develop a regular sleep pattern.



Naps



Naps are under appreciated tools in the quest for an easy bedtime. While they obviously don't happen at bedtime, they can significantly help or hinder your bedtime experience.



The three main points to keep in mind with naps are: how many naps, how long the naps are, and when they occur.



Naptime should occur at roughly the same time of day. If a nap is too late in the day, your child will have problems falling asleep because he or she is not tired.



Try to encourage naps in their own crib if possible. If not, use the same place every day.



Lastly, naptime can serve as a good starting place for building nighttime sleep patterns. If your child is at home in the daytime, you can start to implement the right sleep habits at naptime before trying them at bedtime.



Babies (just like adults) really are creatures of habit and quickly learns that their bedtime routine means it is time to sleep. The best chance of quickly and easily getting your baby asleep is then to develop and stick to a such simple bedtime routine.

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For more practical shortcuts to get your baby to sleep, email for your free copy of 21 Surprisingly Smarter Baby Sleep Tips... a free ecourse. Just send a blank email to:

==>mailto:smartersleeptips@getresponse.com or visit

==>http://www.babydevelopmentnews.com/babysleep.html