Adventures in Las Vegas

Ok, sort of adventures....
I have a little time here at work this afternoon, so I'll see if I can recount our trip.

First, the weather was INCREDIBLE!!!!! 70s and sunny every day and the evenings were 50s and clear. I loved it - I really tried to put it in my suitcase and bring it home....oh well, maybe my wonderful friend Bri will mail me some! :D

We flew out on Friday night and got in late (10 p.m. Las Vegas) on a rough flight that felt like a 5 year old landed it - it was rough. We got our rental car (by the way, NOT a necessity if you are visiting!) and drove to the MGM. We got checked in and went to our room that we paid a small fortune for, opened the shades and, you guessed it - a wall! At that hour, we were too tired to care so we went downstairs to walk around for a while and went to bed about 1:30.

DH got up about 6 the next morning and showered. I had a headache so I decided to sleep for a little longer while he went down to the casino.

A sidenote....if you stay at the MGM and are into contemporary - stay in the West Wing. If you're not - get a standard room!

Ok, sorry, back to my recounting of the tale.... I got up a little after 7 and took a shower and felt better. I got dressed and went downstairs to see if I could find him - ah ha! At the video blackjack machine.... We went to McD's for breakfast and called home to see how the kids were. They were good, not that we expected any different - grandma was there! We went upstairs to get my purse and headed out. We walked down one side of Las Vegas Blvd. all the way to Treasure Island, stopping and at least putting a dollar in each of the casinos, checking out the shops, hotel lobbies, etc., and back to the MGM - so we were gone all day.

We got back and checked to see if our "new" room was ready - yes. So, we went up and packed up and moved up to the 14th floor - same type of room, but with a fabulous view of the Strip. We took a short nap and got ready to go out. We went to see Ka - if you have a chance to see this show - do, it is fantastic! We went to dinner at craftsteak in our hotel - very expensive but very good. We changed and went out for another walk. We walked to Paris and went up in the Eiffel Tower - what an amazing view! I think we finally crawled into bed about 2.

Sunday we got up and drove out to Hoover Dam. THAT is impressive! It is so amazing how big it is! We stopped at the Hard Rock Hotel, Circus Circus and Rio while we had the car out and had lunch at Sonic (a treat since we don't have one around here). We went back to MGM, put the car back, changed rooms again to a standard room and went to Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Hooters and Excalibur. Then, walked down to watch the fountains at Bellagio, and the pirates at Treasure Island. We started to walk back to our hotel but DH decided it was too early to go back. So, we got the bus to Fremont Street. We were pretty disappointed in that, so we weren't there long and headed back, got McDonald's to take to our room, watched Men In Black before we fell asleep.

Another sidenote....if you don't want mind chaos - Circus Circus is fine. I had just relaxed enough at that point with no kids with us that it undid that. Kids were EVERYWHERE!!!!!!! I was very ready to go back to the "grown up" world after about 15 minutes. Don't get me wrong, I love kids but when I hadn't had to worry about them for 36 hours, it was a huge shock!

We got up yesterday and ate doughnuts sitting on the back of the couch, looking out the window at the Strip. I started crying - I couldn't believe it was over and that we were coming home that night. I wanted to stay longer. I was relaxed, I wasn't worried about the kids and how they were doing, where they were, would they behave that day. It was just DH & I - it was SO nice! We've never had that! So, we packed, checked out, did some shopping and gambling. We got gas in the rental, had lunch at Jack in the Box and stopped to take pictures of the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign. Then, onto the airport, and home.

We had a smooth flight back but a really rough landing. Then, we waited - I am not kidding - 45 minutes for our luggage. So, we finally rolled into bed at home just after 1 a.m.

Some of my "must dos" to anyone going - the Bellagio fountains, go up in the Eiffel Tower, the fountains at Ceasears Palace, outside New York, New York is a display of t-shirts of all the NY fire department units that they all signed - it is REALLY cool and caused a lump in my throat, the pirate show, Parasol Up, Parasol Down at Wynn, and the Bellagio Conservatory. I'm sure I could come up with a million more things and I KNOW there was lots we didn't see!

Just for reference - there is more to tell but some things just can't be described - they have to be seen to be believed! ; )

Back to reality.....I'll try to get pictures posted in the next couple of days.