So I spent this past weekend in Las Vegas with my brother and his new fiancee. He had a time share thing where they give you a "free" weekend in a condo and all you have to do is attend a meeting where they try to sell you a time share. We had a blast though!
We got up around 3:30 am on Friday to get to the airport by 5:00am for a super early 6:10 flight. We got to the hotel/condo around 8am Vegas time but couldn't get into our room until 4. It was a real pain too 'cause the hotel advertised itself as being "on the strip" but in reality it was about five miles south of Mandalay Bay which is the end of what people think of as the strip. True, it was still on Las Vegas Boulevard but I would hardly say it was on the strip. Anyway the hotel did have a shuttle that dropped off at Ceasar's but it didn't leave the hotel until 10. So our choices were to hang out in the lobby for 2 hours or take a cab into town. We chose the latter. After a fantastic breakfast of crepes at Paris, we walked to the Flamingo, where I took some pictures for Jim and Carrie's wedding invitations, and walked through the Forum Shops before catching a shuttle back to the hotel. We finally got into a room around 3:30pm and promptly crashed for 4 hours. When we finally got up again, we went back to Paris for an all you can eat sushi dinner, a ride on the Manhattan Express roller coaster at NYNY and a look at the lights.
So Saturday we went to bed around 2am and got up and going again about 10am. We spent the day on Fremont street and played some black jack and a bingo game from hell. We barely had time to look at our cards and mark the numbers being called before the next one was called. I don't even think we had a chance to figure out what pattern we were looking for before someone called bingo. It was stressful but we got some good laughs out of it. After the obligatory buffet dinner, we watched the Fremont light show and headed to the Stratosphere. We went to the top of the tower and rode one of the rides up there that was kind of like a roller coaster but just dropped you down the side of the tower then pivoted and rolled you back. After the ride, we were enjoying the view and my brother officially proposed to Carrie. He did the whole thing where he got down on one knee and asked her to marry him. I got pictures!!!!!! Some of the people around them were even clapping for them. It was very cool!
We were all too excited to sleep after that so we took a cab from our hotel to a locals casino even farther south of us. We ate a really good breakfast at 2am and played more blackjack until 3:30 or so. Sunday morning, Carrie and I went to have hot stone massages while Jimmy went to his time-share meeting thingy. We all met up for lunch and went to the M&M store and walked through the Luxor before having to head back to the hotel and off to the airport. We got into Denver around 11:30pm and I got home at about 2:30. Needless to say, I didn't make it to class on Monday.
It's taken me three days to be able to stop long enough and process what all we did while we were out there. The only thing I could remember at first was all the walking and the blister I got from my flip flops. But we had so much fun and I hope we can make it out there again next year....only not in July......and I will be wearing sneakers.
We got up around 3:30 am on Friday to get to the airport by 5:00am for a super early 6:10 flight. We got to the hotel/condo around 8am Vegas time but couldn't get into our room until 4. It was a real pain too 'cause the hotel advertised itself as being "on the strip" but in reality it was about five miles south of Mandalay Bay which is the end of what people think of as the strip. True, it was still on Las Vegas Boulevard but I would hardly say it was on the strip. Anyway the hotel did have a shuttle that dropped off at Ceasar's but it didn't leave the hotel until 10. So our choices were to hang out in the lobby for 2 hours or take a cab into town. We chose the latter. After a fantastic breakfast of crepes at Paris, we walked to the Flamingo, where I took some pictures for Jim and Carrie's wedding invitations, and walked through the Forum Shops before catching a shuttle back to the hotel. We finally got into a room around 3:30pm and promptly crashed for 4 hours. When we finally got up again, we went back to Paris for an all you can eat sushi dinner, a ride on the Manhattan Express roller coaster at NYNY and a look at the lights.
So Saturday we went to bed around 2am and got up and going again about 10am. We spent the day on Fremont street and played some black jack and a bingo game from hell. We barely had time to look at our cards and mark the numbers being called before the next one was called. I don't even think we had a chance to figure out what pattern we were looking for before someone called bingo. It was stressful but we got some good laughs out of it. After the obligatory buffet dinner, we watched the Fremont light show and headed to the Stratosphere. We went to the top of the tower and rode one of the rides up there that was kind of like a roller coaster but just dropped you down the side of the tower then pivoted and rolled you back. After the ride, we were enjoying the view and my brother officially proposed to Carrie. He did the whole thing where he got down on one knee and asked her to marry him. I got pictures!!!!!! Some of the people around them were even clapping for them. It was very cool!
We were all too excited to sleep after that so we took a cab from our hotel to a locals casino even farther south of us. We ate a really good breakfast at 2am and played more blackjack until 3:30 or so. Sunday morning, Carrie and I went to have hot stone massages while Jimmy went to his time-share meeting thingy. We all met up for lunch and went to the M&M store and walked through the Luxor before having to head back to the hotel and off to the airport. We got into Denver around 11:30pm and I got home at about 2:30. Needless to say, I didn't make it to class on Monday.
It's taken me three days to be able to stop long enough and process what all we did while we were out there. The only thing I could remember at first was all the walking and the blister I got from my flip flops. But we had so much fun and I hope we can make it out there again next year....only not in July......and I will be wearing sneakers.
