Las Vegas - Day One

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We're here! In sunny Las Vegas!

Good ol' Simon even got up at the "ass-crack of dawn" (4:00 am) to drive us to the airport. To my surprise, Steve didn't want to leave a car at the airport. Simon's Spyder is on the road, but he's having some work done on it so it was the perfect week for him to have access to another vehicle. For some reason he'd rather drive Steve's 2003 Explorer than my 1995 Saturn. So that was part of the deal, drive us to and pick us up from the airport. I'll probably have to remind him 6 times not to forget us Saturday.

We changed planes at Dulles. Steve loves to fly so we always give him the window seat, leaving me with the horrid middle seat. Guilt finally ate at him enough that I got the window seat for the 5 hours to Las Vegas. I stitched and listened to my crafty podcasts on my iPod, just as planned. Window seats are way better. I was so intent on stitching and iPodding, that I skipped the two movies, both of which I wanted to see. One was The Pursuit of Happyness, but that's in our Netflix queue and I want to see that in the comfort of my own home, in case I cry. The other one was Freedom Writers, which I've added to our Netflix queue - I forgot I wanted to see that.

For two weeks I've been obsessing over not forgetting two things: my stitching and my laptop. Clothes? Uh, yeah, whatever.

And I'm so excited about this: I bought a new suitcase a month or two ago - it's worked perfectly. I've been using a backpack since 1978. Seriously! It's a big backpack but it has no wheels so it's fine for car trips but not so good for hauling around airports. So I decided at age 51, I was entitled to an honest to goodness adult, wheeled suitcase. I'm still finding compartments and pockets in this thing. I had room to spare even - and it's lighter than my carry on bag (because of my laptop). I love it. I'm so grown up.

We're staying at Mandalay Bay.

I also bought a new camera a few weeks ago. I have been struggling with taking good pictures of my products, the stuff I can't scan. I chalked it up to user incompetence but finally decided I could probably take better pictures with a better camera. I felt I'd gotten my money's worth out of my old camera, which I'll give to Simon. This new camera rocks.

The view from our room. That pyramid next to us is The Luxor.

This sign is outside our window too. It looks big here but it looks really big when you are on the ground looking up at it.

We had a late lunch at The House of Blues - we'd been craving a good burger & fries. I napped a bit & Steve read, then we walked around the grounds to see the pool areas. More about that tomorrow.

We went through the Shark Reef aquarium exhibit at the hotel, which besides being unbearably humid, was very neat. It's a self-guided tour. Each person is given a cell phone looking wand and you punch in the number of each exhibit. It was all done really well, not cheesy at all. Part of it was like you're standing in a sunken ship looking out at the fish. This photo shows the glass tunnel you walk through with the fish swimming over and under you. I turned off the flash to get a better picture and lightened this one with photo editing but it still doesn't do it justice. I thought it would be cool from what I'd seen online, but it was even better - really felt like you were under water.

There was a wide, low, open tank where visitors are encouraged to touch the fish. This was the big guy but there were other, smaller, more colorful fish. But you could only touch them with 1 finger and not near their eyes or mouths. No shit, Sherlock. I passed.

I fixed this photo up as best I could, just to give you an idea. This was a tall, cylindrical tank, full of nothing but jellyfish! This was actually my favorite part, I think. They were amazing! All sizes and shapes, gracefully floating around.

Then we started our Giant Walk of Pain. I'd been warned to wear comfortable shoes, it's easy to do a lot of walking in Las Vegas. So I was prepared in my fairly new walking New Balance sneakers. But all that walking on cement coupled with being dehydrated from the plane ride and all the walking we did in the dry desert air - well, let's just say I was maybe a tad cranky by the end. Or so I've been told. I tried to drink plenty of water but not so much on the plane because I didn't want to have to get up and go to the bathroom.

The above is The Luxor, the next hotel down from ours. That tram in the center of the pictures connects 3 hotels so we took that on our way back to save ourselves a few steps. Saves about a mile of walking I heard someone say.

This is the sign in front of The Luxor. This is me thinking, "I wonder if it would look arty if I took the shot like this?" (I swear that's what I thought. I just now noticed the genitalia. Oops. Sorry!)

The Excalibur. The theme doesn't thrill me.

New York, New York, complete with roller coaster. And people were riding it, the wackos. We walked around inside this hotel more the next day - I'll share those pictures later. We have decided we made the best choice for us, hotel-wise, but if I had to pick a 2nd choice, I think it would be this. It's full of New York City details - I think they got it just right.

Paris. We just saw it from across the street, never went in.

The MGM Grand. We can see this from our hotel too. We went inside on Day 2 - will share those pictures with you tomorrow.

Finally, our destination. The stinkin' Bellagio. We were both tired and thirsty but wanted to see these stupid fountains. What? Me? Attitude? Don't get me started on these people.

First we walked all over the hotel looking for a simple bottle of water - is that asking too much?? I know it's a casino and they want to sell booze, but there are plenty of families there. (Pam, I saw the gorgeous blown glass ceiling but my feet hurt and I was so thirsty, I couldn't stop to look or appreciate it. We'll probably go back.) We ended up finding drinks at the Tropicana, I think it was, across the street. As we crossed the bridge back over to The Bellagio, the fountains were just ending their little dance.

We settled in street level, waiting for the next show, which according to their website, starts every 15 minutes after 8:00 pm. We heard an announcement that Steve thought said the next show starts at the top of the hour, but I was sure he heard wrong. Turns out he heard correctly. We stood there, on our achy-breaky feet for 51 minutes, I tell you! Yep, shows were starting at the top of the hour - and of course it only lasts 5 minutes or something. It's cool but for the mood I was in at that point, those fountains would have had to been squirting dark chocolate down my throat to win any props from me. Bastards! I even checked the website the next day - yep, every 15 minutes, it says. By the time we realized it really was going to start at the top of the hour, we'd waited so long we weren't going to leave. Said Steve. I was starting to think they lost their opportunity to entertain me. I wanted to show them!

We were so tired, we never ate dinner. I crashed into bed the second we got back to the room. We have a big fluffy king-sized bed and man, oh man, did I sleep good. It probably had nothing to do with the fact that I didn't have a beagle crowding my legs or a black cat sleeping by my head.

More fun tomorrow.
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