Viva LAS VEGAS!

I have always wanted to go to Vegas. I don't know why; I don't really gamble, I barely drink, I'm not much of a party girl, I just wanted to check it out. From a photographic standpoint, it seemed like a dream! I've been to Reno and it was pretty cool, but it wasn't VEGAS! So, my parents came to visit and watched the kids while Jason and I took a little vacation!!

The first thing I saw when we got off the plane... slot machines... IN THE AIRPORT! I was amazed. Jason laughed at me. "Yeah," he said cooly. "This is Vegas, Baby."

Vegas was really cool! Well, no, Vegas was really hot actually! The temperature was over 100° every day! We spent most of our daytime hours checking out the casinos, and wooooooow were they awesome! We spent the first part of our week at the New York New York. The entire hotel is set up like New York city. Inside there are "streets", pubs, restaurants, shops, sports area, street vendors... it was amazing. From the outside it looks like a New York street, complete with a NY Fire Department boat, the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge. The casino was bright and colorful and to my amazement we were allowed to take pictures inside!

Our room was on the 30th floor. Did I mention that this hotel had a ROLLER COASTER that went in and out of it!? Amazing!

Across the walkway from the NY NY is the Excalibur. It looks like a castle from the outside. We took a quick walk through it but it's an older hotel and casino and we weren't as impressed. We followed the walkways through the hotel the the other side and into the Luxor, home of Criss Angel and Carrot Top. The Luxor was more Egyptian in style, pretty cool, but we didn't spend much time there either.

The walkway I mentioned earlier- each of the major roads has a walkway that crosses over it to keep pedestrians out of the road. There are elevators and escalators to get people up top and then sidewalks along the roads below. Most of the way, the roads are barricaded to keep drunks off the roadway. Brilliant idea because people in Vegas drive like maniacs!!

What I knew about Vegas before going there was from watching TV, so I expected to see prostitutes on every corner and trash lining the streets. (That's been my experience living in New Orleans! Well, the trash anyway.) So here I was, trying to look casual while looking for these prostitutes! Again, I've lived a pretty sheltered life. LOL I probably wouldn't know a professional even if I DID see one! Consequently, I didn't see any! What I did see were these guys in bright orange shirts passing out "business" cards for girls "direct to your room" and THESE GUYS were on every corner!! So they were advertising for "escort services"!? WOAH!!! Sometimes I guess I really can be pretty naive.

We walked the strip at night, I didn't take my purse of course! LOL We saw lots of people who were enjoying the night life! :o) It was a lot of fun though. The air was much cooler, almost cold, and we appreciated that very much after the blistering heat of the day. All of the casinos and hotels were lit up so much that it looked like Christmas everywhere.

While we were there we went to the Cirque du Soleil  show "KA" at the MGM. It was one of the most magnificent things I have ever seen!! I can't even describe it except to say that it was magical. You have to see it for yourself!! We were not allowed to take pictures or video in the theater so sadly I don't have any to share.

The MGM hotel is huge. Not only do they have a massive casino, but they also have a mall inside, Studio 54, Rainforest Cafe, multiple theaters, high-end restaurants and a Lion exhibit. We took part in The CSI Experiment there. We went in, chose a "crime scene" and got to "solve the crime". It was a little cheesy but Jason and I had a lot of fun.

We spent our last night in Vegas at Harrah's Hotel and Casino. It's on the opposite end of the strip from NY NY. It was equally as accommodating, and the room was spectacular. Our 32nd floor view was fantastic and just across the street was the Mirage's volcano. The volcano erupted several times each night and each was a great show in itself. Our room provided us with the perfect seats!

We also wandered through the Belagio and enjoyed the World's Largest Chocolate Fountain, their gorgeous botanical gardens, bird sanctuary and the millions of dollars worth of glass flowers on the ceiling in the lobby! All this is, of course, in addition to the hotel, casino, bars, shops, restaurants and everything else in there!

 After the Belagio, we walked over to Caesar's Palace. Another very beautiful hotel! There were lots of statues with their naughty bits exposed. I took pictures of a few, OK fine... I'll post one. LOL

I have to tell you, this was by far the most architecturally beautiful of all the hotels.  I took SO many pictures in Caesar's Palace. Many of them did not come out well on here, but can be viewed much better on my photography website (www.movingstillstudio.com). Look in Gallery Two for the Viva Las Vegas album. It should be done by August 1st. Anyway, Caesar's was where we ran into Dick Butkus signing autographs at a sports shop.

 The last hotel we toured was The Venetian. It was there that we took a very romantic gondola ride. Our gondolier sang as we floated down the waterway in the middle of the hotel and mall area. Jason videotaped it so we'll always have that memory. We also have a picture!

We also got to watch a medieval street performance while we were there and they were fantastic. There was singing, dancing, juggling, flipping... it was great. We ate dinner at an authentic Italian restaurant inside the hotel and the food was exquisite!!The week definitely ended on a positive note!

I would highly recommend the NY NY or Harrah's to anyone who is going to Vegas. We really enjoyed both places. We booked our tickets on http://www.vegasview.com and got a great deal!! If you know me, you KNOW I'm extremely "frugal" so I looked everywhere before booking and this site really had the best rates. DO NOT stay in a sleazy hotel, you will regret it!! We saw those places on the way in... ICK! You'll also want to stay ON the strip. We thought about staying just off the strip to save some money, but we would have had to rent a car while we were there or take taxis so in the long run we saved money by staying on the strip. We didn't need a rental car and we were able to walk everywhere we went. We did take the Monorail the day we changed hotels, simply because we went from one end of the strip to the other and we had all of our luggage but it only cost us $10. If we'd paid better attention, we could have gotten $10 in free play at Harrah's when we got there by showing our Monorail tickets, so the Monorail trip would have been free! ;o) Also, before you go there, ask your hotel if they offer free shuttle service from the hotel to the airport for when you leave. When we arrived at the airport, there are shuttle services that take you (for a fee) to your hotel. You can buy a one way or round trip ticket. We bought round trip, not knowing that many hotels have free hotel to airport shuttles. Lesson learned!

Jason and I had a BLAST and would love to go back and do it all over again! Who knows? Maybe you'll be reading part two of this blog in the future...