Viva Las Vegas!

Stewart and I survived our much needed vacation to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada. And of course we had a really amazing time, despite all the shenanigans we had to deal with in order to make the trip work.

We left Seattle early Tuesday morning and arrived in Sin City a few hours later. After checking into the obviously most fabulous hotel on the strip, Circus Circus, we proceeded immediately to ESPN Zone to watch a soccer game Stew absolutely could not miss. Thus began our vacation, complete with giant frosty mugs of beer before noon - what could be better?
We spent the rest of the day wandering through various hotels while sipping yummy slushy fruity rum and alcohol drinks. Cheers!
Later that evening we jumped on the brand new monorail and headed back to our hotel for a break before heading back out for the evening. Unfortunately, the daytime drinking had really taken a toll on me, and we ended up spending quite a few hours in our hotel room. And as you would expect, I DO NOT recommend staying at Circus Circus. Motel 6 has better accommodations. The furniture was styled from the mid 1980s, the curtains and wallpaper were old and stained, the carpet was worn and the beds were covered with cheap scratchy comforters that we immediately pulled to the side. The bathroom housed towels that I assume used to be white, but were now a bluish-gray color. Thanks a lot, Promotional Trip People. As soon as I was feeling better, we got the hell out of there.
We wandered around for a while playing slots and drinking tall cans of Bud Light (oh I heart your laws, state of Nevada) until we decided it was probably time to grab something to eat. It was my brilliant idea that since we were already there we might as well check out our hotel's breakfast buffet... oh Sarah. If there was an edible equivalent to our hotel room upstairs, we had definitely found it. Watery scrambled eggs, rubbery sausage, doughy rolls and gravy covered with a nasty film didn't even seem appealing as midnight munchie food. We grabbed some cookies off the desert tray and headed to bed.

The next day we were determined to play some tables, so we headed next door to the adjacent casino - Slots O' Fun. Basically, the best thing about staying at the ghetto end of the strip is the casinos with cheap tables! For a few hours we played 50 cent Roulette and even though we lost about $40 each it was super fun since I've never played before. Next we wandered on down the strip to checkout some more hotels. The new Wynn Hotel was absolutely gorgeous and I don't think I will go back to Las Vegas again until I can afford to stay there.

Thanks to the Promotional Trip People, we had been given $100 to gamble at Casino Royale, which we were pretty excited about. But alas, we arrived at the casino and were pointed back toward five lonely slot machines with "PROMOTIONAL" signs across the top. Ah ha. We had found the catch. We had to sit and play our $100 until it ran out... and there was no way to win or cash out without hitting the jackpot. So... we basically sat and wasted almost 40 minutes of our vacation while I watched Stew push the same button over and over again. Thanks, Promotional Trip People.
Afterward we rewarded ourselves with a visit to one of my favorite Vegas destinations: the Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat at the Mirage. The sunny day and tropical atmosphere, surrounded by palm trees and lush foliage was exactly what I needed. we watched several beautiful Atlantic bottlenose dolphins and checked out Siegfried and Roy's Royal White Tigers, as well as white lions, a black panther, leopards and beautiful tigers.
On the way back, Stewart announced that he had a surprise activity for me, and we walked up to a building near the strip for indoor skydiving! Since we hadn't been able to bungy jump as originally planned (it was closed) I was pretty excited! I don't know how much indoor skydiving is like the real thing, but actually flying is one of the most fun things I have ever done - I highly recommend it. I'm super excited for the real thing in a few months!!

After getting pretty we grabbed a quick dinner at Planet Hollywood (thanks, Promotional Trip People) and got to MGM Grand just in time for KÀ by Cirque du Soleil. We had paid top dollar for tickets and it was more than worth it. The gravity-defying aerial acrobatic production was almost too much to process. If you ever have a chance to go, do it.
We grabbed some beers at a bar across the street in New York New York called Nine Fine Irishmen, and although the live band was great we just didn't want to pay $9 a beer all night, so we headed out and hit the slots - for the free drinks, of course! A few more hours of drinking, wandering and gambling rounded out the night.

The Stratosphere was stop number one in the morning, and screaming my head off as I was shot straight up 160 feet at 45 mph (over 4 Gs) until I was 1,081 feet above the Strip was a great way to start my day. Rumor had it that the Rio had the best buffet on the strip, so we taxied our way that direction and stuffed ourselves silly. Then since the weather was so nice we walked all the way back down the strip - sadly, we missed the water show at the Bellagio - and found ourselves back at Slots O' Fun for some $3 Black Jack. A few hours later we had to drag ourselves away from the table and head to the airport -- both about $30 richer!
Notice that when you go on vacation with just two people, you get a lot of single photos unless you are brave enough to ask perfect strangers, "Will you take our picture?" all day long. And I must say that going to Las Vegas with your boyfriend is a lot different than going at age 22 with your single girlfriends, but I definitely had just as much fun. But lucky for me my boyfriend is pretty fantastic!