Sin City day 4

Saturday, our last full day in Vegas, we visited another West Coast staple, Fat Burger. Here we all are enjoying our tasty burgers, fries, and milkshakes.

Later, we walked down to Ceasar's for some more shopping as a group and Matt and Chad ran into Pete Rose, apparently he's some hot shot baseball player.

That evening we got ready a little early for dinner in the Luxor with our entire crew at a Tacos and Tequila resturant.

Then it was back on the town to see it lit up one more time. On our way to our show, we stopped for a few minutes at the Belagio and watched the fountains. Each show tributes a different song, this time it was "Your Song" by Elton John.

Our entertainment for Saturday night was the Cirque du Soleil water show "O" at the Belagio. So far, I think this is the best one I've seen! It was mysterious, beautiful, daring, and funny. Plus we had excellent seats! Thanks Jason!

When the show was over, we hopped on the "Deuce"(the bus system down the strip). We had a long journey with very interesting characters down to Old Vegas to end our trip with pure Vegas scenery.
Although, the lit ceiling wasn't on (we barely missed it), it was still cool to see a lot of the old neon signs that Vegas is famous for! However, it was a little sketchy around 1am, so we didn't linger.

We took the "Deuce" back to the Luxor and got some well needed rest for our trip home. The next morning we departed for the airport and caught our flight around noon. I don't think I have ever been more exhausted from a vacataion in my life!

Sin City day 3

Friday mainly consisted of the U2 show. We slept in, ate lunch, and walked around town a little. Bethany walked down to Paris to do a little shopping and then met the Jason and Matt at the MGM Grand while they were gambling. While waiting on them to cash out, Bethany and I visited the Lion habitat, and ended up getting our pictures made with a lion cub! It was most certainly the highlight of my trip! I totally got star struck, and couldn't even speak when we were with the lion cub! There were so many things I wanted to say and ask, but I was completely silent! Oh well, there is always next time! Here we are with our new friend!

Afterthat, we got ready for U2 and took taxis to the UNLV stadium. Mabee, Heather, and Chad all spent a few hours waiting in line for good spots in the pit, but the other 6 of us happened to arrive at the right time in the right place and they rushed us in at the beginning of the line. It seems wrong that we jumped (and we felt a little guilty), but it was a split second decision of morals: walk straight in, or go to the end of a REALLY LONG line??? So we went in. Here we are all chilling out a couple of hours before the show.

The Black Eyed Peas were a lot of fun, and then U2 came out. It was very exciting to be so close to Bono and the band!

After the show, we had some issues getting back to the strip, but after about 2-3 hours of walking/trying to get a taxi/avoiding dangerous avenues of town/thinking we'd get lost in the desert forever, we grabbed a nice cabby and got back to the Luxor safely.

Sin City day 2

After sleeping in most of the morning from the late night, we cruised on over to the Exaliber for some lunch at the food court. The ladies spent most of the day just walking around shopping and seeing the sites, while the fellows got some gambling done! Bethany and I got in particular trouble at the Forum Shops in Ceasar's Palace. We found a Pandora shop, and each decided to get charm bracelets and spent a pretty penny on them!

Here's my pandora bracelet, it's still a baby and needs lots of charms!

That evening we were surprised with a limo ride to our evening plans: dinner and a show at the Mirage. We had a champagne toast while seeing the lights of Vegas from a classy limo with good friends. Life surely doesn't get better than this! After about an hour in the Limo, we arrived at the Mirage for dinner at a Brazillian steak house inside the hotel. It was quite delicious and filling, and I'm pretty sure we all got the meat sweats!

Then we were off to the show! Our entire group attended the Cirque du Soleil Beatles' LOVE show. But before the show, we got to spend a little time in the REVOLUTION lounge.

Here's Matt and Jason being goofy in the big U. I think we all had a lot of fun taking pictures in the letters.
The Matts, looking très chic, chat it up in the lounge.
While sitting down for drinks, they had these really cool tables that you could draw bubbles on with your finger, and then an animated jelly fish would trace the path you drew. There is really no other way to describe it than that.
The show was a lot of fun, but not quite as thrilling as some of the other Cirque du Soleil shows I've seen in the past. It seemed to be much more of a tribute to the Beatles than creative gasps of excitement, if you ask me. But since I am a Beatles fan, I still really enjoyed it.
After walking around on the streets for most of the day, we began a nightly routine before all parting to our personal quarters. That routine was chilling in our room and soaking our feet in the hot tub. Often this resulted in Jason in the hot tub with all the ladies: like so....

Sin City day 1

Day one in Vegas began with a rabid search for lunch after a long and hungry flight! We all agreed on IN-N-OUT BURGER, because that's a west coast staple and we could see it from our hotel. Little did we know, that the desert plays tricks on your eyes and that our destination was about a mile away, and IMPOSSIBLE to get to. We came very close to darting across the Nevada interstate, but due to the traffic we just ended up re-tracing our steps and probably tripling our walk to lunch! Here is Matt eating his much deserved burger! They were really good, and we even ordered off the "secret menu"(shhhhhhh). The rest of the day, we just walked around the strip and saw the sights! Here's Bethany, Jason, and Matt in front of the Planet Hollywood.

Here are a view pictures of my favorite hotels and casinos: Paris, Ceasar's, and NewYork NewYork!

Here's a view of our hotel, the Luxor, from a cab ride.Here we are on the Monorail from Mandala Bay to the Exaliber. I really wanted to go to the shark and dolphin habitat, but we got there after they closed. For the city that never sleeps, things sure did close a lot!

1 day until....

We leave for vegas!!!

4 days until....

Vegas! I am getting more and more excited by the minute!

The Luxor

One of the things I'm most excited about in Vegas is visiting all the fancy hotels. Some have shows outside like the Fountain at the Belagio and the Pirate Show at Treasure Island. Some have entire malls within their walls or rollercoasters, and the Venetian even has a river flowing through it!

We will be staying in the Luxor(the giant pyramid casino and hotel with the big tractor beam on top). From what I've read and seen, it looks great and is on the main strip in Vegas, so we'll be pretty close to everything. In addition to typical fancy hotel ammenities...Our hotel has a bodies exhibit, the Cris Angel Cirque du Soleil Illusion show, and a musuem portion where you can peruse true Egyptian artifacts (in opposed to the fake ones that are all around the hotel).

Our room is inside the actual pyramid and should look something like this (according to the website).

7 days until....

Okay....so I was about to shut this operation down for good, because I know there is no way to get this thing caught up on the summer. So we're going to leave the summer a mystery for now and I will try that again later. But I've missed blogging and would hate to leave out something as exciting as our upcoming trip.

We are 7 days and counting for Las Vegas, Nevada!

I have been so excited about this trip! Not only will we be accompanied by many close friends we have some really awesome activities planned! The U2 show, 2 cirque du soleil shows(Beatles LOVE & O), fancy dinners, nice hotels, ritzy casinos, shopping and more! I have never been to Vegas before, and to be honest, I had never really wanted to go, seeing that I'm not a gambler. But I have a feeling I will be totally surprised!

Coldplay

I'm going to do my best to do this night justice, even though it occured 3 months ago. This past May; Jason, Bethany, Chad, Matt, and I attended the Coldplay show at Lakewood Amphitheater. Although it rained heavily, and was quite chilly, it still proved to be the best concert I had ever been too! We began the evening on trashbags and picnic blankets while we listened to Pete Yorn and shortly moved our way in front of one of the mini-stages that Coldplay retreats to halfway through the show. Here is me and Bethany waiting in high anticipation!
As the concert progressed, I began to enjoy the cold and rain. It seemed to mesh better with their music and style, kind of mellow and dramatic. We had our backs against the fence of the small stage, so when the band ran out to preform there, we simply turned around and magically our lawn seats became front row access for about 3 or 4 songs. It was incredible! Here's Chris Martin and Will Champion up close.

Then, my favorite part, Lovers in Japan! Only experiencing this could explain how unbelievably emotional this felt. It's difficult to tell what was going on, but at the climax of the song confetti canons shot out millions of paper and plastic butterflies that flittered down at different speeds. It felt like you were completely surrounded by the real thing!
Here's a grisly Matt and a soaking wet Katie with the stage in the background.

Bethany laughed and laughed at this picture, because she felt it explained her life like no words could (aka-Chad's timely entry). I can sum up my experience in 10 words. The company-unbeatable. The music-phenominal. And the night-unforgettable.