Vegas!!

So I spent some time in Las Vegas earlier this month!  I had never been there so it was very exciting for me! 

The first thing I want to say is that it was very very very hot!  I mean, I already knew that it was the hottest month of the year.  What I hadn’t anticipated was exactly what that meant.  Not exactly anyway.  It was also the hottest week of the year thus far, AND, it was hotter than normal by about 5 degrees.  It was pretty much 109 the whole time we were there.  It was so hot that later in the day (and into the evening), you would be walking and when you stopped it would feel like your shins w\ere literally on fire, because of the heat reflecting off the pavement!  It was so hot that it felt like I had just preheated my oven and then leaned over to put the dish in…. and then just stood there.  

The most interesting thing about the heat was the wind.  Here in Michigan, even on the hottest or most humid day, if there is a breeze its at least a little bit of a cooling relief.  Even if all it does is dry the dripping sweat from your body.  In Vegas, there is no sweat really, because its burned off immediately, and there is very little humidity… but the breeze has NO EFFECT WHATSOEVER!  It actually got HOTTER when there was a breeze!!  It was very strange.

So we basically spent our days exploring the strip which meant that you’d walk for about a regular city block and then you’d duck inside whatever was next to you to get into the air conditioning.  That was usually a casino so it was pretty fun to explore all the different types of places and spend a little on the different slots. 

I lost 9 pounds in the first 2 days because of all the walking that we did!  Yay!  I gained it all back again though, so it was a short-lived yay!

The complete geeks inside of us were totally excited when we found a Stargate slot machine at the casino across from us (and later at our own hotel casino).  And we actually started out pretty good on that machine, winning more than we had on any other (granted we had only been there for half a day at that point).

I had a ton of fun playing a combination of video roulette and regular roulette.  Basically you sit at your own little video screen and place your bets by poking the screen with your finger, and after 30 seconds the dealer in the middle would put the ball in the wheel just like with regular roulette.  It was nice, since I never play table games and always look like an idiot squished in with 5 other people and not knowing what to do.

We also did a lot of stuff that wasn’t gambling.  We saw the Cirque de Soleil show Zumanity (which was an adult show) and that was incredible.  We were glad we weren’t sitting down in front because they involved the audience a LOT (in jokes and stuff mostly).  We saw the volcano erupt at the Mirage, and the fountains at the Bellagio, and the Sirens show at Treasure Island. We rode the roller coaster at New York New York (which kinda sucked, actually).  We went to the CSI Experience which was in our hotel.  You were able to choose a crime scene and then examine it and do research for it (pre-made research).  It was kinda cheesy, but very cool!

I tried to convince my boyfriend that we should get married while we were there, but he wasn’t having any of that….  yet… :)

I completely forgot to get a picture of/with the Welcome to Las Vegas sign though!  I was so bummed!!!

I also missed seeing a couple of friends that moved out there quite a while back… I didn’t realize they were back from their own vacation, so I didn’t even mention it!  Bummer!  Next time though…

So next time we go back I want to:
1.    see the Hoover Dam
2.    swim in one of the fabulous pools
3.    visit my friends
4.    get a picture next to the Welcome sign