Las Vegas!!

Rick and I have been in Las Vegas since Saturday! I don't have any pictures to put up yet because our internet connection isn't the best to upload! We are having a great time though. The weather is HOT!! It is about 110 degrees each day. We are spending a lot of time at the pool.


Here are the highlights!


Saturday: Flight from Midway---it was empty, we had so much room and it was relaxing. When we got in we met up with Jess and Eliot at the airport before heading to the hotel. We weren't able to check in yet but dropped off our bags and walked to find lunch. We ended up eating at a Mexican restaurant and met up with Matt, Jenna, Eric, and Miranda. Right as lunch was ending we were called to say our room as ready. We went back and checked in. We have a three bedroom condo with a kitchen and washer and dryer. There is plenty of room for all of us. After relaxing and going to the pool we decided to go to Downtown Las Vegas for dinner. I had never been there, but most of the others had. We ate dinner at the Golden Nugget and watched the light show there. We headed back to the strip and walked from Bally's to New York, New York and back. By this time Rick and I had been up about 21 hours and were exhausted...our bed felt so great. Rick did make me stretch before we went to bed though because we had walked so much!


Sunday: We played a lot of Wii and went to the pool. It was Matt's birthday so we hung out around here a lot. The boys went to a black jack tournament at the hotel. It was a $3 entry and the prize was a t-shirt if you won...not what they expected, but they didn't win. The girls watched Definitely, Maybe. Jenna made dinner and we had cake for Matt's birthday. The rest of the night we played a Texas Hold 'Em Tournament and the Wii!


Monday: We went to the MGM for the breakfast buffet. We traveled to the Excalibur and Mandalay Bay before the girls and guys split up. The guys did a little bit of gambling, the girls walked and shopped. We met up a few hours later at the Harrah's. We tried our best to get tickets to a magic show, but the 1/2 price ticket stand was much farther than we thought. We talked back to the hotel and decided to go to a Comedy Show at the Riviera. We went to the pool and then I made dinner for everyone. I made a couple kinds of pasta, but they weren't spectacular since I was lacking spices, but we managed. Off we went to the Riviera...the show wasn't very good, actually it was bad. We ended up taking a limo back from the Riviera--much more comfortable than the taxi. Played Sequence and then went to bed.

Tuesday: Rick and I got up and walked to Paris to meet Tom and Jill Milteer for breakfast. Tom and Jill are some of my parents best friends that now live here in Vegas. We had a very nice time, and then made the walk back to our hotel. Jess and Eliot needed to go get tickets for the Tournament of Kings at Excalibur so Rick and I tagged along to 1/2 Price Tickets. It still took a little while, but we had fun. Unfortunately, these were only vouchers and we had to then go to Excalibur to get the tickets. We took the bus from the Fashion Mall to Excalibur. Jess and Eliot got their tickets and I had a Krispy Kreme donut. When I came to Vegas with my parents and sister when I was in High School we stayed at Excalibur and had fresh, warm Krispy Kreme donuts many mornings. A cab ride was taken back to the hotel and we had a quick lunch before going to the pool. Rick and Matt joined in a game of volleyball at the pool. Rick had the winning block! Very impressive! We came back upstairs and got ready for dinner. We went with Jess and Eliot back to the Excalibur because we were meeting Rick's friend Matt and his girlfriend Lindsay for dinner at Mandalay Bay. We had dinner with them at the Burger Bar! Rick and I were very impressed with our meal and visiting with Matt and Lindsay. Matt is so smart and knowledgeable about Las Vegas and many other things. He is a structural engineer here in Vegas for some of the new casinos being built. Lindsay is so sweet fit right in with us! After dinner we met back up with Jess and Eliot. Matt drove us all to the Venetian. He gave us tour and recommended some great gelato. We enjoyed the music and watching the gondolas. Matt and Jenna met up with us as well and we were all reunited. We walked around there and the Palazzo. Finally, Matt drove us back to the hotel. We played Hoopla and Balderdash. Eliot really dominated at Balderdash!

Wednesday: Like Tuesday, we got up and took a walk to get tickets. This time to go see Penn and Teller. We got the vouchers and then took a shuttle to the Rio to get the tickets. We walked around the Rio before we decided to catch a different shuttle to Caesars. We walked around the shops, made a stop in FAO Schwartz, and then found a food court to eat lunch. Then, we found their pool. We had brought our bathing suits with in case we could get into the pool. We all changed and were able to get right in. The water in the pool at Caesars was much, much colder than our hotel. We didn't stay too long, but enough to cool off and say we were there! We changed our clothes and went over to the Bellagio. Again we met up with Matt and Jenna and then found the chocolate shop I had heard so much about. There is a chocolate fountain! Everything is very expensive, but I did have chocolate covered strawberry with toffee on top. It was delicious! We then headed back to Harrah's to catch the shuttle back to the hotel. I am writing this now and then Rick and I are going to the pool. Adam will be in tonight and we are going to Lake Mead tomorrow!

I will update again soon!