Vegas

I meant to do this earlier, but haven't had that motivation to write a big blog. We had a fantastic time in Las Vegas. So here is blog to tell about it.
We stayed a little out of town the first two nights and were both pretty cranky because we didn't like it when we got out there. We did ride the roller coaster and Buffalo Bills while we were there; now I will tell you it was fun, but its because its been a few weeks and i dont really remember the pain it made my neck feel or the anxiety I get hearing the "clank clank" sound and knowing there is a free fall when the noise stops. Rollercoasters and I have a love hate relationship. But that one made me not want to ride the Manhattan one at New York New York, I hope it didn't bother Zack too terribly bad that we didn't.

The first day we drove out to the Hoover damn. That was a really pretty drive. I love watching the mountains! It was really cool looking and interesting; I really enjoyed that day. This picture is to show how much water has been drained out of Lake Mead, that was amazing to see the water line like that. Its a little bit of a scary thought too. Zach was my own personal tour guide and I really enjoyed that day a lot. The weather the whole time we were there was about 50 degrees, but not much wind and sunny. (Everyone back at home had and ice storm, trees down, and no power. we were very lucky)

Once we got into Vegas we checked in at our hotel which was Hooters hotel and casino. We actually really enjoyed it, the rooms were new and clean and ours was located where is was easy to park and get into. The Hooter's girls were the dealers at the tables and the whole place was much more fun and relaxed than most the ones we visited. Of our whole trip I think most of our time was spent shopping. We went to outlet malls, regular malls, shops inside casinos and everywhere else. We did a lot of shopping when we went to Europe and it seemed normal to do on vacation. We bought a few things we really wanted and just looked the rest of the time. We went into like thirteen different casinos and they were huge and fascinating. My personal favorites were Caesar's Palace and the way the shops were designed at Paris. I will post a video from watching the water show at the Bellagio later too, because that was really neat!
We tasted different kinds of cokes from around the world and bought a bunch of stuff at the M&M store. We did gamble too! We played a few cheap slots, but mostly played Pai Gow Poker. You get 7 cards and have to make 2 hands one of 5 and one of 2. Both hands have to beat the dealer to win, BUT both have to lose to lose. Therefore we could play a long time on the same money. We ended up breaking about even on the gambling money which is better than I had planned on :)
We decided we wanted to see a show or two. The ones on the top of our list were not playing that week. But one thing I've always wanted to go to was a medieval show where you eat and watch a jousting show. So we went to the Tournament of Kings at the Excalibur and I am glad we did. We also went to Bodies the Exhibition. Which was displays of actual human parts that had been preserved with some kind of process that replaced tissue with some kind of silicon or something. It was fascinating and a bit nauseating at the same time to see the muscles and organs and things.
Well lets go from that to food ;) I read a review about a sandwich shop before we went and wanted to try it. Once we ate there we made the decision to continue doing so until we left. Its called Capriotti's and it was fantastic, we loved the grilled Italian sandwich that had each slice of meat grilled and sweet peppers and provolone and everything about it was great. Here's a link to their site http://www.capriottis.com/.
My dad and stepmom only live about four hours away and met us in Vegas the evening before we left to come home. We ate dinner at a really good restaurant in the Venetian. Then we went to the Bellagio to show them the Christmas display they had inside. Which is where we took this Christmas card picture! We went to our hotel and taught them how to play Pai Gow, stayed up late and then took them back to their hotel.
We left earlier in the morning so we decided not to sleep that night. We packed up dropped our car off and went to the airport. We were worried about getting home but only had a short delay in Denver. Our power that had been out at home since the day after we flew to Vegas was turned back on the night before we got home. It was a perfect time to be on vacation. We were sad for our families, but glad everyone stayed safe. I think I probably enjoyed the whole vacation a little more than Zack but he was really glad to have taken me there, we had talked about it for a while. Anyways I'll try to remember to post that video on here later...theres my huge blog about my trip :)