JRPhoto's Other Blog: Vegas Vacation: Part Two

April 29 - May 1, 2017

Our third day in Vegas started out with a trip almost to the end of the line on the monorail. Since we had to walk so much, we did our best to find ways to lessen it up a bit. We road down to the north end of the strip and went indoor skydiving. It was pretty cool, although not exactly what I expected. Our instructor was cool but the room you "fly" in is a little weird. And you can't breathe hardly at all when you are flying because of the fan blowing that air past you so fast. It was cool though. Afterwards, we decided to check out more hotels/casinos/resorts along the way back toward ours. We went to Encore/Wynn (gorgeous, way swankier than the other ones we'd seen, except maybe Aria) and the Venetian, where we had lunch. Everything was so pretty and fun to look at so I took a lot of photos of course. We also went back toward the Mirage, Caesar's Palace and the Bellagio, but we were getting crabby with each other so we headed back to MGM. We ended up by the pool. No reading for me because Mike wanted to hang out. But it was still kind of cool. There were no chairs available at the pool so we just sat at the river and hung our feet in the water. This pair of guys came and talked to us quite awhile and a girl groped my leg at one point but otherwise it was uneventful ;) haha.

That night, we had tickets back over at Caesar's Palace to see Absinthe, which was a raunchy sort of circus show. It was hilarious and really amazing, some of the things the people could do. And hilarious. I think Mike enjoyed that the most of a lot of the things we did on our trip. We were still needing something to do afterwards so we danced a little outside of the tent (there was a DJ hanging out there) and ended up at Paris for a bit. We ended up purchasing tickets to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower they have there (a replica of the real one, just half the size). We met a cool couple that we chatted with in line and at the top of the tower. Turns out she is an interior designer back in Florida and helped do Howie's (of the Backstreet Boys) house. Cooooool. The view from up there was neat too.

The next day was one where we decided to get away from Vegas for a bit. Mike had rented us a Jeep but when we went to the counter at the Cosmopolitan to pick it up, we asked if they had any convertibles and someone had returned a yellow Camaro early so we got that for only $15 more! Top town, out of town for us! We went to the Hoover Dam, looked around there for awhile and took the tour. It's amazing all that it took to construct that thing. The amount of concrete they used to build it should have taken over 100 years to cure and set if they hadn't built pipes to bring cooler temperatures (water) through to get it done. It was even completed two years ahead of schedule. Amazing. Afterwards, we went over toward Red Rock Canyon. I fell asleep on the way, I think all the sun was getting to me. We stopped at the Cheesecake Factory before Red Rock but were too full for actual cheesecake (no worries, we stopped back on the way back to Vegas to get some to go). Red Rock was amazing. Everything there also looks way closer and smaller than it really is. When you get up close to the mountains, it's staggering out huge they are. We took lots of photos and road all the way around the place. We did stop to get out and walk a trail. It was the best one to stop at too because we got to see some hidden petroglyphs. It's kind of strange to stand there looking at something people made so long ago.

Back to Vegas eventually, we ate our cheesecake, took the Camaro back and met up with Angie's parents, Mike and Chris. They were in town for a work conference for Mike and we were able to get some ice cream and talk for quite awhile with them at Paris. So funny how many people we saw while we were in town! After, we got some pizza, wandered around a bit and ended up back at MGM to sleep. I actually got sick for some reason that night but was okay after we woke up the next day. Thankfully!

Our last full day was kind of a catch all for the things we didn't get to do yet. We went to the Stratosphere just to say we did (it cost $20 just to go up to the top so we didn't do that). We headed back to take a ride on the High Roller ferris wheel thing. It was part of the purchase price to go up the Eiffel Tower so we got a deal, ha! Anyway, we ate lunch at Guy Fieri's Vegas restaurant, which was REALLY good, and then road the ride. It went up to 550+ feet and gave us another view of the Strip and beyond. It really was a cool thing to get to do, so I'm glad we did.

Having lost pretty much everything we won (and then some, if you are Mike!) at the casinos, we did make it back over to NY NY to spend Mike's first bit of winnings. Lost that, had dinner at the Italian place there (it was all right) and then went to see KA by Cirque du Soliel. Mike didn't really want to go to a Cirque show but I talked him into it. It was hard to follow to a degree but it was really cool. The whole stage moved, and apparently the whole theater cost over $165 million to construct. Pretty sweet. It made me want to see the other shows but alas, our time in Vegas was just about over.

We got breakfast the next day, and had to head over to the airport to head home. It was a great trip! We hardly fought at all ;) But seriously, it was fun, despite the huge delay on our last plane ride. But the kids were there to greet us in the morning (well me, anyway, I didn't work until the afternoon) so that was okay! Can't wait for our next adventure.