my very late spring break update
sorry i'm not as cool as all of you who posted right after break but i just got all the pictures from scott so a few weeks late will have to do :)
so we had decided to spend a few days in lovely las vegas! we left monday morning- later than we wanted (of course it was my fault!) but still at a pretty good time. scott was a great sport and downloaded all 6 harry potter books onto his ipod because i had somehow managed to finally convince him that he should listen to them. throughout the whole trip though we only managed to get halfway through the fist book, hehe :)
the first actually interesting part of our adventure was reaching the hoover dam! i had never seen it before and it was pretty cool. apparantly the water used to be a lot higher but they had to lower it because of terrorists. you can see in the pictures how high the white goes on the sides of the mountains and that's how high the water used to be. traffic moves SO slowly over the bridge during the day though so it was kind of annoying. i literally got out of the car walked to a viewing sight took some pictures and got back in the car and scott had barely moved ten feet :) it was also kind of cool to see that they were building a new suspension bridge that will go over the top of the dam and the current roads and bridges. i think that's so if you don't care to sit through traffic and see the dam you can just bypass it. i'm pretty sure they said it wouldn't be finished until sometime in 2008 though, lol
this is from when i got out of the car
i think it looks like a halfway underground prison
see how high the water USED to be!
i HATED those power lines! they looked so creepy like they were gonna fall over! why would you build them crooked like that!?
you can see the cranes and such for the new bridge!
anyway, we reached vegas and it was about 5pm. we found our hotel rather easily and realized that when they said two blocks off the strip...they were lying a little bit, lol. it wasn't that bad but after walking around all day it seemed like forever far away! so the hotel tried to tell me i only booked one night when i actually booked and confirmed twice that i had booked two nights. they finally gave us two nights and our keys and we headed to our room. we didn't take any pictures of it but we should've, it was really nice! very large, with a little wanna be kitchen (cabinets, sink, coffee maker and fridge), a little dining area and even couches and a coffee table! we didn't waste much time but headed right over to start checking out the sites. we ended up eating at caesars palace before wandering about half the strip and getting lost inside the venitian trying to find the bathroom then our way back out and then watching the somewhat disappointing treasure island show then heading back to crash.
the venitian
the mirage- scott was very upset that we missed the volcano errupting
treasure island
the wynn- definitely one of the most impressive and prettiest hotels there! and all of it's like 18 acre resort behind it!
caesars palace
fashion show, las vegas- a mall-esque structure which scott found to be very cool and i thought looked like a deflaited blimp falling on top of a building :)
tuesday had a bit of a late start (i like to sleep in, so sue me!) but we started off by going to the stratosphere. we were going to take the monorail but we decided they charged too much and we could walk to it instead! anyone who's been to vegas and knows where the stratosphere is, we were walking from the bally's/bellagio area...yeah that was dumb. it took us FOREVER and i wanted to pass out when we got there! needless to say we were much more intelligent afterwards and took the monorail back to the other end of the strip!!! but the stratosphere was really really cool! the ride up was a bit unnerving because the elevators go very fast. i wish i could remember how fast they actually said they went, it was something crazy! the view was really great to see, even though they made the windows in a "v" shape so if you try to look out you feel like you're going to fall! that was pretty scary :) we sat up there just resting and enjoying the view for a while before heading to the outdoor deck where it was *very* windy!!! it was a pretty crazy feeling to be up that high and outdoors though. we snapped some shots of some of the insane people that would actually ride the rides they have up there. one shoots you off the side and over the edge then stops you right before you think you're going to go falling to your death. the other spins you in a suspended seat off the edge over nothing but air! yeah, these people were definitely out of their minds! rides malfunction ya know!!! there was another one we didn't get any pictures of, it was just a free fall drop on the very top of the stratosphere, on the needle that sticks off the top. it was crazy too but they have those at lots of amusement parks now and it didn't seem nearly as scary as the others! we stopped by the starbucks back on the indoor level and got a drink and snack before departing- pretty cool, i've been the a starbucks 1,000+ feet up in the air :)
the stratosphere!
the view from the top
the old downtown las vegas
outside and on top of the world! :)
really stupid people riding really stupid rides!!!!
back on the other side of the strip we visited some of the bigger, fancier more well known hotels. the luxor was really really cool, i definitely enjoyed it a lot! we both agreed though that it was sad that they made it look so ugly by putting a big hairspray banner on the front of it, oye. we wanted to ride in the elevator there because it doesn't go straight up, it has to go at an angle because it's a pyramid so we snuck in with some other people (you had to have a room key to use the elevator) and got up to i believe the 26th floor. it was sooooo freaky to look over the edge- they had nothing stopping you from just falling over the railing! scott was unable to lean over and take pictures so i did- but they're kind of blurry cuz i was afraid to hold his camera over the edge so i didn't stay long enough for the exposure, hehe :) the really cool thing is that we were outside when it was getting dark and we got to see the spotlight on the top of they pyramid turning on! i also really loved the excaliber, it was one of the most fun hotels by far! we really considered going to the tournament of kings dinner show but then we couldn't bring ourselves to spend $55 each on dinner and a show- we're too poor :) i did however get cordelia a sippy cup and andrew and shield, sword and breastplate. it was fun-ny seeing his reaction to that gift, lol. we ate dinner at a pizza place inside new york new york which was definitely one of my favorite places! it was so amazing to see how they made the hotel look like every famous building in new york city! it really looked like a little city smack dab on the middle of this street! they had a really fun setup inside too. i played one of the gigantic slot machines in there too and i won! i think i ended up winning like $14 or something. i just liked that it was so big and had giant coins that it dispensed :) we had planned on ending our evening by watching the water show at the bellagio but we didn't know when it was playing. after wandering the casino for a while- where scott won a silver bellagio embossed coin at one of the slot machines (he really wanted one, lol) we asked when the shows were going to be playing. apparantly they had cancelled the shows due to high winds. well...it was really windy outside, their little lake almost had waves! but we were soooo disappointed cuz that was the one thing we KNEW we HAD to see! we wandered the bellagio shops for a while hoping the wind would die down but no such luck. so defeated at last we finally headed back to the hotel.
mandalay bay
the lions den...which i *think* was in the mgm grand...
the luxor
the view down from the 26th floor of the luxor
like the only picture we have of the excaliber- weird considering it was one of my favorites...
NY NY!!
my giant slot machine!!!
we had planned on leaving wednesday but wanted to get in a couple things we had still missed first. we had stopped in the paris the night before but wanted to look into going to the top of the eiffel tower. changed our minds when we saw how much they charged though- it wasn't nearly as high or as cool as the stratosphere! we made our way to the m&m world which was cool but slightly disappointing because it was soooo crowded and didn't have as many useful souviners and i would've liked. we hit the aladdin (which was lame) and the mgm grand and stopped by ny ny and the excaliber one last time before making our way to the bellagio to catch the daytime water show. it was, however, amazing! i really would've liked to see it at night but it was still incredible! we ended up staying and watching 3 different shows! scott even got one on tape and i'm gonna try to see if i can get it up on myspace :) we both agreed that was the perfect ending to our trip and headed back to the car to make our way back to phoenix. the drive back was so much quicker, especially over the hoover dam- driving at night usually is! we listened to a bit of harry potter but the narrator had a bit of a tiring voice so we switched over to comedy cd's to help keep us awake and we laughed ourselves the rest of the way home!
do you see the giant bag of m&m's!?
mgm grand
the paris
the bellagio!!
pretty cherry blossoms hanging from the ceilings inside the bellagio
cool snail made out of flowers that i can't remember where was from...
fog from the water show
obviously the bellagio water shows :)
me and scott in front of the water shows...yes, he should not be allowed to take pictures himself :)
well, that's pretty much it! sorry i'm such a sucker for details, i know this is really long but i hope you enjoy the pictures (this isn't even close to half as many as scott took!) as much as i enjoyed the trip!! (even though by the end of it my legs hurt so bad i NEVER wanted to walk ever again!)
so we had decided to spend a few days in lovely las vegas! we left monday morning- later than we wanted (of course it was my fault!) but still at a pretty good time. scott was a great sport and downloaded all 6 harry potter books onto his ipod because i had somehow managed to finally convince him that he should listen to them. throughout the whole trip though we only managed to get halfway through the fist book, hehe :)
the first actually interesting part of our adventure was reaching the hoover dam! i had never seen it before and it was pretty cool. apparantly the water used to be a lot higher but they had to lower it because of terrorists. you can see in the pictures how high the white goes on the sides of the mountains and that's how high the water used to be. traffic moves SO slowly over the bridge during the day though so it was kind of annoying. i literally got out of the car walked to a viewing sight took some pictures and got back in the car and scott had barely moved ten feet :) it was also kind of cool to see that they were building a new suspension bridge that will go over the top of the dam and the current roads and bridges. i think that's so if you don't care to sit through traffic and see the dam you can just bypass it. i'm pretty sure they said it wouldn't be finished until sometime in 2008 though, lol
this is from when i got out of the car
i think it looks like a halfway underground prison
see how high the water USED to be!
i HATED those power lines! they looked so creepy like they were gonna fall over! why would you build them crooked like that!?
you can see the cranes and such for the new bridge!
anyway, we reached vegas and it was about 5pm. we found our hotel rather easily and realized that when they said two blocks off the strip...they were lying a little bit, lol. it wasn't that bad but after walking around all day it seemed like forever far away! so the hotel tried to tell me i only booked one night when i actually booked and confirmed twice that i had booked two nights. they finally gave us two nights and our keys and we headed to our room. we didn't take any pictures of it but we should've, it was really nice! very large, with a little wanna be kitchen (cabinets, sink, coffee maker and fridge), a little dining area and even couches and a coffee table! we didn't waste much time but headed right over to start checking out the sites. we ended up eating at caesars palace before wandering about half the strip and getting lost inside the venitian trying to find the bathroom then our way back out and then watching the somewhat disappointing treasure island show then heading back to crash.
the venitian
the mirage- scott was very upset that we missed the volcano errupting
treasure island
the wynn- definitely one of the most impressive and prettiest hotels there! and all of it's like 18 acre resort behind it!
caesars palace
fashion show, las vegas- a mall-esque structure which scott found to be very cool and i thought looked like a deflaited blimp falling on top of a building :)
tuesday had a bit of a late start (i like to sleep in, so sue me!) but we started off by going to the stratosphere. we were going to take the monorail but we decided they charged too much and we could walk to it instead! anyone who's been to vegas and knows where the stratosphere is, we were walking from the bally's/bellagio area...yeah that was dumb. it took us FOREVER and i wanted to pass out when we got there! needless to say we were much more intelligent afterwards and took the monorail back to the other end of the strip!!! but the stratosphere was really really cool! the ride up was a bit unnerving because the elevators go very fast. i wish i could remember how fast they actually said they went, it was something crazy! the view was really great to see, even though they made the windows in a "v" shape so if you try to look out you feel like you're going to fall! that was pretty scary :) we sat up there just resting and enjoying the view for a while before heading to the outdoor deck where it was *very* windy!!! it was a pretty crazy feeling to be up that high and outdoors though. we snapped some shots of some of the insane people that would actually ride the rides they have up there. one shoots you off the side and over the edge then stops you right before you think you're going to go falling to your death. the other spins you in a suspended seat off the edge over nothing but air! yeah, these people were definitely out of their minds! rides malfunction ya know!!! there was another one we didn't get any pictures of, it was just a free fall drop on the very top of the stratosphere, on the needle that sticks off the top. it was crazy too but they have those at lots of amusement parks now and it didn't seem nearly as scary as the others! we stopped by the starbucks back on the indoor level and got a drink and snack before departing- pretty cool, i've been the a starbucks 1,000+ feet up in the air :)
the stratosphere!
the view from the top
the old downtown las vegas
outside and on top of the world! :)
really stupid people riding really stupid rides!!!!
back on the other side of the strip we visited some of the bigger, fancier more well known hotels. the luxor was really really cool, i definitely enjoyed it a lot! we both agreed though that it was sad that they made it look so ugly by putting a big hairspray banner on the front of it, oye. we wanted to ride in the elevator there because it doesn't go straight up, it has to go at an angle because it's a pyramid so we snuck in with some other people (you had to have a room key to use the elevator) and got up to i believe the 26th floor. it was sooooo freaky to look over the edge- they had nothing stopping you from just falling over the railing! scott was unable to lean over and take pictures so i did- but they're kind of blurry cuz i was afraid to hold his camera over the edge so i didn't stay long enough for the exposure, hehe :) the really cool thing is that we were outside when it was getting dark and we got to see the spotlight on the top of they pyramid turning on! i also really loved the excaliber, it was one of the most fun hotels by far! we really considered going to the tournament of kings dinner show but then we couldn't bring ourselves to spend $55 each on dinner and a show- we're too poor :) i did however get cordelia a sippy cup and andrew and shield, sword and breastplate. it was fun-ny seeing his reaction to that gift, lol. we ate dinner at a pizza place inside new york new york which was definitely one of my favorite places! it was so amazing to see how they made the hotel look like every famous building in new york city! it really looked like a little city smack dab on the middle of this street! they had a really fun setup inside too. i played one of the gigantic slot machines in there too and i won! i think i ended up winning like $14 or something. i just liked that it was so big and had giant coins that it dispensed :) we had planned on ending our evening by watching the water show at the bellagio but we didn't know when it was playing. after wandering the casino for a while- where scott won a silver bellagio embossed coin at one of the slot machines (he really wanted one, lol) we asked when the shows were going to be playing. apparantly they had cancelled the shows due to high winds. well...it was really windy outside, their little lake almost had waves! but we were soooo disappointed cuz that was the one thing we KNEW we HAD to see! we wandered the bellagio shops for a while hoping the wind would die down but no such luck. so defeated at last we finally headed back to the hotel.
mandalay bay
the lions den...which i *think* was in the mgm grand...
the luxor
the view down from the 26th floor of the luxor
like the only picture we have of the excaliber- weird considering it was one of my favorites...
NY NY!!
my giant slot machine!!!
we had planned on leaving wednesday but wanted to get in a couple things we had still missed first. we had stopped in the paris the night before but wanted to look into going to the top of the eiffel tower. changed our minds when we saw how much they charged though- it wasn't nearly as high or as cool as the stratosphere! we made our way to the m&m world which was cool but slightly disappointing because it was soooo crowded and didn't have as many useful souviners and i would've liked. we hit the aladdin (which was lame) and the mgm grand and stopped by ny ny and the excaliber one last time before making our way to the bellagio to catch the daytime water show. it was, however, amazing! i really would've liked to see it at night but it was still incredible! we ended up staying and watching 3 different shows! scott even got one on tape and i'm gonna try to see if i can get it up on myspace :) we both agreed that was the perfect ending to our trip and headed back to the car to make our way back to phoenix. the drive back was so much quicker, especially over the hoover dam- driving at night usually is! we listened to a bit of harry potter but the narrator had a bit of a tiring voice so we switched over to comedy cd's to help keep us awake and we laughed ourselves the rest of the way home!
do you see the giant bag of m&m's!?
mgm grand
the paris
the bellagio!!
pretty cherry blossoms hanging from the ceilings inside the bellagio
cool snail made out of flowers that i can't remember where was from...
fog from the water show
obviously the bellagio water shows :)
me and scott in front of the water shows...yes, he should not be allowed to take pictures himself :)
well, that's pretty much it! sorry i'm such a sucker for details, i know this is really long but i hope you enjoy the pictures (this isn't even close to half as many as scott took!) as much as i enjoyed the trip!! (even though by the end of it my legs hurt so bad i NEVER wanted to walk ever again!)