Vegas Leaving

Vegas Leaving Las Vegas, NV

Las Vegas, NV

I really don’t have much to say about today, except I made it home.

So to make this blog a little more exciting, I’ve added a bunch of my Mom’s and Brother’s pictures, from the whole trip.

Enjoy!

Vegas Walking

Vegas Walking Las Vegas, NV

Las Vegas, NV

This morning we left the rental house at the Grand Canyon and drove back to Vegas. But we made a couple of stops along the way.

The first stop, after a long 3 hour drive, was at Hoover Dam. We went to see the new bridge they had built over the river. You can actually walk all the way across it. And it had an amazing view of the dam.

The second stop was at In-N-Out Burger for lunch. They seriously need to get these in Washington, it is that good. On the other hand, maybe it’s better that they’re not in WA 🙂

Then we went back to the Excalibur and checked in to our rooms. I had my own room this time because I didn’t want to get up at 5 am the next morning. And we were unfortunately in different towers. But I had a great view of the Luxor from my room! Not that we stayed there, we headed straight out to go see some casinos.

We drove to Caesar’s Palace to park and then walked through the Forum Shops there because my parents hadn’t seen them yet. They are really cool, it actually feels like you’re walking through the streets of Rome, with a fake sky and everything. And out front there are these really cool curving escalators.

We next walked over to The Mirage so that Dad could show us the entrance to The Beatles Love show, which he and my mom had seen the week before.

Our next stop was The Venetian and it was boiling hot outside. 100 F. But inside was very cool, literally and figuratively. There were more shops there that I hadn’t seen before – the Grand Canal Shops. And these were even better than the Forum Shops. There was an actual canal, with gondolas and everything, and it really did feel like being on the streets of Venice. They even had a mini-version of St. Mark’s Square. Very cool.

We next walked down the strip, going inside The Flamingo and some other casino, just to get out of the heat. But our destination was The Bellagio. It had some cool Chihuly sculptures, an inside conservatory full of flowers, and a neat chocolate shop with an amazing chocolate fountain.

We were pretty tuckered out by this point, so we walked back to the car and then headed over to our main destination for the evening – the Hofbrauhaus! Apparently it pays to have reservations, because we got stuck in the beer garden in the back. It wasn’t very crowded, except for two different wedding parties. And the band was in the other room. They did have video screens of the band and piped in the music, but it wasn’t very loud.

We didn’t mind too much, the beer was excellent and the food was amazing. I had the Jagerschnitzel, which is a pork steak with spaetzle noodles and covered in cream sauce. I also got a shot of Jagermeister, which comes with a shot of another kind. You’ll have to check my next blog to see the pictures, if you want to know what that means.

After we got back to the hotel we had two $20 drink vouchers to use. So Dad, Derek, and I headed over to the Luxor (where they were also valid). It was actually a lot nicer than the Excalibur. It felt a lot cleaner and a lot more open. We went to the Aurora Bar, which was the only place that had video poker. Derek and I checked in on Foursquare and discovered they had a buy one-get one free deal for checking in. So we got even more free beer!

I mostly played video poker while Dad and Derek talked. They left about 11 pm or so, since they had to get up so early. But I stayed a while longer, my video poker addiction in full swing. At one point I realized that I had no cash to tip the bartender, and I didn’t have enough in winnings either. So I played until I had a sufficient tip before leaving. It was very fun, and I ended up only losing $30 between this night and the first night. Well worth it! Although I had very bad luck this trip. Only once did I get a decent hand.

By the time I finally left the tram was no longer running back to The Excalibur, so I walked. But it was incredibly warm outside even though it was very late. So I enjoyed the heat while I could, because I knew it would be much cooler when I got back to Seattle.

I’m not going to admit how much alcohol I had, except that I’m glad I’d eaten plenty of food, and it didn’t take me long to go to bed.