Vegas...in a nutshell.

Well, it took me over 2 hours (computer is still slow) but here is a synopsis of our trip to Vegas last week. We stayed at the Flamingo Hotel on the strip. Not the fanciest hotel, but it was clean, comfortable and located conveniently in the middle of the strip. Before I go into all that we did and saw I need to thank Chris' parents for driving down to watch the kids. Chris' dad made the offer last fall and we're both glad we took them up on it. The kids were in good hands and Chris and I really enjoyed some time alone. THANK YOU!!!!!

The Bellagio was just across the street from our hotel. We decided that this was our favorite of them all. Absolutely beautiful as you can see from the picture above.

We watched the Bellagio's fountain show that is choreographed to music nightly. It was something to behold and each time was different. Amazing.

In the mornings we wandered across the street and up a block to the Mirage where we ate breakfast/brunch. The guy Chris sat next to on the plane recommended it to us and it did not disappoint. We enjoyed a full breakfast as well as prime rib, king crab legs and all the mimosas we could drink! The picture above is from inside the Mirage, so beautiful.

Another shot at the Mirage, you can see a bit of Caesar's Palace to the left. Another beautiful, impressive structure. I think we were both surprised by the beauty and architecture we saw each day. The casino's all looked the same after a while, but no expense was spared in construction of the hotels obviously.

While our hotel was not fancy, the pool area is famous in Vegas. Here is a great shot from my lounge chair. We would go gorge ourselves at the Mirage in the morning, then lumber back to our hotel and sit by the pool until late afternoon like a couple of beached whales. After our fill of sun we'd head up to our room for a nap then get ourselves ready to hit the strip.

The pool area was complete with bikini-clad cocktail waitresses at our beck and call. No wonder Chris was so willing to keep a running bar tab each day!!!! He grew quite fond of the aluminum bottles of beer and my new favorite drink is the "Miami Vice" (1/2 pina colada and 1/2 strawberry daquiri)....at $10 a piece you can imagine our bill when we checked out!

The kids were thrilled to find out that the Flamingo Hotel actually had LIVE flamingos! The hotel windows were tinted pink and even the pool towels were pink. We enjoyed 80 degree days with no humidity and no bugs. We can both see why people love the desert climate, the evenings were absolutely gorgeous!

We ate at New York, New York one night. It really did look like the New York skyline. Again, the attention to detail was mindblowing. Inside was like walking down a street in New York, or I would assume, since I've never been there.

As I mentioned earlier, the Bellagio was our favorite by far. They had a beautiful garden conservatory inside. Above you see everything is made out of REAL flowers. The tall poppy is blown glass. The picture doesn't do it justice.

We loved this whimsical looking tree...it was HUGE! I half expected him to start talking!

The Bellagio garden was full of all kinds of surprises, each one better than the last. We spent a lot of time seeing the sights instead of gambling. Sightseeing and people watching was WAY more fun, and WAY cheaper. :)

We took a trip to the top of the "Eiffel Tower" at the Paris Hotel and Casino. What a beautiful view of the strip! You can see Planet Hollywood on the left, New York and the Excalibur are further down on the right. We put on MANY, MANY miles walking up and down the strip each day and night.

Saturday night we had tickets to see Mystere - a Cirque du Soleil production. It was located a couple blocks away at Treasure Island. A BIG thanks to my cousin Carolyn for the recommendation. It was absolutely INCREDIBLE and worth every penny. I would pay to see it again tomorrow if I could. The acrobatics were amazing, as you can see from the picture above.

We never knew where to look as there was so much going on. It was really a feast for the senses and the strength and skill of the performers was incredible.

After Mystere, we meandered down to the Wynn. Wow. Talk about money. We felt a bit out of place, but found a nice gal to take our picture. Thanks Amanda, for giving us the courage to bother perfect strangers all weekend to snap our pictures here and there!

By Sunday we had our fill of the strip and being the happy wanderers we are, we rented a car for the day and headed to the Hoover Dam. Another amazing sight to see. We are so glad we took the time to visit. Here we are standing along the top of the dam. You can see behind us a bridge they are building to span the divide. This will be a bypass, as the highway is a major thoroughfare to Mexico. The traffic was terrible as you can imagine.

After a tour of the Power Plant, we headed to the Visitor Center to see the exhibits. Chris stopped to read (and understood) all about how the dam is engineered. I found a nice bench outside in the sun. Now I know how all those men feel in shopping malls!

We drove across the dam just for good measure and to be able to say "we drove across the Hoover Dam". We crossed the border into Arizona, snapped a photo, turned around to park and see the sights.

I snapped a picture of the Visitor Center because I found it interesting that our Tour Guide told us it cost twice as much to build this center as it did the entire dam!

Here is a nice view of Lake Mead which is a byproduct of the dam. You can see how low the water is right now. Good thing MN got all that snow to help out the folks in Nevada!

After seeing the damn we took a drive to see what the desert is all about. We stopped for a hike at Boulder Canyon. The trail is an old railroad grade that was used to haul in supplies while the dam was being built.

No trees, no bugs, no wildlife, no water.....

...and then we found this little oasis in the desert, Lake Las Vegas. Again, wow. It is fashioned after an Italian village on a hillside. (Celine Dion lives here!) It was beautiful, lush and very swanky complete with cobblestone streets. We stuck out like a sore thumb driving around in our little rental Hyundai.

Just one of the many hillside homes in Lake Las Vegas. The landscaping alone I'm sure cost more than my whole house.

This is the backside of the Ritz Carlton at Lake Las Vegas. Two minutes after leaving, this is all you saw....

Dirt, dirt, and more dirt. I told Chris I kept feeling like we were driving by giant construction sites!

After a long day in the desert Chris found the largest glass of beer in Vegas! We headed downtown to Fremont Street so we could take in their famous light show before heading home the next day.

This is a very different Vegas from what we saw on the strip. These are all the old-school casinos and the "clientele" is a bit more, how should I say, less sophisticated?! ?

At dusk all the neon lights go out and a spectacular light show is on display above your heads. It was pretty neat.

We didn't gamble much, but sure had fun watching the $300 minimum bid Blackjack tables at the Wynn! Yikes! The majority of our money went to food...it IS a myth that eating is cheap in Vegas. All in all, we really enjoyed our trip. Vegas is something everyone should see at least once and the dam, along with the desert were beautiful sights. We would go back, although we probably never will, with so many other places to visit on our list. As I wrap up this post, I have to wish our friends the Hartungs happy travels as they leave for California and a trip to Disneyland on Monday. Have fun guys!