Vegas, Baby!

Ahhh, the entertainment capital of the world. We certainly were entertained. They call Las Vegas "The Strip" and I half wonder if it's not actually in reference to the amount of um, shall we call them 'clubs' where partially-clad women remove the rest of their um, clad-ness? There are sooooo many strip joints, er sorry, clubs here in this city. There's risque billboards everywhere and everything seems to have an underlying sexual innuendo. It's kinda funny, actually. And it's so bright. I can only imagine how much energy is used to keep the lights bright in Vegas. And the casinos. There are a LOT. I don't even know how many; didn't bother counting. But you can gamble one cent, one hundred dollars, whatever is your pleasure. There is a minimum and a maximum though. And I'm proud to say (or not really proud exactly but excited because it was a first) that Josh and I went to a casino and gambled! Whoa. It was actually rather fun. We went to the Venetian Hotel and Casino for about two hours this afternoon to try our luck in the casino.

This is the Venetian. When I was out here in '99 with my family, I took a picture of this hotel and I remember thinking it was the most beautiful hotel that I'd ever seen. I was pretty excited to actually go into it this time around!

They had slot machines that still had the arms you could pull!!!! I won  50 cents here. 

)

I won $14!!!!

Now, I have to admit the casino wasn't quite as exciting as I thought. Apparently casinos are the one place where you can still smoke indoors (um, ewww). It was also a strange sight to behold; the ceilings of this beautiful building were so elegant and ornate but the room was filled with the twangy zinging and tinging and the garish lights of the slot machines. The dichotomy didn't quite compute in my head. We also played a couple of hands of Blackjack and Roulette. Roulette was a lot of fun. I actually won there too. Although, my strategy made the other people at the table and the dealer laugh. I put only one chip on each number. In my head, that maximized my chances of winning. It seems that that's not how most people choose to play. But we were just there to have fun, so whatever. In the end, we walked out $6.00 richer than we started. And two hours was plenty of time for us. Smoking is not our favorite so we got out of there!

The Venetian is not just a hotel. It's also a mall. Yes, a mall. And inside it has it's own river. With gondolas. And gondoliers who sing. That blue sky you see? It's not real but it certainly looks awesome!

The shops inside the Venetian Mall are really high end and swanky and there's also lots of bars. Here's one that's a bit different than anything we've ever come across as far as bars go. This one is called Breathe. It's an Oxygen bar. I blew up this picture so that you could see that the people at this bar aren't drinking their shots. Nope, they have nasal cannulas that deliver their shot of oxygen into their bodies. It's about the oddest thing I've ever seen, but we went by it twice and both times it was packed. There are even different flavors you can get. I don't even like sharing straws with people let alone cannulas (although, no one's ever asked).

We drove by the Gold and Silver Pawn, which you might recognize as the shop from the Discovery Channel show, Pawn Stars. Can you tell from the picture that the line to get inside is an entire block long? On second thought, we decided not to go in.

A few other exciting Vegas-y things to behold:

Why yes, that IS an Elvis impersonator. 

That tall skinny thing is called The Stratosphere. It costs  $20 just to go up in it and there's a rotating restaurant at the top that is uber fine dining (i.e. it had four dollar signs next to its name in the Dining guide at the hotel and that's as high as it goes.) And did I mention that you can free fall from the top? At night?

After our stint at the casino, we met up with my grandparents, which was our whole purpose for visiting Vegas. And it was so very wonderful to see them again. I haven't gotten to interact with them a whole lot in life because they live so far away but when we do get together, it just makes it that much sweeter. And boy did they have some stories about my parents! I'm excited to use that ammo when I get home!  I'm glad that Josh finally got to meet them too. I think they're really neat people. They're a snarky couple and I just love the humor and biting wit that they exude with each sentence delivered.

This is Bobbi Ann, my cousin and mother to Cat.

This is Cat, my cousin's daughter. She is 7 years old and is reading at a third or fourth grade level. She's a smart little cookie who likes ravioli and is going to be a marine biologist when she grows up.

And my grandmother, Barb and her husband, Cal. Two of the coolest grandparents ever. Cal is a self-proclaimed "dirty old man", but don't let him fool you. He actually has a heart of gold. The two of them are great. They have two of the best laughs I've ever heard.

I'm so glad we continued on our trip, if only to have gotten here to Vegas and spending time with family. It was awesome.