Las Vegas!

Apollo found out about fifteen minutes before we boarded our flight that we were on our way to Las Vegas! He was pretty excited because he's been wanting to go for years now, plus, this was his birthday present.

Happy Birthday Apollo!!

I have never been to Vegas and honestly, I'm not sure if I would go again any time soon. I mean, it's great and everything, but I absolutely HATE gambling! I actually got physically sick from the stress of losing money. Arg! But as a glutton for punishment, I'll probably go again sometime in the next six months. But this time it will be for the shows. Unfortunately, most shows were dark while we were there so we didn't get to see anything I wanted to see. However, this trip wasn't about me at all but all about a certain someone's birthday.

Here is that "someone" enjoying the slots and a Starbucks beverage I forced on him in lieu of breakfast (I'm mean).



OK so first, let me tell you about our room. I had no idea where to book a room, so I picked Harrah's. It seemed to be in a good location and really...I'm pretty happy with my choice. It was a good basic place to stay and didn't give me the creeps, like The Tropicana did. The Tropicana seemed old and run down. (If The Tropicana were a woman, she'd be a retired-single-spandex-clad-lady hanging out in bars with a Virginia Slim hanging between her red, overly penciled lips. She'd cackle when you walk by and call you Honey, but not until she took a drag off her ciggy and flicked the ashes on the floor.) I also wasn't impressed with the hallway we had to walk down, filled with carts you could buy cheap stuff off of. Most of the people working these carts were talking to their friends on their cell phones, which didn't encourage me to buy their sequined Vegas t-shirts. Or the dog photograph purses, bejeweled sunglasses, 25 cent plastic poker chips and buckets of red dice. But, I digress. Back to Harrah's.

Harrah's seemed to be the Olive Garden of hotels. Nice, but not too fancy but clean. I felt good there. However, I wasn't too excited about the first room we got. We felt lucky when we checked in at 9:30 AM and the clerk said, "We already have a room if you want it." We were more than pleased - a location to store our luggage and we can sit down and rest before we ventured out!!

We got our room and were a bit shocked.



Puleeeease! I've stayed in better rooms at Motel 6! The bedspread was ratty with holes, there were holes in the wall, the mattress almost slid off the bed when we sat on the end, and the air conditioning grate was standing away from the wall at the bottom at least two inches. I ommitted the view of the table, chairs, and glass sliding door and deck, because I'm standing in front of it to get this picture. There wasn't much space to work with. Oh yes, did I forget to mention we had a deck with a view?



Oh, can't see it very well? Let me show you a better shot!



I am NOT joking!! This was our VIEW! The BIRTHDAY PRESENT VIEW! See the cigarette ashes on the railing?? I, being a woman, and an outspoken, forthright woman at that, immediately called the front desk and asked for an upgrade. But not before pointing out the broken fixtures in the room so we wouldn't get charged for them. I'm still irritated when I see these photos! Anyway, they were very nice and immediately "upgraded" us to a new room on a smoking floor. Being that it was the 4th of July, it supposedly was the only room available. We didn't care though - we wanted a view that was better than the air conditioning vents, or whatever the hell they were, and were willing to put up with the cigarette smell. I present to you, our new room (somehow, they weren't surprised when we asked for a different room):



OK so this isn't the best quality photo, but you get the idea.

From our new room, if you stood in the furthest right hand corner of the window, you could see the view our old room had.



And then, the real view, the view you saw without straining....The Strip! We had a clear shot of The Mirage, Treasure Island, and a few other miscellaneous businesses.



At night you could see the volcano in front of the Mirage exploding every 15 minutes. It was really beautiful.



And check this out. There was a mini bar in the room, complete with food and drinks. The shelves were weight sensitive, so if you even picked up a bag of M&M's, you were automatically charged. And of course, as expected, the prices were outrageous! Shaw!!



More Vegas chat to follow. I need to go to bed, I'm still recovering from the trip. :)