Vacation: First Stop Las Vegas (The First of Many Posts)

We spent the first two weeks of July on vacation. It was so lovely. It was the first real vacation we've ever taken together. It was the first time we'd even been on plane together! Long plane rides get infinitely better when you can hold someone's hand.

My Dad's family lives in Arizona, and we were all going to meet out there for a reunion week. Once we started planning for that, everything snowballed from there. We decided to start in Las Vegas, and spend our  two year anniversary there. My sister Kourtney couldn't resist our awesome plan, so we met up with her and  Juan there.

We stayed at the Trump Hotel. Walking in was like..whoa. So swanky.

The most important thing to know about Vegas: Comfortable shoes. You will be walking at least 6 miles a day. Pavement is hot. Your feet will get sweaty. You will develop giant blisters that cause you to buy orthopedic shoes in a store called "Easy Spirit". But man, I love those shoes.

Actually maybe the most important thing to know would be money. It's 'spensive there, for reals.

We just kind of wandered around looking at things. The Forum Shops and Caesar's Palace were our first stop. They painted the ceiling like the sky, and have Roman Gods threatening you with Tridents while you eat. It's a fun place.

Caesar's Palace had mountains of gelato. Delicious.  Our first bite of Vegas food:

On Monday morning (our anniversary!), we woke up and decided to try to see every hotel. We almost made it. I think the Palazzo was my favorite. They had canals and gondala rides inside (under the painted cloud ceiling). 

They had random moving sidewalks all over the place. You didn't even have to walk across the awesome bridge--you could just ride like the Jetsons. It was nice, but made me feel super lazy.

Also, we found Elvis and his twin brother, Shorter Elvis. I couldn't even try to tell you what that other thing is. Your guess is as good as mine.

The Bellagio lobby and shops all have a garden theme. The ceiling in the lobby was awesome:

Our big activity was riding the New York, New York Roller Coaster. Cory bought us the "all day, ride as much as you want" pass as my anniversary present. I'm one lucky gal.

We went to see the Cirque De Soleil show Mystere (pronounced "Mis-tear", not "Mr. Ray", FYI) as our big Vegas show. It was pretty mind blowing, but I was exhausted so I might have drifted off once or twice....Yep. I'm pretty awesome. 

We also went to a Variety Show and watched people do crazy tricks on roller skates,  and magic. And THEN, we went to a Hypnosis Show. They took volunteers, so I went up on stage and gave it a shot. It didn't really work, but I gave it a try. And it was pretty funny to watch the other people do crazy things (although I'm not convinced it really worked for them either...).

Vegas was fun, but it's definitely not somewhere I feel the need to go to again. It's pretty trashy, expensive, and it gave me blisters. But it was definitely cool to see it once, and check that one off the bucket list. And the Bellagio Fountains are mesmerizing. I'll give you that, Vegas. I'll give you that.