Viva Las Vegas: Part 1

Apparently this is a summer of travel. As Fabio from Top Chef would say: "I love it!" This past weekend, Chris and I took a road trip to Las Vegas for his 10-year high school reunion. Many of his international school classmates now live in the US, so it was a fun place to meet up. Here are some highlights from the first part of our trip...

As we drove through the desert, it started to get hot.I took a trillion pictures from the car because I'd never seen desert before. Some parts featured scrubby little trees, while others were just vast stretches of sand.It kept getting hotter.Before long, the Vegas strip came into sight! The Paris was one of the first casinos we drove by.We stayed at the Luxor with the reunion group. This hotel is shaped like a pyramid and features crazy Egyptian-style statues, including a giant sphinx out front. Neither Chris nor I had ever been to Vegas, but something about this joint looked very familiar. I think this hotel must have been featured on Wheel of Fortune when I was a kid. (I also kept feeling inspired to say things in game-show announcer voice: "Today's prize is a trip to fabulous Las Vegas! You'll be staying at the famous Luxor resort. Take a ride on the Inclinator. Enjoy a cocktail at the luxurious Oasis pool!")The first night, I did my first-ever gambling. (Well, if you don't count playing poker for Bugles snacks on camping trips with my neighbors as a kid.) We came out ahead $27 on the slots! We packed the next day as full as possible. We hit the pool as they day heated up. Then, just as I was wondering if it could possibly get any hotter, the car told me the answer.As we headed out for the day, I took a shot of New York, New York. (Hey, we're not that far away after all!)

From there, we scoped out Old Vegas. Next time we'll go at night to see these awesome signs lit up. It is really nice during the day, though—much lower-key than the strip. Plus it's covered and they have some kind of fan system set up under the big archway. There's a zipline that stretches down the whole little promenade, so as we were walking, people were flying by overhead.We moved on to Sigfried and Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat at the Mirage. Obviously, I was incredibly happy here. We saw 2 baby dolphins, and these older dolphins loved hanging out by the window!There were also lions, tigers, and leopards. The lions were especially close to us! I even caught them doing an affectionate head butt.

We checked out the inside of some other casinos during the day. It was so cool to see the different themes inside each one.

Before I go on, I have two words of advice to Vegas visitors: Buy water. For some reason, there are stores and cocktails everywhere, but water is hard to come by. And by the time you realize you're thirsty in the dry heat, you're practically ready to pass out. I tried filling my Earthlust bottle from the tap, but the water was really, really icky (seriously, we were later told that unfiltered Vegas water will eventually give you kidney stones) and warmed up so fast. So if you see water, buy some.

At night, the temp cooled and we walked down the strip. We made it to the Bellagio just in time to see the dancing fountains. (I was too absorbed in the outdoor shows we watched that I forgot to take pictures. Here's a nice HD video of one of the songs we saw.) I loved this part. I love that someone even thought of this, and I love that they actually went ahead and built it. Since I didn't catch the outside, here are some of the tiny leaping fountains we saw during the day.

After the fountain show, we hauled our tired legs back down the strip to the Luxor and geared up for Part 2 of our road trip. Stay tuned...!