Las Vegas July 2010

With a bit less than a months notice Jason and I booked our business trip/vacation to Vegas in June. I had been four other times but never during the summer. We decided not to book our room at the MGM Grand because with such short notice the room rates at the MGM Grand, which is where the Mike Ferry conference was held was going to be full price at over $100 per night. Luckily I found a room just across the street at The Monte Carlo for $365 for the full six night stay. The biggest expense of the trip was the flight which was $940 for the both of us.
We left our house on Monday July 19th at 4:45 am to catch our 6:00 flight. We thought that with such an early morning, weekend flight that the airport wouldn't be crowded...wrong. There had been a storm the day before and apparently all of the flights going into and going out of Atlanta had been canceled or delayed. So this day was the day that all of those flights had been changed to. As we were going through security they had to manually check my bag for some reason and I explained to the "security lady" that our flight was leaving in ten minutes. She informed me that she couldn't help it and in other words...sorry about my luck. We got to the gate running with seconds to spare. Lesson learned and we will always check the wait time and leave earlier.
After short layover in Atlanta, we landed in Las Vegas at 9:55 am. We rented a car from Enterprise and headed to the West Rim of The Grand Canyon. It was suppose to be a two and half hour drive but we ran into traffic at Hoover Dam and then the last thirty minutes or so of the drive was on gravel road. It was beautiful there but way over priced because you couldn't couldn't see the Grand Canyon from the parking lot or just buy a ticket to walk across the Sky Walk, you have to book a tour which included lunch and trip to a western ranch and horse back riding that over looked the Grand Canyon which was pretty neat and not crowded. The Sky Walk is a glass bottom ledge that hovers over the GC. They said that it's sturdy enough to land several airplanes on. We had to put all of our stuff including the camera in lockers before we waited in line for about an hour because they only allowed about ten people at a time onto the walk. I have to admit, I was scared and walked around the railing which was too hot to hold on to. People were jumping in the air to take pictures and the glass panels would move. So all that is a memory because I didn't pose for or purchase get any pictures.
We were worn out by the time that we ate at the Hard Rock Cafe which was directly across the strip from our hotel at the Monte Carlo. We were given a room on the thirtieth floor that over looked the pool and behind the Las Vegas strip. Because of a few minor mishaps with the room we switched rooms the next morning. After that, the hotel was great. There were enough restaurants and things to do there that I could have stayed there all week and never left. Each hotel/casino reminds me of a cruise ship but only you have to pay for your food and entertainment. The entertainment and shows are very expensive. The big show at the Monte Carlo was the magician Lance Burton and those tickets were over fifty dollars per person.
On Tuesday after switching rooms and having breakfast I walked Jason over to his real estate conference at the MGM Grand. I explored the MGM which was huge, much bigger than the Monte Carlo. They had a lion habitat which was free. I watched and listened for about an hour. They explained that the lions didn't actually live there but on a ranch outside of Vegas. I forgot how many total lions lived at the ranch but the lions "worked" in five hour shifts and they said that in a weeks time you probably wouldn't see the same lion twice. After I explored and window shopped MGM I headed over the strip to New York New York. The shops and the lights really did remind me of NY City. There were a lot of kids there. I walked toward the roller coaster and then turned back around when I seen the price. After that I headed to the room. Jason and I had dinner at Diablos which was a Mexican restaurant in our hotel. It wasn't somewhere that I would take my daughter...the waitresses outfits were very revealing.
On Wednesday hung out in the shade by the pool in the morning and then it started to get crowded around 11 so I explored The City Center which is basically an upscale mall that was just recently built. It was beside of our hotel and later I found out that there was a complimentary tram inside MC that stopped at The City Center and Bellagio. Inside The City Center were stores like Lois Viton (which was three levels) and Tiffany's. I walked into Tiffany...yikes. There was a sales clerk or security guard literally every few steps.  Inside was beautiful but I was way out of my comfort zone and walked across the street to the shops in Planet Hollywood. There were tons of stores and I walked into about every one and still didn't buy anything. Did I mention that I hate to shop? Really, I hate to shop and spend money. I can and do window shop for hours but never purchase anything. On the way back to the hotel I stopped at the Hawaiian Marketplace which was a smaller version of the on in Hawaii. It was outside but there were misting fans everywhere so it wasn't too hot.
On Thursday I headed out at about 8:30 am. I briefly walked into Excalibur which is the hotel/casino in the shape of a castle. The inside of it was similar to the outside. There wasn't very much to do there so I walked to Luxor (the pyramid shaped hotel/casino). I've heard that the light that shines straight up in the air from the roof of Luxor can be seen from outer space...I'm not sure but this could be rumor or a myth. My agenda for the day was to go to the Luxor for the "Bodies" exhibit. I thought it opened at 9am but it and everything else in Vegas opened at 10am...geezes, I thought this was the city that never sleeps. There was hardly anyone out all week before 10 or 11 am.  Anyways, I was told that the exhibit will be be there for at least the next two years and then it may move or tour. I won't go into detail but I learned a lot from seeing the parts of the human bodies and the issues that it can face. A friend of mine just the other day was talking about her tendons and I had a flashback to exactly what the tendons look like in the human body. The Titanic exhibit was also there at Luxor but I didn't go to it because it like the Bodies exhibit was over thirty dollars for entry. After Luxor, I headed to Mandalay Bay. I didn't find much to do there or even many shops to window shop. I thought that because of the size from the outside and that most of the big name boxing matching are there that there would be a lot more to do there. Jason left his conference early so I took the complimentary tram to Excalibur and walked back to our room. Then Jason and I took the complimentary tram to Bellagio and walked across the street to the Venetian. The Venetian was my favorite hotel/casino. It is just like Italy and the ceiling like most casino shopping areas was painted with clouds to give the bright outdoor illusion. We took the gondula ride which is the major form of transportation in Venice, Italy. The oarsman also serenaded us with Italian songs. It was so romantic! Well worth the thirty two dollars and the two hour wait. Afterward, we took a taxi back to Monte Carlo. The driver took the long way around LV no doubt to run up the rate clock. I think the charge was like fourteen dollars for a ride that should have only been about two miles.
Friday was the day I had been looking forward to because I had prebooked a bus tour to Laughlin, Nevada. The bus picked me up at 8:30 and the bus driver who was an older gentleman who had lived in LV his whole life, gave us a history lesson and lots of information about LV the whole two hour ride to Laughlin. I had been to Laughlin many times before and always liked it better than Vegas..not this time. It was very ran down. The city is on the Nevada side of the Colorado River and they other side of the river is Arizona. The river is the clearest river water that I've ever seen. There are signs in front of the casinos advertising jet ski rentals and if I ever go back there in the summer that's what I'll do. They say that the temperature is always hotter in Laughlin and I will witness to that. Later I found out that the bus tour was sponsored by the casinos who paid the bus company to get us there for the purpose and hopes that the we would gamble the whole time during our visit to Laughlin. I was wondering why at just five dollars, this tour was so cheap. The casinos need to spend money in renovations and upkeep. I headed over to the outlet mall where I did make a purchase and headed back over to the casinos for lunch before the bus left at 4 pm. Most of the people in Laughlin and on the bus tour were of retirement age and that's why I always enjoyed it there. On the ride back the driver didn't talk, thank goodness because I napped on the way back. That night Jason and I walked to Paris with the goal to reach the top of the Eiffel Tour. I knew we would be walking so I didn't change clothes or get fancied up after my long day. So when Jason decided to eat at the Eiffle Tower Restaurant I was hesitant. It was the fanciest restaurant that I've ever been to. They didn't have a dress code but I did feel out of place in my shorts and flip flops. Our bill came to a hundred and seventy dollars which included our ticket up to the top of the Eiffel Tower. It was very hot at the top but even though the wind was hot, the wind made it bearable. It was very crowed at the top and when the Bellagio water show started we could barely find a spot to peek through to watch it. We took a few pictures and headed back down and then back to the room.
On Saturday the shuttle came to pick us up at noon. The shuttle service that we used this time was Executive and was six dollars which was a dollar cheaper than all of the other shuttle services.  But I DO NOT recommend them. They were late among a few other things. We got to the airport early because of the lesson learned at the Bluegrass Airport. I didn't mention that Jason paid extra and chose this particular early evening flight because he thought that we would have Saturday morning to explore more of Vegas but after such a full week we had already done practically everything and enjoyed the morning at the pool. Our flight landed in Lexington at 1:00 am Sunday morning. Home sweet home!