Las Vegas

Monday June 27th

This morning we headed out of canyon country and back into civilization.  We left  Zion National Park and had about a 4 hour to drive to get to Las Vegas. Since we couldn't check into our hotel until 4:00pm, we decided to drive to Hoover Dam and take a tour during the day.  Though everyone, including us, has seen pictures of Hoover Dam since we were young, it is still absolutely stunning in person.  We lost the best pictures taken from the bypass bridge, but here are a few to give you the jist.

After the dam, we headed back into Vegas, and stayed at The Flamingo Hotel in the middle of the strip, thanks to Uncle Tom Silvasy!!  Our view included some of Paris and the Bellagio.  We watched several Bellagio Fountain shows from our room on the 25th floor!  Pretty awesome view!  Sadly on Monday night we did not take our camera with us as we walked around.  However, we wouldn't have had any good pictures anyway.  Our sole goal was to get food, as we hadn't eaten anything since our late breakfast and were starving!!  By the way, the wait times in Vegas, at least while we were there, were ridiculous.  We tried to have dinner at Margaritaville, and the wait time (at 8:30pm mind you) was over 2 1/2 hours!  We also tried a few other restaurants, and the shortest wait we found was an hour and a half.  In the end, we ended eating at a cafe across from the Flamingo which had a short wait of 35 minutes.  The food was spectacular, but that could have been influenced by how hungry we were after trying to find a place to eat.  After dinner, it was time to enjoy sleeping on a big, soft bed without rocks an inch under our backs.

Tuesday June 28th

After so many nights sleeping in a tent, our big King Bed at the Flamingo was heaven!  Of course, sleeping in such a nice bed, we missed breakfast, but we were able to have a lovely lunch of 'Cheeseburgers in Paradise' at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville.  They were delicious!  The Margarita we split was spectacular as well!

After lunch we hurried over to the Tickets4Cheap counter and bought our half-price tickets for Blue Man Group.  We then spent the afternoon re-enacting our Grand Canyon hike by walking around exploring the different hotels for 5 hours.  For those who haven't been to Vegas, basically each hotel has it's own mall (most of them with very high end stores, in case you were to come out ahead after gambling) and most of the hotels are themed in some way.  We could have spent several days touring around the hotels, casinos and beyond and still not seen it all.  We could also spend pages and pages describing all the hotels and their quirky themes, but we'll let some pictures do the talking.

The canal inside the Venetian

Our Hotel- The Flamingo

Inside the Bellagio.  Yes, those are all blown glass.  

The Chandelier at the Cosmopolitan

The Lobby at the Cosmopolitan

The volcano erupts!

Our view from the restaurant of the Pirate Ship at Treasure Island

In the evening we saw Blue Man Group at the Venetian.  In the beginning of the show, to entertain the guests before the curtain goes up, they announce special people in the audience.  The first special announcement was for the crowd to cheer for an Olympic Gold Medalist.  The prompter asked the audience to welcome her by name (sorry we don't remember her name, it was a weird sport).  The next special person was a guy who helped decode the Human Genome.  The crowd welcomed him as well.  Then the prompter read "We also have Nathan Schroeder in the audience.  Nathan's just a regular guy of no particular importance.  All the more reason to welcome him.  Please stand up Nathan so the crowd can welcome you". It was hilarious and completely unexpected to have Nate stand up and be welcomed by the crowd.  We enjoyed the rest of the show and felt like we were watching YoungLife skits on steroids.

The rest of the crowd waiting to see The Sirens of TI show

After the show,  went outside to catch the volcano erupt across the street at The Mirage.  It was really anti-climactic and unimpressive.  Oh well.  We then headed across the street to grab dinner and watch the Sirens of TI Pirates show at Treasure Island.  We had the best seats in the house (or rather outside) to watch the show, as we were in the restaurant and up on a balcony with an unobstructed view to watch the show.  Unfortunately, as soon as we got our food and the show was about to start, an announcer stated that the show had to be cancelled due to high winds.  We were disappointed, but at least the food was good!

Despite the show disappointment, we had a great time spending the rest of the evening enjoying the lights, sights, and sounds of Las Vegas.

Kinda blurry.  Oh well. 

Caesar's Palace

Paris- Not nearly as impressive as the real thing, but still pretty cool. 

The Flamingo all dressed up for the evening.

The view of the Bellagio fountains from our hotel room. 

Wednesday June 29th


The next morning, after sleeping in again-  Yay for comfy beds!!- we toured around the Flamingo and spent a while lounging in the sun at the pool before we had to check out of our room at noon.  After a long wait in the check-out line and returning our bags to the car, we signed up for a players card, which got us five free dollars to gamble with.  We lost it all.  And pretty quickly too.  Not surprising, as the whole point of Vegas is to make you leave with no $$$ in your pockets.  Luckily, we didn't spend too much so we still have some dough to make it on the rest of our journey(Hopefully.  Don't worry, we have tons of mac-and-cheese and goldfish in the car in case we run out).  Our free hotel room (thanks again Uncle Tom and Aunt Nancy!), not gambling (only the free $5), only one drink each, no shopping, and half price tickets to Blue Man Group really helped!

Upon losing our player's card money we bought some casino cards as a souvenir and headed on our way to Los Angeles, California!  Nate's Uncle Greg, Aunt Kim and cousins Bryan, Sarah and Kathryn live in Thousand Oaks, CA right outside LA and they've graciously offered to host us and be our tour guides around the LA area.  We arrived at their house, had a wonderful home cooked meal and enjoyed catching up.  Of course, they also have internet access, which is why our blog is back online after our week-long hiatus.

LA adventures coming soon!!