Vegas, Baby!

Monday, May 11th
We left for Las Vegas around 11:30 am. The flight was pretty uneventful so we arrived on time and got a taxi to the hotel. We were staying at the Luxor Hotel and Casino. We had never stayed there before and were excited about staying in the pyramid. Of course, when we check in, they have no king beds ready in the pyramid so they gave us the option of staying in 2 queen beds in the pyramid or a king in the tower. We initially went for the king in the tower and then realized half the fun was staying in the pyramid. So we decided to be "wild and crazy" and stay in the pyramid and even sleep in separate beds! :)

After changing our room and dropping off our luggage, we were starving so we decided to grab a bite in the hotel cafe and then check out the Luxor since we'd never been there before. The Luxor is connected to The Excalibur and Mandalay Bay so we walked between the three hotels and decided it was time to lose some money. I found a machine I liked and it obviously liked me as I won $200! We played for about 2 hours - winning enough to stay steady - and finally I cashed out with my $200. It was almost 8 pm (which was 10 pm Houston time) and we were ready to call it a night. Plus, we figured we had two more nights to be losers so we might as well go out on a win streak tonight. We went back to the room to watch the season finale of House - during which I drifted in and out of sleep.

We were dosing peacefully in our separate beds when all of a sudden at about midnight the fire alarm went off. I thought I was going to have a heart attack it scared me so bad. It lasted about 15 minutes before they told us they had a "minor incident that had been contained". Luckily, I had no problem getting back to sleep. I just prayed that our hotel wouldn't catch on fire the remainder of the night.

Tuesday, May 12th
Today we got up and decided we had to have the breakfast buffet at Paris. If you ever go to Vegas, it is a must! We called to make sure that we wouldn't miss it and was told breakfast was over at 11:00. We got down there around 10:20 and had about a 20 minute wait. This actually turned out to be the best time to go. They transition to lunch was right at 11:00 so our first trip to the buffet was breakfast and our second (much smaller) trip was lunch. It was the first time we'd had a glimpse of their lunch buffet and it looked so yummy! So we got the best of both worlds at the breakfast price (lunch was $3 more per person).

On our walk down to Paris, we noticed they were filming a movie entitled "Going to the Greek". Jason saw the star of Superbad but I missed him. On the way back down the strip, they stopped traffic to film a star running after a vehicle. It amazes me they are closing the traffic on Las Vegas Blvd. (which is super busy) to film this at 12 pm but they are. I had no idea who the guy was and we were trying to figure it out as he was walking towards us when someone yelled "Diddy". You got it - it was Diddy (or P. Diddy or Puff Daddy or Sean Combs or whatever you chose to call him). This would be our first of two star sightings.

On the way back up the strip, we stopped in the Coke store and got a glass bottle of coke as a refreshment. (There is nothing like Coke in a glass bottle!) Then we explored the M&Ms store -which is so fun! After, we decided to see a movie so we went to see Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. It's ok. I wouldn't pay money for it at a theater but it's cute enough to rent. (I'm sure Jason would disagree! This would be the first of three shows he saw for me! I love my husband.)

After the movie, it was time to go get ready for Cher. Not wanting to risk being late, we took a taxi from Luxor to Caesar's for the show. The show was fabulous! I loved it. (Again, I'm not sure Jason would use the same descriptions.) Cher was beautiful and she put on a great show complete with all the costumes, wigs, etc that we've come to know and love from Cher. The show was 90 minutes (too short for me) and seemed to be over as quickly as it began. We decided to grab a few drinks at the Shadow Bar in Caesar's and then called it a night (and we didn't even gamble!).

Wednesday, May 13th
Today was my massage day. It started with Krispy Kreme donuts (provided by Jason) so I knew it was going to be 80 minutes of pure bliss - and it was. When I got back to the room, Jason had surprised me with tickets to the Phantom of the Opera which was playing at the Venetian. This began our never-ending walking adventure. Jason had gotten the tickets from Tickets 4 Tonight (which is a great deal!) but what you receive is actually a voucher and you have to go pick up your tickets from the box office. This meant going to the Venetian first. We decided to take the monorail which you could pick up at the back of MGM. What a mistake....it took us 15 minutes to get to MGM and another 15 minutes just to get to the Monorail station. (We did see a cute lion playing along the route.) After an hour, we finally had our tickets!

We decided to head back up the strip and go eat at PF Chang's which is in Planet Hollywood. Again, we trek back to the monorail and get to the restaurant about 30 minutes later. (As you can imagine, we are beginning to realize this monorail thing is not a great idea!) While at PF Chang's, we see our second star sighting - Holly Madison - who I later learned was there to lead the world's largest bikini parade. Darn! It was the day we left and missed it. :)

After eating I could not bear the idea of walking anymore so we went to the Hoops Hall of Fame Exhibit and planted ourselves on a few slot machines at Planet Hollywood. After losing our money very quickly, we decided to start walking back to the Venetian and made a pit stop to lose more money at Paris. (Well, I lost money but Jason won about $100.)

Finally, it was time for Phantom which was so great! The theater was beautiful and the actor portraying the phantom was fabulous! After Phantom, I wanted to walk the strip to see the Volcano at the Mirage and the fountains at the Bellagio. We then went once more to get a coke in a glass bottle and rode the roller coaster at New York, New York. Finally, I was ready to call it a night. Jason wanted to spin the reels one more time so we kissed goodbye in the Casino of the Luxor and separated. I hadn't been in the room 15 minutes and Jason walked in. Apparently, the spinning of the wheels was not kind to him.

Thursday, May 14th
Time to go home. We got up, checked out, and headed to the airport. The flight took off on time and we arrived a little early. We had a wonderful time in Vegas but it was good to be home. I missed our girls and I am sure Grandma was a little ready for some help. There really is nothing like home, sweet home.