We left the kids with the in-laws on Thursday afternoon and headed off to Vegas.
We thought we got to the airport in plenty of time - 1:45 before the plane took off but we were the last ones to get tickets (and not together!) and just made it to the plane for last call for boarding.
After some great guys all moved to let us sit together we took off... arriving on-time we met up with Stephan our limo driver and got our bags. He took us around the strip for a cruise before we got to the Bellagio. I think I tipped him too much so we went around for about an hour.
The Bellagio is amazing. It's the one with the dancing fountains in front. In the entrance they have these amazing blown glass flowers all over the ceiling... I couldn't help but think what would happen if one of the stems broke off and it came down on someone's head.
After settling in into our room (which was very nice, large, but had two queens instead of the desired king) we checked out the hotel and went to the Noodles restaurant. It sucked... luckily it was the only bad dining experience we had.
After that we walked through the conservitory and went to one of those fancy crepe places which made Hiyat happy after the rotten meal. By this time it was 11ish and we were exhausted after the day with the kids and the trip.
We woke up late the next morning and ordered room service (something we did for the remainder of the trip) and headed out for the day. We grabbed a cab from the hotel and after dropping Hiyat off at the fashion show mall I checked out the Atomic Testing Museum. It kicked ass -- had stuff from WWII right up into present day. Old style relays and monitors for underground testing, lots of photos, and full scale models from tactical nukes back in the day.
I spent a couple of hours there and headed back to the mall to pick up Hiyat -- or so I thought. When I returned two hours later Hiyat still hadn't left Nordstroms and by this time had a personal shopper running around for her.
After spending a few more hours cruising the mall... which was much bigger than Chinook and entirely devoted to clothes, I picked up a pair of sunglasses and we headed out. Returning to the hotel, we changed our clothes and headed out to Criss Angel. However when we tried to grab a cab, the lineup was at least 250 people long! The show started in less than half an hour, so Hiyat tipped the bellman $50 and sweet talked us into a limo 5 minutes later. We made the show in plenty of time and it was very fun. We were in the second row and right on the aisle and for one trick one of the assistants were right next to me. Criss dissapeared on stage and the assistant threw off his coat... and it was Criss less than a foot away from me. Killer! And the best part was that Eddy Van Halen and his family were sitting 5 rows back from us.
/will finish later
