What Happened in Vegas...

We did it!  Christy and I had our Vegas trip last week, and it was a blast (despite all of the appointments and "non-pleasurable" reasons that we were there :-).  I thought I'd do the "A-Z Thing" on what actually happened in Vegas since that's how we started our trip.  :-)

Avoided the perverts passing out naked girl cards on the strip.

Bellagio fountains - We cracked up watching the ducks who live there paddle madly when they realized the show was about to start.  "Swim, little ducky!  Swim for your life!"  I can only imagine their reactions the first time they experienced the "dancing fountains."  As Christy said, "What the FWACK?!?"  :-)

Chicago Brewing Co.  OMG!  It was SOOO good!  Christy used to live in Vegas, and as soon as she saw the place, she said that we had to go there (mostly because she wanted to taunt my brother-in-law because it was his favorite place to eat).  It was totally worth it!  Christy ate nearly an entire pizza by herself, and I got the absolute best pot roast I have ever had in my life.  I think Chris was highly disappointed in us though because we didn't get any beer.  :-)

Diaper rash...  Yes, you heard me.  Diaper rash.  Ok, so it was more a heat rash where my hugantor thighs were rubbing together, but it was highly unpleasant.  A direct result of my total lack of common sense when I decided to wear denim capris to walk the strip in the 103 degree weather.

Eclipse, baby!  That was one long, expensive trip to see a movie that we could have seen at home, but it was soooo worth it.  I mean, seriously...  Taylor Lautner...  He is yummy!  (Even if he is seriously close to being jail bait. ;-)  The funniest part of the whole movie was when Edward said, "Don't you own a shirt?" and a lady in the row behind us exclaimed, "Dear God, I hope not!"

Found a new way to help fund the "Buy a Baby Fund" as my nephew calls it...  Taking coins out of the fountains at the hotels on the strip...  Seriously!  People were throwing silver money in there, not just pennies!

Got a taxi to drive us back to the Luxor after walking most of the strip.  My excuse at the time was that my feet, leg, and ankle were killing me (which was true...  I had to ice the leg and ankle when we got back to the hotel).  But the real reason was that the "diaper rash" was freaking killing me, and I couldn't very well walk bow-legged two miles back to the car!  :-)

Hawaiian Marketplace Shopping Center on the strip.  We had a blast there!  (It didn't hurt that they had misters and fans everywhere either. :-)  Got some unique souvenirs and decided that we're doing a shopping shore excursion on our cruise because we had so much fun.

Ice cream at Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Company.  YUMMY!!!

Joked about jumping off the Stratosphere.

Kohl's, yes...  We went shopping at Kohl's.  Sure, we could just as easily have gone to Kohl's here in Texas, but we managed to do just as much damage at the Kohl's in Las Vegas.

Lost $15 on penny slots of all things!

MGM Grand Lion Habitat - Got a few pictures for my niece.  She's all about "big cats" and wants to be a vet when she grows up. 

Navigated our way through dozens of casinos and resorts in search of a souvenir shop with the perfect souvenir for my nephew, only to locate said perfect item in the Las Vegas Airport in the shop directly across from our gate.

Overzealously stalked the local trash collectors.  I have to admit, we were almost paparazzi-like in our quest to obtain a photo of a real, live Las Vegas trash truck for my nephew.  I am pleased to say that we were triumphant in our endeavor!  :-)

Pretended not to hear the obnoxious honeymooning couple waiting in line behind us at the Southwest Airlines "A" Group boarding line.  (Giggle, giggle...  "We just got married today!"  "I love you."  "I love you more."  "No, I love you more."  Kiss, kiss.  GACK!!!)  That's lovely, sweetheart.  I'm super happy for you.  But you're not getting ahead of us in this line.  We want the good seats!!!  Trust me when I say that you will be wanting separate seats soon enough.  Might as well get in the habit now.

Questioned how it was possible to get lost in our own state when we managed to get around in Las Vegas with no problems.  Yes, we somehow managed to take the "scenic route" coming home from the airport.  It took us longer to get home from Dallas Love than it did to fly from El Paso to Dallas!

Resisted the urge to throw things at my sister every night when she fell asleep within two minutes of her head hitting the pillow as I tossed and turned and fought insomnia.

So You Think You Can Dance? - Yes, we ventured back to the hotel in time to watch our show.  You have to have priorities, you know!

Titanic exhibit at the Luxor.  It is unreal the things that survived 2 1/2 miles down on the ocean floor for decades.  Unbroken china, paper bills inside of leather wallets, jewelry, perfume bottles that still hold the scents, wine bottles still corked with wine inside, personal belongings that could be traced to their owners, rows of plates still neatly stacked where their crates dissolved around them...  Christy and I spent a good hour in there.  We started questioning our decision to go to the exhibit a few months before our own upcoming cruise though.  Fortunately, I don't think there's much chance of us encountering a giant iceberg in the middle of the Caribbean sea though.  :-)

Utterly embarrassing display of excessively poor driving skills as Christy first opts out of purchasing additional rental car insurance, only to nearly wreck us upon executing the first left turn after leaving the rental car lot.  Christy has a left-turning deficiency.  A fact that my niece and nephew could attest to at the tender age of two years old.  "Mommy's not a very good driver, huh?"  (giggles)  "Yeah..."

Very diligently attempted to take photos of every room that we entered per the direct order of Ka-Diva.  My niece was totally bummed that her mommy and I were taking a "girl trip" without her, and insisted that we take a picture of every single room that we entered so she wouldn't miss a thing.

Watched Christy win 18 times her money and then promptly lose it all within thirty seconds.  Granted, this was also on penny slots, but it just sounds so good to say that she won 18 times her initial investment, doesn't it?  :-)

X-treme sign twirling exhibition...  Okay, so it wasn't so much an "exhibition" as it was one of those poor suckers who has to stand on a street corner holding up a sign marketing a business in a nearby shopping center.  This guy, however, took his job to the extreme, and it was one of the most impressive things we saw in Las Vegas.  It was clear the kid was in color guard because he spun his sign like he was spinning a rifle in a Drum Corps International competition.  Over the head!  Behind the back!  Tosses!  His tricks put the Harlem Globetrotters to shame.  I desperately wish I had thought to take video.

Yummy quesadillas at some Mexican food restaurant in one of the hotels on the strip that I totally can't even remember because by the time we found something without a line we were exhausted and really didn't care what we ate as long as we could sit down for an extended period of time in the air conditioning and stuff our faces.  (Run-on sentence, I know...  But that was kind of our mental state at the time :-)

Zoom in, take picture, turn off camera, turn on camera, review picture, turn off camera, turn on camera, REPEAT… We had absolutely no luck with our cameras on this trip!  You know it's bad when my "zoom in, power on and off" approach was the only one that seemed to be working.  I do believe I will be camera-shopping before the cruise.