Vegas, baby!

So we're back from our quick weekend trip to Vegas... the first 12 hours or so were a little rocky -- our plane left about an hour late, which normally wouldn't be much of a problem. But I was at the end of a long "I woke up at 4:45 this morning" day, which means that by 8 o'clock I was starting to feel like winding down and putting on some PJs... But instead, I was waiting for our plane to arrive from Lubbock, where it had been delayed because of ice. We eventually left around 9:00, and settled in for the flight... about an hour and half later, the pilot announced that we were over El Paso, which was about halfway to Vegas. Sheesh... it took an hour and half to get to El Paso?? Texas is way too big... :)

Anyway, by the time we landed, got a taxi, checked into the hotel, walked through the gigantic lobby/casino/shop area, and made our way to our room, it was about 1:30 in the morning Austin time. I also had a headache coming on (which isn't unusual for me after a stressful day followed by a three-hour flight on an airplane with dry air and poor ventilation), so I pretty much collapsed into bed and hoped I'd feel better in the morning...

Except in the morning I actually felt WORSE -- I got up around 7:30 and decided to take some Advil. I ate about half of an energy bar first, because I don't like taking Advil on an empty stomach... and then I went back to bed for an hour or so. When I woke up, not only did my head still hurt, but I was nauseous, too... which was either the result of the headache, taking Advil on a nearly empty stomach, lack of food, or not enough water. Or perhaps it was a combination of everything. Needless to say, I was actually worried that I was getting plain old SICK, and for a little while I was wishing we'd just stayed home. Thankfully, after getting up, taking a shower, walking down to a Walgreens next to the hotel and buying some Advil Cold and Sinus, drinking a cup of coffee and eating some food, I FINALLY started feeling a lot better and ended up enjoying the rest of the day.

Since Rick and I really aren't big gamblers, we spent a lot of time just walking up and down the Strip -- we racked up about 16,000 steps both days we were there, which was good, because the other thing we spent a lot of time doing was EATING. Vegas has some great food. But I'm pretty sure our walking canceled out all the calories. Right? Of course it did. :) (And we may have done a liiiiiiittle bit of shopping, too... just a little bit... ;)) But easily the coolest thing we did was watch the fountains at the Bellagio hotel -- I took about a million pictures, but the pictures don't even do it justice. Even watching that scene at the end of "Ocean's 11" doesn't do it justice... seeing it in person is just SO COOL it's hard to explain... if you're ever in Vegas, you HAVE to go see the fountains at the Bellagio...

A few pictures!

We stayed at the Palazzo hotel, which is part of the Venetian... they do a pretty good job of recreating the architectural style of whatever place they're trying to emulate... Vegas is like a big, adult-themed Epcot Center... :)

A canal in "Venice"... (actually, the water was WAY too blue to be Venice... :))

This is INSIDE the hotel -- they do this a lot in the hotels in Vegas. They'll make the ceiling look like a "sky" so it sort of feels like you're outside. This was (as I overheard someone describe it) "St. Mark's Square without the pigeons." Which is a lot better when you're trying to eat lunch... (we ate lunch here both days -- there are three restaurants in this square...)

The canal inside the hotel -- this is actually the SECOND floor, which we found really impressive. All that water, and it's on the second floor...

The view from our room -- the pool, Treasure Island hotel, Trump hotel, and mountains in the distance...

All the hotels in Vegas were decorated for the Chinese New Year, which was kind of cool... (I forgot to take a picture of the giant stuffed tiger at the other end of the lobby!)

Me in front of the waterfall in the lobby...

When we were walking through the Bellagio hotel on our way outside to watch the fountains, we stumbled upon a Chinese New Year celebration. We got there kind of late, so it was hard to take pictures over the heads of the people in the crowd... but I did get one of this dragon...

Outside the Bellagio, looking across the street to the Paris hotel -- that Eiffel tower was surprisingly big... I'm not sure if it was "actual size" or a bit smaller than the one in Paris, but it had to be pretty close...

Top of the Bellagio hotel...

Patiently waiting for the fountains to do something...

And finally -- fountains! They're actually choreographed to music, and they play a different song every 15 minutes... we stayed for three different songs...

Seriously, it's so much cooler than these pictures can convey...

We were really surprised by how high the water can go... really awesome...

Self-portrait on the sidewalk...