Vegas in Pictures, Baby!

Lance and I had our 18th anniversary last week. Eighteen! (Which is weird, because I swear I'm still 27. Yet I also swear that I didn't get married at age 9. I can't seem to work out the inconsistency...)

Anyway, we figured that since our marriage was now an adult, we should head to Vegas for our anniversary! I'm not quite sure when we last went on a trip without kids, but I do know that it was sometime before Alecia was born. And she is 8.

Since I couldn't physically take y'all with me, I'll take you there with me virtually.

But before I do, I wanted to share a picture. The last time we went to Vegas was 15 years ago, when we got this picture taken at the Excalibur. I had to laugh when one of my kids, when they were 4 or 5 saw the picture and said, "I didn't know you and dad used to be a king and queen!" Yep, kids. We'd tried keeping that a secret, but it looks like you got us.

Now, on with the tour!

Here's some things you'll see OUTSIDE at Vegas:

Buildings that are covered in Gold. It shines like the sun.


What is, I'm sure, the world's biggest Walgreens. Especially when you consider all the floors that they are in the middle of building that you can barely see in the picture.
(Okay, so it's possible that the entire building isn't all a Walgreens in real life, but in my mind, it is.)


Avatars.


Elvises. (Or is the plural of Elvis Elvi?)


Waterfalls in the desert.


A massive Coke bottle. You can't actually drink it, but it can give you a little lift. Hehe. There's an elevator inside that thing!



Gigantic motorcycles crashing out of buildings. Luckily, we didn't run into its driver while we were there. We stayed out of this building just in case.


Gigantic television screens. Maybe "gigantic" isn't a big enough word. Seriously. Look at the size of the people on that walkway! I looked at that screen and dreamily thought, "Wouldn't it be so much cooler if they were showing Glee or Buffy on that screen instead of what they were actually showing?"


Pirate ships that float down the.... um in this context, I'm going for "moat," to attack another ship.


The Eiffel Tower.


New York! Surrounded by a roller coaster.


An exploding volcano!


A castle.


I'm going to file this one under Things You WON'T See in Vegas:


Seriously. With all the technology they have in the city, you'd think they wouldn't have missed this one.

And now, for some things Vegas has INSIDE their buildings:

Light fixtures as big as my entire living room.


Indoor waterfalls. Heavy on the water rainbows.


A giant sphinx.


A massive obelisk. You're supposed to carve your name in this as you pass, right? I sure hope so, or boy do I have egg on my face.


Water fountains.


But Vegas DOESN'T have this in their buildings:

And, dang. Apparently my pneumonia wasn't gone nearly enough for this!


On the Home Front

And now for a moment to reflect on what was going on back home while we were gone. My sweet sister was watching my kids for part of the time, and she got sick. I'm talking the mother-of-all-24-hour-flus kind of sick. I-think-I-might-die sick. She reports that my kids did a great job of taking care of her, and in some cases, entertained her.

As she was lying in bed unable to move a muscle, including eyelids, this is what would transpire every few minutes.

Kid A: Pitter patter, pitter patter, as they run down the hall, then silence as they stand in her doorway. Pitter patter, pitter patter, as they run back to the family room.

Kid B: "Is she dead?"

Kid A: "No. She's just sleeping."

Kid C: "Oh, good."

No doubt about it. My kids are all going to be health care professionals when they grow up.

Everything in Vegas Glitters!

Even Denny's.


And Mickey D's.



And even M&Ms!


The Strip is so darn colorful. As long as you don't look too closely, it makes you all kinds of happy. Almost like it's a wonderland made of candy.



It takes a massive field full of power lines for sparklies like that!


The Gambling:

We gambled a little. And by "we," I mean Lance. This is my philosophy on gambling.

You know those machines chuck full of stuffed animals with the crane, and you put money in and guide the crane to pull out a stuffed animal? My kids were drawn to those like magnets when they were littler.

(And just for a visual, here's a crane the likes of which they'd only have in Vegas.)


I explained to my kids that the owners of those machines put in stuffed animals that are too big for the crane to lift, and pack them in so tight that the crane would never be able to pull them loose. They just want you to give them your money. My kids now look at those machines like they are evil, and I just smile, knowing that I've taught them one of life's greatest lessons.

I feel the same way about gambling. They just want you to give them your money. And they'll happily take it from you and build all those cool things in the pictures above.

Lance has fun with it. So, we went to a Roulette table, and I fretted and twisted my fingers while Lance played $20. When that $20 looked like it was going to disappear, then just as quickly turned into $149, I said, "Come on. We have to go now. Really. Now, now, now. Run!" And then we high-tailed it out of there. Almost like they were going to come up and take it from us. Because you know the devil lives there.

No, really.

I was wondering. And then we were walking down the street on a Saturday night, and I heard music booming in the distance. Not happy music, either. And then there were hordes of people on the street corners passing out cards for a.... "service" that I'm pretty sure is illegal in all fifty states and territories of the U.S. There were more and more of these card passer-outers as we got closer to this building.

Yep. That's right. It's not the best picture, but as you can see by its title, it's the devil's house. He lives right on the strip.


We got to see a few shows while we were there. The first was the Tournament of Kings. It was a dinner show in the basement of the Excalibur, and despite the smell of horses, it arguably had the cleanest air in the entire establishment.


It was fun! Each section cheered for their knight. Ours was the evil Dragon Knight.


Here's a little clip for your viewing enjoyment:



We got suckered into going to a presentation that was much longer than we anticipated (mostly because it was much longer than they told us to anticipate), and was rewarded with Lion King tickets!

It was okay. The costumes and the set were FABULOUS. Really creative and cool. But the musical itself... Well, it was pretty much exactly, word for word, like the movie. Even the inflections in their voices were the same. So it was basically seeing the movie live. Cool, definitely. But not the $240-it-would-have-cost-us kind of cool.





Then we saw a Cirque Du Soleil show, Mystere. And holy cow if it wasn't the coolest thing I ever did see, I'm not sure what is. Seriously worth every penny. Holy cow. I think I watched the entire thing with my jaw dropped. It was beyond amazing. I would jump on going to this show over and over again, and you should too, if you ever get the chance.


Here's a 30 second clip of the incredibleness:



Lance and I wanted a 2010 version of the king and queen picture we got 15 years ago, so we went to the spot at the Excalibur, and it had been replaced with a laser maze! Darn technology. So, on our last night in Vegas, which just happened to fall ON our anniversary, we got this picture taken of us at the Mystere show.


All in all, it was a fabulous vacation, and Lance and I really enjoyed spending the three days together. There were many times that I thought "Dang! I wish my kids were here to see this!" and then I'd look to the right or the left and think "Dang. I'm glad my kids aren't here to see this." As much as I hate going somewhere cool and thinking how much I wish my kids were experiencing it with me, it turns out that a vacation now and then with just your spouse is a thing of beauty.