New York, New York!
Thursday, April 28, 2005
Viva Las Vegas!
Yes, I'm completely behind on posting. I think it's the time of year with the weather and being busy. But, we're now back from our Vegas trip and I definitely wanted to post some comments and pictures of the event!
Before that, my brother was here for a nice long weekend a couple of weeks ago. We had a good time hanging out and even had a chance to go out one night with Mike, Dave and Charlie. A good time was had by all. And me being the only chick with my uncles, my husband and my brother was even more interesting! We also visited with the grandparents, celebrated Grandma Webb's 85th birthday, and were able to see the extended Garness clan as well.
In between, my cousin Sara was notified that her trip to Ethiopia to pick up Jesse was suddenly sped up and she had to leave within a week. They arrived home last night, so I'm anxious to hear how things went. Even more, we are very excited to see our new family member!
On to Vegas-we left late on Thursday night last week and got into Sin City at 11pm Pacific time. This means that it was 1 am Central, so I was whupped. Getting a ride to the hotel took awhile, checking in took longer, so when we dropped our bags onto the ratty carpet of our room at the Sahara (with iron marks on the carpet) it was now 12:30am PST. I went to bed. Mike did not! He stayed up and got acquainted with the hotel, took a short walk to the Straosphere (getting accidently side tracked on the wrong street and noticed "Asian Massage Parlors" and realized he better get the hell out of there!) and had a good time on his own.
We had breakfast at IHOP the next morning (believe it or not, we had never eaten there before and wanted to give it a try!) and headed for the strip. We went to the Stratosphere to take in the views, which were amazing. Mike even did one of the rides that hangs you out suspended over the side-crazy! He loved it. Then we headed down to the mid-strip via the new Monorail system.
Folks, Vegas has found a winner in building that Monorail. It's located behind the strip and has major stops at the Sahara, Hilton, Vegas Convention Center, Harrahs, Paris, and stops last at MGM. We used it for everything we could since the Sahara is at the north end and quite removed from everything. We bought 2 $20 ride passes that could be shared and it lasted us for the whole trip. Kudos to Vegas Public Transportation there!
We saw the Mirage, Treasure Island, Harrahs, pretty much mid-strip hotels. We headed to the Elvis-o-rama museum at this point (which took FOREVER to find and walk to) but it was well worth it. We took in a 1 hour concert and then toured the museum of stuff this guy has collected. Worth about 3 million dollars, there is stuff there that Graceland would probably like to get their hands on! The concert, however, was the highlight! This guy was amazing and did a first class tribute to the King. He sounded like him, sang like him, looked pretty close to him, and was very entertaining. At the end, he met people in the gift shop and I had my picture taken with him. I was on Cloud 9! (Mike laughed at me the whole time.)
That evening we went back down to the strip and got off at the Paris stop. That place is cool-Eiffel Tower, the whole bit. Then we went to watch the Bellagio Fountains. The fountains were beautiful and I could have stood there all night. We continued to walk up the strip and saw Caesars', many shops, The Mirage and it's volcano, Treasure Island and the ship, you name it. Vegas at night was a treat.
Saturday we spent most of the day at Hoover Dam. What to say? Really, a marvel. We had great weather and enjoyed getting out of the city for a bit.
Saturday night we went down to MGM Grand and New York, New York. We've decided that we'd like to stay down there next time because we loved the atmosphere. NY, NY has so much attention to detail, I don't know what more they could have done! Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge, everything.
We went to the Venetian as well, and were so taken, again, with the details. I truly felt like I was in Venice with the gondolas and the canals. I think I liked it more then Mike because I wanted to stay there all night!
Also, at our hotel, we had the NASCAR Cafe, so we spent time eating supper there and watching the race Saturday night. That was super cool, but we booed Kurt Busch as much as possible since he is a Vegas native. Most of the bar was cheering for him!
Sunday we kept it low key and hung out at the pool. That night we went out to dinner at a nice restaurant (We even dressed up!) at Harrahs. Then, we finally were able to do some gambling at our hotel. In the course of about 1/2 hour, we lost a total of $45 in no time at all. That was enough for us, so we gave up.
Back to Minnesota early Monday where we picked up Madison in Zumbrota from Mom and Barry. She was spoiled and had a great time with grandpa and grandma! She was happy to see us though, and has stayed pretty close to me since we got home. Mike left for Iowa to spend the rest of his Spring Break there on Wednesday.
So, that was Vegas in a nutshell! Pictures posted above.
(Biggest Strip news was the opening this week of the new resort Wynn. This was created by Steve Wynn who built the Bellagio, MGM Grand, and Mirage. We think that the character Terry Benedict from Ocean's Eleven is based on him! Anyway, the new resort cost $235 BILLON to build. It's huge and stands out on the strip big time. His comment (after losing the Bellagio) was, "I'm going to build an even better hotel that will make the Bellagio look like a Motel 6." Scary, but he has!)
Yes, I'm completely behind on posting. I think it's the time of year with the weather and being busy. But, we're now back from our Vegas trip and I definitely wanted to post some comments and pictures of the event!
Before that, my brother was here for a nice long weekend a couple of weeks ago. We had a good time hanging out and even had a chance to go out one night with Mike, Dave and Charlie. A good time was had by all. And me being the only chick with my uncles, my husband and my brother was even more interesting! We also visited with the grandparents, celebrated Grandma Webb's 85th birthday, and were able to see the extended Garness clan as well.
In between, my cousin Sara was notified that her trip to Ethiopia to pick up Jesse was suddenly sped up and she had to leave within a week. They arrived home last night, so I'm anxious to hear how things went. Even more, we are very excited to see our new family member!
On to Vegas-we left late on Thursday night last week and got into Sin City at 11pm Pacific time. This means that it was 1 am Central, so I was whupped. Getting a ride to the hotel took awhile, checking in took longer, so when we dropped our bags onto the ratty carpet of our room at the Sahara (with iron marks on the carpet) it was now 12:30am PST. I went to bed. Mike did not! He stayed up and got acquainted with the hotel, took a short walk to the Straosphere (getting accidently side tracked on the wrong street and noticed "Asian Massage Parlors" and realized he better get the hell out of there!) and had a good time on his own.
We had breakfast at IHOP the next morning (believe it or not, we had never eaten there before and wanted to give it a try!) and headed for the strip. We went to the Stratosphere to take in the views, which were amazing. Mike even did one of the rides that hangs you out suspended over the side-crazy! He loved it. Then we headed down to the mid-strip via the new Monorail system.
Folks, Vegas has found a winner in building that Monorail. It's located behind the strip and has major stops at the Sahara, Hilton, Vegas Convention Center, Harrahs, Paris, and stops last at MGM. We used it for everything we could since the Sahara is at the north end and quite removed from everything. We bought 2 $20 ride passes that could be shared and it lasted us for the whole trip. Kudos to Vegas Public Transportation there!
We saw the Mirage, Treasure Island, Harrahs, pretty much mid-strip hotels. We headed to the Elvis-o-rama museum at this point (which took FOREVER to find and walk to) but it was well worth it. We took in a 1 hour concert and then toured the museum of stuff this guy has collected. Worth about 3 million dollars, there is stuff there that Graceland would probably like to get their hands on! The concert, however, was the highlight! This guy was amazing and did a first class tribute to the King. He sounded like him, sang like him, looked pretty close to him, and was very entertaining. At the end, he met people in the gift shop and I had my picture taken with him. I was on Cloud 9! (Mike laughed at me the whole time.)
That evening we went back down to the strip and got off at the Paris stop. That place is cool-Eiffel Tower, the whole bit. Then we went to watch the Bellagio Fountains. The fountains were beautiful and I could have stood there all night. We continued to walk up the strip and saw Caesars', many shops, The Mirage and it's volcano, Treasure Island and the ship, you name it. Vegas at night was a treat.
Saturday we spent most of the day at Hoover Dam. What to say? Really, a marvel. We had great weather and enjoyed getting out of the city for a bit.
Saturday night we went down to MGM Grand and New York, New York. We've decided that we'd like to stay down there next time because we loved the atmosphere. NY, NY has so much attention to detail, I don't know what more they could have done! Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge, everything.
We went to the Venetian as well, and were so taken, again, with the details. I truly felt like I was in Venice with the gondolas and the canals. I think I liked it more then Mike because I wanted to stay there all night!
Also, at our hotel, we had the NASCAR Cafe, so we spent time eating supper there and watching the race Saturday night. That was super cool, but we booed Kurt Busch as much as possible since he is a Vegas native. Most of the bar was cheering for him!
Sunday we kept it low key and hung out at the pool. That night we went out to dinner at a nice restaurant (We even dressed up!) at Harrahs. Then, we finally were able to do some gambling at our hotel. In the course of about 1/2 hour, we lost a total of $45 in no time at all. That was enough for us, so we gave up.
Back to Minnesota early Monday where we picked up Madison in Zumbrota from Mom and Barry. She was spoiled and had a great time with grandpa and grandma! She was happy to see us though, and has stayed pretty close to me since we got home. Mike left for Iowa to spend the rest of his Spring Break there on Wednesday.
So, that was Vegas in a nutshell! Pictures posted above.
(Biggest Strip news was the opening this week of the new resort Wynn. This was created by Steve Wynn who built the Bellagio, MGM Grand, and Mirage. We think that the character Terry Benedict from Ocean's Eleven is based on him! Anyway, the new resort cost $235 BILLON to build. It's huge and stands out on the strip big time. His comment (after losing the Bellagio) was, "I'm going to build an even better hotel that will make the Bellagio look like a Motel 6." Scary, but he has!)
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