What happens in Vegas...

So at the end of March, Sarah and I FINALLY got to go on our real honeymoon, a trip to Las Vegas. It was the first time for either of us to go to Sin City, and we had a blast!

The approach to the airport. We think the bright line of lights is the Strip, but we saw a lot of spots of light, so it's hard for us to be certain.












Our room. Nothing fancy, but we were on the top floor, so we had a great view!












And this is the view! We never closed the curtains because at night the lights were amazing and in the morning the sun woke us up!











A view of the swimming pool. Most of the newer hotels are all enclosed...even the pools. But the Flamingo is older and actually had an outdoor pool. Unfortunately, the only day Sarah let me not do something from the moment we woke up until the moment we went to sleep it was barely 70 degrees! Thanks, Sarah!







The hotel has a flamingo habitat. You can actually walk through it and watch the feeding several times a day.











At the Venetian, you can take a gondola trip outside the hotel. The weather was nice, so we took advantage of it. If you go inside, they have canals in the mall part of the hotel that offer the same trip.

One thing about the hotels: Most of them had ceilings painted to look like the sky. It was a pretty good likeness, but it made me wonder why, other than the summer heat, you would want to be cooped up all day inside a building!



Vegas features a Ghirardelli store where you can buy the chocolates as well as have some of their home-made ice cream. We stopped there, and enjoyed the antics of this little pigeon who kept walking back in! It was amazing how domesticated many of the birds are!








One of the parts of our vacation package was a tour of the Hoover Dam. Now I've always seen the pictures of the dam, but never really understood the magnitude of the structure. This is us after the "dam" tour.









This is one of the four or five turbines that, when activated by the water from the dam, generate electricity. This turbine was down for maintenance, and you can actually see a maintenance worker inside!









After 9/11, the two-lane road that goes over the dam between Nevada and Arizona was shut down. It was gradually re-opened to people who are going to the dam, and those vehicles have to stop at a checkpoint to be inspected.

This picture shows a suspension bridge that is under construction to connect the two states in a more direct route. Currently, the semis have to go about 30 miles out of their way to get between the two states. You couldn't get me to work on that road!


One of Sarah's co-workers in the Freshmen Center recommended this place for good Italian food. Luckily, it was just around the corner from our hotel.

The food was AMAZING! you got a decanter of wine with your meal, salad, bread, and cappucino with the meal. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!






Overall it was a great week! We saw the Bergere Follies on Monday (four days before closing their 49-year run), Bette Midler on Tuesday, Cirque du Soliel's "O" Show on Wednesday, and the impersonators on Thursday. We couldn't take any pictures in the theatres, but they were well worth seeing! We hope to go back someday for two or three days to see some more shows and do more!