Las Vegas - June 30 - July 5
Wow, that was surreal. Karen and I flew out to Nevada for a week because our roomate, Natalie, had her wedding in Vegas. There are so many complications and stories intertwined in this trip....
The fun stuff first. :-) I absolutely loathe flying, nothing that heavy should be soaring through the air. Oh, I understand the physics, it's the logistics that just don't make it for me. But the flight was fine and we arrived in sunny, warm, Nevada safely. We decided to stay at the Boardwalk Casino because it is the home of the $3 tables, has a pool, in the middle of the strip, and um, yeah...was teh cheapest place to stay on the strip. We do have priorities. Less money spent on the hotel meant more money to gamble and spend going out. Yes, the Boardwalk was definitely the cheapest place on the strip. No fancy decor are flashing lights here. We did have two clean beds and an immaculate bathroom though, all we needed. We only had time to do one thing the night we arrived, so we decided to visit The Stratosphere, which is a 100+ story building with an exposed roller coaster on the top. Woohoo! There are a few things to know about Vegas: people are super friendly, the streets and sidewalks are amazingly clean, porn is everywhere, and everything LOOKS like walking distance. The kay word is "looks". With every building so flashy and tall, everything LOOKS close. We were sadly and sorely mistaken. On our trek there the two of us have never been cat called as many times as we had been. Do you really think that since you're calling us from your ride as you cruise slowly down the street we're going to talk to you? No. We spent our days by the pool, our afternoons gambling, and our nights at bars and clubs. The next night we went to Coyote Ugly. Didn't take much and shortly after we arrived Karen and I were up on the bars dancing and singing. Is it good to go to a wedding hungover? The wedding was the next day. Yeah....another paragraph is needed for that, and I will get to that after the fun stuff. The night of the wedding, Karen and I went to the Ghostbar, which is at the Palms, which LOOKED like walking distance. So here Karen and I are in the streets of Vegas, dressed up, trying to walk across highways to the Palms. We wouldn't have had to walk and risk our lives if Natalie didn't forget about us :-/. But we got in, for free no less because we are so smooth and had a great time with the outstanding view. the Ghostbar is on top of the casino on the 55th floor. Its decorated in all black and purple and blue and green neon lights. For more, see here: http://www.vegas.com/nightclubs/ghostbar/ Amazing. And great drinks. :-) The next night we went to see the Blue Man Group and eat and hang out at the Hard Rock. BMG was an incredible show infusing world jazzy rock music with theatrical comedic performances. Plus we got to meet them after, so that was cool. Karen and I finally got to hang out with the newlyweds so we went to Hard Rock to eat, drink, and be merry. I literally ran into Pat from Train and was too dumbfounded to say how amazing I think they are. Fourth of July was our last night there and decided we just needed to be out all day and take it all in. We spent the day on the strip going into and gambling at every casino and watched fireworks from our hotel afterwards. We got ready and took a cab to the Palms so we could check out Rain, another club. After waiting behind the velvet ropes for two hours we said screw it and hit the bar. The one thing about Vegas is that everyone is extremely nice and everyone immediately has a topic on conversation to delve into "where are you from, and why are you here". So we met some guys from Indiana, I think we crashed their party, then left and saw Woody Allen hop out of his limo. I think I saw more limos than taxi cabs while there... off to Hard Rock! A lot of great people were there. Poison was there. We met some people and they were talking our pictures as if we were all good friends. Then waiting near the bathroom some more people met up with us, one ended up being a DJ as well, so that was cool. We went to gamble and these two guys came over to us and I swear they were psychic. But they were awesome and I wanted to tlak with them more, so after a break, we went to the bar and met up with them again, along with another group of people. We all had met that night but it felt like we all were hanging out and knew each other for much longer. Russ and Rob, the psychic ones, seemed toknow everyone and spent the rest of the evening introducing us to everyone. And they were shady on what they did...odd how everyone has a disguise there... ;-) Introduced us to Trevor (or is it Brian...!? ;-) ) and Dan from the band, Ian Jones. Hung out with them until we saw daylight and realized it was 5:30 am. Damn. Hit up a cab, went to the hotel to take a nap, then off to catch the plane. So yeah, the plane ride. Again, I will reiterate how much I do NOT like flying. The take off was really shaky for 45 minutes. Shortly after I calmed myself down, the pilot, Captain Robinson, informs us that we will be going through a storm and wil hit major turbelence. After the first shakiy minutes, the plane was nearly convulsing and I have a panic attack. I start shaking and hyperventaling and crying. I was rocking back and forth trying to catch my breathe. I think it was the longest half hour of my life. the poor flight attendents came to my aid which only made matters worse since I was so embarrassed. So again, I calm down and I look out the window and see lightning. Another panic attack. Around North Carolina I was ok till the landing. I nearly kissed the ground when I got off the plane...
The wedding...
It would have been great if the bridesmaids weren't snubbed by the family. Congratulations to Kevin and Natalie, they're a great couple. :-) The wedding was beautiful, everything else was not.