Vegas, Volume Two

I'll have to get the next set of pics from Amanda (we are so bad at taking pictures, so we decided to just borrow hers). I should be able to show you most of them.
Tuesday Matt, Amanda, and I spent the day exploring the big casinos and shopping of Vegas. We got a 24 hour pass on the monorail system and did A LOT of walking. We went to MGM Grand, Harrah's, The Venetian, Treasure Island, Caesar's Palace, Paris, and Ballys during the day. That evening, we decided to go see a show at the Stratosphere. Before the show we went to dinner at an Italian restaurant at the casino that was surprisingly good. After the show, we intended to go see the fountain show at The Bellagio, but we realized that they stopped after midnight and we got there about 1:00. So we decided to head over to Caesar's Palace and went to Cleopatra's Barge Nightclub (not the best name, but we had fun). Since the monorail closed at 2:00, we couldn't stay long and we headed back to our hotel for the night.
Wednesday we headed over to the Fashion Show Mall because Matt needed some new shoes (he had only packed sandals and couldn't wear them to most of the clubs in town). Since he was getting new shoes, I decided to get some too (they were on sale at Macy's). That night was the big HOW Conference with a theme of "Vintage Vegas" so we all got dressed up and put our dancing shoes on. We had tons of fun and shut the party down at about 1:30.
Thursday morning I got up and headed over to the conference for the closing keynote speaker. I wasn't quite sure that I would make it down, but I was glad I did. The speaker talked about "radical careering" which is basically her theory for getting the most out of your career and taking control of your career path. I really enjoyed it and got a lot out of what she had to say.
After that we headed out to the pool and had lunch with Sarah's staff. Since Sarah had not been able to go to the pool all week, she was very excited to check it out and get a little sun. Since no trip to Vegas is complete without a dinner buffet, we went to the Pharoh's Pheast at the Luxor with Matt, Amanda, Bryn, Tricia, Megan, Susan, and Carmen. After dinner Matt, Amanda, Carmen, Sarah, and I went over to New York New York for a round at the Oxygen Bar. None of us had been to one before so we wanted to find out what it was like. Basically, you sit there for 20 minutes with a tube sending scented oxygen up your nose. It is supposed to give you energy and make you feel refreshed. I can't say for sure that it worked, but I really think it did. We were out LATE that night. After the oxygen, we went down to the casino to play some slots. We settled on the "Wheel of Fortune" and had a blast. Whenever you landed on a "Spin" you got to spin the wheel to win up to 1000 quarters. Sarah spun a few times and was up $20 for a while, but eventually we lost it all. After that we went over to Studio 54 at MGM Grand. Being a Thursday night the party wasn't going too much at that time, but we gave it a little bit of time and it got much better. After a while, we decided we'd had enough of the club scene so we went back to New York New York and went to an Irish bar that had a live band playing. At 2:00 they kicked us out because they were closing and we decided that we were hungry. So we went back to Luxor and had some "breakfast" at the all night cafe. After that, we decided to call it a night and headed to our rooms around 3:30.
Friday morning we slept in (surprise, surprise). We met Matt and Amanda for lunch at the Burger Bar and then headed down to the pool for one more sun session. After that we got ready for dinner. We had decided to make our last night in town a big one and went to Alize, the restaurant on the top floor of The Palms casino. We had probably the best table in the restaurant with an amazing view of the entire strip. We really enjoyed the whole experience, it was awesome. After dinner, we headed over to The Bellagio to see the fountains (they were still on this time) and we got to see two shows. One was choreographed to "Viva Las Vegas" and the other to the theme from "Somewhere in Time." It was pretty cool. After that we called it a night, since we had an early flight the next day.
The trip home went very smoothly and we all had a great time throughout the whole week. I think we've all seen enough of Vegas for quite a while, but look forward to vacationing together again soon!