Hi all and welcome to our Las Vegas vacation post!!  We had so much fun in Vegas with Heidi.  It was a very relaxing and entertaining trip!!  Yay Birthday Trip!!

Leaving Sydney went well.  We had a great time at Heidi’s Birthday party Saturday and turned in early to be ready for our flights.  We took the Light Rail to Central and then a train to the airport.  Sydney airport is cool.  So many ritzy stores to look in and restaurants to pass the time at.  The McDonalds we passed had two floors and a belt line to bring bags down on.  Pretty fun to watch.  Everything went fine with our flights and bags.  Heidi was on our plane to LAX, but an earlier flight out to Vegas.  We took an Uber from the airport to her friend’s house.  The weather while we were there was HOT, like 100+ (40+) and full sun!! We would chill by the pool, then go out exploring the strip after the sun set when it was cooler.

There really is gambling everywhere in Vegas; the airport, the grocery store, the lobbies of most places.  You can also smoke pretty much everywhere, which was annoying and gross.  Pot is also legal and well liked.  I smelled that on people more than cigarettes usually.  We left Sydney Sunday morning and arrived Sunday lunch time in Vegas.  🙂 We lazed by the pool a bit, then hit up the Cheescake Factory at the Caesars Palace Forum Shops.  It was really good, and we split a cheesecake for dessert.  There are so many different themes of slot machines!!  We saw everything from basic, to words, cartoons, movies, games,  sports, TV shows; any theme you can thing of.  We wandered around Caesars, then the Bellagio casino, hotel, gardens, and fountain show.  They have 30 songs they perform with the fountains all day and night.  People dressed like show girls, super heroes, and Mickey characters walk the side walk to get pictures with tourists for tips.  We walked through the Mile Mall and saw robot bartenders.  We tried to stay up as late as possible to make the transition from easier from Sydney time to Vegas time and back.  We will see how well we did in the first few days of being back home.

Monday started out with a sleep in and then relaxing by the pool.  We went to The Strip earlier to do some exploring of New York, New York with Hershey World, the Excalibur (Medieval), the Luxor (Egyptian), Mandalay Bay, Tropicana, and a drink at the Whiskey Bar at the MGM.  Heidi “played” the Ellen Game (Cat week!!).  Most of the hotels/casinos are close together that you can stay in AC most of the time, but others are connected by outside walk ways that were hot!, but offered a really nice view of the strip.  There are so many escalators!!  It is too hot to walk the steps though, so I don’t blame them.  We also found a few free monorails to help us get around faster.  We found the world’s largest chocolate fountain at the Bellagio shops on the way to Yellow Tail for dinner.  It was lovely, light Asian food and we got drinks and dessert to round it all out.  We stopped to see the fountains again, then headed to Downtown Vegas/Old Vegas/Fremont St. via Uber.  It was really fun!  There were all kinds of people on Fremont St.  The older, classic casinos, and live music on the street.  We stopped in Binion’s to see 1 million dollars on the table, then the Golden Nugget to see the largest gold nugget ever found (from Australia!!).   We then played some roulette at the Golden Nugget.  Brandon and I only did one bet, but Heidi stayed in and ended up winning even more.  It was fun!  The first time I ever really gambled.  Then Heidi played Heidi’s Bier Garden slot machine (pokie).  Bar maiden Heidi was not as nice to our Heidi as the roulette table was, but still amusing to see.  We ended the night at White Castle for a snack, then an Uber back.

Tuesday, Brandon and I got up early and Ubered to the Excaliber to be picked up for our Grand Canyon Tour.  We picked up people from a few hotels on The Strip, then we off to our first stop, a photo op of the Hoover Dam.  The Dam jokes never got old and there were sarcastic souvenirs to match.  We then stopped to pick up our bag lunches and some thing to drink from a gas station, then drove though a Joshua Tree forest.  It is all desert grazing land, so there were cattle crossing signs ans a few calves resting in the shade as we went by.  We got to the Hualapai Nation’s Welcome Center and were off on our adventure.  They had a shuttle bus to take you from the Welcome Center to the Ranch, Eagle Point, and Guano Point to view the West Rim of the Grand Canyon.  Here, the Canyon is only 4000 feet instead of 11000 like on the Southern Rim, so you can see the bottom and the Colorado River.  There were optional upgrades like a helicopter or boat ride or the Skywalk to do.  We elected to not.  The Canyon was so amazing.  So huge and majestic.  Amazing to see in person.  One disappointment we had was no Hover Rounds could be seen anywhere!!  It was too rocky and the shuttle buses were not equipped, but still, I expected one person to take their Hover Round to the Grand Canyon while we were there.  😉 We tried to stay cool, hydrated, and in the shade as much as possible.  After we explored each stop, we got a slushy at the Welcome Center before browsing all the gift shops for souvenirs.  Pretty cool that we got to see two Wonders of the Natural World this year; the Grand Canyon and the Great Barrier Reef.  Our world is so amazing!  We slept on the bus home and stopped at a food court for supper and Cinnabon!!  We turned in early and caught up with Heidi at the pool the next morning.

Wednesday, we had pool time, then went to the early Cirque du Soleil show O.  It was amazing.  It was acrobatics, dancing, and comedy over, in and around a pool stage that changed and moved.  One of our Uber drivers the day before had said he was in in, but we couldn’t pick him out.  We then had dinner at Hell’s Kitchen by Gordan Ramsey.  We even got notes in our drink from the Chef and Birthday dessert!  We walked more of the center of The Strip including the Flamingo and Paris hotels and casinos.  We ended the night at Napolean’s in the Paris casino, a piano bar.  The two guys performing were really good!  It was a fun night.

Thursday, after some pool time, Heidi’s friend dropped us off at the Venetian, our home the next few nights.  We explored our rooms, then the hotel’s casino, pool, and shops.  We met back up with Heidi’s friend and our house mates the previous days for dinner on the Grand Canal.  We then went to the Voodoo rooftop club at the Rio.  It had an amazing view of The Strip.  They charge $40 on the weekend for the same experience we had.  And it was a gorgeous night to be up there. We could see all the planes landing at the airport and helicopters too.  Outside the club was a vending machine for flats.  We did see some poor shoe and outfit decisions by women out and about.  Being able to walk and do stairs is very important in Vegas; it is a very active city.  After the club, Brandon and I got dropped off on Fremont Street to meet up with Lindsay, Megs, and Matt. Heidi and the rest of the gang headed off to keep the party going.  We watched a band on the street, then headed back to their hotel restaurant for snacks and drinks.

Friday, Lindsay came over to explore with me while the other two went to the Grand Canyon.  She and I went to the official “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign, then to the South Outlet mall for some shopping.  I found some awesome deals at Maurices and we got all of our souvenirs we wanted.  Matt and Megs picked us up, returned the rental car, then got a Lyft to drop me off and them at their hotel.  The traffic was so heavy for them, it took an hour for them to get back.  They had a power nap and then met Brandon and I for dinner at Guy Fieri’s restaurant which had delicious sandwiches and a punch bowl.  We wandered The Strip to check out the fountains, some casinos, the volcano at the Mirage and the pretend Pirate show at Treasure Island (they never came out, apparently it hasn’t been going for 4 years…).  They were impressed by our room and snack spread and the Venetian in general.  🙂 We drank mostly from Roadies, purchased at stores along the way.  Open intoxicants are legal on the streets and casinos and hotels let you carry in.  There are daiquiri bars everywhere that you can get a refillable cup from to carry or hang around your neck.  Much cheaper options than to buy drinks at the bar.  If you are gambling, they will bring you free drinks, but you have to be there a bit before they will ask you.  All the hotel/casinos have fun themes and uniforms for their staff.  People watching is so fun in Vegas.  So much drama and emotion.  Heidi had been at a pool party during the day, then went out with her friends that came into town.

Saturday, we met Megs, Matt, and Lindsay at the Aria for brunch.  Very impressive spread!  So delicious and full after that.  We walked through and into a few more hotels/casinos and had a drink at the Whiskey Bar in the MGM and in The Chandelier at the Cosmopolitan.  Brandon and I left them to go on the High Roller, the ferris wheel on The Strip, while we dressed and went off to the Rio for the Penn and Teller show with Heidi.  The three of us enjoyed it, then went to the Wynn to check it out and ate at the Asian restaurant there.  Not much was going on there, so we walked down The Strip to a Piano Bar.  The other three had crashed early to prep for their early flight the next day.

Sunday, we packed up, checked out, left our bags with the bellman and went out for brunch.  We went to Hash House A GoGo which had ridiculously huge portions and was really busy.  It was good food, and a lot of it.  After seeing how big the plates were, we actually cancelled my order and I just ate off Heidi and Brandon’s.  We still didn’t finish it!  Afterward, we rounded up our stuff, then went back to Heidi’s friend’s house we had stayed in for some relaxing by the pool.  We enjoyed the heat until it was time to go to the airport and say farewell to Vegas.

We got back this morning to cloudy, rainy Sydney.  It has been either pouring or drizzling all day with occasional peaks of sun through the clouds.  A great day to unpack, get organized, clean, and do our finances.  The cats are enjoying us for our warmth; I am sure they are a little happy to see us.  Our flights on our way home were delayed 30 min, but it didn’t hold us back at all.  Now we are hoping to get back on a normal sleep pattern fast for working hours.  Brandon and I were able to sleep a bit since we had a whole row to ourselves and also got some movie watching in.  He jumped right back into work once the house was back in order.  I hope I meld that efficiently back into work.

Las Vegas was a blast.  The weather was amazing!!  We were in such great company and we met such great people there.  It was a relaxing, yet busy vacation; a great way to experience Vegas.  So fun!!  I am so happy to have been a part of it. 🙂

I just booked a flight back to Wisconsin for next week .  My dad needs another surgery in early July, so I am going back to spend time with them, be down at the hospital, and at their house as he recovers.  It is a repeat of the surgical repair he had in November that didn’t take.  He has also developed gallstones that will be removed.  Hopefully this surgery will go smoothly and he will be able to go home right away again.  This all has been so tough and wearing on both my parents.  Here’s hoping and praying that this is successful and his issues will be resolved.  Please keep both my parents in your prayers and send good, healing thoughts their way.  It will be fun to be back in the USA for 4th of July again.  Yay nice weather…I hope!!