So Vegas was indeed as ridiculous and overstimulating as everyone said it would be. My flight from Philly was delayed almost 2 hours, so I got there at 8 instead of 6. Rusty and I picked up the rental car and headed to Mike's house - we were going to meet the rest of the guys at one of the casinos. After about an hour of trying to get into Mike's house, eating In-n-Out Burger in the driveway and someone (ahem, Rusty) locking the keys in the car, we called a cab and hit the strip.
We were supposed to rendezvous at Rok at New York, New
York - but by the time Rusty and I got there (around 10:30) the cover was $100...no thanks. Rusty and I took to the streets (the Strip was closed to traffic), bought some 40's and pitchers, and decided to stake out a place to watch the fireworks. A while later the guys came out and joined us to watch the fireworks in front of Bellagio. It was pretty surreal to be standing in the middle of Las Vegas, pitchers in hand, and watching fireworks explode over Bellagio and Caesar's Palace. After the celebrations died down (and we were able to pee, the casinos/hotels were closed between 11:30 and 12:30) we headed back to Rok, where the cover had dropped significantly, and partied there for a while, before leaving and once again roaming the strip. Decided to call it a night at about 4:30am, and after waiting almost an hour for a cab, we paid $150 for a limo to take us back to Henderson. Price wasn't an issue, we just wanted to get home.Friday was incredibly lazy, and did absolutely nothing productive - we were resting up to go to the Grand Canyon. We checked out some of the hotels and casinos at night (namely Aria at City Center, this brand new complex that had just opened 2 weeks before). Tried my luck at the slots at Luxor, but wasn't terribly successful. It was ok though,
because we had an early morning on Saturday; the Grand Canyon was a 4+ hour drive from Las Vegas. There was a lot of back and forth about going, but we eventually decided that since we were there, we might as well go. We stopped at the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead along the way (actually, you have to go across the Hoover Dam to get to the Grand Canyon), which were pretty cool. The Dam is the border between Nevada and Arizona, and you also cross a time-zone, which we had no idea until we came back. The scenery along the way was pretty amazing, lots of mountains, limited towns, and not a whole lot of houses. We did manage a stop at Grasshopper Junction, a sweet roadside stop in middle-of-nowhere Arizona to use the facilities and refuel. Along the way, the road signs were a little deceiving, because once you took the exit that said GRAND CANYON, it was still 50 miles away.
It was 100% worth the drive though, even though I was surprised at how much snow there was (about 3 inches) - isn't that supposed to be the desert?! The first stop was at the visitors center and Yavapai point. Tons of people, because that's pretty
much the only place the tour buses go in the winter. There were a couple of different points you could go out an look on, and after hanging out there (and having a snowball fight), we got back in the car and drove the 7 mile Hermit's Rest trail along the South Rim. There were a bunch of places along the way that you could stop and take some photos, and the views were nothing short of spectacular. I'm not one to usually gush about nature, but this was pretty freaking incredible. I also really liked that you could just drive out, park, take some pictures, and then keep going. The roads were all paved, pretty wide, and completely clear. There were also all kinds of animals, we had to stop a couple of times so that some Elk could cross the road. On the way back, we stopped at this point where there weren't any barriers, and we could sit on the ledge of the Canyon. It was pretty cool, and we were kind of by ourselves, so it was quiet, and you could hear the Colorado River in the distance.
Sunday was spent exploring the casinos along the strip. Great thing about Vegas - free valet parking. Not great thing about Vegas - they stop serving breakfast at 11am, even on Sundays. Ended up having Chipotle for breakfast (not ideal), got tickets to Cirque du Soleil's Mystere, strolled along the canals of the Venetian, rode the rides atop the Stratosphere (109 stories in up) and the roller coaster at New York, New York, which was a little painful. Once the sun went down, we were able to see "Sirens of ti" (which was as ridiculous as it sounds) that had a cool sinking pirate ship, and the volcano at the Mirage erupt.
It's funny how different the strip looks at night - Casino Royale was pretty shabby looking during the day, but looked totally different at night, and actually kind of nice. Mystere was pretty awesome, even if it was a little bit out there and just kind of came to an abrupt end. The performers were incredible, and the trapeze guys were especially cool, performing probably 100 feet above the stage with not a whole lot of nets to catch them. Rusty, Nick, Jerome and I had a great dinner at the steakhouse at ti and then wandered over to the Wynn (which was absolutely stunning and cost $1.8 billion, yes, billion, to build) for some drinks and cigars at Parasol Down. Wynn was pretty classy, and probably my favorite casino/hotel we checked out during the trip.Monday was also a pretty low-key day, started out with brunch at Bellagio (which we had tried to do the day before), and did tons of walking to explore Pairs (lame), MGM Grand (HUGE) and Mandalay Bay (also enormous, and far away). The highlight of the day though, was the Fountains at Bellagio. They did two shows, Whitney Houston's version of the National Anthem from Superbowl XXV in 1991, which was pretty spectacular, and Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bochelli's version of "Time to Say Goodbye", which was also spectacular. I took the video with my new camera - huzzah!
So that was pretty much the trip in a blog entry. Had a great time, unlike any place I had ever been, and I'm actually excited to go back in May for Nate's bachelor party (although it's going to be MUCH more expensive since we have to pay for a hotel)....perhaps this will become a yearly tradition?
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