We started out on the lower part of the strip. The first place we stopped was the Luxor. I'd never been in here before...but it's very cool. The architecture was awesome. The only downer was that the blog I had mentioned something about it having a hidden away garden, and we weren't able to find it.
We then went through Excalibur and then on to New York, New York. We decided to splurge a little bit and go on the rollercoaster. We were going to go on the rocket thing on top of the stratosphere, but you have to pay like $20 to even get up there and then another $15 to ride the ride! Not exactly worth it to me. But I'm very glad we decided on New York, New York because the rollercoaster was very fun! I suggest it to anyone that decides to road-trip to Vegas sometime. Definitely worth the $$.
From there we went to check out the Bellagio. This was definitely my favorite place. I've decided to start saving up for a room there....It's sooo gorgeous! I have always loved the fountain show out front, but I had never been inside before. They have this cute little conservatory in the lobby. The flowers are GORGEOUS! And they have cute decorations like gigantic ant statues, mushrooms, and gardening buckets and shovels. They also had giant butterflies and such hanging from the ceiling. I'll attach some pictures. It was a really cool place.
We then went across the street to the Paris hotel. I was really excited for this one because I think the Eiffel tower is awesome. It ended up being just as cool as I hoped. They offer this Eiffel tower ride where they take you to the top and just let you look out across Vegas. We didn't end up doing it because I would want to go up after dark, and after dark it was twice as much as during the day. Not worth it to me or Luke. There was this cute little walkway that we wandered through past the casino and eating area. It's called the Streets of Paris walkway. It was a walkway that led to Bally's that was designed to look like the streets of Paris. Very cool.
We then stopped at the M&M and Coke factories. If we were to go back again, I would want to spend more time here. We kinda had to rush because there was still SO much to see. But both factories were very cool.
We then stopped by the MGM on the way back to the car. The lion habitat in there is very cool! AND there were new baby cubs! I guess they let a certain number of people play with the cubs in the mornings...Definitely jealous of those people. The cubs were adorable. Also, MGM was hosting the ACM Awards the next day, so we hung around where they were going to be for a while...hoping to see someone famous. No luck :(
Once we got to the car we drove to the upper part of the strip. We decided to bypass the Fashion Show Mall because I wasn't in a shopping mood (and neither was my wallet!) and we were a bit behind schedule. We did check out the Mirage, but I was definitely let down. They have a White Tiger and a Dolphin habitat here, but it was rather pricey to get in. I assumed that since the Lion habitat in the MGM was free, these ones would be too. They did have a mini tropical rainforest area near the lobby which was pretty cool. I was still disappointed with the Mirage overall though.
We walked through the Caesars palace area for the next bit. The place is so huge that it was kinda a waste to even try to see everything, so we just walked through the grounds on the way to our next stop and looked in on the Forum shops area. The Venetian was next on our list and it was VERY cool. The wax figure museum that Luke wanted to see was pretty expensive (are you noticing the trend here yet? I didn't realize how expensive EVERYTHING is in Vegas! Except for the parking: absolutely free), so we didn't end up checking that out. The Grand Canal and the Grand Canal Shoppe areas were awesome! The gondolas were really cool and unique. I wanted to ride one, but didn't bother checking into it. I'm sure it was out of the budget we set for ourselves, and we were still pretty tight on time. I still enjoyed the Venetian very much.
We decided that it was about time to eat then...we walked to SO many different places trying to find a buffet that wouldn't break the budget....We had seen a buffet at New York, New York that was $20 a person for dinner, so we were hoping to find one around that same price. We didn't want to head back to New York, New York because we were clear on the opposite side of the strip, and our feet hurt VERY BAD. We weren't able to find a buffet that was less than $30/person on the upper strip, so we ended up trying this New York Pizza place that was in a food court near Herrah's. The pizza was huge, dripping with grease, and delicious! It may have taken a few years off my life, but it was definitely worth it.
After eating, we decided to head towards our last stop, downtown Las Vegas. I had researched ways to do this beforehand and had decided the Trolley was the best way to go. Turns out-no one has ever heard of the Trolley. We asked various workers at Harrah's and they all gave us blank stares. We decided to try out the monorail, but once we walked ALL the way to the station we found out that it didn't go downtown. By this point I was super frustrated. I was a dummy and decided to wear flats with absolutely zero arch support. Biggest mistake of my life...My feet were seriously killing me, so you can imagine my despair at finding out the long walk to the monorail was not only pointless, but that we had to walk all the way back out front of Harrah's to catch the bus. Once we got outside of Harrah's, we couldn't find the bus stop anywhere. What a joke. We found out that the closest bus stop was at the Venetian, so we headed there.
When the bus FINALLY came we were lucky enough to step on, only to be told by the driver (quite rudely) that we had to get off and wait for the next bus. So we waited around for about 30 minutes or so for the next bus. The other people that had to wait with us were very entertaining though. They were very nice and super funny. They were cracking everyone up. When the next bus came, our new little group of friends were all able to get on. We ended up heading to the second floor of the bus and hanging out up there. There weren't seats, but we were just happy to finally be on the bus. At the next stop, the bus suddenly decided to stop working. I guess the doors wouldn't shut or something. This cleared people off the bus real fast (with lots of language!) so it was a blessing because we finally got to sit down. Even though the drive to downtown ended up taking nearly an hour, I don't regret it at all. The people on the second level were SO funny. It made the ride very enjoyable and ended up being one of my favorite parts.
When we FINALLY got to downtown I was worried that it would be a let down after all the hassle it took to get there. It was not. Even though by this point I wanted to die rather than take another step, I still think it was worth every problem we had getting there. The light show on Fremont street was really cool, and we had a nice surprise afterwards. It turns out that Miranda Lambert was having a concert there! I'm not really into any of her music, but it was still enjoyable. The place was packed though! It was a little bit nuts. After we watched that for a while, we checked out some of the shops and hotels around there. I was very impressed with downtown Vegas. And we were able to find a Walgreens and I got some arch support insoles. Made a world of difference.
The bus ride back to the strip was as much of a hassle as the bus ride there. We finally got back to where we parked, only to find the parking garage closed! There were no signs ANYWHERE saying that it closed so we were freaking out. We saw some workers walking down there, so Luke ran after them and talked with them. They pointed out the one gate that was left open and then told us that we should hurry because it gets pretty scary down there....Needless to say, I've never hurried so fast to a car before. Yikes! We got out of there pretty fast and then we both felt immensely better. From there we just headed back to Cedar (getting back WAY later than planned). It was an AWESOME trip. I enjoyed spending the day with Luke and seeing so many fun things. We both had a blast and were reminded of how much fun we can have together. I'm very lucky to have him! He didn't complain once about how slow I was walking or my complaining about my feet. He's a sweetheart :)
And now for the happy news.....For those of you that don't know, Luke was given the Aaronic priesthood on Sunday. He's been working towards this with the bishop for a few months and I'm VERY proud of him. He's now working towards getting the Melchezidec (I have no idea how to spell that) and should be getting that within a month or so. I'm so very happy and proud of him!
I think it's safe to say this is the longest blog EVER. I sometimes have the gift of gab and don't know when to stop. But I'm very happy with where I'm at and who I'm with...I can't wait to come home this summer though!
