Vegas day 1 - re-familiarizing ourselves with the strip

Our plane landed in Vegas at 4:00 their time Tuesday. (They are 3 hours behind us...) We took a shuttle to our hotel. We stayed at Mandalay Bay. 

Our room looks green in this pic but it wasn't. I think the sun reflecting off another building gave it this green tone. This was home for 3 nights for the low, low price of $119/night. PLUS a $22.40 'resort fee'/night. Plus $14.40 tax for each day. Sigh. Vegas is expensive... 

 

Our first order of business was to find something to eat!!! I know you've heard that Vegas has cheap food. This is a dirty, filthy lie. Unless these places are hiding somewhere we couldn't find them! This was our view after we got off the tram that connects Mandalay Bay, Excalibur & New York, New York. 

 

One thing I love about Vegas is that everything is super sized. This is part of New York New York. 

 

One thing I don't like about Vegas is that everything is super sized. Yes, you read that correctly. Everything there is larger than life, but it's also very mis-leading. You say, "Oh, let's go here. It's just right there..." Uhm, no it's not. It's never 'just right there'. 

 

This dude is freaking huge. I have more pics from Thursday later to show you. This is the bronze Lion in front of MGM. (MGM is the big, green one you see on tv all the time. They have music awards there & boxing matches.) We read a plaque that said it is the largest bronze statue in the United States. 

 

We finally found a Hard Rock & decided to eat dinner there. B-rad & I are NOT food connoisseurs. We like what we like & we don't feel the need to 'broaden our horizons'. There are a TON of fancy pants steak houses & other restaurants to eat. But with fancy pants, comes fancy bills & ya'll know I'm el-cheapo. It did cost us $60 without the tip to eat at the Hard Rock. Granted, B-rad drank a beer & we got a souvenir glass. But I had a 15% off coupon. Like I said, expensive... 

B-rad was my fancy schmancy camera picture taker. I didn't wanna haul that thing around. it gets soooo heavy after a while. He's tougher than I am... 

 

I wanted to get the shirt that said 'I love to fart' for my brother but you had to have them custom made. He's not worth all that... 

 

Another thing I love about Vegas - people will do anything for a buck! We saw these dudes from Star Wars during this walk. You can get your pics taken with them...for a small fee, of course. Over the next couple of days we saw Hello Kitty, Superman, the Green Lantern, Super Mario & show girls.

 

Vegas is NOT complete without Elvis! (Even Elvis is human...he had to take a break. We saw him sitting in his car to cool off.) 

Another thing I hate about Vegas is that people will do anything for a buck. (Are you seeing the pattern here?!) We saw several people sitting on the sides of the road or the walkway thingies with signs that said, "homeless". One night we saw a lady sitting with her cat. That really upset me. It makes me sad, but I also try to avoid eye-contact with them. 

There is serious shopping in Vegas, people. Of course, I didn't step one foot in any of them (what if B-rad broke something?!)...but I did drool a little as I walked by... 

 

I would go, "Oh, look at that one!" & B-rad would pronounce it wrong... 

so I would politely correct him.

And he would say, "How do YOU know?!" Uhm, I watch tv..

. 

Here's a pic of those walkways I've been telling you about that go over the strip. Most have escalators that take you up to them. The ones that only have stairs are killers! 

I told you already we went up the Eiffel Tower this time. I had a buy one, get one free ticket. It said, "Most romantic view in Vegas". Psssssh, to heck with all that....I was looking for the "Best view in Vegas of the Bellagio Fountains!" 

No, I am not looking skyward at anything. I am rolling my eyes at B-rad. It was late....I was tired...can't you feel the romance?! 

 

Here is the Bellagio. You may be wondering why we didn't stay there if I have such an obsession for it? Money people...it's high dollar! (Somebodies gotta pay for those awesome fountains...) 

 

View of Vegas from heaven, er I mean that dang tower... 

 

B-rad put on the long fancy schmancy lense & was able to get our hotel. Cool, huh? (I think the strip is like a mile or so long. Our hotel is at the beginning of the strip & we were towards the end. This means 2 things: #1-the long lense is awesome. #2-I told you everything was super sized...) 

 

Awwwwww.... 

 

God love that hubby of mine. He was doing serious picture taking to get me pics of those fountains. 

 

See? 

 

After we watched them & finally got back to solid ground, we walked across the street to uhm, er watch them go again...they go every 15 minutes after dark.... But remember how I told you it takes forever to get anywhere? It took us about 30 minutes just to get outta where the Eiffel Tower was & work our way across the street to be on ground level to watch them. We saw them going off while we were headed over there. 

 

BOOM! 

 

I tried to take our pic in front of the Bellagio but I just couldn't get it. (Please for the love of all that is good & Holy make the pic big & look at my hair. Picture it: It was 100 degrees outside, I had been awake since 6 am & it was around midnight my time. I had been walking, sweating & complaining. No out of control curls....no frizziness. Sigh...I am SOOO selling my quarter of the farm & moving to Vegas...) 

 

Some woman saw me trying to take a pic & offered to take mine, "if I would take hers." Uhm, ok...that seems fair. I must say the tourists weren't very nice to offer to take pics when they would see me with my arm stretched beyond recognition to take a self portrait. I offered to take peoples pics a LOT...especially when they had a fancy schmancy camera. I'm awesome like that... 

 

And now - for your viewing enjoyment...I video'd the fountains. It's 3 minutes long. I URGE you to watch it. It's really cool & you need to listen close for the music & the big 'booms' when the water shoots straight up. It's the best... 

Back from our quick trip to Vegas!

Stalkers we're back from Vegas, baby! It was only a 3 day trip, but I.am.exhausted! We went to Vegas 6 years ago for a whole week. I don't know how I survived back then (uhm probably because I was 6 years younger...). 3 days now & my legs are soooo sore! Vegas is hot people! But I'm sure you know it's a dry heat - not sticky like here! (We had the local weather on one night & the dude said, 'It's gonna be humid tomorrow.' I told B-rad 'I didn't think they had humidity?' He said, 'It's only gonna be like 30% - that IS humid to them!') Also, please note whose hair is NOT a curly, frizzy mess! This gal right here! I LOVED my hair in Vegas. I'm thinking of moving there for that reason alone...
We visited Red Rock Canyon one day. B-rad loves this kinda stuff. Me, not so much...

We also went back to Hoover Dam. They have the new bridge done & it is awesome! The main road for traffic no longer goes right over the dam.

Lets talk about my sunglasses. These are the ones I bought at Kohl's a while back. They lost a screw a month ago & B-rad fixed them for me. Wellllll, I lost another screw while we were in Vegas & had no way to fix them. B-rad MADE me buy new ones. Hmph.

Here are the new ones. I don't know if I like them. I feel like a bug with bling. B-rad said, "This is the style now. You really need to update your look!" Uhm, exsqueeze me?! (I know it's just because these are ALL plastic with NO screws for him to fix!)

Oh yea, that's the Hoover Dam behind us...

We went up the Eiffel Tower at night. One of these days I'm going to learn I don't like heights that much...MY FAVORITE!!!! The Bellagio Fountains! I am obesessed with these things!

View of the stripTHIS time I didn't have to sigh & pout & stomp my feet everytime I saw a Celine sign... THIS time, I already had my tickets! Woot woot!

There are SOOO many people walking the streets! Crossing the street is crazy! They do have some walkways OVER the strip & that is really nice! You don't have to worry about cars & they don't have to worry about you!

Of COURSE I have a million stories to tell you! B-rad & I both had cameras so I have 14,874 pictures to go through! I will work on sorting through them as soon as I can! I can't wait to tell you about all our adventures!

The Princess & the ipad...

You stalkers are fully aware of my princesses need for toys, right? It never stops, people. The obsession for toys is like a drug to B-rad. He will be on a high for awhile, but once the high wears off he has to look for his next fix.

We both have iphones which makes us super cool. I can do almost everything on my phone. Princess even downloaded a program to burn dvd's & put them on our phone. Cool, huh?!

Welllll we are going on a couple of trips soon. (Of course I can't tell you when because I don't want you coming over , breaking into the house & stealing all the toys...) Princess is VERY concerned about what he's going to do on a plane for an extended length of time with nothing to do. Oh, the humanity! I said, "UHM-I'm going to read my Kindle. Can't you read a magazine or something?" "Or what about your phone? You can watch movies on that?!" To which he responded (in a very annoyed voice...) 'The battery on my phone won't last the whole time we're on the flight!!!!'

You're right Princess...that is a horrible fate...

Princess decided he wanted an iPad. Sigh. Here.we.go. And do you know what I said? "Ok fine, you can save YOUR money & buy one." (Problem solved. I know he could NEVER save that amount of money.)

He knows I'm right - so he started his offense:

"Sigh. I had to buy x,y & z for the track bike to have it ready for track day."

"Sigh. I had to pay the sales tax & license on the track bike I just bought after I wrecked my other one. Even though it's only supposed to be a track bike I want to drive it on the street too." (Ok, I embellished that one just a bit...)

"Sigh. I have to pay for the stupid ticket I got when I was being stupid in Deal's Gap on the motorcycle & rode too fast." (Ok, I embellised that one a lot...he didn't say that...that's just what I heard...)

So the iPad discussion was on. I like the fact that because I can save money & he can't that I was able to hold that over his head. And he was completely dependent on me to whether or not we bought one. Oh, how I love to be in control...

After this past weekend at the lake having no internet service really bugged me. (I am NOT a Princess though...I'm the QUEEN!) Since Princess & I are spoiled, I started looking at iPad's. If you don't know about iPad's, they're basically super-sized versions of our phones. It seemed silly to me to even want one of them. They come ready to connect to wi-fi OR you can buy them with either AT&T or Verizon 3G service (for an additional fee, of course...). And when I realized if I got the Verizon 3G one, we'd be covered at the lake & anywhere else we go - I was sold.

We went Monday night & bought an ipad - an iPad 2 to be exact (that's the latest & greatest...duh....) .

Now we're both happy:

1. He has to share it with me.

2. We should have internet all over the United States wherever we go because we have AT&T on our phones & Verizon on the iPad.

3. He can watch as many movies as he can in a 10 hour window because 'the new ipad has a 10hr battery life...'

4. I get to hold this over B-rad's head...

Something I thought I'd never see...

B-rad & I went to the lake this past weekend. It was just us Friday night & Saturday morning. It was reallllly quiet without the whole fam there. We did exactly what we'd do at home: watch tv, argue, & I napped. Ahhhhh....

B-rad's parents came down Saturday afternoon. I was glad to see his mom because that meant I didn't have to cook dinner Saturday night. When they got there I said, "I'm glad you're here! Now I don't have to cook!" I'm so transparent...

When it was time to start dinner, I experienced something I've never seen before...in all the 17 years I've been with B-rad, I've NEVER seen Stanley cook ANYTHING. NEVER even seen him make a sandwich. Ann does all that stuff. She's GOOD at that!

So when Stanley came up & started the grill - that seemed plausible. Ok, he's starting the grill for Ann. Then, he put the chicken & steak on the grill. Hold up. What is happening here?

(No, it wasn't raining...the lense was fogged up because it was so freakin' hot outside!)

UHM, Stanley is grilling? Stanley is making dinner? Oh no, I don't think so... After he pulled up the stool to grill (smart idea by the way...), I hauled my boo-tay downstairs to tell Ann what was happening & that if Stanley ruined the yummy dinner I was waiting for - I was gonna be pissed...
B-rad wasn't concerned about any of it. He decided to jump...
off the top of the houseboat. Sigh...
Back to dinner...er, I mean Stanley... Ann let him grill un-supervised. Whaaaaa?!?!?! He just sprinkled whatever she had on the grill on everything.
A little extra marinade...
He even started a really nice fire...
Ann checked on him (once)....she told him it looked great. I am sweating by this point....& not about the heat outside... I was worried about dinner!
But in the spirit of full disclosure...dinner was good. Ann made mashed potatoes & broccoli with rice & cheese. Then I had to swallow my pride after complaining the whole time to Stanley about dinner & tell him it was good. Those words were harder to swallow than the yummy dinner...


Here's a 'not so fun fact' about the lake. We barely get any AT&T cell service. UHM-you know this is a form of torture for me. I loved to be connected. All the time. All over the place. You can't be nosey if you can't get the info. Psssssh!

Stanley has a Verizon air card for internet when they're on the road. And when he hooked that bad boy up (after I innocently said, 'Hey, did you bring your air card with you?!') we were in nosey stalker heaven! B-rad & Stanley both had their laptops out & going!

And I cannot tell a lie...I was very happy too.... I have withdrawls if I can't check facebook at least 9 billion times a day...