Viva Las Vegas #1

Jay has a big birthday coming up next week. I won't give the number away though, as most people think he is much younger than his actual age. Like under 30 young. I wonder what they think of his cougar wife robbing the cradle though?

Friends of our suggested quite some time ago that we meet in Las Vegas to celebrate this monumental (ish) event. I was shocked and surprised that Jay was up for it. He prefers when we are all together and this trip involved leaving the boys behind. Vegas is no place for kids. And would someone kindly tell that to all the people that we saw there dragging their poor children around the strip at ungodly hours of the night?

Thanks.

Anyway, this past weekend we journeyed to the city that never sleeps, just me and Jay. We had a couple of days on our own before our friends joined us. We did many of the touristy things, grabbed an icy beverage of the alcoholic variety for our walk down the strip, toured the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay, dined at Border Grill at Mandalay Bay, went through the Titanic: Artifact Exhibition at Luxor, and finished the night off with Disney's the Lion King at Mandalay Bay.

If this picture befuddles you, see this picture. This one is for Kamo.

And that was only the day we arrived. Yes, we were tired. And the heat, oh the raging heat of the desert. It gets hot in the desert in the summer, who knew?

If you haven't had the pleasure of experiencing this kind of heat, here is my best description. Picture what the hottest day you can imagine is, add 15 degrees Celsius, remove any humidity and add a giant hair dryer blowing on the hottest setting. That is what Vegas is like in the summer.

It's hot people, like the pits of hell hot.

If you know me, you know that me and heat do not get along. The only reason we planned our trip for the middle of summer is that it just works easier for our kids to go to their grandparents rather than the grandparents coming to us, which would be required if they were in school.

So you go outside and walk between hotels, sweating profusely, then you enter the glorious bliss of the hotel and it's air conditioning is like a beacon from heaven. 10 minutes later you are a Popsicle. This is why they liberally ply you with alcohol, it's the only way to survive the extreme difference of the elements.

Now I sound like I am such a complainer don't I? Actually I am, therefore this is very realistic. I am just trying to give you the real version, that's me, keeping it real.

Aside from that, Vegas really is like no where else on earth. The opulence is all around you and you see it but you don't really process it until days later. Pictures do not do it justice, you really have to experience it with your own eyes and other senses.

The food was, after the company, my favourite part. Every meal we had was fantastic. And the drinks were just as good.

I have many pictures but have to say that most are disappointing as they do not really capture the reality. And I am over my limit on Flickr. I may upgrade but after being in Vegas, do I really want to fork out the $$?

In Vegas you can just sit there and watch the cash jumping out of your wallet.

This was our first day. We called it a night before midnight. Don't judge us, we were up at 4:30am to catch our flight.

To be continued. You can't wait, can you?