Viva Las Vegas!

I have returned from my anniversary trip- tired, sleepy, and jet-lagged.  We had a spectacular time and enjoyed every minute!

This is the only photo I have of the famous Las Vegas sign...it was taken through the window of a moving bus.  So, not too bad- considering.

First of all- the airport.  It was a miracle...I did NOT beep in security!  After I walked through the metal detector, I paused and waited for instructions of where to go.  The guard looked at me and told me to keep moving.  "I didn't beep?!?" I asked him.  He actually sort of smiled as he told me I was good.  I was thrilled!  BUT my bag didn't make it through.  Turns out, I had a stray bottle of hairspray in the front zipper pocket that was leftover from another trip, another time.  They went through my bag and kept scanning it over and over.  There's nothing quite like seeing your underwear sprawled out all over an airport counter.  I had everything folded so neatly and packed perfectly to make it all fit.  So when the guard started stuffing things back in the bag, I got a little nervous.  I reached out my hand to help him get things back in properly and thought I was about to be arrested.  He had a cow, reached for his gun, and told me to step back.  It was horribly embarrassing and made me almost cry.  It was a natural reaction...I wasn't trying to cause a problem.  Finally, the hairspray was found.  They acted like I was trying to smuggle explosives and told me that the hairspray was not allowed.  "That's fine," I said.  "Just throw it away!"  I was anxious to get on my plane.

We arrived in Vegas around 1:00 in the afternoon.  Excited, we set out to explore the city, forgetting the sunscreen in the hotel room.  We walked from the Stratosphere to the Monte Carlo, about 4 miles.  We went into each of the large hotels to see the splendour.  My favorite was The Cosmopolitan...it was so beautiful!  The Bellagio, Mirage, Venetian, Wynn, and New York, New York were also spectacular.  We grabbed a slice of pizza in New York that was the best I've had since John's Pizza in the real City.

I learned that the locals are very friendly.  I was a little scared of them, to be honest.  I thought they would be rough and worldly.  But they were helpful if you needed directions.  Several times, they noticed us looking lost and asked where we were trying to go. 

I also learned that the average person is not capable of using my camera to take a good picture.  I guess it proves me wrong...I always say that to take a good picture, you just hold up the camera and press the button.  Clearly, there is a lot more to it that that.  Here are some of the winning photos we received:

Also, most people (including my husband) don't understand how to turn the camera sideways if you want to take a picture of something long and narrow.  They would rather just have tons of extra room on the sides of the photo.  I think back to all the pictures I took of strangers in Vegas and realize that they got some expertise photography from me!  I even took a wedding picture of a recently married couple.  Maybe I should add that to my resume' - Las Vegas Wedding.

Tomorrow I'll share some pictures that I took myself.  We saw a lot of exciting things there!