Las Vegas, Nevada

VEGAS BABY!!!

  On July 14th, I headed to Vegas for the first time ever.  My friend and fellow speech-language pathologist, Sarah, and I flew to Sin City to attend a speech conference (and have a TON of fun on the side)!

View of the strip from the plane:

Here we are!!!

Sarah and I stayed at the Flamingo hotel.  The Flamingo opened in 1946 and was built by mobster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel.  He named the hotel after his girlfriend Virginia Hill, whose nickname was "The Flamingo" because of her red hair and long legs. 

Well, the first room that we checked into may have been the first room ever rented out in 1946.  And they may not have cleaned it since then either.  It was seriously scary and THANK GOODNESS we were able to upgrade to one of their newly renovated "Go" rooms the next morning!  After that happened, we loved the Flamingo!  Here are some pics of our hotel...

You know you are in the BEST Vegas hotel when Donny & Marie Osmond are the main stage performers. ;)

The flamingos in the wildlife habitat @ The Flamingo!

The "Go" room...

T.V. INSIDE the bathroom mirror.  I definitely need one of these in my house...when I finally do get one of those someday.  :)

Room with a view of the pool and wildlife habitat...

Here's another shot I took from our "Go" room window...only a little sadder.  This is looking down on our room from the first night.  Our 1946 room was directly behind that long metal crate.  Beautiful, huh?

We hit the town on our first night...

 

 

We had dinner at the Bellagio and enjoyed an amazing view from our table of the infamous water show in front of the hotel!

After dinner, we went outside to see the fountain show up close.  The water "danced" to Elvis' "Viva Las Vegas"...it was the perfect start to our vacay!!!

We spent plenty of time trying to beat the 100+ degree heat at the pool!  The people watching was not bad either.  :)

On our second night in Vegas, we went to see the AWESOME Cirque du Soleil Beatles LOVE show at the Mirage Hotel & Casino.  It's too bad we weren't allowed to take pictures inside...so cool!

After the show, all we wanted were some delicious In-N-Out Burgers!  I can't even begin to count how many of these burgers we ate throughout our summer in L.A. during undergrad...it was A LOT.  Our dinner felt just like the old days...only we got a lot of weird looks for being so dressed up.  haha:)

Believe it or not, we did actually manage to make it to our conference at the Mirage and learn a little about the wonderful world of speech pathology.  :)

Sarah loved this light decal...it moved when you walked through it...

During one of our breaks one day, we went and visited the Siegfried & Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat @ The Mirage.  We totally loved it...probably because my favorite animal is the dolphin and Sarah's favorite animal is the big cat...and who doesn't love a llama!  :)

Another night we were invited to go out to dinner with a friend from Houston, who just happened to be in town.  We were picked up in a limousine, went to a sushi dinner at the Aria hotel, then dancing at Tao Night Club at the Venetian.  Such a fun night!

Sarah and I with our new friend Sinsu after dinner at Aria...

In the limo...

Outside of Tao...

And a different night, we went to the Planet Hollywood Casino followed by the Paris Casino to meet up with my friend from high school and college...Matt.

On our last night in Vegas, Sarah, Matt, and I went to dinner (before Matt had to leave for his 1 a.m flight home - yikes!) at Cabo Wabo.  Cabo Wabo is a Mexi restaurant owned by Sammy Hagar, member of Van Halen.

 After Matt left, Sarah and I decided that we had to at least do a little bit of gambling.  Sarah ended up winning $50 at a penny slot machine.  I was the big winner of the evening...cashing out with a $.1 ticket!!  :)  

At the Venetian...Mirage in the background...

Cute Texas lady appropriately playing the "Texas Tea" slots...

We were both exhausted on our last day in Vegas, but still very sad to have to say good bye.  We killed some time in Caesar's Palace before we had to leave for the airport...

I wanted to eat at Bobby Flay's (Food Network star) Mesa Grill so bad, but I promised Johnnie I wouldn't go without him.  He may have a little bit of a man crush.  :) 

Our week in Vegas was so much fun!  It was great to be with my fabulous friend Sarah and have her all to myself for so long. 

I will definitely be back and next time, it will be with Johnnie!