Just Us and the Geo: Viva Las Vegas!

After many days spent in (beautiful) National Parks, we changed things up a bit and spent a night in Sin City!! We were able to get a great deal on a room online so we stayed at the Luxor hotel; you know, the one shaped like a big black pyramid! I have never been to Las Vegas before aside from a few hours spent in the airport, so I was practically bouncing in my seat as we drove into the city! We pulled into the hotel, which I had expected to be incredibly corny and overdone with the Egyptian theme but actually found it to be really nice. I got us checked in while Taylor figured out where to park, and immediately wished he had gone in with me to stand in line as I was the only one there in dirty, smelly camping clothes that I had just hiked a few miles in that morning, while everyone around me was wearing their Vegas best. Oh well! We got our room and our coupons (which by the way, we quickly figured out are not nearly as good of a deal as you might think! Taylor put it like this: "What the large print giveth, the small print taketh away"), showered up and changed, and went downstairs to explore a little. We were amazed at all there was in just our hotel alone! Restaurants and bars, casinos (obviously), spas and even an entire mall! It's no wonder people never leave their hotels here! But luckily we did because I had a mission to accomplish--- My parents got married here in Las Vegas at a little chapel and I was determined to find it! I knew the name of it; "World Famous Chapel of the Bells", and had seen a picture of the sign, so I had an idea of what we were looking for. A minute of punching things into the iphone and a short drive down the strip later and we were standing right in front of the place where my parents were married! So cool!

After that we went back to our hotel for a bite to eat and gave the slot machines a try. I'm not much of a believer in luck, but nearly every single time that Taylor did the button-pushing we won something and every single time that I did, we lost. Hmmph! We ended up $20 poorer but hey, it's all part of the Vegas experience, right!? :)

With very full bellies from our dinner, we decided to walk down the street to see the fountain show outside of the Bellagio. It was neat to watch and I was really surprised on our walk at how clean the city is! I had expected very dingy, dirty streets with scary people everywhere, but it's actually quite the opposite. I was amazed at how many families there were walking around town and how nice the walkways and shopfronts seem to be. I had it in my head that it would be similar but maybe even worse than Atlantic City, which let's be honest, is pretty gross! So that was a pleasant surprise and made for an enjoyable walk down the strip.

We only stayed the one night, as that was all that our little road tripping budget could allow, and left the next morning for a few days with Taylor's Grandparents in Big Bear, CA, poorer, not richer, but having enjoyed our Las Vegas time none-the-less!