Las Vegas in the Summer time

What were we THINKING? It was only 116 degrees. Fahrenheit. Yeah, hot. And I was dumb and didn't change into cooler pants and ended up walking around in jeans. June 19-21, 2010.

Mike and I went to Las Vegas Monday afternoon. We had an appointment for a Vacation Ownership presentation. Time shares. Yeah, well, we like a little get-away once in while. Together. Seems all our little and big trips of late have not been with each other, so that was the goal. Not to buy a timeshare, but to spend some time together. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. I think I worked all of 12 hours all week long in the library. That's 1 and one half days. Woo hoo! fun times.

Other than being incredibly hot outside, the resort we stayed in was quite nice. Nothing fancy or over-the-top like the model room they showed us. The model show room definitely had the "vegas" look about it. Red and black color scheme, etc. Too much. Ours was cool greens, browns and very nicely equipped with all we needed. And The pool was indoors! I was kind of bummed about that , but their reasoning was so they could offer a year-round pool for all their peeps. That makes sense. It was small, but very refreshing. I did some nice little water aerobics. We swam on Monday evening, went out onto the patio to dry off and watch the planes land at the airport. We like planes and airports, so that was kind of fun. And--bonus only in Las Vegas--you don't even get cold standing out in the wind because it's still hot at night and you just dry right off.

On our drive to Las Vegas, we took a detour to see the fire results at Warm Springs outside of Glendale, NV. This is where Mike had gone camping with Scouts earlier in the year and had such a fun time. Then, they heard there was a fire and it was burned up. Boy, was it! I actually snapped a few pictures of it. But who wants to look at burned up palm trees in the desert? I'll not be posting those, I think. However, you should know, those were the only pictures I took the whole three days! ha. Just didn't think about it.

On Monday afternoon and evening after checking in at our hotel, we drove to the Strip and walked around to see if we could find half-price show tickets for "The Phantom of the Opera." And we did! They are pricey no matter what, but we really thought it would be nice to see a show while down there. The other thing we'd hoped to spend time doing was that we wanted to spend at least part of one afternoon and attend the temple. Well, I checked the church website later that evening in the hotel. Guess what the maintenance closure dates are for the Las Vegas Temple? Yep, July 19 through August somethingth. Figures. We always seem to run into that or Stake Conferences where ever we go on vacations. ha.

Monday night we ate at a buffet on Fremont Street. The Paradise Buffet maybe? I don't know. They all look the same. But we ate WAAAYY too much yummy food. Including prime rib, and some of the best coconut macaroons I think I've ever had for dessert. It's the little things. We were going to wait for the Fremont Street experience, but decided to do it after our Phantom show. We had tickets for a 7 pm show and would be out by 8:30 or 9 pm. Plenty of time to do more stuff another night.

Tuesday morning we had to listen to their time share presentation. We took three hours to tell them, "Thanks, but no thanks." Although, I think Mike was ready to buy. No, I KNOW he was! Even after "The Talk." ['we are not buying a timeshare!' talk] I have to keep reminding him I just saved him $32, 000, so please can we go out to dinner now? ha. It was a good company, so if you are shopping (and Mike HAS been shopping and studying and researching for YEARS, literally, and knows what's out there) let me know and I'll give you a very good recommendation.

On Tuesday afternoon, we went to the Venetian to find the theater for the evening performance, ate some lunch at the food court, wandered through the shops, enjoyed the living statues, then took a hike to the Bellagio. We watched one water show, then went inside to the Botanical Garden, I showed Mike the Chocolate fountain, then we went out and watched another water show. We walked through Bellagio's shops, wandered through Caesar's Palace to stay out of the heat as much as we could, then made it back in time to rest a bit by a slot machine before lining up for the show. Slot machines don't take coins most places. Not that I would have put any in and spoiled my nearly perfect record. No, it is a perfect record. I've never put money in a machine. But Mike would have played a penny machine for a quarter's worth. But, no coins, so no business from us.

The show was really wonderful. In spite of having the "cheap" tickets, they were great seats for US because we could see what the ticket holders on the floor could NOT see, and that was the chandelier, as it was hanging, swinging, dropping, etc. Pretty impressive from where we were. We really enjoyed it, and I as read through the playbill, those are some pretty impressive actors and singers in those roles.

We watched the Mirage Volcano eruption from the balcony at the Venetian after the show, we ALMOST went out for ice cream, but there was not an ice cream shop to be found in the downtown Fremont street area. They would have made a killing, as hot as it was. We hung out there, people watching for a while, enjoyed the Freemont Street Experience light show, drank water to try and keep cool. By the time we got back to our room, it was late, we didn't get our ice cream, but that's OK. We'd eaten plenty that day.

Wednesday, no set things to do. We went to the Factory Outlet stores on the south of the strip. As much as I don't like shopping, every few years I enjoy a trip there to get some things I like at the Burlington Brands store. So I did. I got some shirts. I shopped. And I even enjoyed it for the most part. They didn't have EVERYthing I wanted to get, but I did OK. Now I can replace a couple of my more ratty shirts. Mike and I also shopped at the Bass Pro Shop because that was what our free gift was for spending the time to tell the VACATION OWNERSHIP people (they never call it time shares anymore ). $75 in gift cards at Bass PRo. So we found a nice cooler and bought it. Coolers are nice to have and ours were broken and worn out.

We drove home, eating one more over-filling buffet before arriving at home around 7 p.m. Cedar City felt SOOOOO nice and cool after that hot spot on the planet. Even 90 degrees plus today was almost enjoyable. Really, who can stand to live in heat like that? Yechh! But, we did have a nice time together and are glad we went.

I think I hit all the high points, Mom!