like an elephant: vive las vegas

for the last week steve and i were treated by his dad, frank, to an amazing trip out west. vegas baby! from the moment we landed till when we took off 6 days later we were jumping from site to site with our own personal tour guide. i know that at some point i'll want to remember what i did and saw. let's see if i can recap this.... sunday: great flight sitting next to an older gentleman who goes to our church (small world!), landed and set out for 5, yes 5 casinos on our first day (new york new york, excalibur, luxor, mandaly bay, orleans)...lots of sites to see and roller coasters to ride. i did lose $10 on day number 1 which was enough for me to not want to gamble any more monday: spa day for me....ah-ma-zing!, grabbed some lunch and hit the strip for some serious walking....i have the blisters to prove it. 3 miles in flats will do that i guess. we checked out some great shopping at the venetian & pallazo, got sucked into an art gallery and listened to a 45 minute sales pitch by a man trying to slang us some gorgeous artwork by peter lik (super talented but his work is too pricey for us), and capped off our evening watching a few late night water shows at the bellagio tuesday: moved into our new hotel at paris...lavish. checked out a couple other hotel/casinos and then ate at our first buffet. after dinner we caught a show, american superstars, wherein i had to unbutton my pants from overeating a few hrs earlier....whoops. the show was fun...we saw the best of the best of impersonators; elvis, carrie underwood, charlie daniels, lady gaga, and michael jackson. after the show we went to the top of the stratosphere....yikes. it's the tallest building west of the mississippi....and we spent some time watching people paying $100+ to free fall from the top of it. not normal wednesday: we spent our whole day at caesars with an occasional break for meals....actually no, we ate our meals there too. the place is huge and has great shopping thursday: steve and i were able to soak up the sun and enjoy a couple beverages as the temps hit 90 degrees, we then ate a gormet burger at the burger brasserie. their signature burger costs a mere $777....i opted for a less expensive option :o) later we went to a cirque du soleil sho, "o".....2 thumbs up! after our late night show we grabbed a quick bite at wolf gang puck's restaurant and then went dancing at pure inside the bellagio. despite not wanting to initially go, steve soon loosened up and was a great sport for the night. friday: before leaving for the airport we went shopping again and i received an unexpected going away surprise....a new black purse. saturday: sleep and rest from a fabulous vacation.

the view from atop the stratosphere, 107 floors up (1,149 feet!)

checking out a free show at the mirage...my camera was too slow to catch the volcano actually erupting.

steve and michael

i'm always looking for deals...even on vacation...i found these margaritas for $.99. unfortunately, i didn't have a coupon to sweeten the deal even more.