The Big News!

So sorry for not updating for a while. Trips to Vegas can lead to all sorts of things being thrown out of whack, not the least of which is computer time. The trip home yesterday ended up being delayed over 3 hours by the weather, but we finally got home around 8:30 or so. It was warmer here yesterday than it was in Vegas!

Here's a rundown of the trip:

We stayed at the newly renovated Stratosphere Hotel. It's not the Bellagio or Caesar's, but the rooms are nice and this was our view. Plus with discounts and such, a four night stay cost $120!! Can't beat that!!!

Here are some pics of the strip at night from the top of the hotel in their restaurant. We went there on Thursday night for a light dinner, which still cost $60. A rotating restaurant high above the strip (106 stories up, but still lower than the sky deck a the Sears Tower which is 103 stories up....go figure) isn't cheap.

We had a light dinner because our clocks were thrown off a bit and we had a late snack during half time of the Bears game, who were playing Thursday night. The Bears were one of three winners in a row I bet on!! It was almost 4-0, but New England only won by 3 and the line was 4.5. Oh well, 3-1 is pretty good in Vegas.

Friday morning, after breakfast at Starbucks, we walked the 1.1 miles to the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop, home of the show Pawn Stars on The History Channel. If you haven't seen the show, you should check it out.

Here's our hotel as viewed from somewhere around the Pawn Star shop.

On the way to the shop, we past this old time Vegas sign. Pretty cool.

And here's LL outside the shop. We love this show and were excited to see the store. Unfortunately, the television folks were on tour in Mississippi so they weren't around for the weekend. We were going to walk there every day until we saw them too. Oh well, lots of other things went on instead.

Here's the inside of the shop. Not nearly as big as it looks on TV!

Here's a Nagel piece going for $2,400 I think. I just took three Nagels out to my parents house for their garage sale! Who knew?? My are prints though and I'm pretty sure this is an original.

They show this case almost every episode. The clock on the top shelf is called a death clock, so named because the way the material is made often ended up in the early demise of the artisan.

Friday night we hit the Rio seafood buffet and ate Opelio crab legs until we were stuffed. During our food orgy, I discovered a trick to eating them which really helped! Normally the claws, while meaty, are tough to eat because of cartilage in the middle. That cartilage though is attached to either the upper or lower pincer (the one that moves). If you wiggle that pincer and pull it out, there goes the cartilage too leaving you a nice big chunk of crab meat to devour!!! Outstanding!!

After the buffet we went to the Voodoo Lounge on top of the Rio where you can go outside for a great view of the strip. It was a little chilly and LL maybe ate a little too much, so we didn't hang out there for long. Next time!

Saturday was a fun day as well with trips up and down the strip thanks to the monorail system. We bought the 3-day pass and it was worth it. One cab ride can cost $15 easily and the pass is $28 for 3 days. We walked through most of the hotels because LL had never been to Vegas and things change pretty much every year, so some stuff was new to me as well.

We gambled a bunch as well playing black jack and Pai-gow poker. Pai-gow is a fun game and was the only game at which we ended having a winning session, but was also the game where we lost the most in one session. Saturday was spent mostly gambling.

Sunday morning most of the tourists leave, so pegged that night for getting tickets to a show and having a nice dinner. First though we watched some NFL games in a huge room at our hotel which is opened up for NFL games every week. All the games are on a TV somewhere in the room and you can see all of them from just about anywhere in the room. I discovered this place last year when our softball team stayed there. It's better than a sports book because the TV's are much bigger and there are no distractions from other events (like horse racing). It's all NFL the whole day. Awesome. They have a $2 nacho bar and a bunch of other specials too. You can bet in the room and even play blackjack with female dealers who wear much too small referring outfits. A nice touch. After not being able to make a winning on pick on more than one or two games a week (out of three games which I would select), I went 3-0 to start. Unable to resist temptation, I bet on a fourth game in the afternoon and lost, but it was close and my team dominated the whole game. A late TD though cut the lead to 3 and I was giving 4.5. Doh!

Dinner was at the Eiffel Tower restaurant outside the Paris hotel. The view from the restaurant is spectacular as it overlooks the fountains at the Bellagio which do their show every half hour. We ended up with early dinner reservations, 5:15, to insure we could get a window table for the fountain show which LL had yet to see. It was already dark, so the show was truly spectacular.

This is what we saw from our table as our meal started.

Pretty awesome show! Unfortunately it got really windy in Vegas as a front moved through and they shut down the light show after this initial one.

And here's the Eiffel Tower at night.

The Eiffel Tower, with restaurant, as seen from the Bellagio across the street. It was a full moon too!

And the food was good too! We had scallops and escargot for appetizers and I had the pheasant while LL had beef wellington I think. We opted for a strudel for dessert with both cinnamon and vanilla ice cream.

At this point, I decided the time was right and the moment couldn't get more romantic, so I pulled out an engagement ring and asked LL to marry me. I KNOW!!! Pretty awesome!!! She even said yes! It was a very emotional moment, as you could imagine, and as it should be. Unfortunately, most of the pictures from here on were taken on LL's camera, so I'll get those and post them soon. The waiter returned and asked if he missed something. We told him and he brought out this:

Apparently it says Good Luck or Congratulations in French. LL told me, but I forgot.

After dinner we headed to the New York, New York hotel where our show, Zumanity, was being held. It's a Cirque du Soleil type show and was just ok. I expected a bit more acrobatics, though what they did was pretty cool.

The time leading up to the show though was spent calling relatives and texting friends. Everybody has been very excited for us and have been filled with congratulations. We're excited too!