Vegas, Baby!

We really aren't that wild, but we were in Las Vegas for 4 1/2 days. We wanted to go away in honor of our 40th anniversary to somewhere warmer, cheap, not too far away, cheap and without spending too much money. Oh, I guess I already mentioned that. So by using our air miles we didn't have to pay to fly there and staying at Harrah's (our preferred hotel) was $35 per night. Not too shabby!!! Harrah's is centrally located right across from Caesar's (great window shopping at the Forum Shops) and the beds (king size) are super comfortable. Huge room and some may think it is old and it would be better to stay at a newer hotel, we say, "Fine. Go ahead and waste your money!!" We were able to walk North to the Fashion Show Mall, the Venetian, Palazzo, Wynn and see the fantastic architecture. And we could walk south to our favorite site, the Bellagio. Fantastic decorations for Christmas and of course that chocolate fountain is a sight to behold! Here are some sample shots of the Bellagio. No outdoor fountain shots as you can see that anywhere! Click on the photo to enlarge it.

Beautiful lobby registration desk

 Lots of fabulous  Christmas decorations and check out that handsome guy!

 Gotta love that chocolate fountain at Jean Philippe's Patisserie

 Can you see me taking this photo?

Lovely, isn't it?

Here is the other side of that HUGE tree!

We walked and walked all the way down to the new City Center complex which sits on 76 acres! That really gives you pause at just how oversized everything is in Las Vegas.

I kind of wanted to eat at Eva Longoria's restaurant, BESO, which is kitty-corner to the Aria hotel at City Center, but we decided to forgo such an expensive lunch and certainly were not interested in walking all the way back here for dinner!! I might have decided to eat there if Eva herself had been there. I think she is one gorgeous lady. Notice the water floating in mid air....I managed to catch this shot as the interesting water feature was doing it's thing.

 We didn't eat here either! This was located in Crystals, the shopping mall at City Center.

 Do you recognize this giant eraser? I did! They have a similar one at the Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle.

I wanted to put this photo in even though it is sort of boring, just so you could see how big things are. Isn't this a huge intersection? You really need good shoes on to make it all the way across some of these intersections before the light changes. They do have bridges across the street every so often.

This is looking north. We have a long walk to get back to our hotel! Did you know that it is almost 9 miles from the south end to the north end of Las Vegas? The Stratosphere and Freemont are way up north. We didn't go there this time. Been there, done that. I wore black tennis shoes the whole time.  I enjoyed looking at the Louis Vuitton and Gucci purses (my favorite was $3900...cough, cough) and Jimmy Choo shoes for only $600 to $1000 per pair. My feet wouldn't cope in those shoes but they sure looked pretty!

And yes, the street performers were interesting! Although we enjoyed the dueling piano bar at Harrahs, the Elvis impersonator was really bad! They have karaoke from 6 to 9 pm every night and though some people had fabulous voices, this Elvis person really needed to have a friend tell him he can't carry a tune!!

 

 

 Here is another reminder of how wonderful the talent is in our great Pacific Northwest. Dale Chihuly. I just love this piece in the Bellagio, of course!

And this breath-taking ceiling is in the lobby of the Bellagio. Wow. That's all I can say. I suppose that is enough photos of Las Vegas. I didn't even take photos of the fabulous buffet restaurants. We ate almost as much as we would on a cruise! Burp. And the 2 for 1 coupon for waffle cones at Ben and Jerry's at Casino Royale just next door. They also have the best price for a beer (blech) or a glass of strawberry or regular marguerita, for only a dollar. So there you have it. A quick and relaxing get-away that didn't cost us an arm and a leg! The bonus was that we didn't get rained on and it was sunny, shirt-sleeve weather.