Happy, shiny post!

It's time for a shiny new post about family outings and vacations, to get my mind off other things that have happened. Jeff and I made it out to our very first vcation since getting married in India, that involved no stress, just relaxation. Vegas. My first time. Came back a little underwhelmed but thoroughly enjoyed the time with Jeff and some of the shows we saw. We stayed at the Ex Calibur, which was at one end of the Strip, closest to the airport. It was a decent enough hotel, large room, nice clean shower, Starbucks in the hotel ... Jeff was in heaven. Getting a taxi at the airport to get to the hotel was interesting. You have lines setup like at Disneyland rides and you wakl up and down the roped off rows till you get to the front and a guy asks how many and sends you to a numbered pole where a cab picks you up.

The first night we got there, we had tickets to a dinner and a show at the Bellagio, for Cirque de Soleil's 'O'. The hotel and the theater were both amazing. The roof in the foyer of the hotel is made of hand blown tulips that are backlit. The hotel also had possibly the largest chocolate fountain I have ever seen. I wanted to break through the glass and stick my head under the stream. We had dinner at their asian fusion restaurant, Sensi, and it was amazing food.

The second day, we had a tour of the Hoover Dam and Ethel M. Chocolate Factory. The Hoover Dam was amazing, probably the highlight of our trip. You feel really small when you look down on it. We got to go down into the tunnels and see the generators. Then, we stopped at the chocolate factory where we saw gourmet M&Ms and the most delicious liqour and cocktail chocolates. On the way back from there, we stopped for lunch at the first casino over the border and saw Lake Mead, the world's largest man made lake.

On the way back to Vegas, our tour guide made a little detour and showed us a group of Big Horn Sheep, which are apparently on the endangered list. We also saw how sudden rain in Vegas turns into flash floods and is really bad for traffic.

That night, we took the train down to the other end of the strip to the Treasure Island and watched the Sirens of Treasure Island, which was like a Risque Revue thrown together with the boys from Stomp. Not that good. On our way back, we stopped in at the Hooter's Casino to see if their Dixies Dam Country Bar was open. No such luck, so we just ate there; the food was worse than at regular Hooters'.

Our third day there, we took the train again to the Imperial Palace for the The Auto Collections. Jeff might pick this as his favorite part, even though we spent less than an hour in there. Then we went to Harrah's for their Flavors Buffet, which was possibly the best $15 we spent per person. We also had complimentary tickets to a comedy magic show which included2 drinks but you had to pay 10 bucks for the drinks; it was all weird but it was semi-entertaining.

What I forgot to mention about Cirque's 'O' earlier was that we were both a bit underwhelmed. It was really cool; it was done with water and people diving off from wya high etc. But, we got tickets to another show, KA, which was at the MGM Grand. It had a little more acrobatic stuff but between the two, 'O' was definitely more interesting but KA had a better story line. I'll go see another Cirque as long as it's not in Vegas because I think that inflated the prices a lot.