Celebrating 35 years in Vegas!

It was decided long ago that for our 35th birthdays the Reichenbach’s (Brian and Heather) and us would go on a trip together. And we decided to jet to Las Vegas for a long weekend. The date was chosen the plans were made and we were all set to go...

...then on a Thursday evening we headed to the airport for our 8:00 flight. All was going great. Then the flight was delayed by about 20 minutes, no big deal. We boarded the plane and we taxied out onto the runaway, and after sitting there a while the captain came on the speakers and said that one of the two engines was not functioning properly and we would be heading back to the terminal.

We then spent the next 8.5 hours in the terminal playing games and "sleeping" on the hard floors. While waiting for a new plane to come from Las Vegas and pick us up. At least the airline bought us all some Papa John's while we waited!




We finally arrived in Vegas at 6:00 AM local time. We hit the ground running knowing we were flying out again on Sunday and had to make every minute count. We checked into our hotel by 6:30 AM. It was fun convincing them we were late and not early for check in.

We headed out right after check in to see the sites. We went on a nice "short" walk down to the Stratosphere. It was "only" 3.5 to 5 miles one way. (Jamie is adding all the quote marks for sarcastic emphasis). That end of the strip was a bit of a let down -- and fairly run down but the rest of it is pretty interesting (for example: see sign in back left LOL)!




We looked at a lot of nice casinos hotels on our walk, and saw lots of great dragons (many of the resorts were decorated to celebrate Chinese New Year).







We looked through a lot MORE cool casinos and did a little gambling (here Brian is trying to figure out just how to win at the digital roulette - he always came away $5 richer).



After walking a total of about 10 miles we headed back to our hotel to rest for a little bit.



Yes, that canal was INSIDE our hotel. We stayed at the Venetian and our rooms were very nice too (with sectional couches and huge bathrooms)!





The reason we needed the rest is because we had tickets for that same night to go and watch (or experience) Cirque De Soliel's show “O”. It was very, artsy yet amazing - I don't think we will ever see that much human talent in one place ever again! And the stage alone was mind-blowing, it went from a pool deep enough for 4-5 story tall high dives, to a solid stage! The show went from 7:00 – 8:45 and we were operating on little to no sleep. (Don’t forget that is Vegas time and we were still on our first day there and the plane arrived at 6AM after not really having a night's sleep. )

Our second day was much more relaxing. It's amazing how much better you feel after a good nights sleep! We spent more time looking at the sites (Jamie was limping along as fast as possible - the first day did her in!).




Danny even got into the act with the biggest slot machine we saw the whole time we were there.




Mid afternoon we decided we had enough of the glitz of the main strip, so we headed to check out the old strip. Otherwise known as Freemont street. Which, surprisingly was a lot more "family friendly" if you can say that in Vegas. There was a lot less bare skin being displayed on fliers there. It was a lot of fun. They even had a live band that we all really enjoyed. Heather started dancing and then eventually all 4 of us got into dancing on the streets there and had a good time.



We(Danny and Jamie) decided quickly on our favorite slot machine while we were there. It was a Star Trek theme - with battles and everything -- so it was more fun -- yes we are geeks!




It is only because of this slot machine that we came out about $5.00 ahead overall on our gambling for the trip. So, sometimes being a geek pays off. That number would have been a LOT better if Jamie hadn't have gotten drawn in... :-)

Overall it was a great 35th birthday trip with our good friends the Reichenbach’s. It's nice to do things with friends that you can just be silly around :-)