What happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas....

unless you manage to not get yourself into any trouble like me! I arrived 15 minutes early on Friday night and was excited to see my bestest friend Brandie for the first time since January 08. The last time I saw her I was 8 1/2 months pregnant and not up for much fun! I was introduced to TG (Travel Gnome) who had made the trip with her for some Vegas fun. After waiting in line for 20 minutes, we hailed a cab and arrived at the Luxor. We were both starving to death since we had not eaten dinner. We quickly got all dolled up and headed downstairs to meet up with Brandie's family. We actually had a purpose for being in Las Vegas, her younger sister Amber was getting married. By the time we sat down for dinner it was nearly 10:30pm. We found a really good Mexican restaurant in the hotel called "Taco's and Tequila" and ordered up a few Corona's and Nachos. We were later joined by Brandie's sister Amber and her friends Jeff and Laura. We decided that the ladies were going to visit the small club/lounge inside the Luxor called the Cathouse while the gentlemen visited some inappropriate venue (so I assumed). We were joined by Jane, a local friend of Brandie's, and danced it up until around 3am. The Cathouse was a bit crazy with scantily clad dancers, and more drunk men than I have seen in a long time. We even found a stalker for Brandie! Kevin seemed harmless at first as he showed us pictures of his wife and 6 week old daughter, but he very quickly became clingy and neurotic; at which point we decided it was time to leave. We were completely famished after a long day of work and travel, and decided to call it a night....rather, a morning! We returned to our room and fell asleep around 4:30am.

Brandie and Amber....and the stalker Kevin in the background - doesn't he just look creepy??

8:30 came early on Saturday. We threw on our shoes and ventured downstairs to eat breakfast in our jammies. I knew that my cute shiny star Vegas jammies would be the perfect fit! We returned to our room to prep for the wedding, and spent some time helping Amber with her makeup. The limo ride to Cupid's Wedding Chapel took forever as I became car sick in the stop and go traffic. The wedding was beautiful despite the fact that the grooms family was a bit obnoxious and rude. The reception was immediately following next door, and was a bit unorganized. We were expecting lunch and were disappoited to find only cheese and crackers. Afterall, we hadn't eaten since breakfast and it was now 3pm. By 3:30 we were back in the limo taking a tour of the former star neighborhoods with driver Dave. Because this was the first weekend of Spring Break, the strip was packed and driving was at a very slow pace. Honestly, I suspect it is this way most days - what a zoo!

Brandie and her mom, Carmel

TG (Travel Gnome) and Cupid

Amber's friend Felicia had told us about a $10 Boutique in the back of the Luxor where we were sure to find $10 flip flops.....and after being in heels for the majority of the day these were a must! I swear we walked around for an hour and a half looking for this supposed boutique and logged at least 3 miles on our weary feet. We ventured from Luxor to Excalibur, back to Mandalay Bay when we finally decided to call and ask. Low and behold the boutique was inside the Excalibur, which we had not actually gone into, just up to. Imagine our excitement as we saw the $10 or Less sign on the outside of the Boutique. We purchased flip flops and dug out all our loose change to throw in the slot machines on our way back to the room. Guess what? For those of you who have not been to Vegas in a while, the machines no longer take coins...fancy that! We felt like idiots trying to find the coin slots in the machines. What a crock! We ran upstairs, changed, and hit the Taco's and Tequila restaurant again and had the best tacos we've ever had! The Baja tacos had beer battered Talapia fish in them, and the Alambra tacos were beef with bacon. I know it may not sound like a good combination, but they were delicious! After dinner we met up with Brandie's mom Carmel and her husband Mark for desert and a lesson on how to play the slots. I threw in $40 and immediately lost all of it. Brandie put in $20 and was ahead by $70 before she lost it all. Brandie's mom gave her $100 to play and after 15 minutes or so she cashed out for $168 and handed me back the $40 I lost - thank you Brandie!! What a terrific friend she is. Enough of the slots....maybe patience is the key, but this is a virtue that neither of the two of us posess. So off to the strip for a little exercise. We were both a bit tired and decided that a late night was not in the cards. What an adventure it was to walk down the strip. For those of you who have been to Vegas, you will recall the ever elusive "clicking" of the strip club cards from about 100 workers. How disgusting it is to walk down the street and have cards with the likeness of nude women tossed and handed to you. I'm convinced that no one actually hangs onto these cards as the majority of them end up on the ground. A few ladies walking in front of us were humored by the banter Brandie and I exchanged about seeing the likenesses of other women photo shopped onto our bodies! We enjoyed visiting the gardens in the Bellagio hotel and were just as excited to leave the thousands of people in the lobby that were doing the same thing.

This is what the ground is littered with!

The Bellagio - this is spun glass on the ceiling. Absolutely amazing!!

A brisk walk took us back to our hotel and the comfort of our room. Our feet were mad at us and were eager to slip out of the shoes we had on them. It took about an hour for us to finally drift off, just in time for the alarm to go off signaling our next adventure. No, this wasn't our alarm to wake up, rather, the emergency alarm in the hotel. Apparently we were upgraded to a special room that included a siren and strobe light, fancy that! For nearly an hour we listened to this obnoxious alert from 1-2am. FINALLY - peace and quiet! It would appear that we were only getting 4 hours of sleep again! (Turn the music down before hitting play on this one)

Our alarm went off at 6am sharp and we arose to prepare for our exit! We arrived at the airport early and thank goodness for that. The tram that would take us from the main terminal to the commuter terminal was not functioning, so we crammed into a hallway with what seemed like a million people and waited for what seemed like an hour for the tram. We arrived to our gates just in time to grab a Cinnabon (yum!!)and board the plane. My flight arrived 15 minutes early as I quickly rushed to my car and hit the road for my drive home from Fresno. I made it in less than 2 hours and was home by noon! What a whirlwind weekend we had, but we enjoyed catching up and having fun! I love you Brandie and can't wait to see you again! ....and to TG, you are a fun little guy!