LAS VEGAS!

Bluto dropped me off at the airport before heading to work on Wednesday (17th) for my 9:40 am flight to Las Vegas! I had a small layover in Atlanta then a very uncomfortable flight to Vegas, as I was the middle seat smashed between two quite large individuals. When I got to the airport I was pleasantly surprised by John tapping me on the shoulder - their flight had been a bit delayed so they got in about an hour before me and waited for me! We took the shuttle bus to our hotels (which turned out to be right next to each other). We got some food and hung out on Freemont Street for the night and turned in a bit early for the local hour. Vegas is three hours behind our time, so turning in early sort of became a common theme for us (plenty of jokes about us all being old too).

Thursday morning we had breakfast at the Golden Nugget buffet and then hung out at the pool until it was time to start getting ready for the wedding. We ran to the liquor store and got three bottles of champagne and I also got a bottle of Boone’s Farm fuzzy navel (make fun of me if you like, but that stuff is rather good actually). John and Alison both looked absolutely wonderful. We got picked up by the limo and drove out to the Seven Sisters area in the Valley of Fire national park. I thought the red rocks in Colorado were impressive. This area is amazingly beautiful. I took tons of pictures. The ceremony took place at sunset and was gorgeous. There were tears a plenty for all of us - and then BAM - John and Alison are married!!! The photographer made them tromp through the dessert for a while and took tons of pictures with his magic camera that made everything look like magical. That being said, I was allowed to take pictures too since he had a magic camera and I didn’t, he wasn’t worried about my competition. We drank the rest of the champagne on the hour drive back and hung out for a bit more on Freemont Street. They had a stage with live music and of course the big overhead display to entertain us. People watching became more interesting as we consumed the huge sugary sweet drink concoctions.

Friday was more of the same, minus the wedding! We hung at the pool during the day then took to the streets for drinking, people watching and letting loose. We stayed out a bit late on Friday and explored everything on Freemont Street. Saturday was a super laid back day at the pool, followed by dinner and back to the hotel to get some good sleep since we did it up pretty well the night before. Sunday we decided to go to the strip. I called Neil to wish him a happy fathers day - and guess what! He was here in VEGAS! We all got together that night at Diablo’s, a great texmex bar and then headed down the strip to catch the shows. I found a fun game, collecting as many ‘booby’ cards as I could and plan on giving them to friends as souvenirs!

I had a great time in Vegas and am so glad I was able to go to John and Alison’s wedding. I spent WAY too much money, but had a great time. I’m back in North Carolina with my car and ready to drive back to north to take my sister on a road trip.