Twenty Four Hours in Vegas






We left from the city around 11:45am on Monday, headed for SFO, and proceeded with the regular steps to board.  
For some reason, I've never been searched when boarding.  Of course, that means that by virtue of the law of murphy - 
I'll be searched the next time I fly.  



We taxied on to the runway and then found that LV's airport was shutting down due to weather, in fact it turned out to be quite 
a large duststorm.  



We waited at SFO for three hours until LV's airport opened up around 5pm.  Thank god it's only an hour flight. Unfortunately, there were two small
children behind us, and playing some video game.









I've never been there, and was lucky enough to have a window seat on the plane.  This allowed me to do my favorite thing, check out the 
geometry of the earth.  The hillsides, the mountains, the terrain of the desert in Nevada - something I've never seen before.




The air was thick flying over Vegas, the ends of the sandstorm off in the distance.  Touchdown is always my most favorite part of 
the flight, as I'm realistic, and every time I get in a plane, I know that I could not come back.  I know it's a morbid thought, 
but something such as entering a steel craft which has tons of explosive fuel on board, and jettisoning into the sky - makes me a little nervous.  I do 
have to admit that I like the feeling of weightlessness when the plane makes it's decent.  I also like turbulence for some reason.  



I should've been a pilot!



So we went to the hotel, the MGM.  (It's the green building at the top of this picture).  This place is pretty nice.  The Casino was on the ground level, which seems to go on for days, 
including a lion exhibit, A bar and stage for live acts, a rainforest store/cafe with automatronic animals - and a guy in a frog 
suit (reminding me of a show I used to watch when I was a kid), and a giant version of comedian Louie Anderson from Family Fued (yeah, giant).








The hotel decided to put us in a better room, since there were two of us, and we were only staying there for one night.  Our room was a suite on the 28th floor, overlooking the entire
city. (In the picture to the left, at the top of the green building there is a yellow light, our suite was right below that.)  I could see, what must've been the Hard Rock Cafe (the light from a giant lit up guitar in the distance).  
Our suite had two bedrooms, complete with two bathrooms; a living room, complete with couch; round table seating eight; and a wetbar (not including alcohol).
Had dinner at the buffet on the ground level, all you can eat for $16.99, and then we went out for a walk.  

There was New York, New York, a city block sized version of NY, including the Empire State Building, the Brooklyn Bridge, 
and the statue of Liberty.  Inside there was chinatown, little italy, and probably a few other boroughs. 

There was dueling pianos, Purple Rain, a prince cover band, and a band we found in Paris, where they were doing Celebration, and other funk bands.  The lead singer was pregnant!
Unfortunately due to the high winds that day, they had closed down the Aifel Tower.  We headed back to the hotel, and along the strip there were migrant workers from Mexico handing out 
flyers for some strip joint.  Walked through the MGM lobby casino - where I watched as we walked by where people were losing money to the casino.  There was another band in the main room at MGM, doing more covers.
We went back to our suite and went to bed.  I watched a poor choice of combination of Jerry Springer, and Young Guns II, and then had a poor night sleep.







When I awoke, I got to see the beautiful, but menacing surrounding desert and mountains near Las Vegas.  
The city was already alive at 9am.  The room I had overlooked the Northeast part of LV.  



We had breakfast at the Rainforest Cafe, where their lived many animatronic creatures, it rained every half hour - and then went over to the the Tropicana to handle our business.
Hours later, after many a vigorous conversation with current and potentially future vendors, we headed back to collect our bags which we had left with the bellhop for the day. 



Before we left for the airport, I picked through the MGM gift shop looking for something, anything that didn't say MGM on it, and proceeded to buy it.



Cab to the airport. Breeze through the security checkpoint.  Shuttle to the gate. At least an hour to wait.



Yet again, another gift shop.  Bought a small accordian. 


I read my same football draft magazine over and over. The flight home was quick as my face stuck to the window to watch as we flew...home.