VEGAS BABY!

Well, we didn't win big, but I got some great pictures and some great stories...

We stayed at The Flamingo right on the strip. The 18th floor has an awesome view. Highly recommend. Had to get this must-have picture of the epitome of Vegas neon lights.



The strip during the day, taken from a bridge between the MGM and Excalibur, looking toward New York New York, the Monte Carlo, Bellagio and Paris.



And the strip at night, from the bridge between the Flamingo and Caesar's Palace, looking toward Bellagio, Paris, and Bally's.



Ralph has a wonderful family friend, Tony, who moved out to Vegas about 10 years ago from New York. Tony showed us a great time (his stories are legendary!), and was kind enough to drive us out to the biggest tourist spot in town - the iconic "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign. Thanks again "Cab Driver".




Looking up in the atrium of the Luxor hotel, which is shaped like an Egyptian pyramid. Love that wide-angle lens!



Another view inside Luxor.



There is this awesome store between the Luxor and Manadalay Bay that is called Lush Puppy - they sell items exclusively for dogs. They had these adorable Vegas dog cookies! I wanted to buy the whole store up! I have realized over time that photos make better souveniers than the actual crap I used to buy.



This was near the House of Blues in Manadalay Bay. Very cool place. There was a big bank of slot machines, with the top prize being a motorcycle.



They come up with the funniest ideas for slot machines!




These are the lions they keep in the MGM Grand hotel. I felt sorta bad getting these pictures - there were all these suckers around me shooting picture after picture with their very standard cameras, and I knew that they did not have the benefit of a telephoto lens. This was about 50 feet away from the lions. No one else went home with a picture like this. However, if it makes anyone feel better, I got my payback by not having my nice camera with me when we met Mario Lopez on the streets of Vegas on Saturday night. I took a crappy camera phone picture, and if you tilt the screen, and squint really hard, you can see me and a dark blob next to me. Yeah, that blob is Mario Lopez. And now my camera phone refuses to forward the picture to my email, so I can't even photoshop the picture and make it somewhat believeable. So I guess it all evens out in the end...



The Eiffel Tower at Paris Hotel



Leavin Las Vegas.



Thanks for the great flight, Southwest! We got the funny flamboyant flight attendant on the way back - LOVE that guy! Faaaaabulous!



Mountains not far from Vegas.



This was a really cool area of water not far from Vegas. Shot from the plane window.



The view of the desert (somewhere Arizon-ish)



The reason I could never live in a square state (no offense to anyone living in, or hailing from, Kansas)...