Going to Vegas

[Frosty]

My wife won a trip to Vegas last April to go to the Country Music Awards show. They put us up in the MGM. We got there before our room was ready so we were offered a "free upgrade" to a room in the West Wing.

I wasn't impressed with our upgrade at first because the rooms were nothing special and the hallways to the rooms are dark and kind of dingy. However, we soon found that they had a major advantage because the West Wing gets its own elevator and it dumps you right out on the strip. The other rooms all share a bank of elevators and they get really crowded plus you then have to wind around the hotel to get out. Until you go to Vegas, you have no concept at how big these places are.

We don't gamble, so we spent our spare time just checking out the sights. We did a ton of walking, especially since the MGM is at one end of the strip. We really enjoyed Bellagio, Palazzo, the Venitian, NY NY and Paris. The volcano in front of the Mirage was kind of cool. The Sirens show at TI was cheesy but fun. The fountains and birds at the Flamigo was surprisingly cool and was a nice respite from the crowds and noise.

The only pay things we did were the shark reef at Mandalay Bay and we went up in the Eiffel Tower. Both of them were worth doing. We didn't do any of the shows because we only had one night free and we spent that out on the Strip.

The first night we were there, they took us to Fremont St for a street concert. I was less than impressed and the place was so packed that you could barely go anywhere. The neon museum down there was kind of cool but not really worth going there just for that.