Showing posts with label Vegas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vegas. Show all posts

Friday, July 18, 2014

Celebrating the Fourth

We celebrated July 4th in Vegas.  (July 4th is also our wedding anniversary!).  When we initially got our hotel room, we didn't realize that we'd have great views of both big fireworks displays in Vegas.  But, we did!


These pictures were taken in less than ideal conditions - hand held through a dirty window.  But.  This was vastly preferable to us over being out in the 100 degree streets with thousands of other people jostling for the best view.  Especially when it began to rain 5 minutes after the fireworks ended!  


Our hotel room had some sectional sofa pieces that we turned into a shape where we could sit and watch the first display at Caesars, and then scoot to the other side and see the ones at the Linq.  Pretty neat!


Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Birds of the Flamingo

We had a few extra minutes Thursday, so we walked up to the Flamingo. I had almost forgotten that they have a courtyard with quite a few water birds.  


Most of them are exotics to North America, but they did have a few California Brown Pelicans.  This is an angle where the bird looks particularly comical.  This one was doing a version of what I figured was panting, with the big pockety part of its bill flapping back and forth.


And here we have a type of whistling duck (white-faced, maybe? the exact name escapes me).  This duck was actually making its namesake noise from time to time.  And then, of course, you know the Flamingo would have to have flamingos.


Not super-thrilled about the whole live-animals-as-decorations aspect of this exhibit, but I still couldn't resist a spin through.  They're there already and I didn't contribute financially to their continued imprisonment.  That's about the best I could do.

Sunday, July 13, 2014

A short trip to the desert

I find it hard to believe I have been married for five years, but it's true!  To celebrate, we usually take a trip over the long weekend to celebrate, and this year Vegas was our destination.  Three days, in and out.  Quick trip, but lots of good times to share!


We flew out Wednesday night after work.  Our flight was delayed, which was aggravating at first.  But, it also meant that we were treated to almost two hours of the setting sun from the plane.  As we neared Vegas, it got really gorgeous.  Then we landed, at 9:00 at night, where it was still 107 degrees!


One of the newest attractions in Vegas is a giant ferris wheel called the High Roller.  It was more or less beside our hotel, so we got lots of looks at it.  Its engineering amazes me - a miracle of tension and what I'm assuming are the strongest cables in the world.  We didn't ride it, heights are not our favorite things.


Something we did do, was have a few drinks at Hyde in Bellagio.  The lounge/club is immediately behind the dancing fountains.  Which are one of my favorite things in the world, so I was extra happy.  Believe it or not, you can earn free drinks here by playing MyVegas on Facebook.  One free drink doesn't sound like much, but they have an amazing cocktail menu (and one drink will run you $18+), so this was a really great reward.  One of the highlights of the trip!