Las Vegas, Day 1

I've traveled quite a bit in my life time. Many destinations have been visited along with many friends and family. Las Vegas is one place I've been to several times before. But every time I was there in the past it's been just to gamble and walk up and down the strip. I didn't do many activities that varied much from that.
Well, I just got back from yet another trip to Las Vegas. It never gets old for me. Each time I'm there, I see new buildings that have been built or empty spaces on blocks where others have been razed. Some of the casinos have different slot machines, different restaurants and of course, construction happening either inside the casino itself or just outside their door!
This time when I went, one of my friends, Tina, went along with me. She had never been there before. She was officially a Vegas Virgin!
We had been planning for weeks. First I did research on hotel rates. Once that was booked, we looked into reserving tickets for a strip show that Tina (no, really....it was her idea!) had heard about and wanted to see. She didn't exactly have to twist my arm!

Coincidentally, the show was at the hotel we were staying at. We shopped before hand for some new clothes and shoes. It was important for the thousands that would be visiting Las Vegas at the same time that we were, to see us dressed to kill.
We decided that we would fly out on Thursday May 6Th. Our flight left at 7:15 AM and we arrived in LAS (airline code) at roughly 8:30 their time. We found a shuttle that would take us to the hotel and made our way there. But check in for the rooms wasn't until noon. So we checked our bags for holding with a concierge and decided we find some breakfast. We went up to the second floor where there was a food court, including a restaurant that had a buffet. That suited us just fine. After stuffing ourselves into misery, we needed to kill more time before we could check in. What better activity than to walk? We went to the strip and just started walking. We were very near the M&M store, Coca Cola store and Hard Rock Cafe. We shopped inside them for the better part of 2 hours. Afterwards, we began our short trek back towards our hotel, The Excalibur.

Our hotel.

The Excalibur

Once we got checked into our room, we had our bags brought up by the concierge. I love this service! But because we had been up since 3AM and had little sleep the night before....we decided to have a nap! After sleeping for a couple hours, we freshened up and headed out for the night. We walked down the strip and took many pictures of the casinos with all the lights on. It was so pretty! We happened to arrive at the Belagio in time to view the pretty water fountains dance to music. There are lights to enhance the show as well that coincide with the music.
We also saw the Siren's of Treasure Island. It's a free show outside the hotel (Treasure Island) with male and female pirates on their respective ships and lasts about 20 minutes.

At night....pretty don't you think?

Eiffel Tower at Paris Hotel.

Just a portion of the long strip.

These two buildings really do lean! One leans left and the other leans right.

After walking for several hours and having a great meal of Chinese food in New York New York hotel and casino....we were exhausted. So we went back to our hotel. Tina went up to the room and I stayed in the casino for a while to try out the slot machines. I played for a long time and decided to head up to the room as well. We had a big day ahead the next day.