Leaving Las Vegas Post

Alright so I have very few pictures left to post but there were some things made them selves very evident while on this trip.  First and probably least important is that women get the short end of the stick when it comes to the relationship.  Now I’m not talking about respect or duties split in the relationship.  You should know me better than that, you should know I’m not going to take a hard line stance on those matters (I’m married and its a mine field of potential problems).

No, women get the short of the stick when it comes to men.  Time after time I would look at a couple walking down the street and think, “really, she’s with him, hmmm”.  Then I started to think about it.  Women typically make an effort to look good, especially as they get older.  While men, most of the time, make less of an effort.  You often hear of women getting botox or plastic surgery to fight the affects of gravity and time.  What do men do?  We add a side of fries. 

And this is after the fact that women age better than men anyway.  Sure we all get a little thicker but men start to lose their hair in addition!  Lets not forget that we don’t even start at the same place, women are far better looking early.  Women are pretty great to put up with us ugly guys and continue to put up with us as we age and get uglier. 

 

The second observation, great friends will always be great friends.  It has been 15 years since I had seen my friends Mark and Brooke but I looked them up knowing they were living in Vegas.  It was easily the highlight of the trip.  The last time I saw Mark and Brooke I dropped by their little house to say goodbye the day bef0re I flew out to serve a two year mission.  They had just had a little baby and Mark was finishing law school.  At the time they were a great example to me.  It was great to see their four children and catch up on the last 15 years. 

I have noticed that in great friendships there is never an awkward silence you just seem to pick up where you left off and keep building.  I look forward to keeping in better touch going forward. 

Before Mark picked us up we walked over to Mandalay Bay to The Four Seasons, which was a small corner of Mandalay Bay.  They had a great fish tank in one of their lobbies…

Now this is where I should have pictures of me and Mark and Brook but we got so busy talking I forgot to take pictures.  But after our visit Mark dropped us off on the strip at “The Forum Shops and Caesars Palace.  Another great example of failing to capture the scale because it really was so impressive.

  Check out the spiral escalator!

These pictures are of the ceiling so its a little weird trying to figure out what you’re looking at.   This place was amazing.  My favorite store here was the Peter Lik Gallery.  After that we walked home only stopping in The Paris to use the bathroom, nice bathrooms btw.

Alright so the last little bit of the Vegas trip wasn’t really eventful but I did walk over to In ‘N Out Burger on my last day.  I also went into a few of the hotel/casinos that I hadn’t had a chance to get to.  As I walked over I-15 I was able to get a shot of New York New York that better captured the scale of how big that place was.

just under the green light you can see the statue of  liberty.  In an earlier picture you can see how large it looked.  Now you can see how it pales in comparison to the rest of the hotel. 

I then walked over to the MGM Grand.  I mentioned earlier there were lions there to view.  Like in a zoo, only that day there were no lions on display.  They did have a restaurant inside called the “Rain Forrest Cafe” and of course there was a gift shop.

There was a big canopy from the fake tree filled with fake animals and a fog machine.  And of course a fish tank.

This was the entrance to the restaurant.

Here in amongst the fog and grass was a huge crocodile.  That spot on his snout is a penny.  And that blue thing in the bottom right hand corner was my 44oz :)

Now I couldn’t forget my kids on this trip, and I didn’t.  I thought of them constantly.  But I had to find something from Vegas that would make an appropriate gift.  If you’ve been to Vegas they don’t exactly have a ton of things for small kids there.  But I think I found something they would enjoy…

The top is the “peanut” side and the bottom is the “plain” side.

and this picture was for Isak since he loves race cars.

Now for Ruth, what would Ruth like…

Naw, probably not, I’m almost just like that only without the pony tail.

Maybe I’ll just have to bring her back so she can pick her own gift.

That’s all I got, the trip home was uneventful but great to be back with my family!