Ok...all about vegas.... :)

Left Phoenix around 6am for Vegas. Reach the Hoover Dam around 11am, which had checkpoints at both ends. Commercial Traffic and Recreational Vehicles were being diverted to alternate routes instead of across the dam. THis is due to the fact that it is a possible terrorist target. Destruction of the dam would cause major damage if the huge Lake Mead were to be released into the valley below. Anyway they checked out the truck and sent us on our merry way. We stopped briefly at the damn before continuing to Vegas.

Got onto the strip around noon, and since we couldn't check in until 3, we decided to start on the strip. I'm not gonna go into mega detail here, but let me highlight some really cool stuff we saw.

I think both my brother and I agree that the Luxor is the neatest hotel. We both love egyptian history and the luxor is a monument to it. The main building is cool, but not for the light-hearted. It's pyramid shape causes a huge atrium to form at it's center, but also provides a couple other neat features. Since it's a pyramid, the rooms cling to the outside walls....the outside 45-degree angled walls. This causes each room to be placed about 10 foot further in than the room below. So as you go higher, you can look over the edge and see NOTHING below you. The structure of a pyramid is stable enough to not need any interior post from any of the outer floors. It's totally cool! The second neat feature is that since all the floors never really line up, you can't use traditional elevators. Instead they have INCLInators, which go up at 45-degree angles in each of the corners. There's a wild ride...getting smashed into the wall as the elevator slows to a stop.

Next neat stop was the Bellagio. The fountains in front are really cool! Part of a 7-acre lagoon, the Fountains at Bellagio activate every 30 minutes in daylight, and every 15 minutes after dark. The dance and light up in sync with music which ranges from Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman singing "Time to Say Goodbye", to Henry Mancini's theme from "The Pink Panther". The Bellagio itself is also probably the most elegant hotel on the strip, with a price to match!

For the animal lovers, we hit two places of interest. The Mirage and the MGM grand. The Mirage has the White Tigers, since they also have Sigfreid and Roy there, and the MGM has Lions, in honor of their logo's namesake. Of the two, MGM has a more unique exhibit since plexiglass tunnels actually penetrate the habitat, allow you to walk right under the lions, or have them run over you, which happened to us. Was really neat watching two chase each other over the tunnel we were in! I'm not sure about MGM, but appearantly Mirage doesn't usually have them on display too much. Sigfreid and Roy usually have them on their huge estate, where they are allowed to roam freely.

Finally, the last point of interest was our hotel, the Stratosphere, with it's tallest free-standing tower in the United States, and tallest structure in Vegas. Neither my brother nor I actually went inside. (They charge you $5 to go to the top observation deck, but we decided in light of recent events we didn't really wanna go up there that bad....especially since neither of us really like heights anyway.) The hotel stuff says they've got shops, an interior observation deck, and exterior observation deck, a restaurant and bar, and the two rides, both of which are outside on the roof. No thank you. :)

All in all, Vegas was fun....and fairly cheap. The buffet's rock so if you have a healthy appetite you can really clean up. I recommend the World Buffet at the Rio All-Suites Hotel. It's a little west of the strip but the buffet is HUGE and has everything!