What happens in Vegas...

Actually, I don't really have any wild and crazy stories about my weekend in Las Vegas that I can't write about here. I didn't get in until about 11pm on Friday night, so after meeting G. at the airport, we took a shuttle to the strip to meet up with the five other guys who had flown in from Boston, and the guy who owned the converted school bus that we were staying on for the weekend. Yes, a school bus. We had an extremely late dinner at Denny's, then snuck into the Luxor to use their pool and hot tub. About an hour later, we got booted out by the security guard ("Uh, no sir, we didn't see the sign that says the pool closes at 5pm...") and then went back to the bus and fell asleep. The next morning we hit up the Excalibur for some a.m. gambling, and then after stopping at the Luxor for the lunch buffet, we wandered down the strip to see the pirate show outside of Treasure Island (definitely not a family show), the tiger inside the Mirage, the Russian acrobats at Circus Circus, and the Arby's at the end of the strip (a huge tourist attraction, I assure you). We took the bus back down the strip to see the Bellagio fountain show on the way to New York, New York for Zumanity, the Cirque du Soleil show we were going to see that night, and on the way we ran into a couple of Christians with picket signs about how God will judge you if you are a rebellious woman, a dyke on a bike, a Mormon, or a sports nut, among other things. The fountain show was amazing, and the nerd in all of us spent a lot of time wondering how big the pumps were that shot the water 200 ft in the air.

After going to see Zumanity, which was definitely a weird combination of regular Cirque du Soleil stunts and a standard topless show you'd see in Vegas, we stopped for dinner and then headed back to the bus. The next morning we rented scooters to drive out to Red Rock Canyon, about 15-20 miles off the Las Vegas strip. After getting to the canyon we scooted around the "scenic drive" through the area and climbed up to the top of the ridge of red (well, more like orange) rocks. We camped at the campsite in Red Rock that night and drove back the next morning, and I can honestly say that after this trip, I absolutely want a motorcycle. Yes, top speed on the scooters was only about 45 mph, but it was by far the best way you could drive through that area. The only downside was that our little scooters looked slightly ridiculous next to the real motorcyclists driving down the road...

So, the trip was awesome. I would definitely go back to do more of the regular Vegas stuff (i.e. gambling and shows), and it would have been nice to take an actual shower somewhere between Friday morning and Monday night (washing my hair in the bathroom at the Luxor on Sunday does not count), but I had a fantastic time regardless. There's something about traveling with seven guys and sleeping on a school bus that leads to the kind of general ridiculousness that you wouldn't get on a standard trip to Vegas!