Vegas - Part 3

After I had a fun day at the Bellagio outing with the other spouses, Blair got jealous by my stories and begged me to give him a personal re-enactment of the day.  So, to the Bellagio we went.

I REALLY liked the Paris hotel!

And, again, we just happened to be there at the exact moment the fountain show started!

I liked being able to photograph it from both vantage points.

Especially because this side had the Paris Eiffel Tower in the background.  :)

Pretty cityscape.

Blair at the Bellagio.

Close-up of the World's Largest Chocolate Fountain. 

And the amazingly tempting display of decadent treats....

...of which we couldn't resist.  :)

This is the Paris casino.  I really liked the sky-scape ceiling.  Plus, they pump in fresh air!  So it wasn't QUITE as smoky as all the others.  It still was very smoky, mind you.  But it was a little better.  And a little less stale.  (I was not a fan of the casinos, if you couldn't tell.)

On the way back to our room, we stumbled upon one of our favourite parts of our Vegas trip: the dueling pianos.  It was SO much fun.  They were hilarious!  The guy was amazingly talented.  The lady was good at piano, but needed some singing classes.  But it was still awesome!!  Absolutely a blast to watch them entertain. 

It was a great way to end the evening. :)

Vegas - Part 2

The conference that Blair went to seemed to be really well organized.  While he was working, manning a booth, networking, and going to classes, they had daily activities for the spouses.  You could go to 2 activities per day, if you wanted.  There were a few I signed up for, and the first was the Bellagio Day Trip.  The Bellagio was hosting a special exhibit of Dale Chihuly glass, so we went to explore.  I had already seen a few Chihuly glass exhibits and love his work.  So I knew this was an activity I didn't want to miss.  

This stunning piece is actually a chandelier, called Fiori di Como, by Chihuly....and consisted of 2,000 hand-blown glass blossoms!!  Gorgeous.

Here's the small gallery.  We got a personal "tour"...which was really just a lady giving us a 10 minute talk about Chihuly's biography and his special pieces.

The exhibit was smaller than I expected, but still just as beautiful as always.

 I love the unique shapes and the vibrant colours he uses!

Aren't they fancy?!

I also found out the the Bellagio decorates their Conservatory and Botanical Gardens for the season.  We visited in late October, so it was decorated for Fall.

Yes, that sign says it's an 835 pound pumpkin!!!  And then there was a scarecrow display, which reminded me of the Wizard of Oz.

And a talking tree??  With eyes that move around and watch people??  Creepy.

But this beautiful rose apple made up for the creepy tree.  Almost.

And one of the best parts of the day.....World's Largest Chocolate Fountain.  Guinness Book of World Records certified.  Cool!

Worst part of the day:  YOU CAN'T EAT FROM IT!  What a mean tease!  What's the point of a large chocolate fountain if you can't enjoy the chocolate???  I mean, it's pretty and all. (and yes, it is pretty).  But still.  Kind of lame.

But...the spouse group tour guide made up for it by buying us each a scoop of gelato.  Yum!  I ate it too quickly and forgot to take a picture.  However, here's a picture of the delectable treats that enticed me into bringing Blair back later that trip.  :)

And the view on our walk back to the hotel....from the other side of the Bellagio fountains:  Ballys and Paris hotel/casinos.  Simply beautiful.

What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.....

Unless, of course, you are a blogger.  In which case, "what happens in Vegas is forever captured on the blogosphere."  :)

Because of our Hoover Dam detour, we arrived in Vegas after sundown.  So our first shots of it were blurry out-the-car-window-as-we-are-driving-in shots.  It was so bright and colourful!  My goodness there are a LOT of flashing lights everywhere!

 This was the first sighting of our hotel.

 Once we checked into our room and walked for miles from our parking spot in their garage to our room (literally took us 20 minutes), we decided to venture out to the strip and walk around.

 A neighboring hotel/casino.  Donny and Marie were performing there.  For some reason, I've always had a very strange fascination...and Blair had never heard of them.  Goes to show you that, sometimes, even a 3.5 year age difference between us can feel like a generation gap.

 Across the street was the Bellagio.  And we just HAPPENED to arrive just as the fountain show was starting.  It was amazing!

Blair kept talking about the crazy engineering that had to go into creating it.  He was fascinated.

 The Bellagio.

 Us in front of the Bellagio, right after the fountain show.

View of our hotel and the Paris hotel.  I think, out of all the ones we visited, Paris was my favourite. 

The night view from our hotel room was gorgeous!

Here's what our room looked like:
This was our closet and hallway.

 Part of the bathroom.

 King-sized bed.

 The TV and desk.

 Our reading nook.

 The view from our room in the day-time.

Hoover Dam

Blair had a work conference in Las Vegas, and I got to join him!  Neither one of us had ever been there before.  Neither one of us have ever really wanted to go to Vegas.  But, with the military paying for it, we decided it was worth exploring.

We hadn't really thought about our road trip before we made our trek, and just happened upon the Hoover Dam.  Again, neither of us had ever been there before.  But both of us have wanted to see it.  So despite the trip delay that would be caused, we took the detour. 

Once we arrived, I immediately started taking pictures.  For some reason, I was really drawn to this bridge.  I love it.

This picture took a guy about 10 minutes to get.  He took about 15 photos, and this...THIS...is the best one.  hahaha   It's not even really in focus.  But hey, at least we are centered in the middle of the photo.

 Told you I like this bridge....and the way the sun was hitting it!

There it is!

I really like how the sun setting made the water and hills look so orange.

 Fun trip detour, indeed.