Sin City

Vegas, oh Vegas. So many things have been written about this city, most of them glorifying the release of inhibitions as people wallow in its seemingly intoxicating atmosphere. The city lives in the middle of boulders, mountains and desert a.k.a. nowhere -- I felt surrounded by an imaginary mountainous fence -- it almost lent some truth to that old saying... what happens in Vegas can very possibly just stay there.

Having spent roughly 4 days there, it seemed like there was nothing else to do in Vegas but entertain yourself. It's the only city in America where you can drink on the streets (which we barely took advantage of; we just had a giant 3-foot strawberry daiquiri from Flamingo - that was it). Perhaps also the only city with a choice of almost 6 Cirque du Soleil shows all happening every night; the only city where it's perfectly ok to gawk at the marvelous hotels and take photos in the lobby without being judged; the city where I saw about 5 brides in one night, some followed by her bridesmaids in matchy-matchy dresses; a city where I can go by foot from a Treasure Island to Caesar's Palace to Venice to Paris to New York, all lying in a magnificently lighted strip of street, complete with a dancing fountain show every 15 minutes.

Vegas has a certain charm to it, like it really is an escape. You'd want to lose yourself in this city... As in take on whatever persona you want to, have loads of fun, then come back relatively unscathed into your old, boring life (haha!). But really, I can imagine just having Vegas close by and going there for the weekend to blow off some steam and have some fun with friends just to reenergize. Besides you'd never run out of things to do in Vegas, and even if you do, parking your bum in one of the slot machines and feeding your life savings into the little twinkly contraption is, well, still a rather entertaining option.

So the big question is - did I gamble? Yes. Did I win? Yes! How much? From $38 it grew to $120 - not bad huh? But I stopped before it became addicting. I didn't want to have Jaim drag me away from the slot machines with arms flailing. What else did I do? We walked the Strip at night, and a little bit in the morning. Went to M&M's Chocolate Factory, saw the city from 1,000 feet above at the Stratosphere, caught "O", a Cirque du Soleil show at the Bellagio and went on a sunset helicopter trip to the Grand Canyon - hands down the highlight of my trip. Absolutely beautiful and such an amazing experience. I have no words.

I honestly cannot wait for my next trip to Sin City.

P.S. Special thanks to Jaim for being the designated driver and more importantly her GPS which got us to all the places we needed to go to!

P.P.S. Photos to follow.