vegas

this past weekend, the hubby and i went to vegas for a friend's wedding. we had never been to vegas, so people were taking bets on whether we would like it or not.

we didn't like it.

we flew into vegas on thursday afternoon. we stayed at the MGM Grand, which i think is larger than disney world. by the time we got to our room, we were already annoyed. but we relaxed and enjoyed the view (see pic above) and hung out and met up with kristin and rudy later for dinner. it was with rudy's family at wolfgang puck's in the MGM. the food was awesome. later that night, kristin and i met up with margaret at the Luxor, which is attached by walkways that i think MC escher designed. we had to go through the MGM to New York New York, then through NYNY to Excaliber, then through Excaliber to the Luxor. and sometimes the walkways were clearly marked, sometimes they weren't. it took us at least 30 minutes to get from my hotel room to margaret's room. but the one thing vegas has down is customer service. everytime we needed to ask for directions, everyone was really nice and helpful. it's like they know that wandering through crowds of drunken douchebags is annoying.

scott likened vegas to a frat party in a mall. everyone is drunk and wandering around, thinking they look cool. the two things that were working against me in vegas were 1) i don't drink, 2) i don't gamble. but being there for only 2 days was enough for us not to open fire on a crowd in the middle of the strip.

the other thing we didn't know about vegas is how big it really is. annette suggested we eat breakfast at the Golden Nugget, which was on Las Vegas Blvd North. we thought, can we walk? the answer was given to us by a 25 minute cab ride... no, you cannot walk it. we wandered around Old Vegas for a while, then headed back on The Deuce, which is the double-decker bus that goes from Old Vegas to New and Improved Vegas. that took about an hour. jesus.

another thing we learned is that traffic on the strip SUCKS. imagine rush hour traffic on the kennedy/edens junction at 5pm on a friday... all day long. on friday, amy and i had to go pick up kristin's flowers at the local Jewel, which was down Flamingo. it took us 40 minutes to go from the corner of Tropicana and Vegas Blvd to Harmon, which is the next light. 40. minutes. the entire trip to the store took more than an hour. it was a little nerve-wracking.

the wedding was great. we got a limo ride out to the chapel (on the freeway) and nighttime in vegas when it's 65 degrees was very nice. the chapel was cute, the ceremony was awesome. then we went back to the MGM Buffet for the reception dinner. they had anything you would possibly hope to ever want to eat. i took a lot of pictures (which i'll post on flickr when i get around to it) and ate mashed potatoes and salad. why they don't have mashed potato dressing, i don't know. the night ended around 11pm, since i was so damn tired and not feeling all that well. but the wedding party continued to gamble throughout the night.

we left on saturday, after getting together with everyone for lunch at the monte carlo (not the burned part). it was good to hang out one last time in the Worst Place on Earth. we took some group photos, since all of us hadn't been together in such a long time. then we headed back to the hotel to catch the shuttle. then back to chilly chicago.

ahh, it's good to be home.