Las Vegas

I've been to Vegas once before, and that was when I was seven. I can't really remember much other than the fact that I was absolutely terrified of the city where every other street was filled with smoke and smelled like weed. But alas, my family and my cousin's decided to embark on a journey to Vegas during winter break this year. However instead of flying, we decided to drive nine hours. Nine hours.

I slept for most of the ride or listened to music, so the only picture I have is of my Crunchwrap.

After we arrived, we took a cab to the hotel (Wynn) and after getting our keys, just crashed for the night because we were all tired from the long drive. The next day in the morning, my cousin and aunt arrived (they took a red eye) and we all got ready and went down at about 11.

The view outside our hotel was definitely one of the coolest things I've seen.

We ate lunch at Grimaldi's Pizzeria, which was fire as always, and then walked to the Venetian. Even though we weren't staying there, we could just walk in and out of each hotel on the strip to see their casinos, restaurants, and shops on the inside. The last time (when I was super young) when mine and my cousin's family took a trip to Vegas, we took a picture at the waterfall in the center of the Venetian, but when we went to take another picture, we saw that they had converted the place into a huge LOVE statue with the waterfall behind it inaccessible anymore.

My dad was super excited to take me, my sister, and my cousin through all the different hotels so that we could experience each one. Next, we went to the famous Caesar's Palace. The main walkway of the hotel was illuminated blue, with a sky ceiling and roman architecture around it.

Inside, there were multiple shopping complexes all on different levels, but we didn't get the time to explore each one individually.

Here's a picture of the entire palace from the outside at night:

Here's another picture of us when we were walking through Vegas as it started to get darker.

Next, we went to the Venetian again to book a boat ride around the indoor canal. We had done the same exact thing the first time we came, and so we went on the ride again for the memories.

Lastly, we went to go to a Mat Franco magic show at the LINQ. It was probably one of the coolest things at Vegas, mainly because I didn't understand how he did a single one of his tricks.

The next day, we woke up late and went to El Segundo Sol for lunch. The food there was straight fire. Afterwards, we went to see the Fountains of Bellagio and took a ton of pictures there (the water show wasn't happening then though). Later, my mom, aunt, and grandma went off to go shopping around the other hotels while my dad, cousin, sister, and I walked all the way to New York-New York to go on the ride there and to also see the fake Eiffel Tower in Paris.

It took us about two hours to walk the full roundtrip but the rollercoaster plus the street performances we saw along the way definitely made it worth it.

In the evening, we (my dad, cousin, sister, and me) went to Fremont Boulevard. I definitely recommend seeing this place but don't go with your twelve-year old sister though. We took a cab to get there because it was just too far to walk, and the entire path to get there was almost pitch-black as it was on the edge of the Strip. However, when we entered, it was the most brightly illuminated place I had seen in my life. It had a flashing, color-changing ceiling with DJs and singers on every stage in the street playing every song and genre imaginable. The street was overcrowded and filled with tourists and performers, most of which I wish I never saw. There were performers such as the Chippendales and dressed up officers, and also painters and magicians filling up the roads. On top, there was a zip line you could pay to go on that would take you across the entire boulevard with an aerial view.

We then took a cab to the Bellagio to meet my mom, grandma, and aunt for a Cirque du Soleil "O" performance. There were so many acrobatic acts on the water and so many of the audience members were actually apparently cast members who joined the show at different times. I didn't understand how they were able to do any of the performances they did, but then I also don't know how to do a cartwheel.

Lastly, we went to go see the Fountains of Bellagio in the night to actually see the water show this time.

The next day, we checked out in the morning and left to get back on the road to get home. My cousin and aunt decided to come back with us, and so the ride back was pretty fun. It ended up raining a lot near the end, and there were a lot of swerving cars on the road which made me a bit nervous because it was also pitch-black, but we all got back home in one piece. And that was it for our Vegas adventure, see you next time!