Las Vegas, Day Two

On day two of our Las Vegas trip, Mitch and I spent the morning at a time-share presentation.  Mitch signed us up for the "fun" the previous evening in order to get free breakfast, free Blue Man Group tickets, and $50 of food vouchers.  The experience wasn't completely awful, just took three hours of our vacation time.

Once we returned from the resort, Mitch and I spent the afternoon wandering the strip and popping in and out of stores that caught our attention.  We visited the Coca-Cola and M&M stores, both of which I thought were wonderful; it was fun seeing all the merchandise these companies have to offer!

The Coca-Cola store offers photos with the Coke bear with a superimposed background - not just a green screen - but Mitch and I were too cheap to shell out the $30 for a photo that wasn't all that important to us (the green screen beauty was free with our camera).  I mean the bear is cute but not THAT cute.  Plus, we are both Photoshop savvy and can make our own background. ;)

So many awesome color combinations and fun names for those combinations at the M&M store!

Blue visited the store while we were there so of course we had to get a photo with him!

After visiting the fun stores, Mitch and I ventured to the Luxor hotel and visited the Bodies: The Exhibition.  If you ever have a chance to see this exhibit (I believe there are several around the country), I HIGHLY recommend it.  I found it extremely gross but incredibly interesting; definitely not something you want to miss out on!

The exhibit in Vegas features 13 whole-body specimens and more than 250 organs and partial body specimens, dissected and exquisitely preserved (amazing in itself!).  You are given an up-close and personal look at the skeletal, muscular, respiratory, digestive, circulatory, and reproductive systems; there was also a very interesting area showing the development of a fetus.  Unfortunately (and understandably), you're not allowed to take any photos in the exhibit but you can find plenty of photos online if you just do a simple Google search.  (Perhaps you want to see what you're getting yourself into before you go!)

After our extremely in-depth anatomy lesson, Mitch and I visited the Monte Carlo to watch the Blue Man Group (our FREE show!).  Very fun and high-energy; a little strange at times but extremely entertaining!

After the show, Mitch and I walked the strip again.

We had to get photos of the exterior of the Coca-Cola and M&M stores all lit up; so cool!

And then we ventured into the Coca-Cola store to try the "Around the World" sampler, a collection of 16 different sodas from around the world.  This was so much fun and if you visit Las Vegas, you must do this!  So many interesting flavors, some very delicious and one so horrible neither Mitch nor I could even finish the little cup full.  They really should record people's faces as they are tasting these sodas!

Las Vegas, Day One

Mitch and I got back yesterday from a week-long vacation to Las Vegas.  We had a good time on our trip but it was definitely nice to get back to the quiet calm of North Dakota (and our little fur-baby, of course!).  I figured I better start blogging about our trip right away before I forget everything and it ends up being a year or more later (*cough*Florida trip*cough* and *cough*Salt Lake City trip*cough* and *cough*Mexico trip*cough*).

Mitch and I arrived in Vegas late afternoon.  We spent our first day getting settled and wandering the strip.  That evening we visited the Paris Las Vegas and ventured up the Eiffel Tower.  The Eiffel Tower replica in Vegas is half the size of the original in Europe but that was certainly high enough for me!  We were 46 stories above the city and my palms were sweating, my heart racing; I hung on to the rail as much as possible.  It was a beautiful sight, though, and definitely not something you want to miss out on.

Almost 30

Happy Birthday, Mitchy Joseph!  Enjoy the last year of your 20s!