Great Trip to the West Day 4: Las Vegas

I got up before the wife as usual and showered up.  We grabbed our complimentary breakfast and loaded up the car.  I had already filled up the car with gas so we were good in that department.  It only took us a couple minutes to find our way to the highway for Las Vegas.  The trip wasn't too bad.  Only about 2 hours.  We took it easy and decided to do some sight seeing along the way.

The Hoover Dam was pretty amazing as a kid and it's still pretty cool.  This time however, we didn't drive over the dam.  We took the new bridge and got off to park and look around.  I don't remember walking around the dam before, but that's what we did this time.  We had a look at the gift shop and walked across the dam (it didn't seem so huge this time).  We spent about 45 minutes in total as we had to meet my cousins at the Las Vegas airport at around noon.

The drive into Las Vegas wasn't eventful.  We had an easy drive in and found the airport pretty easily.  The Las Vegas McCarran Airport is pretty nice.  Lots of little (but expensive) shops.  Friendly staff members helped us find out way in and around the airport.  The only problem was due to all the time changes we got there super early so had to wait around.  Not a problem

My cousins arrived hungry which was fine with us because we were hungry too.  After picking up our bags, we were off to our hotel, the Rio.  We didn't check in right away, first we hit the buffet.  It was expensive, but it had everything.  It was so good.  They had just about anything and everything you could want.  I ate about 3 large platefuls.  Old me would've devoured 6 or 7, but not anymore.  We talked and ate for about 2 hours.  After gorging ourselves we checked into our rooms and took a rest.

I wandered around the casino for a bit and had a seven dollar beer at the pool bar.  There wasn't much to see or do since it was on a weekday, but it was still cool.  Rio is designed in a Brazilian, carnival theme.  There are even floats that descend from the ceiling and dancers on them throw beads to the onlookers.

Around 6pm we all met up again and headed to the strip.  We wandered around the Bellagio and Venetian and a few other places, just taking in the sights and experience of the casinos.  After awhile we had a snack at the Venetian food court and continued in our slow trek across the strip.  Finally we made our way back to my car and headed to the hotel and sweet sweet bed.

I had been to Las Vegas once before back in 1997.  I was pretty amazed to see how much the city had changed in the past 15 years.  The area where I had been back then was now becoming a slum, a place where low ballers hang out.  The area where I was now had not existed back then.  It's quite a transformation.