The Insanity ride that spun over the edge of the Stratosphere. Definitely not something I would ride but the guys were patient with the hour long wait and white knuckled their way through it.
Las Vegas at night as viewed from the Stratosphere. It was real windy up there but the experience and the view was worth it.
Enjoying free drinks (courtesy of our show tickets) at Lavo after Phantom of the Opera
Here is the amazing street cleaning fleet that suddenly emerged after the New Year's countdown to clean up the crazy mess that had been left behind
Happy New Year! Waiting for the fireworks to begin and enjoying dinner at La Fiamma after watching the Cirque show
After leaving Arizona, we drove to Vegas where we met up with Nathan and my dad. Our hotel in Henderson was the perfect distance away from downtown and we made daily trips to explore the strip. It was great to see the hotels with some of there Christmas decorations still up. After much exploring we joined my dad for dinner and a Cirque show on New Years Eve before heading out to the Strip to watch (or rather listen to) the fireworks. As we headed down the Strip to Nathan's hotel, we stopped outside of El Diablo Club outside of Treasure Island to watch the literal fleet of street sweepers cleaning up the New Year's mess and ended up being let into the club for free!! We had stopped to talk to someone outside of the club and he must have been a manager or something because next thing we know he is letting us in and telling the cashier to waive the $25 per person cover charge! Needless to say we were pretty psyched! New Year's day meant more exploring and Jamie and I met up later than evening for dinner and Phantom of the Opera. Even though I had seen this show in high school it was actually better than I remembered. Jamie however, has decided that he prefers to watch operas/musicals with subtitles because it was sometimes hard to understand what they were saying. We concluded our week by going to see the Blue Man Group (totally awesome and interactive and better than anything I could have anticipated) and taking Jamie to New York New York and the Stratosphere for his first experience riding roller coasters. The coasters on the Stratosphere were a little scary and the looks on our faces in all the photos are totally hilarious. At the end of the week we drove back to Phoenix to fly our separate ways; me back home and Jamie back to work. Unfortunately I was met with even more fight delays!! Almost missing my light in Phoenix, rushing to meet my connection in Seattle, and then sitting in the plane at Seattle for a little over 2 hours while they experienced mechanical difficulties and multiple trips through the de-icer. So instead of arriving in Anchorage at 9pm as scheduled, I didn't arrive until midnight!! Even though I thoroughly enjoyed the trip and the much needed time with Jamie, I can honestly say that I am happy to be back home so that the daily routine can start again! Hope everyone had a great Christmas and a safe and happy New Year
