What happens in Vegas doesn't stay in Vegas when you have a Kodak camera.

There is nothing like an airport billboard ad touting "shoot a real machinegun"!
Uzi, anyone? Welcome to Vegas!

This is me on our first night. I just lost a dollar on this demon slot machine.

This is Matt at the Arc de Triomphe. You know. At the taxi cab entrance of our hotel. CLASSY.

And here is the, eh, "Eiffel Tower" at the hotel. Look how worldly and oh-so-European we are.

These are the famous fountains at the Bellagio. They go off every hour to wide variety of cheesy songs. They are magical.

If you have not been to Vegas, you don't understand how monolithic the casinos are. It took us a good twenty minutes to walk to this statue in the Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace (30 minutes if you count me stopping to bitch). Matt read "they come alive!" and was positively enthralled. He loved it. The talking statues were right next to a pillar of American suburbia: The Cheesecake Factory. (I cannot get over the class that is Vegas.) Anyway, it was quite possibly the most painfully tacky thing I have ever witnessed. I cannot stress enough how much Matt loved it.

This is Matt acting all fishy at a fish tank. He was not pleased I made him pose here.

This was the ceiling of the theatre for Cirque du Soleil. I would of taken a photo of the performers (our US gymnastic team has nothing on them), but that wasn't allowed. Something about startling them with the flash. Sigh.

When we arrived in Vegas it was late and all the non-smoking rooms were overbooked at our price point, EXCEPT for a sweet penthouse. We got a free upgrade. This is Matt in one our TWO bathrooms. (Don't worry; you can't see anything.) We're total high-rollers.

This is Matt outside of a tacky Vegas shop. This is a requisite photo. (By the way, we bought the lion.)

This is Matt losing our money on a giant slot machine. We had high hopes of paying off our mortgage.

This is me winning five bucks on a fish-themed slot machine. I judged the slot machines by how pretty, and childish, they were. Something featuring cartoon fish was right up my alley.

This is me with Penn of Penn & Teller. The show was amazing (even in my cynical eyes), and I even did what I thought I never would (waited around to get my photo with him). Admittedly, very lame. And I look horsey in the photo. But no way was I going to ask Penn for a re-take.


So our trip to Vegas was a real HOOT! When I was at the conference during the day, Matt really saw the town! Everyday he was out and about wondering the strip (and hopefully up to nothing nefarious). I've got some airport escapade stories that I'll regale you with later, too.

Tomorrow I'm going to New Orleans for work. My colleague booked us on a 12-row plane, so I'm sure there will be some snarky story about that coming up. A Crohnsy cheers to you all!