June Vacation: Las Vegas

First up in the vacation blog series! These are going chronologically, so after this will come Disneyland and SoCal. And then an entire post just about food. If you missed the overview post, click here!

I tried a new format for the intro pic since the one I wanted to use was portrait instead of landscape. Let me know what you think! I don't know if I'll keep it at this point. 

I explained this a little bit in the overview blog post, but our vacation started on the 3rd by flying out to Las Vegas. It was a five hour flight, which got a little tedious by the end, but it was cool to fly out during the day this time! Last time we went to Las Vegas, it was night when we landed, so we got to see the city's lights, but that was kind of it. We flew over Lake Mead, which was really cool to see by air. Last time it was just a string of lights.

The Hoover Dam is actually towards the background of the photo on the right. 

My uncle flew out with us to spend a day in Las Vegas since he didn't come with us last time. We did all the touristy things like visiting the Welcome to Las Vegas sign and driving up and down the Strip a few times. We also walked along Fremont Street and my dad and uncle did the zipline thing. It was really cool! Fremont Street wasn't really my thing, though. There were a lot of people, and there were a bunch of people smoking / vaping. It was really overwhelming.

I took a selfie with my uncle in front of the sign as well but I don't like how my face looks in it >< He's taller than I am so it was kind of an awkward angle to get both of us and the sign into the frame.

My uncle also did the controlled free-fall jump from the Stratosphere, which he's talked about since before we went to Las Vegas the first time. I also got to go to the top of the Stratosphere again, this time at night, and it was pretty cool! There were very few people since it was like one in the morning, and I ended up staying away from the windows even more than I did the first time ;; The windows curve outwards, and that's even more unpleasant when you can't definitely tell where the ground is.

It was really warm in Las Vegas but it was actually pretty comfortable to me. I actually prefer summer over winter, but it's usually so humid here at home that I sit inside all day. I don't think I could handle living out there, though. Very little is naturally green and I think the constant sun would burn me to a crisp.

We got to eat at In-N-Out again, which I was really happy about! We had it for the first time on our last trip to Las Vegas and I really loved it. We actually managed to not eat from any chain restaurants we have back at home. The only exception was Sbarro on the way back home, but the only ones around here are at malls (which we rarely ever go to in the first place.)

The sign spun around! It was really cool

The next day we went out to the Hoover Dam (again) before my uncle had to fly back home. This time we went up on the bypass bridge. It was really high up. Not too fun when there's highway traffic right behind you. 

I bought The Titan's Curse at BWI on our way out, and I wrote my one friend a postcard from Annabeth's point of view on a card I bought from the gift shop. She really liked it

I did some research when we got home and I learned that the calculations they used when building the Hoover Dam were based on unusually high water levels, which is partially the reason why the water seems so low. 

(right image via wikipedia)

I honestly would've rather been there when the water came up that high. The thought of falling that far before hitting the water isn't very fun. 

These guys make an appearance in The Titan's Curse. It's pretty cool. I hadn't read any of the Percy Jackson books when we came out here the first time, so reading The Titan's Curse for the first time and having an understanding of the location was pretty cool. Being able to re-visit it afterwards was also really hella.

After visiting the Hoover Dam we drove back into Las Vegas and dropped my uncle off at the airport, then made our way out to Anaheim. You'll have to wait to see what happened P:

We came back to Las Vegas on the 8th. The second hotel we stayed at had live music, so we sat in the lobby and listened to it. We got to talk to some pretty cool people! One WWII veteran sat with us while he waited for his ride to pick him up and he had some really cool stories. 

I'm usually a pretty shy person, so I surprised myself when I asked to get selfies with the people we talked to! I'm really glad that I followed through

The piano guy played songs for us since it was only us and a few other people in the lobby, and I got to talk to him and his wife when she came to pick him up. They were both really sweet! I've also been inspired to start learning piano again since I haven't played since my music class back in freshman year. I've forgotten a lot of what I taught myself but I still have a lot of my sheet music, so it's only a matter of practice!

The hotel we were staying at was right next to a casino named Sunset Station, so I got a couple cool pictures of it while we were walking to dinner around sunset

The next day we had some time to kill before we had to be at the airport, so we went back to the Strip and re-visited the Bellagio. My first upload to YouTube is actually the video I took of the fountains our first trip. (I've totally neglected my channel recently;;; )

The lobby of the Bellagio has these really cool glass flowers in the ceiling. The inside of the Bellagio is super pretty and very resort-ish. There were a lot of people in line to check-in when we got there, though, so I'm not sure I'd actually ever want to stay there. 

One of Mom's guidebooks had recommended the conservatory inside the lobby, so I asked if we could see it. It was a lot smaller than I expected! It was still really pretty, though. I also learned that they rotate between five themes through the year, so I'm curious as to what it would look like for some of those. 

We waited outside to see the Bellagio fountains again but they didn't do anything :( We were too early for the first show so we waited probably close to an hour for nothing. It was trying to rain on us, too. There was a group of tourists with British / Australian accents standing near us at one point and one of the girls dropped her sunglasses into the water when she leaned over the railing. I felt bad for finding it kind of funny ;; In my research I learned that the pool is 8 acres! The Cirque du Soleil residence show at the Bellagio is a water show, so when they drain their tank it all goes into the "lake" and raises the water level an inch. 

After waiting for the fountains, we went to Jack in the Box for lunch and went to the airport. Our flight left late afternoon so it got dark for us pretty quickly. We sat on the right side of the plane for once (we usually sit on the left because I'm left handed and always call the window seat) but I'm really glad we switched it up! We ended up flying right over Baltimore's Inner Harbor!! I actually didn't realize it at first ;; I noticed the hexagon-shaped building and went "huh, that looks like--" and then realized the layout of all the buildings. It reminded me of prom a little bit since we were out in the Harbor after dark, but it was cool to see it from the air this time! We landed around 1 or 2 in the morning on the 10th. 

That's all I have for Las Vegas! Sorry to give you guys the start and end of the trip at the same time without the middle ;; I considered breaking Las Vegas up into two blog posts, but then I decided I would rather just have one. The blog posts about Disneyland, Los Angeles / San Diego, and food will be up in the next couple days!