Vegas vacation
Trip Start
May 26, 1999
1
4
8
Trip End
Jun 20, 2005
Las Vegas,
Nevada,
United States
Tuesday, December 24, 2002
Summer 1998 - It was the only time (other than 2006) we didn't stay in Treasure Island; we were at the Mirage instead. It was also the only time we didn't have a rental car.
- Places/sights that we would visit in subsequent years: Mirage's exploding volcano, Treasure Island's pirates vs. navy battle, and Excalibur's jester's stage and arcade
- We saw a show at Circus Circus (which I thought was a ghetto casino) and a 3-D IMAX movie about aquatic life at the Luxor
11 - park
.- Eric's favorite part was visiting Excalibur because he loved knights and castles. One of the guys in full armor let him hold a sword.
- Favorite part: Sigfried and Roy's exotic cat and dolphin habitat. There were white tigers (my favorite animal), white lions, snow leopards, and panthers. There was also an area where you could feed dolphins (my other favorite animal). Needless to say, I was very excitied.
Christmas 2001 - The start of our tradition of going almost every winter
- Places/sights we would visit in subsequent years: Chinatown (which was right outside the strip), Bellagio and its water show, the Venetian, and the Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace
- We took a long drive out to the Valley of Fire and Red Rock National Park. The landscape was absolutely gorgeous, but getting carsick kind of soured the experience.
- We were going to visit Hoover Dam, but so many people were there that we decided to not get out of the car. That was an even longer drive. @_@
- One of the days was spent at Gameworks, thanks to free gaming coupons
12 - wax museum1
. I was the 2-time Virtual Reality champion! ^_^- Favorite part: learning how to snowboard at the Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort. It was much harder than I expected, even with my skateboarding experience, but near the end, I was almost able to stop on my own. There was a lot of stumbling down the slope, but I still had a ton of fun.
Christmas 2002 - We went back to the mountains to learn how to ski this time. It was easy for me because I in-line skate so I decided to give snowboarding another try. I fell a lot more since I didn't take the class (Mom and Dad were only going to pay for one set of lessons). I got the flu later that night and Eric hit his head on the ski lift so we decided that we're not cut out for snow sports.
- Getting the flu really put a damper on the trip, but we were able to go on the Luxor IMAX ride, Search for the Obelisk. It was rather cheezy and I didn't like getting bumped around (especially with the bruises from snowboarding).
- My favorite parts were visiting Art of the Motorcycle at the Guggenheim Hermitage and Madame Tussad's wax museum. I could've spent hours browsing the motorcycle exhibit, but Mom and Dad were getting impatient since I was the only one that went.
Thanksgiving 2003 - Treasure Island underwent a makeover and became TI. Its pirate-navy battle became a sexed-up musical number with sirens and pirates. I think this was when Excalibur started to get rid of a lot of the medieval-themed stuff, like people wandering in costume and the fantasy shops.
- Dad and Eric went on the Atlantis-themed IMAX ride at Caesar's Palace. I passed this time and went to the Guggenheim exhibit, A Century of Painting: From Renoir to Rothko, at the Venetian. That got me extra credit in AP Art History. ^^
- Favorite part: going to see Lord of the Dance. I love all things Irish/Celtic, including step dancing. The dancers were awesome, and the music was beautiful (they had a couple singer and fiddlers). I also liked how the performance was centered around Celtic mythology.
