Vegas!

We had a really good time in Vegas this past weekend! I didn't carry my camera around too much, so I am really limited on pictures.

It was nice to have two full days. On the other trips that are further away, we seem to spend more time on travel than we actually do getting to play! On Friday after we had lunch with some friends, Conal and I took the monorail to the middle of the strip. We wandered for a couple of hours and played a few slots on a casino credit, people watched and enjoyed a gondola ride at the Venetian.

Friday night, his company rented out Studio 54 and we danced our booties off! (For those that follow the dancing Marquette saga....I made a conscious effort to keep my mouth closed ;) and Conal didn't clap!!)

Saturday we planned to spend the day vegging out by the pool. However, we had breakfast with some friends and co-workers and we decided that we wanted to check out Fremont Street. So, yet again, we hopped on the monorail and took it until the line ended. We then transfered to a city bus and made our way Downtown. (Which still confuses me, since it's North...wouldn't it be UPtown? Oh well!)

We had a blast on Fremont Street. That is definately the place to go and gamble! Conal and I have never really gambled "for real" before as we've always been intimidated because we don't know all the rules! So, Conal and his buddies sat down at a blackjack table and I found myself a craps table. I played on $20 for over an hour and was up $50 before I finally lost all but $5. So, I joined them at the Blackjack table. Conal was just finishing up his original $20 so I gave him a second one and put my $5 chip on the table. As soon as I broke even with the twenty I lost on craps I put that in my pocket and played for another hour or so. I walked out up $35 and Conal walked away down $40. It was so fun! The dealers were great! They were really helping us to understand why you should do what, when! It amazed all of us how long we could play on so little money. Another couple in our group blew through $60 each in about 10 mins at the MGM, so they were thrilled to walk away up a couple hundred dollars!

Saturday night was the Gala with the formal dinner and awards ceremony. Three and a half hours of yawn...but we made it through to find ourselves at a really swanky bar on his bosses tab! Conal and I stayed out until about 2:30a, because we could! We were both exhausted and hit a wall around 1:00....but we didn't want to cash in just yet. So after walking down the strip forEVER with some friends and not feeling really safe, we skipped out on them about 1:45, hopped back on the monorail and enjoyed a $35 nightcap at Nathan's. Two hotdogs, two fries and two cokes...yah, Yowza!

Anyhow...we had a great time. This was Conal's fifth trip with his company in the eight years he's been there. I'm proud of him. He's a hard worker and it's nice that they reward them when they reach their projected goals!