"Rock and roll, you ain't seen nothin' yet!"

And now, a super-detailed account of my awesome Vegas vacation, purely because I want to remember it! This has not been proofed for grammar. =) 

Okay, so I got up at 4:30am, and met Malori at the OKC airport for our early flight out on Friday morning.  I took the motion sickness pills my trainer had recommended, and I did fine on both flights (despite the many warnings about Denver flights being the worst, as well as being seated in the very back row and being told that was the worst place to sit.)  So hooray for that; yay God!  I was frustrated that Malori and I didn't get to sit together on either flight, and the plane didn't have sick sacks in my seat on either flight.  Anyway, when we got to the Denver airport, we had just enough time to rush to board the next flight, and we touched down in Vegas around 9am!

I was pleasantly surprised that our room at the Bellagio was already ready for us around 10am.  After checking in and unpacking (well, I unpacked and Malori laughed about that), we headed to the Jean Philippe Patisserie for lunch.  The entrance is a gigantic glassed-in chocolate fountain (white, dark, and milk chocolate) and they have several amazing, intricate cakes on display.  All the food looked amazing... Malori loved her sandwich and cake, and my croissant and triple chocolate cheesecake pastry was FANTASTIC!  So yes, that got our Vegas trip off to a good start. :) 

Then we headed to the Bellagio shops, followed by the Caesar's Palace Forum shops.  (May I just say, Caesar's Palace is overwhelmingly massive.  Wow!)  Anyway, we shopped for a couple hours, going through tons of ritzy, overpriced big brand shops with a few regular shops mixed in.  Didn't buy anything but some MAC makeup, but it was fun!  My feet started hurting (again, didn't follow my mom's advice to bring comfy shoes)... and we got confused on the time bc Malori's phone was still on OK time... so we headed back to our room to change before the show.  Then we realized we had two extra hours to kill, so we went to the Bellagio Art Gallery, which was my first art gallery experience.  Interesting.  Had I known it would be uber quiet, I wouldn't have worn my clompy shoes.  Oh well.  We saw several interesting and impressive art pieces, as well as some Picassos that I believe any kindergarten student could have painted.  (Not that I want to have anything in common with Cal Hockley, but I'm really not Picasso's biggest fan.)

Anyway, after the art gallery, we headed to the Wynn hotel.  We looked around for a while, then saw LaReve.  Our seats were great, and the show was fantastic.  I'm always so impressed by the talent of those cirque du soleil-style performers.  But this show had a dramatic love story running through it, which ended with a bed dropping from the ceiling... then the lead couple gets in the bed, and as it's floating back into the sky, four massive flowers open from the corners of the bed.  Far more cheesy and funny than offensive.

So at this point, we knew that Chet and Jeff's flight was running 40 minutes late.  After the show, we made one quick stop at the Wynn's "Magical Lake of Dreams."  This needs explanation... before the show, we stumbled on this area, and the gold backdrop wall with the waterfall running down it was really beautiful in the sunlight.  We were impressed and thought it would be gorgeous at night... but for some strange reason, atop the gold wall, there was a gigantic animated frog singing "What a Wonderful World."  It totally caught us off guard, especially considering the usual pretentiousness of the Wynn, and it was hilarious!!  So after a few pics of that, we took a cab back to our hotel.

We watched the water show a couple times (always one of my favorite things!) then went upstairs and waited for the guys to get there.  It was a really bad idea to stop moving at that point, because we ended up arguing over which one of us had to get up and open the door for them! lol  So the four of us talked for a while, then watched the water show, then finally decided to have dinner at this little place outside Caesar's Palace called Serendipity.  So much fun!!  Chet and I split a cheeseburger and sweet potato fries (new thing, hooray), which was great.  Chet was frustrated and kept commenting on the amount of ice cream people were leaving behind in their desserts, so Malori agreed to pay for his if he could finish the entire thing.  He ordered the "Forbidden Broadway," which was 3 scoops of chocolate and vanilla ice cream, topped with a giant piece of chocolate cake.  He gave it his best effort, but finally "hit a wall" and admitted defeat. lol  It was awesome.  Not so awesome was our chatty waitress, who sat down twice to tell us pointless stories.  Although that became pretty funny too.  I laughed harder that night than I had in quite a while! 

After dinner, we went to the Paris hotel, where Jeff convinced me and Chet to get out and dance with him at a bar that had a tiny little dance floor.  They played "Yeah" by Ur-sher, and we did the "ghetto dance" for a few seconds, then danced around long enough for Malori to get a picture, then quickly got out of the drunken couples crowd!

We walked down the strip and saw the usual porn flyers littering the streets, but I honestly think it was worse this time.  Having always gone with family before, I've never been out in Vegas after midnight.  Ummm, it was interesting.  The girl in front of us was much too drunk to stand up, so she got a piggyback ride from her frat boyfriend, and her dress was too short to cover her backside.  Yikes.  We stopped and waited to avoid being under them on the escalator... which was good, considering that she fell - in a slow, dramatic, hilarious drunken fall - as they were on their way up.  Ahh, her parents must be proud.  We went to the Planet Hollywood hotel and checked out their casino, and while walking through the open casino, stumbled on barely-dressed girls dancing on tabletops in some slutty competition.  Seriously, where are we!?  Did we stumble into a men's club accidentally?  I know Vegas can be pretty trashy, but to have that in such an open area was bizzare.

So after all that, we came back to Bellagio and watched Jeff play Roulette for a few minutes, then finally went to sleep!  Saturday morning, Chet and I checked out the Bellagio pools and decided we should all do breakfast at the Pool Cafe.  Good choice by us!  My cinnamon roll was fantastic, and the atmosphere was great!  After breakfast, we walked down to the Aria, MGM Grand, and New York New York hotels.  My feet felt fine all day Saturday, which was awesome!  Our hotel touring was followed by M&M World and Coca-Cola World, which are always cute and fun!  (We used Chet's camera for all our pictures through the trip, which I'm getting from him soon.)  We stopped and sat down and had Coke Icees and Mexican Coke - yum!  Then we went back to our hotel, where Malori and I showered and rested a bit as the guys went swimming for a couple hours.  We all got ready and went to tour the Wynn, mainly so that Jeff could show us the "intoxicating" smell. lol  Afterward, we went to Maggianos for dinner (probably my favorite Italian restaurant ever!)  We toured the Palazzo and Venetian, and got a wonderfully cheesy pic of us with our hands on our heart by a huge American flag.  Then we took a cab to our concert!

The concert was actually at the Mandalay Bay Beach, which was not what we expected, but ended up being far better!  It was 9:00 at night, so the weather and atmosphere was pretty perfect, and the 4 of us picked a spot on the sandy beach by the wave pool and talked and laughed and listened to some awesome music!  One Republic was phenomenal, and my only complaint is that it didn't last longer.  They are genuinely talented -- the lead singer, Ryan Tedder, (thank you, Malori) writes the songs himself and was absolutely fantastic live!  And I don't know enough to know the difference, but Malori was really impressed with the talent of the band and the live string instruments.  So other than the disgusting cigarette butt I found while playfully digging through the sand (ugh!) it was a pretty perfect night.

After the concert, we toured the Luxor hotel... fascinating architecture but strangely prison-like feel.  Then we got back to the Bellagio just in time to see two of the best water shows ever!  At midnight (July 4th), they played Whitney Houston's version of the Star Spangled Banner and went all out with the water show and it was awesome (see video... but it's still far better in person!)  So after all that, we made the ridiculously long walk down the hallway to our room again and went to bed.  Best day ever!



The next morning, I vaguely remember Chet and Jeff leaving for the airport.  Then Malori and I slept in a bit, packed, then did some last minute shopping and had breakfast at the Jean Phillipe restaurant where we'd started our trip.  We got to the Vegas airport early, which was awesome bc they had a California Pizza Kitchen, so we got to do lunch there!  Three of my favorite restaurants (and of course, three of my favorite people ever) in three days made this an awesome trip!!!  The flights back were not bad at all, and Malori and I actually got to sit together this time!  Then Mom was there right on time to pick me up, and I went home and slept in till noon today!  =)

Quote-Worthy Memories:

• Jeff:  Hey, did any of you ever do those Glamour Shot pictures!?Me:  Yep.Jeff:  I did too.  (We all turned around and perked up at that point) Chet and Malori:  Whaaat?Jeff:  Yeah, you know, we all did 'em!  (He was confused and talking about Senior pictures, but it was HILARIOUS, and earned him the nickname "Glamour Shots.")
• "Rrrrefrrrresco!"  ~Chet, commenting on the Spanish writing on the Mexican Coke :)
• Also memorable was our A-1 convo at Serendipity; "Hey, bed buddy;" Jeff being willing to sing me a dramatic Italian ballad as we walked around the canal shops (since no one wanted to ride the fun gondola with me); and Chet and Jeff constantly saying the same thing one or two minutes apart without realizing the other had already said it!
• "Hey, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas."  ~Malori, when I wanted to try several of the pastries at JP
• "Hopefully you all get to meet Fun Pete!"  -Jeff, referring to himself after a couple drinks
• "Usually, I just let 'er flow, but with MasterBlaster in there....."  -Chet Lee"If Bobbi were here, this'd probably be a time that she'd remind you to 'filter.'" -Me
• "Ohhh, this is just hard to watch!  I can't do it."  -Malori, watching Jeff play Roulette
• "Uggggh, I lost $80 in five minutes." -Jeff, randomly remembering that the next day
• "Uh, it's tons of fun walking the hotel ALONE and all, but where are you guys!?" -Chet, annoyed and calling me when we'd walked to a different set of slot machines
• "Yeah, my mom said if you leave the clothes in the bag, they won't wrinkle." -Jeff :)
• "I'm just gonna ignore all the trashiness and focus on the glamour!" -Chet Lee
• Our trip theme song:  "Put your mind to it, go for it, get down and break a sweat!  Rock and roll, you ain't seen nothin' yet!"  ~Jeff, who had this Saved by the Bell workout video song stuck in his head and sang it at several random moments!
  
• Also hilarious was that he seriously knew the name of the SBTB girl group, "Hot Sundae!"  Haha, Jeff is awesome!! :)
• "It's just hard to be around people who are so unhappy.  I mean, not that I'm Mary Sunshine..." -Malori :)
• "Stop moving, Jeff; the shutter's slow." ~Chet
• "Hey, let's play a game!!  Guess this price..."  ~Jeff, reading the ridiculously expensive room service menu...  Malori won, and her prize was the pair of sunglasses Chet found at the bottom of the pool! :)
• "After that, we can go see the Magical Lake of Frogs and Dreams." -Jeff :)
• "Well, this officially proves that even when you're dying of thirst in the desert, you still won't drink after anyone!" -Malori to me, when I drank tap water (for the first time in years) bc I was dizzy and dehydrated
• "Ahh, now we can say that we've danced in Paris!" -Jeffrey
• "There was a buzz on the plane that the concert is at a beach." ~Jeff
• "The air at the Venetian is so intoxicating!"  ~Jeff, who used "intoxicating" and "spectacular" several times through the trip!
• "We can be the VCGO... Vacation Club of Greater Oklahoma." ~Jeff :)
• "I would tell you to just be yourself, but I think maybe this is you." -Malori, watching me unpack and try to get my suitcase and shoes out of everyone else's way :)
• "It's too late to compromise!"  -Jeff, a bit confused on the lyrics, trying to prove he'd listened to the CD Chet loaned him :)
• "I've always wanted one of these challenges... it's like Man vs. Food!"  -Chet, on the sundae challenge
• "Yeah, they're all really big fans." -Jeff, doing his best to avoid being pegged as a One Republic fan while talking to our cab driver
• "See, this is why I have brand loyalty."  ~Chet, referring to his future loyalty to stay at the Bellagio! lol
• "What did Jeff bring to swim?" -Jeff :)
• "Nate-Dawg" and "Nater-tot" as nicknames for Nathan... I'm loving "Nater-tot!"
• "Okaaaay, I feel awkward."  -Jeff, turning around after we'd been behind the drunk skanky girl for a while
• "Ugh, I think I just hit my wall." -Chet Lee, mid-ice cream sundae
• "Uh-ohhh, I'm starting to feel like I might throw up.  I better spit this gum out." -me on our plane ride back home"Well, maybe that's because it's Doublemint!"  -Malori :)
• "Oh right, it's the freakin' 4th of July!  Happy 4th!!"  -me, on our 11pm flight home, after the pilot wished us a happy 4th!