Las Vegas has no pretentions about it’s fakeness and gaudiness. Each hotel & casino has it’s own theme, for example you can go to Paris, Ceasar’s Palace, and Luxor (Egyption), and it just so happens that we woke up in the morning to a view of New York, New York outside our window! (see below)

Highlights of arriving in Vegas included a 45 minute shower (guess who’s writing this post!), great meals, a swim in the hotel pool (it was 100 degrees F—38 C—when we were there), and staying in one of 5034 rooms in the MGM Grand. In addition we met up with Shannon and her family and it was great to hang out with friends—it had been a while—and hear all the news from New York.

My favorite part of Vegas was the Bellagio water fountain and the fountain of chocolate (below). Phil’s favorite was of course gambling at the craps table. The first night he made US$422 in 2 hours, and then lost US$190 of it the following night, so overall we were up when we left.