2010 Aug 17 | Perseid meteors, Las Vegas

I don't like being behind these guys. You never know when a strap will break and all those cars will slide off.

Some neat glasses.

I'm sure there's a CVS nearby. Wait, it's right on top of me.

And there it is. Next time just look around for a second instead of going straight to the maps on my phone.

Funny billboard.

A long line for The Expendables screening. Good thing I got there early.

With all my free goodies on: shirt, tattoo, and bandana.

Grabbing some Thai tea...

... to eat with our super-cute and tasty bento boxes from Becki. ^_^

Wait, that was supposed to be a "temporary" tattoo.

Jenny's neighbor always leaves this light on. Thankfully there's a switch in the stairwell so we can turn it off.

This part of I-45 always bothers me since a bit of the median juts out into the lane.

The cheapest piece of luggage this size I could find at Wal-Mart.

I stopped at a little thrift store in League City. It was a pretty upscale place with lots of nice things.

Including all of these shiny dresses. The owner saw me looking at them and said they're all sized a bit small. I said, "OK, but she'd probably want to try them on rather than me just buying them." Then the owner replied, "Oh, I thought you might be buying them. A lot of guys who go to Vegas shop from that rack." Errr...

A really neat purse I found for Jenny there.

This little bug was running around the office one day.

I'm trying to pick him up and put him outside so none of the women squish him, and he repays me by continuously trying to pinch me. That's the thanks you get for helping people these days.

the mess around the door of Jenny's neighbor like only a week after I had cleaned this all up. Sigh.

Out on a little road to watch the Perseid meteor shower. I could swear I hear voices, Jenny said it was nothing, and then when we heard an animal walking around in the field, we got out of there. On our way we passed the people I had heard, fellow meteor watchers, who waved at us.

Gotta get away from Houston's light pollution.

We tried going to Brazos Bend, but there were trees everywhere, and we were scared of animals coming out of them and eating us, so we went by a field instead so we could see anything coming at us.

Watching the Perseid meteor shower. Even caught a mosquito in the picture, although this area had almost none; they were eating us alive at a few places we had stopped earlier.

6am flight to Las Vegas made a little better by not having anyone else in our row. Just lie down across the seats and sleep.

Pretty much everyone was sleeping on the plane.

The rising sun was chasing our westward-bound plane and finally caught us.

The Hoover Dam from the plane. This counts as seeing it in my book.

First thing you see off the plane: slot machines.

We stayed at the Luxor, the giant black pyramid. This was the wallpaper.

The four of us on The Strip.

The Strip from one of the many walkways.

New York New York.

Our first set of slots: inside the MGM Grand.

I put in $1, won $1, and then Jenny lost 75 cents. Yeah, we're big-time gamblers.

Going back to the CBS Television City.

Trying out the 3D TV. Pretty cool, actually.

Interactive projection on the floor.

Lion habitat at MGM Grand.

She knocked this jar off the ledge.

He's staring right at us.

The king up on top.

The girls and the lions.

Aw, how sweet, they're nuzzling.

That's a little too close.

M&M World.

Monica with tons of M&Ms behind her.

Too much candy everywhere.

Twisty straws.

And not quite sure what this thing was.

Me: "What are you doing? Some weird Asian peace sign thingy?" Jenny: "Copying his pose."

Umbrellas for the people who are waiting in line in the sun.

Gotta love the misting fans.

I love the red and black dress on the far right.

This whole mall was closed; kinda creepy.

Walking through the outdoor shops.

Expensive cars for rent.

Some neat buildings.

And another one.

Bellagio.

Paris.

Inside the Bellagio.

The conservatory.

Snail.

Ladybug.

Neat flowers.

Some watering cans.

More cool flowers.

Bigger flowers.

Pretty girls by some pretty flowers.

Free cookies? Of course!

The fountains at Bellagio.

Cesear's.

A giant slice of pizza for lunch.

Positioning his kid for one of those "your face on one of these pictures" booths.

At the Flamingo with flamingos in the background.

Them: "Hey, do that again!" Me: "What?" Them: "Lift your leg up and hold it!" "Me: "Why? I'm just stretching." Them: "You look like a flamingo!"

These walkways were a bit of a pain, but then again, traffic was pretty bad even with them.

Paris hotel.

Guys giving away cards to call girls.

Wonder Woman on her way to work.

Her with Spider Man.

Bartenders dancing on the bars.

Watching a pilot for a TV show and constantly monitoring how much I liked it. The girls each made $75 doing this.

The pool at the MGM Grand.

Coupons and coupons and coupons. Didn't use most of them, but the ones we did use were nice to have.

It might take you girls a while to eat all of that.

New York New York.

Excalibur.

Buffet at Circus Circus.

More buffet.

We mostly stuck to penny and nickel slots.

The free show area at Circus Circus.

Smack the launcher with a hammer and fling a rubber chicken into a bucket for a prize.

Me swinging hard. With the little bear I won.

Free show.

Some women up on a trapeze.

There was a pretty big crowd at any free show.

Flair bartender.

Behind the back.

Landing it on his arm.

Love these drink containers, especially the guitar and really giant ones.

Coming out the wrong side of Circus Circus and having to walk through an alley.

Circus Circus sign.

Haha, fake money glued onto the sidewalk.

Messing around with the custom shoe insert machine at a Walgreens.

Probably not worth teh $100+ they sell for, though.

Neat, braille on the package. The girls needed some of these on their feet after walking all day.

Onto the Stratosphere.

That makes me sick.

Wedding chapel.

Interesting clothing.

Guy about to do SkyJump, an 800-foot freefall from the Stratosphere. We would have done it, but it was $100 a person.

Big shot.

Insanity, which Jenny and I went on.

The girls in front of the Strip.

Monica and I.

X-Scream.

The Strip from the top of the Stratosphere.

Gambling again.

Still no millionaires among us.

Inside the Luxor.

We got to LAX after midnight, and being guests of the hotel meant nothing that late. The girls got straight in, but I had to buy a $25 drink at a bar outside to get in the VIP line (which I dumped because I couldn't take it in and the girls kept texting me asking me why I wasn't in yet) and then pay a $40 cover. Grrr.

Inside the club.

The girls all dressed up. No flash.

And with a flash. You can tell we got some sun.

Everyone in the club dancing.

A little show outside the club in the casino.

Day #2. These casinos are so huge. Gotta find a map or something like this to find your way.

We hurried to get to the Paris before 11:30am to get the brunch price for the buffet. We made it, and yet we didn't. We got to the back of the line by 11:30...

... but the line was 1.5 hours long.

Having some fun while waiting.

I ran over to get some gelato while we waited.

I want these, but gotta save my appetite for the brunch.

Eating gelato while waiting in line for the buffet.

Finally got there.

And there was a ton of food.

Crepes made while you wait.

Omelettes made while you wait.

Drinking coffee from a straw because last night was too tiring to bother lifting the mug up.

Neat bathrooms. There was music teaching how to say pick-up lines in French.

A neat dress.

Losing again.

OK, enough walking up and down The Strip. Time to start taking cabs, which isn't so bad with four people.

View from our room at Luxor.

And off to the pool.

I wonder if they check prescriptions before giving those out?

It was kind of hard finding chairs, but we eventually got some.

Lots of different pools.

The darker concrete is normal; the lighter concrete is around the pool and doesn't get hot in the sun. After walking on the normal stuff for a few seconds and then hopping around like you're on a stove, you learn to stick to the lighter sections.

The girls lying out and Jenny off to have some fun.

Jenny under a water spout.

Me under a water spout.

A bit closer.

Luxor from the pool.

Even though it's like 105 outside, the hot tubs were still nice.

Under a little waterfall thingy. A little too low this time, haha.

Ah, that's better.

Off to have some more fun.

Go around like we're supposed to? As long as we can hop over the locked gate, no way.

A view from the walkway.

Hey, what's that?

The private gay party in one corner of the pool.

The ceiling of Treasure Island.

Pretty much every hotel had motorcycles displayed near the front.

More cheap food.

Some neat pictures in the bathroom.

The Sirens of Treasure Island, a free show.

You watch it out on a little bridge between The Strip and the casino, and this boat of pirates is the other side of the bridge of the boat with the sirens.

The sirens dance around...

... and the other boat sinks.

The Volcano at the Mirage.

Closer.

Tall hotels.

Treasure Island.

Ceiling of the Venetian.

Gondolas.

An airbrush artist.

Big Mardi Gras balls for sale.

Not sure exactly what's going on here, but it looks interesting.

Dancing bartender.

Some interestingly-dressed dealers and some dancers.

Fountains.

Us in front of Paris.

Neat ceiling.

Just a cool sign we saw.

The fountains at Bellagio.

Jenny with a living statue.

The Eiffel Tower.

Us with some other street performers.

Busy road.

On the way to the Rio.

Another free show: Masquerade Show in the Sky.

Dancers.

Performers in the floats tossing out beads.

More of the show.

Some interesting knives in a shop there.

Some more flair bartenders.

I only played the slots if there was an actual handle I could pull.

Always sticking to the cheapest ones we could find.

A guy singing.

Someone else who had apparently had a long day and was laid out on the floor of the hotel.

Monica and Pri were gone, so it was just Jenny and I. We walked The Strip a big again to grab some food. Me posing with some of the street performers.

On the way to work, pulling his trusty little droid.

Eating at Fatburger.

New York New York.

Luxor with Excalibur in the background.

We ran and did one of those little timeshare presentations to get some free show tickets.

The guy was actually really fun; I felt a bit bad about saying we weren't interested.

Excalibur.

Having some fun on The Strip with camera angles.

Holding a guitar.

And up she goes!

More guys handing out club passes which were really worthless.

The pool at the Flamingo. We went there because there was a water slide, but it was closed when we got there. We still had fun, though.

Thanks, I really needed your hair clip to keep my hair in place.

Eating a whole chicken without silverware at the Tournament of Kings.

Ooh, cool, Merlin sat a few seats away.

We got front row seats, very nice.

Everybody's friends after it's all over.

Us with one of the performers.

Using our coupon for Quest for Excalibur, a timed laser maze. You go through and hit the little red lights, but if you hit a green laser, it adds 30 seconds to your time.

Everyone outside watching was cheering for Jenny because she was doing it in a dress. :)

A fun mess at a restaurant there.

Should have had her hide her legs better, but you get the idea.

Free coupons for Jello-O shots? Definitely gonna use those.

Some cool 3D headset game.

Strip Poker where they have strippers strip for you so you don't have to. Where and when is this!!?

OK, I have no idea which way to go in this gigantic casino. Time to use the trusty ol' compass.

Swords for door handles at Excalibur.

Coyote Ugly at New York New York. Where the bartenders dance on the bar...

and give out free shots.

Girls dancing on stage for free drinks.

The guys got some free drinks, too, in a rather, uh, interesting position.

Some people got giant "single" ties.

It got pretty crowded.

And off come the bras.

OK, I'm pretty sure the middle wheel ended up on nothing. That's just cheating.

We decided to only play the slots that would give out at least $11 million.

Excalibur at night.

"Hey, you're not looking at the camera!"

Luxor was always easy to find; just look for the gigantic beam of light in the sky.

We tried getting the angle right like 20 times until a friendly passer-by gave us a hand.

And the morning of day #4 when we have to fly back. This cool little thing was how they cleaned the pyramid.

Now it's turning around and going back up.

"Sweetheart, the little cleaning robot made it all the way down and then most of the way back up before you got packed."

We didn't play any table games the entire time, but we needed some chips as souvenirs, so we stopped at this $5 minimum table, threw down a $20, each played a hand, lost instantly, and grabbed the other two chips to take with us.