Bob Visits Las Vegas and Survives

Hello everyone. No, this is not Julee, but her husband, Bob. Julee thought I should share with you about my trip to Las Vegas recently. Since this is a family blog maybe I'll get on here more often and share more.

A few weeks ago I visited Las Vegas to attend a conference for work. I am a web designer for the Idaho Department of Labor. The software I use holds a conference every year in partnership with a variety of Microsoft developer products.

I flew into Las Vegas on Halloween. This was my first time in Las Vegas. That night for dinner I walked to the Hard Rock Cafe. Now Las Vegas already has a lot of weird people. Combine that with Halloween and costumes and it gets weirder. Besides the oddly dressed people I was almost in unbelief to be in a place so famous and so known to the world. Walking down the strip I felt like I was in a movie. The lights, the sounds, the hustle, the buildings -- it was a sensory overload.

I stayed in the Luxor Hotel. It's shaped as a pyramid. I stayed on the 27th floor. One side of my room was slanted due to the pyramid shape. The hotel hosted Chris Angel and Carrot Top performances, neither of which I saw.

The conference was held in the Mandalay Bay Hotel conference center. The Luxor and Mandalay Bay are next to each other and connected with a long hallway of stores. From Monday to Wednesday evening I was indoors as I walked between the two hotels and ate meals in each.

Wednesday night I visited the M&M store and walk around New York New York. Thursday night I visited the Coca-Cola store, walked around Planet Hollywood, ate dinner there, watched the Bellagio fountain show, walked around part of City Center, and took various photos.

Inside Planet Hollywood was a large mall area. The top of the stores looked like building tops. The ceiling was made to look like the dusk sky. It was like walking through a large European marketplace.

The exhibitor area of the conference. There was probably 2,000 people at the conference.

View from the Mandalay Bay conference center. Black pyramid is the Luxor (my hotel).

The Luxor

Inside the Luxor

City Center

Bellagio fountains

Inside the Planet Hollywood mall area. That sky is the ceiling.

The city that never sleeps.

So what do I think of Las Vegas? Well, it would have been nice to have been there with my wife. Even though I saw families there, I'm not sure I would take my kids there or even myself again if I could avoid it. There's a lot of images I would rather not have seen for just having walked around.

I'm glad to be home again.