Byer Family: Las Vegas - (Wednesday

Las Vegas was a blast... well at least all but the first night (Wednesday)! We are the idiots from Minnesota who decided that we'd be fine sleeping in our unairconditioned pop-up camper. Well, that did not work out so well for us. As we arrived in Las Vegas, the thermometer on our car read 117. By the time we were done setting up Colbie (remember, this is what I named the Coleman camper), we were drenched in sweat and just had to take a dip in the pool. We thought, "Well it must cool down some at night..." and it does (to about 100 degrees). We headed to the strip, taking in the sites and had some dinner at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. We tried to get some last minute tickets to Celine Dion at Caesars Palace because I reallllly wanted to go. They actually had some, but they were pretty expensive seats. We saw the fountain show at the Bellagio, which was so neat, before calling it a night.

Patrick and I both managed to fall asleep when we got back to our camper at about midnight. We slept ok until about 2:30 or 3am. Then, we were both so sweaty and hot that we couldn't possibly fall asleep again. Our fan was running full blast, blowing hot air at us. It wasn't even refreshing in the least bit. I began (at about 3 in the morning) to look up hotels to stay at for the next 2 nights. Finally, at 4, we decided to go take ice cold showers. That actually helped! We fell back to sleep until 7am, when the sun was making our camper a little hot box. I booked a room at the Las Vegas Hotel and Casino (a little bit off the strip), we packed up Colbie, and we headed to iHop (air conditioned brunch)! Needless to say, we learned a lesson! DO NOT TRY TO STAY IN A CAMPER IN LAS VEGAS IN THE SUMMER TIME! Haha!

The hotel let us check in at about noon, and we were just so thankful to have an airconditioned room! We toured the strip during the afternoon for a bit. Then, we had dinner at one of the asian restaurants at our hotel. It was delicious, the restaurant was very cool, and it was fairly inexpensive! That evening, we went to Cirque du Soleil Ka at MGM. The show was just amazing! A boring old wife as I am, I was ready to go to sleep after the show, especially because I hadn't slept very well the night before! This was a different trip to Las Vegas for Patrick (last time, he went with a group of his buddies from high school...).

On Friday, we toured the strip some more, gambled a little bit (we actually came out about even on the trip), and then went to dinner on Fremont Street. We wanted to catch the light show and see some of the hotels there. We went to dinner at a little Italian place, gambled (and loss) a little bit, and then saw the light show. We took the bus back to the strip to the New York New York to see Cirque du Soleil Zumanity. Again, this show was very neat, but it was a little bit risque. The tricks the performers did were just amazing!

We had a fabulous time in Las Vegas! Before we left town, we were able to get together with a family that I used to babysit in Rochester, the Earl's. They moved at the end of my senior year of high school. I hadn't seen them since then but have kept in touch with Deborah, their mom. I am so glad that it worked out to see them. I hope that it is not another 5 years until we see them again!

We got to Zion National Park last night, and we will be here for the next two days!