A bunch of wild and crazy girls!

We're home from Vegas, and as much as I anticipated and enjoyed the weekend, I'm glad to be home. Even if we have had 2 earthquakes this afternoon/evening. We had a 5.0 quake while I was still at school, the chalkboards shook but nothing came down thankfully. Then there was a little 2.0er tonight while we were eating supper. Gotta love livin' on a fault line!

So back to Vegas. There were 6 of us who went, our friends Caroline, Becca, Julie and Christina, Angela and I. We left Saturday at 10am and got there about dinner 5pm. It shouldn't have taken so long except we got a bit mixed up on the drive and ended up on the back side of Joshua Tree, not where we wanted to be. But the trip there is always fun and we sang along to the radio, watched a movie, got a little car sick, ate at McDonald's (even though I really didn't want to and surprisingly, I did not enjoy it at all), and finally got into the city. We checked in to the Excalibur and headed up to our rooms to relax and get ready because we were going out on the town.

We donned our best duds and cutest shoes (they were cute at 7pm, not so cute at 4am) and hit the walk way to New York, New York. We had Scililian pizza and then walked across the street to buy our bus passes ($5 for 24 hours, much cheaper than the limo we wanted to take). Then we loaded onto the bus with every other Vegas tourist and headed down the strip.

Caroline had a friend who's an accountant at a casino so he was able to get us on to 2 VIP lists for the night. First we went to Tao, in the Venetian, which is the hot spot of the moment. We were told to go early so we got there before 10pm. Once there what happened was very cool. We inquired as too who's list we were on (there are many VIP lists come to find out) and waited while our names were located. Then we were whisked past the 100 or so people already in line. You're herded in almost like cattle, the restaurant on the bottom was so full, and stamped on the inside of your wrist with an Asian symbol that glows in ultraviolet light and shuffled up the stairs. That's where the club is. It wasn't completely full yet and we were able to get to the bar very easily. Julie and I were served by a female bartender who charged us $12 for a vodka and water. Angela and the rest of the girls were served by a male bartender who charged them $10 for the same drink. Disgusted, I stuck a matchbook in my pocket. But what I loved was later when Becca went to order another drink she got the woman and before being told a price, she stuck a ten on the bar and walked away! You go Brit Girl!

So here's the low-down on Tao. It was kinda dark, with a crowded dance floor, really crowded. The music which came from the walls, we never saw a DJ or band, was Asian in theme and loud but not bad. Also, woman from the crowd were pulled up to dance with women who worked there on what looked to me like a big curb at the front of the dance floor. We danced for a while but we decided to leave pretty early because it kept getting more crowded and warmer, and because someone was letting off toxic farts. Seriously. It was horrible, you'd be dancing away and this horrible smell would come over you. A cool place that I was so glad to get to experience but would not have paid $50 to get into and so would not have waited in line for hours (when we left there were hundreds circling the club waiting).

So we decided to head over to the Bellagio, to their new club The Bank. This is the other happening spot of the moment and after a few moments our names were located and we were whisked up the escalator right into the heart of the club. Immediately we liked this place better. We recognized the music and it was just very cool. Exactly what I had imagined. We paid for our drinks ($15 for a vodka and water here - yep, the cooler the bar, the more you pay) and found a spot over looking the dance floor. While most of us never made it down to the floor, we did plenty of dancing right where we were and the music was awesome. A mix of old, new, hip-hop, rock, very cool mixes by a DJ with a MacBook (Ang now thinks she can rule a club!). Let's see, what else - oh yes, there is no free water at the Bank, just an FYI. You can't get tap and a glass bottle of about 4oz of Evian runs 7 bucks! And a plain soda is $6. Guess we now know why it's called the bank! But they do some cool things, they light sparklers and do a little sparkler parade every time someone orders a bottle of champagne. Which is surprisingly often. We stuck to cheaper drinks and were not shy when the older British guys next to us offered rounds of Bud Light. I didn't want to be rude so I held my bottle for a long time before switching with one of the girls. Beer's just not my thing. But it was a sweet gesture and they seemed to enjoy buying them!

Oh, and another note - there is no seating at these clubs. Unless you are willing to shell out a few hundred bucks to buy at least 2 bottles of alcohol, that'll get you a couch and a table. Maybe next time....though I still can't imagine throwing out 50 bucks just to get in the door! It's much cooler to be a VIP and leave everyone else in the dust!

We ended up staying until about 3am which was 4am our time and then we had to find the bus stop and walk a few blocks back to our hotel. This would not have been so bad except for the fact that we all had cute shoes on. And by this point, blisters and pain beyond our capacity to bear. So we had some girls without shoes and some girls laughing at those girls. What a night! Needless to say, when my head hit the pillow around 5am, I had never been so happy!

Sunday we found our way to the Zappos.com outlet and Fashion Show mall, much to the chagrin of my feet, and the got dressed up again for dinner at Chin Chin's in NYNY. This is also the night I learned how to play roulette. No, I didn't win, in fact I lost my 20 bucks in 2 spins but it was fun! And next time I'll look for a smaller buy in!

Monday we hit the Cheesecake Factory in Caesar's after a return trip to the mall (Ang's newly purchased iPod case was cracked and needed to be returned) and then headed home, driving into Yuma about 8pm. Home sweet home! Never thought I'd say that about Yuma:-)