Getting Lucky in Vegas

With all the back to school stuff we've had to do, I haven't taken the time to post about our good luck! School starts tomorrow for my Elementary kids and then on Friday for Kayla. Whoever's bright idea it was to start on a Friday, I don't know! But I think it was a pretty pathetic idea!!!

Getting Lucky in Vegas

In the Casinos not many people were gambling, and I heard one street vendor say to another vendor that nobody was buying anything. I think it is because of the economy being so bad right now.

The "dancing" water in front of The Bellagio.

On our second night there as we stood and watched the water dancing to music in front of The Bellagio, (which was one of my favorite things that we did there), a lady from Virginia was talking to us asking us if we had "gotten Lucky?" Afterall it is Vegas. We told her we don't gamble. She said neither does she. We were talking about the beautiful architecture and she recommended to us Caesars Palace, The Venetian and The Wynn. It was 9:00pm by then (10:00 our time) and we were exhausted but decided to just quickly make our way up there to check them out since we were so 'close.'

This is the inside of the Venetian. Can you see why we loved it so much? It was like being on the streets of Venice, Italy!>

To rewind a little bit, we decided, before we went, to stay at two different hotels on our short stay, just to experience more of Vegas. On our second day we checked into our second hotel, it was the MGM Grand. Right before checking in, Laren leaned over to me and said 'it would be great if they upgraded our room for free.'

The next thing we know the guy at the desk is telling Laren that the hotel had given us a "Complimentary Upgrade" on our room, to a suite!! The only problem was - it was in Tower I - aways behind the main section of the hotel, so they offered us a free taxi to get there. We opted to walk, as we knew how slow the traffic was moving.

The kitchen inside our Suite at the MGM Grand. The room was GREAT! It had a separate living/desk area, it had a huge bathroom with a jacuzzi tub and granite counters. Both of the hotels we stayed in had flat screen tv's next to the bathroom mirrors. It was nice to watch the "pre Olympic" broadcasting while soaking in the jacuzzi when Laren had to finish up some work up the next morning!

We got checked in and went to find a good deal on some tickets to a "show". Laren and I wanted The Blue Man Group or tickets to Wayne Brady or maybe Cirque Du Soleil. By the time we got to the half price ticket counter we found that most of the shows were sold out! Even if there had been more show availabilities, they were all very expensive. Each ticket was nearly $100 or more! The only thing available was tickets to the Blue Man Group for 10pm that night and the discounted price was $104.50. We opted out of a show.

Instead we got dinner and walked up the Strip going in and out of the Hotel Resorts/Casinos. There were tons of tourists, we could hardly go fast at all up the street.

Our final stop was The Venetian. When we were there we happened upon the Theatre where The Blue Man Group was performing. I told Laren I wanted a picture, at least, since we couldn't go in. He handed the camera to me to take the picture.

The ticket booth outside the entrance to The Blue Man Group.

As I was taking the picture a couple came up to him and asked him if he wanted tickets for him and me. They had won 4 free tickets from a Radio Station in San Diego - to see The Blue Man Group in Vegas on that particular night, at 10:00 pm and they didn't want the tickets to go to waste!

Our free tickets!

We couldn't believe it! We excitedly took the tickets and got in line to see the Show!! The show was fantastic, made better by our free tickets, we laughed the entire hour and a half.

Us, just after receiving our free tickets!

It was another one of our favorite things we did there! So in answer to the lady from Virginia's question, yes - we did get Lucky in Vegas! We got a beautiful room upgrade, we paid $65 for our Suite and we got free tickets to The Blue Man Group.

And just a little aside, I cannot say enough good about Hotwire.com. We have had a good experience, so far, every time we've tried them out. We ended up with a fantastic room in Vegas for only $65 - it was supposed to be $190 otherwise and it was a 4 star place. We were only one step "beneath" a Penthouse, on the 21st floor. Even if we hadn't "gotten lucky" we still would have had a great room! Hotwire will let you pick which part of town you want to stay in, it will let you pick however many stars and it will let you see all the amenities that are available and then it will pick the hotel. For the strip, we could have picked quite a few different options but we wanted the more Southern part of The Strip.