Make a Joyful Noise: Vegas, Baby!

Matt turns 40 this year and we wanted to celebrate BIG! We talked about several different things to do and finally decided to go to Las Vegas over Fall Break. John and Jessica came too and we had a fabulous time! We left early from O'Hare Airport in Chicago and with the 3 hour time difference, arrived in Las Vegas Friday morning. We checked in, upgraded our rooms, and went to walk the Strip.

We stayed at the MGM Grand. It's about the Southern most hotel, so it took a LONG time to get down the strip. Everywhere looks close enough to walk, but...it's NOT!

One of Matt's favorite comedies is "The Hangover" so of course we had to go to Caesar's Palace and ask someone if Caesar really lived there and if it was beeper friendly (lines from the movie! 🤣). This employee was great. She laughed along. I'm sure those employees hear those lines all the time!!

The first night, we went to the Cirque Du Soleil called "Love". It was a variety of Beatles music. It was pretty awesome. I'd never seen a Cirque show and I loved it. Matt even said it was entertaining. All the acrobats were amazing!

The next day, we rented a car (a mini red car with the smallest tires ever) and drove to the Hoover Dam. It was an awesome site to see. We walked the bridge across from the Dam. It was a beautiful day!

Beautiful Lake Mead

Most places around Vegas and the Hoover Dam are desert so these big horn sheep come down from the mountains beside a local playground to eat the grass certain times of the year. You can basically just walk right up to them. It was pretty cool.

We had to try an In-N-Out burger joint. It was really fresh, small menu of burgers, fries, and shakes, but really good!

The show Pawn Stars is filmed at a pawn shop in Las Vegas so we had to stop in there and see the place.

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We walked to Downtown (Old) Vegas to see the original strip. We saw the original casino (a little redone!!) called the Golden Nugget. Overall, I was really impressed with the cleanliness of the strip (trash and people) But when we went to Old Vegas, I could see what people were talking about. There were several ladies standing around to get pictures with very little clothing on. We didn't stay there long!

We also had to go get pictures with the iconic Vegas sign.

All around the sign was a make shift memorial for all of the people who were shot during a country music concert a few weeks earlier. A shooter broke out the windows in his Mandalay Bay hotel room and shot and killed 58 people. It was really sad to see all of the memorial and the crime scene with police tape around it. #VegasStrong

That night we went to see another show, "Absinthe". It was in a small tent with the acrobats in the middle. It was neat to be so close to the action. The show was adults only and some of the jokes were a little much, but the acts were really cool. On the way back to our hotel, we stopped at the Bellagio to watch the fountains in front that are set to music. It was really neat!

Our final day, we sat by the pool. It was absolutely beautiful! Matt played in a poker tournament for a few hours. We just took it easy at the hotel. We spent the whole day there playing slots, swimming, eating. It was really relaxing.

We went to a fancy Italian restaurant where I'm sure the waiter thought we were ridiculous when Matt ordered two appetizers and John ordered a ribee! We had a good time, though!