Walk Like an Egyptian

Jeff and I took our first flight as stand-by employees to Vegas over the Labor Day weekend and it was a complete success. We made all the flights and connections as planned and even got to sit together for one leg of the trip. Woo hoo!

Me on Sunday after our trip. Notice how small my carry-on bag was - impressive.

It was a true last-minute trip. We booked our hotel at the Luxor Thursday night and flew out Friday afternoon. Why did we decide to go to Vegas for the weekend? Reminiscent of my senior year in college when a small group of us decided to drive down to Florida the weekend before Thanksgiving and even had t-shirts made with our answer: Why the hell not? Here are some of my other reasons:

I was thirsty for a $1 Miller Lite:

I had never seen an Elvis impersonator:

I loooove the Bellagio fountains that play to music:

I love all the mega casinos and fancy pants shopping and dining. I somehow forgot to get a picture of our Egyptian pyramid hotel, so here are a few pics of  hotels/casinos I did take:

Caesar's Palace

Paris

New York, New York

Venetian

Excalibur

Jeff wanted to go to Vegas to play blackjack, and even won a little money. Late Friday night we were at a table at the Bellagio with a true cast of characters: another couple who I suspect were from Jersey or somewhere along the East coast (not Snooky-like or anything, but I just had a feeling they were from Jersey), a middle-aged Asian woman (although Asian ladies all look so young she could've been 85 for all I knew), and a woman we later simply called "Exotic."

Exotic was stunning, probably around 40, dark shiny hair, fancy red dress, dark skin, jewels on her fingers and lots of chips. Exotic drank champagne and espresso while she played (and won). Exotic spoke with some sort of accent I can only describe as "sophistication" and broke out in French at one point. Exotic would quietly sit out a hand (or more) if she didn't like how you were playing your cards. Pretty soon the whole table caught on and one poor guy was playing all by himself until he finally got up and left. We learned Exotic is fluent in 6 languages and is a trial lawyer in Hawaii. Of course she is. Next time I go to Vegas I'm going to pretend to be Exotic.

It was my third time in Vegas, and while I didn't run into Leonardo DiCaprio (despite drinking red bull and grey goose cocktails all Friday night hoping he would magically appear) or dance in any clubs like I did for Katie's bachelorette party, I had a blast. I love Vegas.