stays in Vegas, except when there's pictures.... By far one of my top 5 vacations, I can't wait to go back again. The landscape, scenery, sights, they are all amazing especially when on a daily basis, all I tend to see is building and skyscrapers (not to mention clouds and smog). Next time I will defiently be white-water rafting in the Grand Canyon. Also, only in Vegas could I possible see Wayne Newton and 20 minutes later see Mini-Kiss. Lastly, I think that I will be all set with prime rib and buffets for awhile to come...enough said!

So Vegas is as good a place to celebrate St. Patrick's Day as any (being Irish myself) and a couple hundred thousand other people apparently felt the same way. We started off as the Nine Fine Irishmen Pub in New York New York, listenning to U2 cover bands as we had our green beer (at an ungodly hour). Throughout the day there were was celebrations of all kinds but thanks to our find (the half price ticket place)we decided to see Mr. Vegas himself Wayne Newton (yes you did read that right, Wayne Newton). Apparently we were trying to reeinact every Vegas Vacation scene we could think of (except winning like Mr. Pappagorgio sadly enough). So needless to say the show was as much cheesy fun as we could handle and when we walked outside there was a block party going on. Mini-Kiss (and I do mean mini-Kiss as in they were midgets dressed like the rock band Kiss) were playing to a packed crowd and I have to admit they were awesome (by far the best cover band I've seen recently and mini-Ace threw me a guitar pick which doesn't hurt). A good time was had by all except for the drunk kid who in a moment of pure wisdom put his head in the speaker and will probably have some explaining to do when he gets home and needs a Miracle Ear....

So there really aren't any words for how amazing the Grand Canyons were. The Hoover Dam was smaller than I expected, but still impressive. The Canyons though were just breath-taking. It was about a 3 hour drive to the West Rim which is owned by the Hulapai tribe. They haven't commercialed it all, as opposed to the South Rim where roughly 10,000 people visit a day. There is nothing but open space and it is amazing. The joke of the day was that the tour guide said all it takes is 8 seconds, meaning that since it isn't commercialized, there is nothing (and i mean nothing) to stop you from walking off the edge. The tribe even performed some of its tribal ceremonies and dances for us. They also have a demonstration for what they are building. There is no other word for it but cool. They are in the process of building a looping walkway which will go out over the side of canyon, 4,000 feet off the ground which people will be able to walk through that can sustain winds of 100 mph, etc. We also stopped on the way back and walked througha small part of the Joshua Tree forest. By far, this was one of the best experiences of my life and I can't wait to go back and also check out Death Valley and Red Rock Canyon.

I've decided that Las Vegas consists of four things: eating, drinking, gambling, and entertainment. Now I know this is obvious, especially the middle two, but I must say it is pretty amazing that I can wake up at 4 in the morning walk downstairs throw a quarter in the slot machine, pick up a prime rib dinner, a beer, and see a lounge singer all for under 10 dollars. I am beyond excited to be going to the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam tommorrow. We're going to the West Rim. Earlier tonight we saw Lance Burton who has his own theater at the Monte Carlo which is where we are staying. He was amazing, he made a car disappear and fly (I feel like a little kid saying that) and even somehow switched himself with one of his assistants so he ended up on top of the chandelier high above the audience. Looking forward to seeing the Canyon tommorrow....

While we gambled and walked around again most of the day, we ended up finding a place that sold half price show tickets the day of the show, so we ended up seeing Rita Rudner, the comedian for $30. Not bad at all and she was extremely funny. Afterwards we went to the Hard Rock which isnt on the Strip and lets just say it resulted in a very interesting taxi ride through some of Vegas' finer areas. The Hard Rock was full to the brim and we ended up eating at Mr. Lucky's, a 24 hour eatery where we got Mr. Lucky's special at 1 in the morning(which I had read about before we left). It consisted of prime rib, 3 shrimp, potato, and salad for $7.77 - needless to say a good time and probably the cheapest meal we had. I also saw the guys from Flogging Molly who were playing the Joint (the Hard Rock's live music venue) later in the week.

The flight to Vegas was great. I am now a Jet Blue fan (especially since we also only paid $79 each way). We walked the Strip most of the day and I am not afraid to say that my feet hurt like a.....(insert something really painful here). We went down nto the old Strip where all the original casinos were like the Golden Nugget, the Frontier, and the Freemont. The district spent a couple million on revitalizing it and put in this crazy, awesome thing that looks like a tent which has an amazing light show every half hour after it gets dark. all the casinos also had ridiculously cheap food and beverages ($6.99 for a prime rib dinner and 99 cents for a margarita). The highlight of my night though was the fact that the Golden Nugget actually sold fried oreos, now I didn't actually eat one because looking at the sign, i could feel my arteries closing but knowing that they exist....priceless

The week long "diary" about some subject of my choosing, as per the assignment is actually going to be about my traveling since that is what I will be doing later on tonight to hopefully, sunny Las Vegas, Nevada. I am not sure exactly what made me like the city so much when I went there last Spring Break with friends, as I am not a huge gambler. I think it may be the fact that the city is such an oxymoron - such a small segment of land (the "strip" is only 4 or 5 miles long)with such a large number of people 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is by far the best place to "people-watch" in the world. Speaking of people-watchng, the idea of packing amazes me. I just noticed that all of us have varying amounts of luggage for the same trip to the same location with the same weather for the same amount of time. How do people tackle packing? I think the philosophy behind that may be far more interesting than any other. There's a study I would be interested in reading.







On a side-note, this popped up as a scrolling headline and I found it interesting ~ a day in the life of toll collectors
http://jobs.aol.com/article?id=20060317144009990001