vegas baby

when the cedar city basketball tournament was cut short, we decided to make the short drive to vegas. {becca had never been and why not?} we saw the lights of the strip around 10:00 pm {our time, 9:00 vegas time}. after driving around the strip for almost an hour looking for parking we settled on a spot on the side of a sketchy street {it was right under a street lamp} a couple of scary looking mexican guys watched from the dingy nearby apartment complex as we moved all of our valuables {laptop, ipods, purses, etc} to the trunk. we were all a little uneasy as we walked away from the car, hoping it would be there unharmed when we returned. by the time we made it to the actual strip, brandon decided to find out how much it cost to park under one of the casinos. it turned out to be free so him and chris ran back to the car, finding it unharmed, and moved it to a more secure locale. we wandered around the strip for a few hours, got lost in cesar's palace {where we saw new meaning to word cage dancers}, and watched the show at the bellagio fountains {twice--opera and singing in the rain as background music} it was around 2 am our time when we decided we were all completely fatigued. we trekked back to the car and drove around for another hour looking for a place to sleep. we ultimately stayed at the first place we inquired about {a somewhat below par comfort inn that cost us $50 each for a shared smoking room--yuck!}. luckily we only paid $50 each after tax, as the room was supposed to cost $120 {before tax}. it was a fun, albeit expensive, little jaunt to vegas.