Las Vegas, NV

Day 14 

July 14th, Tuesday

Las Vegas!!! The city of party! It's kind of amazing how they made one of the biggest attractions of the US in the middle of nowhere in the desert.

  After a 5 hour drive, we arrived to Vegas at 1:30 pm. I was super excited! We went into the closest hotel lobby, which was the MGM Grand, because it was very hot outside. It was incredible! Everything was covered in gold, everything smelled amazing, and it was all clean (after two weeks in a bus and tiny motels, it's a special sight). Of course the hotel casino opened from the lobby. Just to demonstrate the luxuriousness of the place, the sinks in the bathroom had tiny ipads on them, and the soap smelled like hybiscus.

   We went through the casino, and we left the hotel to get to the Strip. Las Vegas Boulevard is the main street of the city. All the major casinos, hotels and stores open from here. So the San Antonio Squad set out to explore! We went to the Coca Cola store, which had a giant, several stories tall coke bottle for an entrance, the Hard Rock Cafe and countless of souvenir stores. Everything was colorful, bright, and crowded. I loved it!

  Our main goal was to get to Hotel Bellagio, where Ocean's 11 takes place! All we wanted is to walk in the footsteps of George Clooney and Brad Pitt! The hotel is fabolous! It's very fancy, clean, but it was somehow different than in the movie. There was a room decorated like an undersea world, that was pretty fun to look at. I have a very funny story to tell that happened, but I'm only gonna post it in August, because it involves a surprise for my Dad. 

  I've seen and heard of buildings in Vegas that are mini replicas of famous places. We saw the mini-Eiffel Tower, the mini-New York, and the mini-Egypt. There was also a mini-Venice somewhere but we didn't see that. Of course, these aren't as fun if you've seen the real ones. But I appreciate the thought. I'll be happy if there will be a mini-Budapest. Would be cool.

  It was 5 pm when we started heading back on the Strip, 8 o'clock was our curfew. I had a slushie for dinner, and we stopped at Starbucks too. We went to the Hershey's store in the mini-New York too. By the time we were finished, it was 7:30, and it was time to go back to the bus. I'm really glad I got to see this too. We saw everything we wanted, and was worth looking at. We talked to random strangers, did some stupid stuff, but we are young, we are friends, and we were in Vegas. Everything that happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas! Except for weddings, but we didn't do that, so it's ok!