Vegas Baby!

So recently, as many of you probably already know, I was elected to serve the 4th Circuit of the American Bar Association Law Student Division as Governor for the upcoming term.  As a result, I am heading to Vegas on Thursday and am in the process of packing and figuring out what all I want to do/see while there.  I began searching for fun things to do in Vegas and thought I would share my list with you.  (You knew there had to be a list... haha!)

1. Find the famous Las Vegas sign and take a picture (southend of the strip near Mandalay Bay)
2. Ride in a gondola in the Venetian and see the beautiful painted ceilings
3. Visit the Eiffel Tower at the Paris casino (in hopes that someday soon I will get to experience the real tower)
4. Watch the fountains show at the Bellagio (shows are every 15-30 minutes in front of the casino)
5. Visit Freemont Street (old Vegas)
6. Go to the top of the Stratosphere (but I won't be riding the crazy zero gravity thing there...)
7. Walk up and down the strip to get the "full Vegas experience"
8. Eat at an awesome restaurant (maybe Emerils'? any other suggestions?)
9. See the Rio Masquerade Show in the Sky (a free carnival-like show where performers hang from tracks on the casino ceiling!)
10. Go shopping at the Forum Shops at Caesar's palace (and probably not buy anything...haha) (as a side note, maybe I will even ask the receptionist at the desk if I am standing in the real Caesar's palace... like in the movie Hangover... you can check out a clip of the movie here)
11. See the Volcano at the Mirage (explosions at the top of every hour starting at 6p-11p)
12. Eat at a buffet... for cheap! :)
13. Continue my love for Hard Rock Cafe's...
14. If we get really adventurous, stop in the Minus 5 Ice Bar (and pay $25 to freeze to death for 30 minutes wrapped in parkas and fuzzy boots...wouldn't that make for some awesome photos??)
15. Oh how could I forget... GAMBLE???? (and return home with my Player's card- haha) I mean I don't intend to blow large sums of cash (because who am I kidding? I don't have large sums of cash to begin with!) But none-the-less, I want to at least come home and say, I gambled in Vegas... I mean I would be the only person to come home and say I did NOT gamble while there... haha!
16. Take a FREE limo ride (and pretend I'm a rockstar, or at least someone famous) to Casa di Amore (which is said to be an awesome Italian restaurant)
17. Take a photo of the pyramid at the Luxor hotel

--other places that **might** happen...
a. Visit the Wynn/Encore (I have read lots of reviews that say this place is amazing... we shall see!)
b. Visit SushiSamba for a lovely sushi dinner and lesson in how to roll my own sushi (how fun would that be?? especially now that we can't stop eating sushi!!)
c.  Experience Bonanza Gifts (the World's Largest Gift Shop)
d. Experience the Tower of Wine at Mandalay

In all honesty, I am probably shooting for the moon with all these ideas of places I MUST go to... but here is to hoping!  I will try my best and fill you in on all the details/photos when I return... :)

Here is a little food for thought that I found while reading an article about the best things to do in Vegas...


"To find the best deals, do some planning upfront. The biggest mistake people make when they get to Las Vegas, Curtis said, is that they haven't thought about what they are going to do.

"They get here and there's sensory overload from the ads, the billboards and all the things that are flashing at them. They don't know what to do," he said. "Once you get here, I would open everything, in terms of freebie magazines, things they put you in your room, things they want you to sign up for at the club booths. I would do all of those things. People tend to shy away from giving your name out. In Vegas it's the other way around. You want to give your name out."" - you can find this article here