Viva Los Vegas

I just got back from a two day trip to Las Vegas! Be forewarned so much stuff happened that this'll be a fairly long blog, though mine usually are so if you don't mind that read on!

Even the plane to Vegas was interesting! I was already in my seat when Mrs. Hulk came on board. She was by far the most built woman I've ever seen in person! I'm pretty sure she would have creamed me at arm wrestling without breaking a sweat! It was kind of amusing to see her lift her heavy bag with ease to the overhead bin and how her rippling muscles made the men around her uncomfortable!

Once we got to McCarran Airport in Las Vegas, I couldn't believe how even the airport was bustling and had all kinds of video moniters playing and the sounds of slot machines filled the air. McCarran is the only place where I've seen videos that instruct you how to walk through security and they don't use extras they actually have hollywood actors going through the security lines and telling you to please have out your boarding passes, etc. Also it was freaking hot!!! The highs were in the low 110's while we were there!

A short while later we has secured our awesome* ride from US Rent-a-car, a 2005 PT Cruiser! (*The awesome can either be sarcastic or literal depending on your feelings toward PT Cruisers) Though I've been to Vegas before the last time I was too young to remember much so I was amazed at the sheer size and splendor. The Vegas strip makes Park Meadows and Highlands Ranch seem like a trailer park by comparison. From the massive beam of light coming from the top of the black Egyptian pyramid known as the Luxor to the sprawling statues and fountains and towering buildings of Caeser's Palace everything in Vegas is supersized! Even the McDonald's had a massive flashing neon sign the size of the actual restaraunt back home!

Our first stop was an In 'n' Out burger, one of my favorite fast food places that isn't in Colorado! They have awesome burgers that are fairly cheap! The awesomeness comes from their secret* sauce (*Thousand Island Dressing - I freed a circus clown in exchange for this information)

Anyway after that, being the huge Star Trek fan that I am we headed toward the Vegas Hilton, home to the Star Trek Experience. Warning: If you aren't a Star Trek fan or hate sci-fi or something please skip to the next paragraph or you'll find this one incredibly annoying, long and geeky! Entering the Star Trek Experience was incredible, four model ships the size of Buses hung from the ceiling complete with lights and those cool star light things dotted the ceiling. The beginning of the Experience was a museum style walk housing props and uniforms from all five series and all the movies as well as a time line connecting the series and movies together and showing which episodes occured where in the timeline! Of course I thought this was all very cool! A little farther down the hallway I saw the Klingon. He was a good 6' 6'' and spoke in a raspy voice to the humans who were waiting in line for the rides at the end of the museum. He glared at me as he walked past, it was very cool! Finally we got to the first "ride." We were all taken into this room where there was an amuzing take on the airplane safety videos but made for a Star Trek shuttle. But suddenly the screen went static and all the lights in the place went out, suddenly we were blasted with air and it was pitch black. The lights dimmed back on slowly and we were suddenly standing on a transporter pad on the Enterprise! Before us stood a uniformed crew member who immediately signaled the bridge informing them we had been beamed aboard. She then led us to a turbo lift which opened out onto the bridge! This was by far my favorite part, so many times in each episode you see the bridge and I was now standing on it! We came in through the door to the right of where Worf usually stands, behind the tatical station (See told you I'm a geek!) and stood on the bridge watching the crew work the panals when suddenly Jonathan Frakes, or Commander Riker came on screen! He told us that the Klingons had attemtped to kidnap us from the past because one of us was Captain Picard's ancestor and they were trying to make him not exist. The Enterprise had intercepted us and was now under attack by several Klingon ships. The ship went to red alert with the familiar sound and lighting and the ship rocked under the attack. We were ushered into another turbolift and were headed to the shuttle bay when the ship rocked again. Suddenly the lights outside the turbolift were flying by and the crewman in the lift with us screamed that we were in free fall! It was an interesting sensation! Luckly we recovered and were soon in the shuttle bay. We boarded this shuttle that had a cockpit so large you could look 180 degrees side to side and straight up! We flew around in this nebula dodging Klingons all the way before we warped into this rift thingie that took us back to our time! Suddenly we were in the sky over the Vegas strip and one of the Klingons had followed us! We dodged around for a while and then the Enterprise came and blew up the Klingons and we landed in this secret shaft of the Hilton. The doors opened and we were back at the Star Trek Experience. Very cool... The second ride was called the 4-D Borg Invasion, we were on some station with the EMH from Voyager when the borg attacked. They cut into the room where we were and soon there were drones walking at us. My dad informed me that they were looking for my ticket and that I should go over to them, but luckly I know enough about the borg that I didn't do that! We ran through the station with borg everywhere and people shooting phasers with some pretty cool naked eye special effects before we got on another shuttle. We were captured by the Borg Cube and then we were "Assimilated" a la the Honey we shrunk the audience ride at Disney world, where your chair does stuff to you! Luckly Voyager flew into the cube and rescued us! Again very cool!

After the Star Trek Experience we checked into our hotel at the Rio, which is themed to be like Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. It has four pools each with water falls and sand bottoms and all kinds of cool things like that! There is of course a massive cassino and scantly clad dancing girls everywhere! There were also massive lit up river boats and hot air balloons running along a track on the ceiling while music was blasting! It was very exciting!

Our second day we saw a show called the Mac King comedy and magic show! It was hilarious and quite entertaining, I couldn't believe some of the tricks he could do! I actually learned a little bit of hypnotism and a few basic tricks from Mac King himself after the show and I got an autographed book from him!

I saw so much the second day I can't even begin to describe it so here goes. I saw a Volcano in front of the Mirage hotel, the fountains in front of the Belagio, where most of Ocean's Eleven was set, a Pirate Battle/Danceoff at Treasure Island, the Eiffle tower in Paris, the Statue of Liberty, a Roman Colleseum, a massive Sphynx, a Castle and some other stuff I can't remember at the moment! Every hotel on the strip save a few has a distinct theme for it's arcitechture and design and most are massive! My favorite was the Luxor, modeled like an Egyptian pyramid, which was also where we saw the coolest show of the trip!

I was lucky enough to have gotten to see the Blue Man Group at the Luxor! If you don't know who they are you shoud look them up they're a pretty cool "band" with a very unique and distinctive sound because of the type of instruments they use! It was the most entertaining concert I've ever been to and I couldn't belive that they were actually able to physically involve the entire audience! It was an experience I"ll never forget! The show was incredible, the special effects were amazing, it was hilarious, and the atmosphere was so incredible! There were things hanging from the ceiling which spun and twirled and they gave out long strips of crepe paper to everyone before the show and told us to "enjoy your free paper and do whatever you want with it be creative"! Not being very creative I fashioned two arm bands and a chest band thing like the ones the Revolutionary War British had! Everyone therefore glowed under the black lights they had throughout the theater! During one of the songs these massive rolls of paper in the back of the theater which happened to be where we were sitting came down upon everyone in the back row and we began shoving it ahead to the people in front of us! Before long the ENTIRE theater was covered with these massive rolls of connected paper so everyone was in essence connected! Then the Blue Man Group started pulling the paper on stage and waving it around to the music! It was incredible! They are actually a little scary close up because they never show teeth or facial expressions just a blank but intesive stare at you. One of them stared at me for quite a while before he ran off! If you are ever in Las Vegas you MUST see this show! It is incredible!

Other than that I spent a lot of time lounging by the pool! And besides that there isn't a lot I can share, because as the saying goes, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!"