"We're in Vegas!"

After a long day of travel, we are finally in Las Vegas.

We got up around 8:30 this morning to get ready and leave for the airport by 10:00. At about 9:45, Michael was going to shut down the computer, and I told him that before he did, we should check our flight status. Well, it was a good thing we did, because it was delayed. A little while later, delayed again. A few minutes after that, delayed again.

Our flight, which was scheduled to take off at 12:10 p.m., eventually got pushed back to 2:05 p.m. It was a very good thing that we were originally supposed to have a three hour layover in Atlanta, because even with the big delay, we still had plenty of time to make our connecting flight.

Soooo... we ultimately left for the airport around noon, and we did end up leaving right around 2:00 p.m. As it turned out, our plane had been delayed due to mechanical issues, which was worrying (something wrong with the plane??) and comforting (at least they fixed it??) at the same time.

We got to Atlanta safely and met up with our Charlotte, N.C. group of friends to hop our next plane to Vegas. We were greeted with a huge treat on the plane--TV! I have experienced the luxury of personal TV on planes before, but only on Jet Blue. This was Delta, so it was unexpected. It was a HUGE plane, however, one that is probably sometimes used for international flights, and so we got to reap the benefits. It definitely helped to pass the time.

To our surprise, we ended up arriving in Vegas about 1/2 hour earlier than expected. At this point, it was around 7:00 p.m. Vegas time, so 10:00 p.m. at home. We were all tired, but hoped to get a second wind to enjoy our first night in Sin City.

This is Michael, Jason, and Lynsay waiting at baggage claim. We had a couple of bags that took FOREVER to come around on the carousel, but we did end up collecting everything, which was a relief. We hopped a couple of cabs and headed to Treasure Island.

Once there, we checked in, and we were able to get two adjoining rooms for the seven of us to share. It was really nice--we kept the adjoining door open the entire trip, so it felt like we had more room, and it was fun to be able to just walk through and see what everyone else was doing.

This was the view from our room!

After admiring the strip and all the pretty lights, we all changed and left in search of food. We were all so hungry that we weren't willing to go far. We ended up in Kahunaville, which was located in our hotel.

First things first: We had to order drinks. Jason, Emily, and Shannon splurged and got "monstrosities" (that was the name of the drink!), which came complete with dry ice that made the whole thing look like it was smoking. Pretty funny.

Tired, hungry, but happy. Michael and I at Kahunaville.

After eating, we walked out and onto the casino floor at Treasure Island. Oh, and well, we got drinks. Duh.

Lynsay and I in the casino.

We met up with one of Jason's friends who happened to be in Vegas with her brother, and we did what you're supposed to do in Vegas--gamble! We didn't do too much gambling the first night, but instead got a feel for all of the different games and I learned how to play slots. I didn't realize it was at all complicated--I thought you enter your money and push the button. I had to learn all about the number of lines played versus the amount of the bet per push, etc. Interesting.

Lynsay, Shannon, and I went to bed pretty early--I think it was around 1:00 a.m. It seemed a lot later, and to us, it was (4:00 a.m. back home!). Jason, Dave, Michael and Emily were troopers, though. They ended up meeting some of our other friends (the Washington, D.C. group) out for more Vegas action.

Michael and Dave stumbled home sometime in the middle of the night, but Jason and Emily were the champions. They didn't come back to our room until 8:15 a.m.!! (That's 11:15 a.m. at home, if you're keeping score.) I was pretty impressed with their all-night partying/gambling abilities. Unfortunately for them, we were all awake and ready to start off our first full day in Vegas...