Saturday, January 01, 2005

cK & n8 take Las Vegas - Part 2

Lots of drinks, fireworks and cool people!

So now we enter Sin City! We arrive there around 5:30pm. N8, the only one of us that has been in Vegas before directs me and tells me where to go.We drive down Las Vegas Blvd (aka The Strip) and look at all the amazing lights from the casinos. Its just like on TV! We spent some time looking for parking which was looking to be more and more difficult. Then, I happened to find a valet parking behind this place called Seven. Its and after hours club and they were only charging $10 for the entire night!That was perfect! With the car parked, we could now walk up and down the Strip.

Some of the Strip	The Bellagio	Some more of the Strip

At night, Vegas was mad cold. Good thing I brought my full length leather jacket. More and more people were crowding the streets. At 8pm, the police shut down the strip to cars, and opened it up so people can walk on it, like Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Our little group walked up and down. My friends in California told me that you could actually openly drink alcohol on the strip. N8 was in disbelief. To our surprise, it was true! Everyone was drinking bottles of beer and alcohol! Before we got into that, we decided to go to a sit down restaurant and eat first. We ended up finding this Mexican restaurant on the far end of the strip. We all felt good to actually sit down for a bit.

Chieri and Liza eating Tortilla Chips	Liza and her Shrimp Cocktail	Chieri Playing Keno -- her way

After eating (and not drinking) we headed back to the strip and toured through some of the casinos. We toured through places such as Caesars Palace, The Bellagio, The Mirage and New York New York. Whoa.... we liked that place!

cK in Leather Jacket (at Caesars)	Caesars Palace Courtyard	The Mirage
Walking the Strip	Walking the Strip	Walking the Strip

We walked down the strip where thousands of people were drinking, shouting, cheering. Women were pulling up their shirts and posing for pics with random people. N8 got some Long Island Iced Teas in this long bong type of drink tubes. Man... those were good. From there we walked and returned to the New York New York casino. I loved this place -- it was like a mini New York! There were all these little bars and cafes right inside. We chilled out there, had some more drinks and mingled with other people. N8 and I split up from Liza and Cheiri so we could have our "guy" time and the girls could have their own "girl" time. While n8 and I walked around, we met this group of people who were also Canadian! They were from Thunder Bay, Ontario and travelled to Vegas for the same crazyness we did.

Mike, Shawn, Kelly and Linda : Our Canadian Friends from Thunder Bay

As we walked around some more, we surveyed the area of the casino floor. We would be coming back in here to do some gambling after the new year was rung in.

n8 and cK with our Long Island Iced Teas	cK, Liza and Chieri	All of us inside of NEW YORK NEW YORK

Soon enough it was getting close to countdown to 2005. We all met up and headed to the front of the New York New York and overlooked the Strip. It was unbelievably packed with people. Everyone was either drunk or just about getting there.

In front of New York New York	another angle in front of NY NY	Overlooking the Strip
Countdown to 2005	HAPPY NEW YEAR!	Fireworks over the Strip
People and Fireworks	n8 and cK Welcome 2005	Cheiri and Liza Welcome 2005

Las Vegas had this amazing fireworks display. It was billed as the biggest they have ever had. It was also to celebrate 100 years of Las Vegas (1905-2005). Everyone around us shouted at the top of their voices celebrating. After we took in how much people were actually outside, we then returned to the inside of the casino and relaxed a little bit. While we were sitting at one of the mini cafes inside. We met these 2 guys that were taking pictures of random girls and trying to holler at them. The funny thing is, that there was no FILM in the camera! They showed n8 and I. It was all an angle to just talk to girls and get their digits. Totally hillarious. The alcohol in my system was numbing my sensibility. n8 told me to go and talk to some girl that looked like she was sitting by herself. So I got up and did. While I was talking to her, she told me her name was Jessica. I found out she is a local Vegas native and was waiting for 2 other friends. Now, this girl was mad fine. Then her friends came, they were attractive too.You could see they were all partied out. Poor things. I got some pics of them before I went back to my partying.

Liza and Bruthaman	Bruthaman taking pics	Otha Brotha Husslin
Jessica & Misty
Patrina eating a foot long hot dog	Go for it PATRINA!	Vegas view from Bellagio

As I went back to my group, Liza and Chieri expressed how tired they were. So I gave them the keys to the car and they went to go sleep. n8 and I went to go and gamble a bit on some of the roulette tables. Well, it was mostly n8. I just stood and watched. I tried about 4 quarters in a slot machine, but that was about it. The exhaustion was hitting us, but we still carried on. We both left the New York New York and walked over to the Bellagio. There was a moving platform that we were on and actually fell asleep standing! When we struggled a little more to stay awake, we decided to call it a night.. get back to the car and go to sleep. We'll gamble the next day.

Moving Platform at Bellagio	cK Playing Arcade Games

So the next morning we awake. Well, I did before anyone and then walked to the New York New York and freshened up in their washroom. I changed my clothes and then returned back to the car. Everyone was awake by that time. We went and had breakfast at CoCo's Restaurant. So we all planned out that n8 would do his gambling while the girls would be at New York New York's Coney Island themed amusement section up top playing carnival and video games. N8 played his roulette again, he enjoyed that. I just observed. It was more of a relaxed day in Vegas before we headed back for the drive to Los Angeles.