Three Girlfriends Gone Wild ... A 180 Year Celebration

Viva Las Vegas!  Three 'old' friends meet in Vegas to celebrate a major life event - entering into a new decade and collecting our CPP.  Chris flies in from Whitehorse, Yukon, I flew from Ottawa, Ontario and Stella is now a Vegas resident.

Actually, we didn't go too wild, although we did manage to set personal bests for 'hours without sleep'! Since Stella lives in Vegas, she didn't join us for our late late night escapades, which usually involved an interactive slot machine and lots of laughs.

Chris arrives at our hotel.                                                                  Girls - Night 1

After dinner, Stella drove us to The Bellagio to check out the beautiful conservatory, to drool at the chocolate factory and perhaps have a sample.

The Yukoner goes to the big city   "oh my, oh my, oh my - do I dare"?

The colored section on the ceiling in the picture below is actually made of colored glass - beautiful. Our dessert, chocolate crepes. Yummy.

In Vegas, Everything Goes, so there is lots to see, especially late at night.

The following drew lots of stares, crowds and iPhone pics, but why not - what bride wouldn't want to have three 'Elvis' attendants, or who wouldn't be interested in owning Liberace's rhinestone studded roadster?

In between the people-watching, we actually got around to seeing some live Vegas shows.  We dolled up to see "The Jersey Boys" - my third time seeing this show but enjoyed it every time.  Stella treated us to "Shania" and we had a front row table to be amazed by "David Copperfield".  We were so close, I could have reached out and tickled his foot!  Thoroughly enjoyed all three, unfortunately most theaters will not permit photo taking, so only managed a  shot of Shania arriving via motorcycle from high above.

In case anyone thought we only spent our time eating, drinking and hanging out at night, it's not the case.  Chris & I managed to walk between 12 and 14 km per day - most of it during daylight hours. Some of the sights included the world's largest observation wheel, "The High Roller" which is 167.7 meters tall and 158.5 meters wide.  Also walked "The Miracle Mile" shops, which included an indoor water show, a facade of buildings including a 'painted' sky which made you feel like you were actually outdoors.  Only in Vegas.

But the biggest crowds surrounded Chris, everytime she managed to win.  When playing a 'Dancing Penguin' slot machine, her laughter and excitement spurred one elderly gent to come up and tell her that he "had never in his life see anyone have so much fun".

Somehow everywhere we went, we had people commenting on what fun the two of us were having. It's true, who else can spend $20 playing "Ghostbusters" for three hours at "The Venetian", roaring with laughter every time we got "slimed" then walk away with $150 between us at the end of the night (well OK - early morning).  Or the hysterics playing team "Wizard of Oz", with two other ladies, cheering for Dorothy to appear, clapping and yelling every time she did (for those who haven't enjoyed this experience it meant a bigger bonus for everyone playing, kind of like group-slots).  But the best was the look on Chris' face when she graduated to "Lightening Bolt" quarter slots.  Second pull, she hits "wild, wild, wild", the machine goes crazy, we watch the numbers adding up, the machine starts spinning again, stops on "wild, wild, wild".  More laughter, cheers.  People are starting to gather round.  Another "wild, wild, wild", then another and another ..... We had a huge crowd cheering her on. $400 on a $1.50 bet, not too shabby.  It was quite the experience and another memory to pull out in our next decade.

Wry Reporting ......