The city of sin,
Las Vegas, where fortunes are made but more often than not, lost. Having
arrived late at night, we made our way to the penny slots for a quick test of
fate. With a drop of alcohol to settle our nerves, we eased our way into the slots betting a penny at a time until we were brave enough to bet $3 a pop for the best chances at making some real money. After a couple hours of gambling fun, the exhaustion began to settle in and having spent our allowance for the night we sleepily made our way up to bed. 
Time change making it easy to
feel like we had slept in we were up relatively early. After grabbing a quick
breakfast, we made our way from Downtown Las Vegas to the
infamous Las Vegas strip. Free parking in the Bellagio garage (which actually
had enough clearance for the enormous truck we were travelling in!) made for the perfect start to our day of
good fortune. Heading in towards the butterfly garden we soon found ourselves
amongst beautiful flowers watching the butterflies dance in their conservatory.
Vegas is
fabulous for a million reasons, but for me, what makes Vegas unforgettable is
the architecture and interior design of the hotels. Hotel hop down the Las
Vegas Strip and 99% of the hotels you step into will take your breathe away.
Each hotel is unique with its own vibrant personality and character, ride a
gondola through Venice, eat crepes in Paris, get lost in a breathtaking flower
garden in the Wynn, or fly away with the butterflies at the Bellagio.
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| Inside the Wynn |
Though the
buildings are structures of astonishing beauty, their contents are what really
bring people to Las Vegas. The live shows, insane night life, and
heart-stopping gambling keep people coming back for more and turn Las Vegas
from somewhere unbelievable to somewhere you will never forget.
We each had our
own personal favorite slot machines. My favorites were the ones with multiple
games and bonuses for I felt they gave you the most chances of winning but it
was probably more just that those were the games where my luck decided to join
me. Now then, though penny slots were fun (and safe) they did not even begin to
compare to the excitement of the black jack tables!
A felt table
with two chips worth a total of $10 (the minimum bet at the table), sit at the top
of a capital B. As the dealer draws each player’s card, setting it face up
between herself and your bet, the nervous excitement builds. As soon as the
second round of cards has hit the table you know what to do. The key to black
jack is knowing when to hit (draw another card by tapping the table between you
and your bet) and when to stick (stay with the cards you have by waving your
hand). The goal of the game is to get the sum of the face value of the cards closer to 21 than the dealer without going over 21. Get an ace (face value of either 1 or 11) in the bag followed up by a 10 and receive one and a half times your bet in return. Beat the dealer with any other combination, and receive chips equivalent to your bet as a reward. As jacks, queens, & kings all have a face value of 10, there are four
times the number of
10s in the deck than any other number so it is always best to assume the dealer’s
hidden bottom card is a 10. The dealer has to hit if their sum total is less
than 17 so if the dealer’s top card is a 5 or 6 it is usually best to stick as
there is a high chance of “busting” (when the player’s cards add up to more
than 21) the dealer. It is, however, slightly trickier when you are the one
with 15 or 16 as you either draw and run the risk of busting or stick and don’t
have enough points to win. Talk about a fun and exciting game! We had the most
fantastic time playing black jack and with four leaf clovers dancing above us
we somehow managed to walk away with a handsome sum of winnings.
times the number of
10s in the deck than any other number so it is always best to assume the dealer’s
hidden bottom card is a 10. The dealer has to hit if their sum total is less
than 17 so if the dealer’s top card is a 5 or 6 it is usually best to stick as
there is a high chance of “busting” (when the player’s cards add up to more
than 21) the dealer. It is, however, slightly trickier when you are the one
with 15 or 16 as you either draw and run the risk of busting or stick and don’t
have enough points to win. Talk about a fun and exciting game! We had the most
fantastic time playing black jack and with four leaf clovers dancing above us
we somehow managed to walk away with a handsome sum of winnings.
Unfortunately
for me, I had to work on Monday morning and although Vegas was still calling my
name and the road trip is not complete, my team of adventurers continued on
without me having dropped me off at the Las Vegas International Airport.
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| Grand Canyon |
A slight bump of turbulence brought me back to life and I glanced out my window expecting to be
faced with an empty black night, however, I was astonished by what I saw before me. Have
you ever looked down on a major city at night? Cars drive along polka-dotted highways
and neighborhoods transform into glowing golden mazes. From the air you
experience an aerial view of an expansive metropolitan area and then watch it disappear
out of sight behind you. There I was staring wide eyed through my window,
looking down on the occasional city lights twinkling below. Glimmering towns disappearing off into the horizon, they are met by the blackness of the night.
However, there in front of me, just above the curve of the earth was a tremendous
lightning storm, one third of my visible horizon. The invisible clouds became
illuminated by bolts of lightning jiving through them. Bolts so great in number,
the whole cloud became visible for moments at a time as the strikes appeared
throughout the cloud at an unfathomable rate.
Raising my
eyes from the tumultuous storm I suddenly became aware of the
ocean of stars blanketing the sky above. More constellations then I have ever beheld
before me, eyes torn between the
peaceful skies above and the tremendous storm below them. Eyes transfixed out my window I only tore them away to prepare for the descent as we were
approaching Houston. Once again soaring over a glowing maze of city life, we
came in for a gentle landing and I was soon walking through my home away from
home that most people call an airport.
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| Hoover Dam |
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| Grand Canyon |
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