When Chris got the offer from the State Department to join the Foreign Service, we recorded hours of the Travel Channel, dreaming of exotic destinations and our chance to travel the world. So far, we've seen a tiny bit of Mexico as we live in limbo on the border, trying to balance a foreign lifestyle with the U.S. in our backyard. The rest of the world would just have to wait as we settled into our new life in Tijuana.
But as most of you know, patience is not one of my virtues. I didn't want to wait to see all the sites of the world, so instead I took a cheaper and more accessible route: Las Vegas, NV. If you've never traveled the world, then Las Vegas is a one-stop destination where you can see some of the world's greatest achievements all in one fabulous strip. Why waste money on expensive airline tickets to exotic destinations when you can experience the world in a day on a budget?
Sure the sites are replicas that pale in comparison to the originals (I suppose as I haven't seen most of them first hand).
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| Ah, the Eiffel Tower |
And maybe you don't like your monuments sandwiched between towering casinos or your works of art serving simply as aesthetic beauty to garish hotels.
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| Statue of Liberty at 1/3 the size |
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| Michelangelo's David (not) |
And perhaps you'd prefer not to dodge drunken tourists who boisterously wave about their fishbowls of fruity cocktails while teetering on five inch stilettos.
But if you can ignore the hoards of card snapping "salesmen," hoping to unite you with the girl of your dreams in less than 20 minutes, handing out pornographic advertisements on every street corner, then Las Vegas just might be the place for you. The city literally pulsates with neon energy, and it really does have something for everyone. Sin City? Yes it is, but Las Vegas could entertain even the most pious of tourists.
Since Kim and I spent most of our time wandering the Las Vegas strip and exploring every hotel and casino looking for cool photo-ops, this post will probably bore those looking for The Hangover. Nonetheless, we had a wonderful, fun-filled time. After all, sometimes it's more fun to watch random strangers have an extreme Vegas adventure than to have to wake up to your own consequences.
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| Our hotel, the Casino Royale. |
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| A beautiful day for a gondola ride in Venice |
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| Driving across Egypt |
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| Arc de Triomphe (Kim's seen the real one but thinks this one's pretty cool too.) | | | | | | |
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| Chillin' with Zeus |
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| A stop in Philadelphia, I mean the Bellagio, to see the Liberty Bell |
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| More dangerous than Somali pirates |
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| Pretty kitty |
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| Not Atlanta's World of Coca-Cola |
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| High roller |
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| Putting our pennies to better use |
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| The boys' college fund, if I could just get my hands on it |
FYI, that's not Zeus in the Trevi fountain replica. It is Oceanus. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oceanus
ReplyDeleteThanks, Al, for the heads up. I guess that time spent tour guiding in Itay was well spent. Too bad all those old stone guys look alike to us country bumkins. I hope we didn't confuse any art enthusiasts.
ReplyDeleteHa, ha, ha, ha, ha, too cute! And Chris is cute too! Just love it all!
ReplyDeleteFor my FYI, are "those" real?
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