Beaver - Los Vegas!

Yes, yes I know it's Las Vegas and last week was our best ever trip down there!

We arrived after a relatively uneventful 7 hour drive (couple of sets of roadworks, no rain in Cedar City and a half hour sit outside of St George) I was feeling pretty tired and just wanted to go up to the room and sleep. So C waves me over, and I'm just trying to figure out how to bring two carry ons a camera and a large bottle of water when a voice next to me says "Don't worry I'll get that." I looked up to find F standing there. He and A had flown over for the week to surprise us - and what a lovely surprise it was. Consequently we stayed on another day so drove back on the Saturday instead of Friday.

We were a bit in the dark about the wedding arrangements - my instructions from M were meet us at the RedRock morning of and our plan on Wednesday was to drive over to the RedRock and leave a message at the front desk for M, R and the others to say which room we were in and could we get their room numbers. Instead, after breakfast A and I got back to the room to find C on the phone with M. We drove over to the Best Western they were all staying in and managed to get most of their luggage plus R's parents in the Element with us. R, M and her parents would be getting the shuttle from the hotel to the airport and from there the shuttle to the RedRock. So we got to the RedRock first and put the luggage into storage. The others turned up in a hire car (they got fed up of waiting!) about an hour later (they also got a little lost!) We left them to check in and arranged to meet up at the Stratosphere later. We had dinner with A and F at Margaritaville and then over to the Stratosphere. C and R went on the big shot M and I stayed on the ground!

Next morning we collected W and M from their hotel and took them over to the RedRock. The girls went to M's room and the boys to R and H's. M looked fantastic and once we'd got her into the dress we headed down to the limo. R didn't want to see her until the start of the ceremony so he went in the front and the driver put the privacy screen up. We followed the limo the the Valley of Fire NP. The site of the wedding was an arch overlooking another valley beyond and it was a spectacular view, it was also fun getting up there as the climb was quite steep and not to be attempted in posh shoes. Once we got to the top, we kept out of the way as the wedding people took over. The ceremony was fairly short and once the photos had been down we headed back down and out of the 102 degree heat - so glad I bought a hat. From there it was back to the RedRock were no one batted an eyelid at a wedding party eating pizza in the food court! After that we all went in the pool for several hours to cool off. In the evening everyone came over to the Luxor and we all had the buffet. After that we gambled for a bit and then said our goodbyes.

Friday morning we caught up with A & F and decided to go down to the RedRock so they could see what all the fuss was about. It really is a classy hotel and being waaaay off the strip works in its favour. We were just going to look at the pool area when R grabbed me from behind and after a hug fest we all went up to the room so that A & F could see it. At reception we ran into the others, they were just going out to the strip but we decided to stay and have some lunch and a bit of a gamble. I did well - better than I've ever done. After lunch, on a penny slot machine I won $163 and we bumped into the wedding party again - aparently the strip was a zoo and so they'd come back for some sanity.

On our last night we went to the buffet at the Rio which was very good and then down to Freemont street for the light show we've heard so much about. Shame we had to arrive right after a drug bust and that's the first place in Vegas I haven't felt safe but the show was great and we left right after. Saturday morning most of us left, me and C back to SLC, M & R towards Palm Springs, R & H to Toronto and W and M back to NL. A & F went back to UK on Sunday.