Just make sure when you leave the town's still standing. We're going for 10 nights in May.

Here are my Vegas links

Restaurant.com - Not a Vegas-only link, but a great place to buy restaurant gift certificates for Vegas. Get on their mailing list first, because every other week they discount the certs %40-70. That means you can buy a $25 gift cert (more like a coupon since you have to spend a matching amount) for $3 instead of $10. I bought a $100 gift cert for a steak place to use when I get there. Last year we used a $75 gift cert we paid $9 for.

http://www.lasvegas-nv.com/las-vegas-coupons.htm - printable Vegas coupons

http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel...Las_Vegas.html - Virtual Tourist Las Vegas

http://www.visitlasvegas.com/vegas/index.jsp - Official Site. Let's you build and save itineraries

http://www.igoshows.com/ - Las Vegas Show Reviews

http://www.vegas4locals.com/coupons.html - Another printable coupon site

http://www.lakemeadcruises.com/desertprincess.html - Lake Mead Cruise, They have dinner, brunch, and lunch cruises. We did a dinner cruise and it was great. Don't forget the coupon at http://www.lasvegas-nv.com/lake-mead-cruises-coupon.htm

http://www.lvmonorail.com/ - Monorail Info
http://www.rtcsouthernnevada.com/cat/ - Bus info

When you get there check out tix4tonight for 1/2 price show and buffet tickets.

Hope this helps.

Have fun Elspode and thanks for the tips Rich. We are going for three nights the end of March

Get off the strip, too, and be sure to scramble over boulders at Red Rock Canyon, go see the Hoover Dam, walk a trail out at Lake Meade, etc, etc.

Whatever you do while out in the desert, never pet the fuzzy cacti. They look cute and harmless, but don't, for the love of god, ever touch them. The soft looking fuzz is composed of nanotube-like needles that effortlessly sink into the skin and don't come out for weeks.

I paid $30 for the two of us to ride in the gondolas in the *indoor* fake canal. We had a female gondolier, which offended Liz, who was rather hoping for a more buff young male pilot, but the lass had a great voice and sang us three songs, including one of my mother's favorites.

The Cirque du Soleil show "Love" was indescribeable...almost. I felt like I was on drugs. Amazing, just amazing. Also notable are the dancing waters at the Bellagio. This town just fucking *reeks* of technological magic. Still, I'm glad to be getting out of here today. Sitting at McCarran now, sucking down free wi-fi and killing time until my flight. I miss my wife and my dogs and cats, and I am *so* done with this crazy ass town. I didn't gamle *one dime*, but I have no idea how much I've spent...meals, taxis, drinks...oh my god. $3.50 for a bottle of water?!! WTF?

More later...tired and not too profound. LR, I ran my camera battery down and didn't bring the charger, so I'm gonna miss the pics of Lake Mead on the way back East. It was on the wrong side of the plane on the way in. Damn.

yeah, it's a nice place to visit, but . . . it would be okay to live there. Just not on the Strip!

you should try visiting LV with a few hundred heavily modified people (the Association of Professional Piercers convention). Oh boy, what a ride!

Oh, modified with metal and ink, as opposed to the locals that are modified with silicone and paint.

yep. But that counts too.

My cousin lived and worked in Vegas for several years. He said back in the neighborhoods, it is dark--no street lights or even porch lights in most places, nothing.

Undoubtedly Vegas' idea of energy conservation. Can't afford to light the neighborhoods when there's casinos to make visible from space.

Downloading the pics from my camera now. A little processing and resizing, and I'll post a few.

I got back into KCI at 10:15 last night. It was snowing like a bitch, and it took me an hour to get home from there on the snow packed highways. I can't really complain, though. Liz took a "luxury bus" from LA and back again. When I was sitting in the plane in Denver, my phone rang. It was Liz...seems the alleged luxury bus had broken down in the middle of the California desert somewhere between Barstow and Bakersfield. They were going to have to send a replacement bus from LA. She probably didn't get back home until 6:00 this morning. I'm going to call her shortly, as she has to go on duty at LA County Hospital in 90 minutes.

Third circle of hell, I'd say.

Liz got home at 2:30 AM PST. Bad enough, but coulda been worse.

Here's a pic of Liz at the Mirage pool...I don't think anyone will call me out if I say that she's one damn fine 49 year old woman. Why she has any interest in me at all remains a mystery...

Vegas is unreal...here's a couple of shots that prove it.

Lennon was definitely *not* thinking of a bar in a casino called "Revolution" when he wrote the song, or so I believe.

Even if he was, would he have ever imagined there'd be a nightclub claiming to be Taoist?

No, really, they apparently want you to believe there's some convergence between Vegas and Tao...

Did I mention that this woman is incredibly hot? Standing in the piazza of The Venetian, overlooking the Strip...

But Patrick!?, you cry. Aren't you in at least one picture?!!

Yeah. Sorry, but I am. Here I am, jamming with the wax version of the Blue Man Group.