Even though I don’t like Sonic the Hedgehog, there’s one type of level in his games that I look forward to reaching. The ‘casino/pinball/carnival’ type level. Not only are these stages really fun, they’re full of colorful neon lights. I don’t know why, but neon lights have always fascinated me for some reason, and I also really like other games and stages that have neon style graphics (like Mario Kart 64’s Rainbow Road). Heck, one of my favorite things to do at Christmas is drive around and look at Christmas lights. For that reason, I’ve always wanted to go to Las Vegas And this past week, I finally did! So here’s a series of blogs—with pictures—about my recent trip to Vegas!

The hotel we stayed at was called the “Excalibur” and it was a medieval castle themed hotel on the Vegas Strip. Too bad it wasn’t called the Soul Calibur hotel! “Yes, Taki, bring up some room service, please.” Ha ha!

We also had a nice view from our room of the strip. Here it is at night:

Now, when you think of Vegas, you probably think of two main things. Gambling and going to shows. I didn’t do much gambling on this trip. Mainly because gambling doesn’t appeal to me too much. But I did give some slot machines a try. They were kind of boring, though. A few years ago, some company made Pac-Man themed slot machines. Unfortunately, I didn’t see any at Vegas. If anyone knows where I can find and maybe play a Pac-Man slot machine, please let me know! I did play a few rounds of Roulette and won about 50 bucks, though (yeah, I didn’t bet very much money). I will probably use my winnings to treat myself to either ModNation Racers or LEGO Harry Potter. Which do you think I should get?

We didn’t see any shows in Vegas, either. One, they were too expensive. And two, most shows you had to be 18 or older to see, and we took brother Jeff along with us to Vegas, and he’s only 17 and half. Some of the shows I can understand why he wouldn’t be able to see them, but the comedy shows? He can already see that stuff on TV, so why can’t he see the shows, too? But oh well, rules are rules, and we can always come back to Vegas later when Jeff’s older. And no, I didn’t go see any of the naughty showgirl stuff either. I might joke and tease about cute video game women characters in my blog every now and then, but in real life I’m fairly conservative, reserved, and very, VERY boring. But just looking around the Vegas strip was fun enough for me!

Actually, the first day we were there, we weren’t in Vegas much at all! That’s because we took a bus tour to see the Grand Canyon. I have to say that while the Grand Canyon was pretty neat, I didn’t really care much for the bus tour. The bus ride was way too long, and I felt kind of rushed every time we had to make a stop to eat or see the sights.

At our first stop, we got to see the Hoover Dam.

I wanted to see some wildlife on this trip, like one of the huge condors! Unfortunately, I didn’t see any. But I did take a picture of a neighborly canyon squirrel.

I took a BUNCH of pictures of the Grand Canyon, so here are two of my favorites. One thing you can’t see in ANY mere picture of the Grand Canyon is just how HUGE it is! It’s ten miles wide in places, and you just have to be there to truly understand how vast it really is!

We got back from the tour pretty late, so that’s about all we did the first day. But check out “Act 2” of my trip blog, where we looked at some shops and took a night bus tour of the neon lights of the city!

Tags: Misc