My love/hate relationship with Las Vegas, Day 1

For those of you who don't know, over spring break I went to Las Vegas in order to present my thesis at an academic conference. Want to catch up? Read these:
-Being a nerd does pay off!
-A quick update
-Could it be?

And now for the first leg of my trip report!

On Wednesday, my mom and I flew out of Houston and landed safely in Vegas. Along the way, we saw some pretty sights:

White Sands National Monument over New Mexico

Grand Canyon

More Grand Canyon

  Once we landed, we stood in the long line to catch a taxi, and then arrived at the hotel the conference was at-- the Riviera. 


My brief review of the hotel: Don't stay there. Why?
-We waited in line to check in for an hour and a half. They had 12 separate kiosks, only 2 of which had employees. They knew a large conference was coming in. Stupid? Yes.
-It is located at the end of the Strip. If you have ever been to Sin City, you know how much walking it really is. The distances look deceptively short. So, staying at that particular end of the Strip that is older, etc, not so much fun.
-It is really smoky. To be fair, you can smoke in any casino, but this one had the worst ventilation of any place we walked through. 
-It was definitely on the older side, though the tower our room was in had just been renovated. To be fair, our room was quite nice and the beds were really comfortable.


If you go to Vegas, stay in the center part of the Strip, at the Venetian or Bellagio, etc. The prices aren't that much more expensive in turns out. 


Anyway, after waiting forever to check in, we get to our room with this amazing view:

Ha, not so much

Then my mom and I chilled around for a bit. My aunt (my mom's sister) was due to be in later that afternoon, so we just waited for her to get in. Once she arrived, waited in a long line, and got settled, we went to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. Below are pictures from that journey:

Riviera on the right, looking down away from the strip

Across from the hotel; every frat boy's dream

Outside Hard Rock

Following a very tasty dinner, we wanted to go find where Beatles LOVE was as we were going the following night. As I walked down to the Mirage, I took some pictures of the Strip at night. One word- beautiful!

Once we found it, we headed back to the hotel. As it was about 11 PM body time, we went to bed. Yup. We're real party-ers!!


Preview for Thursday-- the conference starts & I make my presentation. Then amazing meal followed by Beatles LOVE!