Vegas trip

3/15 Tuesday night - Arrive in Las Vegas.  That evening we saw a group called the Blue Man Group, which is a group of three blue men who were dressed in blue rubber masks and blue gloves. It was completely silent, but they jumped around doing funny stuff and beating on drums. AWEsome.

We were in the "splatter zone" right up front so we had to wear ponchos. 

3/16 Wednesday - wandering around Vegas.  Saw some lions housed in the MGM hotel. The conference was in the evening, but we didn't want to sit around and go to sleep so we went out afterward too and only got home at 4 in the morning! Apparently Las Vegas goes to sleep later than NYC :)

Hanging out for lunch at the "Nine Fine Irishman"

3/17 Thursday - Conference in the morning, but then we made good use of our amazing hotel facilities in the afternoon - they had a HUGE pool area, with a regular pool, wave pool, and a lazy river (a big snake-like river that just pushes you along). The conference resumed again at night, but then we went out afterward to this place called Tao until 4 am again. Dy, I remember going to Tao in New York with you!

3/18 Friday - Conference all day (We could barely keep our eyes open at this point!). I had to present my poster in the evening, and Mike had done a good job advertising for me, so LOTS of people came over. Some were harsher critics than others, but everyone liked the work in the end. Shruthi also gave a talk, so to celebrate our scientific achievements, as well as Chris's last few months as a bachelor, we went to a Cirque du Soleil show called Mystere.  It was really good - a circus that was in acrobatic, glamorous style! Of course, we were too excited to go home, so we stayed out until 4 again to go to another hotel called New York New York, which has a roller coaster in it.

3/19 Saturday - Last day of the conference.  Had a nice lab bonding lunch at P.F. Chang, which is this totally upscale chinese restaurant. Stayed awake til the wee hours again playing cards in our room.

3/20 Sunday - We stuck around on Sunday to wander around the different hotels some more.  Watched the Bellagio fountains, which are those dancing fountains always on tv. Another hotel is called Flamingo - everything is PINK! The Venetian hotel has painted ceilings like the Sistine Chapel with Gondolas in a moat around the outside. Another is called Paris, and its ceilings are painted like the sky.  Some areas of the ceiling flickered and roared like thunder and lightening, and sprinklers would make it seem like rain sometimes.  Preeeettttyyy cooool. Then we stopped back at the NY NY hotel for one last show called "V- the Variety Show." It had some cool acrobatics, acrobatics in the air, gymnastics, and even a magic show.

A shop that allowed you to design your own shoes and made for you in real-time. Basically its a glamorous cobbler shop.

We left for home on a midnight flight and got home at noon the next day. So tiring, and I have definitely lost some neural circuits to lack of sleep.