Las Vegas

September 23 - 24, 2005

Shortly after 10:00 on Friday morning, my nephew Chris, niece Cassi, and I piled into my convertible for our long drive to LAS VEGAS! My brother, Carl, and his wife Alice followed in their truck about an hour later. In Las Vegas we would meet more family members and friends for the wedding of Carl's daughter, Carra, to another Carl, which was to take place on Saturday afternoon.

We made a short lunch break on the way, then stopped again to visit "Calico" ghost town, a former silver mine that originated around 1880. It later was disbanded and became a "real"  ghost town. Some of the buildings of course disappeared, but a few were still standing when it was then made in a tourist attraction. Some were left as they were, some were rebuilt. It's no longer exactly as it was back then, for example the streets are now cement walk ways, but it is still very interesting. One former resident, Lucy Lane, still lived there until she died in 1967! Her home is still the real thing and is now a museum which you can walk through.

with Cassie

Chris taking pictures

We continued our travels, stopping again at "Buffalo bills", the first big casino at Primm on the border of California and Nevada. The casino is styled in an amazing western way and looks really fun! It also has a huge roller coaster which we would have enjoyed riding.

We soon arrived in LAS VEGAS! The view while approaching the city is fascinating, to say the least. Soon the hotel complex "Excalibur", where my brother was staying and where the wedding would be taking place, came into view. We checked into our hotel, a much smaller, and cheaper, one, then went over to Excalibur to meet the others.

Excalibur, built in the "Camelot" theme

After settling in, we then went to Excalibur to meet up with my brother, Carl, his wife, Alice, and various other family members and friends. We then proceeded to the room of the bride and groom, another Carl. It was then that I finally got to meet Carra's son, Ryan, for the first time.

After that Carl, Alice, Chris, Cassie, and I went to have dinner at the Excalibur buffet. It was delicious!

Then a couple of us got together and went for a walk to next door "New York New York". Soon we were tired enough to go back to our hotels for the night. After all, we had a big day ahead of us. When trying to drive from Excalibur to my hotel, we weren't able to make a left turn or get into the lane I needed. We tried more then once to drive around the corner, only to run into unmarked driveways to various hotels! We kept driving, got way off track (and that in spite of my generally good navigation abilities...), and ended up on the far end of the "Strip". Because of the wind, we left the top up on the car but took a cool drive down the Strip, enjoying all the flashing lights and excitement! Finally I was able to get on the proper road and we got our well needed rest (though "rumors" say that Chris went out on the town.....good for him!).

Then it was time for the WEDDING!