It just so happened that this year the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners annual conference was held in Vegas. I’ve only been to the annual conference one other time and that was ten years ago. One thing really neat this year that I don’t recall about ten years ago is the huge number of NPs dressed in military fatigues. Impressive. There were over 6,000 NPs there-the highest attended conference they have had as of yet. I told Adam: to think, there are over 6,000 of me here! And, we all have similar anal-retentive, obsessive compulsive tendencies because that is why we are NPs! He just grinned. As Adam and I LOVE Vegas we decided to go this time. We love Vegas for different reasons than most I imagine. We go for the shows, primarily. We do not gamble, nor are we drinkers. So we go to the shows, shop, people-watch and rest.

We stayed at the Venetian where the conference was, It is a nice hotel, we’ve stayed there before so we would have preferred to try somewhere else but as the conference opened at 8:15 each am that idea didn’t fly. Proof, I did educate and become smarter:

We actually scored an awesome shot of our hotel one night crossing the street~Adam used my head as a tri-pod to steady the camera since it was dark out but it was for a good cause!

It has been three (I think) years since we were there last and there were some definite changes this time…changes of the economy I imagine. There were more people sitting on the ground asking for hand-outs than usual. What gets me is they ALWAYS have some sort of animal with them. A puppy or kitten, that is panting in the 100 degree heat. There was some Asian guy playing a guitar and he had a cardboard sign that read he was the only Asian guitar player in Vegas. There was another gentleman that was brutally honest with his cardboard sign which read “why lie? need $ for beer”.

Definitely more languages than usual. We have always noticed a large amount of Asians in Vegas every time we are there but this time there were people from Germany, Australia and who knows where else. These same foreigners seemed to be the ones that were plenty comfy walkin’ around in speedos at the pool too, even when you couldn’t see anything in front because their bellies hung too low. Creates a nice image in your mind, doesn’t it?

We spent a lot of time at the pool and I guarantee Adam had swim TRUNKS on, no speedos!!!

We noticed the escalators on the strip were turned on this time and the fountains were on. Last time many of them were not….at many of the hotels as if they were trying to save money.

We noticed more costumed characters randomly placed on the strip….for photo ops I guess. Literally, Mickey Mouse or Woody just hangin’ out. The problem with this is that if you aren’t familiar with Vegas there are these trucks driving up and down the strip pulling full-size billboards advertising strip clubs (thankfully the girls are clothed). But what kind of photo-op does that make for lil’ Johnny with Micky Mouse and there is a stripper truck behind him in the photo? We still stick to our theory that Vegas isn’t a family place. Check out this picture (great memories for the kids of a little dude Elvis and a Lady Gaga):

Proof anything can happen in Vegas. Her purse was an actual Hello Kitty purse:

I do have one funny story to tell….we had a long day on Friday and were very tired. I woke up shortly after midnight for sure I felt an earthquake. Remember the one we had in Tecumseh that we both felt? Okay…well, I was dead asleep and awoke to what I thought was the building moving. Remember we were staying at the Venetian and about 1/2 way up on the 15th floor. I shook Adam awake to tell him and he just groaned and rolled over. I LITERALLY slept like crap the rest of the night. All I could think about were of all of the Asians visiting Vegas and what if some of them were from Japan and were re-living nightmares of the severe quakes they had over there, etc etc. I was worried there was going to be an aftershock, by golly! So at 6:30 when it was actually time for me to get up for  my conference I do and when I get out of the shower Adam is on the laptop looking at the U.S. geographical earthquake site (HA!!! He DID hear me!). Come to find out there was an earthquake at the EXACT time that I woke him up but it was 60 miles away or something and only a 1.4?????? Isn’t that odd?! I mean we were high up in a building so maybe that is why I felt it sway? I have no idea but he made me promise not to mention it to anyone there because he just knew they’d think I was weird. Somehow, I think he would have been right.

I leave you with one more funny but sad story. Our taxi driver from the airport to the hotel when we arrived was a super sweet gal. She told us that she had just learned that you cannot live in Vegas, smoke, gamble and retire. She said she had retired the week before but had already needed to start to pick up shifts. Very true for many I am sure and very sad.

...in one of many taxis...

….we are happy to say, though that until Cirque du Soleil comes out with another resident Vegas show we are Vegas’d out! 😉