The day we Viva Las Vegas'd

Wow, what a place this town is!
I'll admit that I was a little apprehensive at the the thought of Las Vegas initially since I rarely gamble (Predisposition to addictive behaviour makes it too dangerous to do it) and as much as I can slam them down I'm not the kind of person who'll go hard on the sauce night after night.
To my surprise there is a lot more than just drinking and gambling to do here and we've been busily adventuring for the past few days wandering up and down Las Vegas Blvd which is amazingly long by the way!
We managed to get rooms in the Bellagio which made us feel rather classy and we would have held that level of smugness if we hadn't visited the Wynn later in the stay. That was by far the swankiest hotel and casino that we saw. Though, on reflection, I feel like the Trump building would have been nicer. Nevertheless the rooms we did have were very nice and served us well as a base of operations.
George has come over the ocean to spend just over a week travelling with us which is pretty cool. He'll be with us through San Francisco as well.
We managed to go shooting while we were there at range just off the strip and finally got to shoot some automatic weaponry. I paid 165 dollars and got to fire:

50 rounds from an MP40, which was probably the easier of the 5 to fire and I unloaded an entire clip in one burst. Very satisfying.
25 rounds from an M4, this was the coolest of the 5 guns since it had a red dot sight which made it super easy to aim and hit what you wanted to. There was barely any recoil, even when you flicked it over to full auto it was not a problem to keep hold of the weapon.
20 rounds with a Glock, pretty sure it was a 9mm. Very easy to fire and I would have felt comfortable shooting it one handed. Just a pop gun comparatively.
5 shots with a Coach Gun, a double barreled shotgun for those playing at home, was amazing as it was painful. The handler informed us as we prepared to fire the coach that the range had run out of low recoil slugs for ask shotguns so we all had to use 'Power Shots', which are exactly as they sound. Bracing the butt of the gun on your shoulder only provided more pain. But, it was an awesome gun, George managed to nail hit target right in the face with his last shot and Rhys bitched out at 3, leaving Chris to become ultimate badass and fire his remaining shots plus his own.
5 rounds from a Mossberg Shotgun or Pump Action Shotgun. SO much fun shooting. Always been my favourite gun and it did not disappoint. Reloading it and seeing the spent slug flip off to the side, very nice. It didn't hurt your arm as much as the coach either. My only regret is that I wasn't able to hold the gun vertically and reload it with only one hand.
Chris and George also got to fire a Sniper Rifle, which I imagine was difficult but accurate.

I'll fire off the casinos we managed to visit as well:
The Bellagio, our home base and definitely one of the classier ones probably second to the Wynn.
The Wynn, see above.
The Cosmopolitan, pretty swank but otherwise boring.
Planet Hollywood, was pretty cool as we shopped there quite a bit. Seemed like a good place for younger people as well.
New York New York, one of my favourites that we saw, had a roller coaster we had a ride on and it had a loop the loop! The atmosphere was also amazing, everyone there was excited and having fun.
The Excalibur, medevil themed casino complete with a fun dungeon, which isn't as bad as it sounds. There was a laser maze there which we all ran through and I emerged supreme champion! MJ and I also played 6 rounds of DDR.
The Luxor, an egyptian themed casino was the only place that I managed to get a buffet and my first glass of milk in nearly 3 weeks!
Treasure Island, pirate themed casino. Rhys, Chris and MJ all lost monies on Blackjack here, pretty sure MJ ended up in the green somehow though.
The Mirage, was full of plants and dolphins apparently but we didn't really get a chance to see much.
The MGM Grand, definitely a standout casino on the strip, big, full all the time. And we went to Brad Garretts comedy club which was amazingly funny. He wasn't billed for the night but he came out and did 3 sets. He's so full of hate and spent most of the time picking on the front row. He also kept making fun of Ray Romano's family humour and explained that he got fired from their duo act at the Mirage for asking a 6 million dollar asian high roller where his laundry was!
The Mandalay Bay, where we got tickets to see Steel Panther for 20 dollars. They put on an awesome show and got Joey Fatone up to sing with them for a few songs. Not only was the music great, they also really played off the crowd and their banter was hilarious. If you can get out to see them, please do yourself a favour, do it.

So that's our Vegas trip. Stay tuned for our 2 day drive blog soon.
Happy travels,
Reece.

PS. I miss you all. Send me love back.