Las Vegas was a lot of fun. I was invited to join a friend of mine for a photography convention being held there. It was a great time just getting away from the office and taking some time off to have fun and relax. I learned a lot from other photographers there and attended several classes. I was inspired by their photography and excited to grow creatively in my work. One of the best people I had the chance to listen lecture was an extraordinary photographer to movie stars, Greg Gorman.

My favorite part of Vegas was watching the fountain show at Bellagio. They are larger than life and the music echoes through the entire area. A completely different show runs every half hour. I watched at least 10 fountain displays. The last one I saw before I left Vegas was choreographed to the song Pink Panther and began by the whole lake being covered with a fog. The best ones I think were definitely the shows that played with Sinatra music.

One of the most exciting things I did was going on the thrill rides at the top of 1,500 foot tall Stratosphere Hotel. They had a roller coaster, a catapult ride that shot you straight up, and then a sled ride that threw you over the edge of the building. I went on the sled ride first. It would shoot you off the side about 30 feet and then drop you down suddenly 45 degrees until you were looking at the street about 1,500 feet below!! After that I went on the catapult ride and it shot us up straight into the air several hundred feet.

It was night by the time I went on the catapult ride and the city was lit up. It was an amazing view. At the top of the catapult ride you hang up there and all you can see is the Vegas Strip. I took a lot of photos of the Vegas Strip skyline while I was at the top of the Stratosphere on the viewing platforms. It was a phenomenal 360 degree view up there. The whole city was lit up everywhere you could see, and from that height you could see for hundreds of miles in every direction.

I spent 2 other evenings just walking down the strip and seeing as many of the hotels I could. The Paris was beautiful inside and out. They had a real life replica of the Eiffel Tower and the Arch De Triumph. There were also many shops inside that had the sky painted on the ceilings in a very realistic look. I had some incredible food there. Not surprisingly since the food I had in Paris France was unbelievable. The Paris was right across from the Bellagio. One evening Chanel and I ate dinner in a restaurant where we could see the fountain show from our table.

Another of the hotels I went to that I really was impressed by was the Venitian, a take on Venice Italy. There were real gondola rides that went through canal waterways that were along the shops and restaurants inside the hotel. There were real looking frescoes painted on the ceilings and more of the blue skies painted on other ceilings like those found in the Paris hotel. Other hotels that are popular are Caesars, MGM, Luxor, and the Hard Rock.