I'm back from Sin City

What a great trip we had! Tom and I flew out Friday night and got to Vegas around 10:30pm. When we got to the Palazzo to check in, they didn't have a regular suite for us so we were "upgraded" to a room with a view! NICE! The place was fabulous (I definitely recommend it if you have $239 to spend per night - we didn't and couldn't see doing it again, but the free room was awesome!) and we spent Friday night just getting situated in the suite. There were 3 HD flat screens (a 20 inch in the bathroom because everyone needs to be able to watch TV while showering, a 32 inch in the sunken living room and a 42 inch in front of the bedroom). Here are some pictures of our room and the view from our room:

Saturday we woke up early and being the good Ironpeople-in-training that we are, went for a run - 7 miles through UNLV's campus and back. It felt great to get out there knowing that it could be a long day with eating and gambling. We spent the afternoon laying by the pool (the picture above doesn't do it justice though!) and finally Tom gave in to let me shower, eat and gamble! :) We loved playing the video slots - especially Wheel of Fortune nickel slots. We were give $15 in game play the first night from the Palazzo and ended up getting all the way up to $380. We were hitting everything. We called it a night when we got down to $200.

We were lazy on Sunday (could have been the multiple drinks from the night before) and we decided to just play it easy, eat, walk around, maybe gamble a little. Well that $200 from the night before was spent before noon. Damn Wheel of Fortune! :) We hung out Sunday near the pools, went to dinner at the Venetian and enjoyed walking the strip a little at night to see the Bellagio Fountains. I love the Venetian and must say, having been to Venice in person, it's as close to the original as you can get in the states!!!

Monday we walked the strip, gambling a little here and there at a few places and then walked from Mandalay Bay to the airport rental car place. Didn't know that it would be a 2.9 mile walk (after walking from one end of the strip to the other)! HA! But we did get to see the famous Las Vegas sign which was way cool - I've always wondered where it was.

We rented a car and that afternoon drove to Red Rock for some hiking. I've never been and it was awesome. We drove the 13 mile one way road and stopped at mile 10 for a 2 hour hike. I probably would have liked to hike more, but I had my running shoes on and it was pretty tough with some of the boulders that we were climbing. I did see a ton of bikers though and was very jealous - it looked like a tough ride, but wow! I can't think of a more gorgeous place to train!

Our last night was great - just stayed around the Palazzo and the Venetian. Monday morning was another lazy one - Tom came down with a cold, but I dragged him out for a tough 4 mile run. By 9am it was well past 90 degrees and brutal!

So we're home now, recovered (although Tom is still struggling with his cold a little). We did our first open water swim yesterday - can we say panic for Colleen? After about 3/10's of a mile I was alright - just forgot what it was like to be in a wetsuit, to have boats around causing ripples, to be in brown water, to not have lane lines etc. We have a sprint tri this weekend and I'm super anxious for it. I know that the swim will go well now that I've gotten that little bit of nerves out, although we'll swim the course tomorrow and Saturday just to be good and ready!