The Presentation

Everyone did an awesome job presenting. 20 times better than the last time we practiced. We packed everyone into one hotel room so the presenters could practice and we could critique them. Our advisor said they had to be able to present through distractions, but then I got in trouble for distracting them too much :( But I did help Andrew pick out his tie, which you can't see very clearly.


We had to present in front of 3 judges for 15 minutes and then there was some Q & A time. As far as we were concerned, we did a better job than most of the presentations we saw. The winning group had a lot of fluff whereas we stuck to the facts, so maybe its a matter of opinion. We placed 7th in the nation out of 39, though. Top 10...better than the 25 percentile...hello resume :)


These are all the presenters. They look pretty professional. We went as "Blue Ridge Development Group"

More food

I didn't take any pictures of the other places we went, but they were pretty damn good too. One night I was getting sick so I didn't really want anything too heavy and everyone else went to get beer and wings. Andrew and I decided to walk down the strip and eat at P.F. Changs and there were some groups of people waiting, but since there was only two of us they sat us right away. And they sat us in this little raised circular room that was just the two of us, a booth, and a table. And we got hot tea, lettuce wrap, snap peas, and cucumbers all off the app menu and it was just the right amount of food and it was $20! for both of us! It was so nice I can't believe no one else went with us.
Then on the last night we went to this brazilian barbeque. They bring around a whole bunch of meat on these swords and cut it off for you and if you don't want them to come to your table you turn this little puck over to red. We had veal, pineapple, roast beef, prime rib, pork, lamb, filet mignon, etc. And there was a buffet with salad and fruit and appetizer things. Other than being unaware that we bought $7 bottles of water, it was really good.
So I think the food was probably the best part of Vegas for me. Second would be touring the casinos (I didn't gamble once).

Society (Birthday Dinner)

Andrew and I were really the only ones interested in venturing from our block and eating at cool places. We looked through the guide book and picked out cool restaurants and he let me pick this night for my birthday :)



Look at this place! I picked it because the description said Oscar Wilde would love it!! Our waitress put our napkins in our laps, it threw me off a little.


I took a picture of the food. I'm not embarrassed. Before this we had this awesome salad with fruit on it, kinda like mom makes, and some pretzels with honey mustard butter. Then we both had braised lamb with some crazy good grits and beets. The lamb was so good it was like dessert and we ate it cold the next day and it was just as good. The only thing that was missing then was some bread, mayo, salt and pepper.

Wynn and Encore

yeah, he's carrying my backpack...
The top of the escalator by all the Parasols was called "Parasol Up" and down below it is a bar called "Parasol Down". I thought it was fun. AND IT HAD CURVY ESCALATORS!



There were so many of these mosaics and I thought they were one of the prettiest things in Vegas.


I like their style.


AloE TrEE!! did you know there was such a thing?! We didn't.


Entrance to a restaurant. Down right magical.


There was just something about those rows of red chandeliers...


I like the ceiling, too.



They were so much classier than most of the other casinos, but with a little bit of whimsy. By far my favorite casinos. Look at the butterfly mosaics on the floor!

For Mom-Paris

This is looking at the Paris casino from over the Ballagio fountain.


You drive around the "Arc de Triumph" to check in. The hotel part looks like a french Chateau. I thought this was prettier than the Bellagio.


This is the check-in lobby. One chandelier is pretty on its own, and there's like 12. Oh Vegas...



We ate at the Paris lunch buffet-the best $17 you will ever spend in your life! I could have made about 15 different 5 star dinners. It was amazing. They had all the fancy hor dourves we like to eat and all the desserts you feel bad eating (there was this peach something pie that is now my all time favorite and I don't even know what it was) And it was made to look like you were outside in a little french village and each of the different buffet sections represented a different part of the country so the food and building matched it.

The Bellagio

That's a close up of the hand-blown glass ceiling. Gorgeous, nuff said.


Over to the right is apparently the world's largest chocolate fountain. I thought the icy thing on the ceiling was cooler, though.


This is about the only picture I'm in from Vegas. We're walking around the famous fountains. In the rain.
I also thought it was funny how dirty the city is and how offensive it is to the natural landscape, but when you walk onto the grounds of some of the casinos it's absolutely beautiful. It's like you just crossed into a totally other place-waterfalls, tree-shaded paths, canals, quiet, fully dressed people, etc.

For Dad

Yep, someone said "Toby Keith's Bar and Grill" and I said "I have to take a picture for my dad!" When I was taking a picture of the inside, this big security guard came running through the restaurant yelling and I never figured out if he was yelling at me or not, but all I wanted to do was take a picture for my pops because he loves Toby Keith!

Random Things about Vegas

The MGM, right across the street from us, had a lion habitat. I'm not sure I was entirely ok with the idea of their habitat, but, still, it was fascinating to stand under one just lounging around.


The camera couldn't figure out what to focus on, but I think it gets the point across! Vegas is obviously not used to rain and the city looked like this everywhere the whole week. Even all the huge fancy casinos had buckets on the floor to catch leaks.




The monorail really was the best way to get around. It was $30 for a three day pass but we rode it everywhere. I thought it was cool until I realized there was no one driving it :(

New York, New York

This is what our rooms looked like. They were pretty nice, even with four people in them.


This is the casino area-it was supposed to look like we were outside in New York. The main thing I liked about this casino was that the ceilings were high, where as the other ones were really low and made the rooms look huge and long and never ending and gave me a claustrophobic feeling.

river arts

picture in a picture

Going out on a limb

It's just that much better than boOne

buddies

Graffiti

Deer