2005-01-07 - 11:04 p.m.

Happy New Year!

For Christmas, I bought Izaak and I tickets to Las Vegas! I had to keep it a secret for 4 months - it was tough! There were so many times that I almost referred to out trip! I bought a winter jacket from gap and mittens. We spent the days after christmas looking for a jacket for izaak, but couldn't find one. We came to the conclusion that it is so much easier to find a jacket for a girl than a guy.

We left on the 29th at 10am. Lisa drove us to the airport. The flight was not to bad, 5 hours. I slept a little. Man, airline food is so bad. I had this chopped chicken thing with carrots. Awful. Why can't they just make plain sandwiches or hotdogs or hamburgurs, or salads. I don't get it. We got there at about 6 their time, and it was cold! Well, cold for a Hawaii person. We ate dinner at a huge buffet, then walked around downtown - at the freemont experience. We did a little gambling, where I lost about $50.

The next day picked up our rental car, ate at another buffet, then explored the strip. We went into different hotels like the belagio, NYNY, and the Paris. I loved the fountains of the Belagio when I went the first time, so I had to show izaak - who loved it too! I had the BEST pastry I've ever had at this Paris bakery. We also did a little shopping at the Fashion Show Mall. I went to Victoria's secret and bought some bras and panties.. my fav!

The next day was new years eve. We went to the premium outlet mall. It was so cold that day! I was walking around with mittens, while some people were in t-shirt and jeans. We decided to watch the fireworks display at the strip. At 7 we tried to drive there, but they closed the strip to drivers. We drove back to the hotel and took a taxi. We ate dinner at this small hotel, and had the best meal of our trip! $7.77 for steak and lobster. Awesome! Then we proceeded to wait and wait and wait in a big crowd for the stupid fireworks. We waited for so long in the cold... my feet were aching! There were so many drunk people around, but there were also police officers there too. Then the countdown started, but it was 5 minutes early! Then the fireworks went off - and I wasn't that impressed! I mean, it was great and all, but for the wait we had to endure, it wasn't worth it. Then, the madness started.

After the fireworks, everyone, including me and izaak, started to make our way down the strip. We were going to try to find a cab. This huge mass of people all started going the same way, pushing and shoving. Then it got really bad. A fight broke out in front of me and people in front started pushing back. The people in back were pushing forward. Izaak was behind me and trying to keep the weight off me. My body was just moving with the wave of people. At one point I couldn't even breathe because of all the pushing. I kept praying to God that I didn't want to die, and for his help. I was so scared. Izaak kept telling me to try to move to the side, but we were totally smashed. People were climbing in the trees that were planted along the sidewalk. People were crying, and I was really getting scared. I kept thinking about those poor people who died in that club from being trampled on. Izaak had the good idea of getting near the tree since people had to go around the tree. Luckily, we made it to the tree and out of the crowd after about 10 mintues. It was the scariest thing that I have ever exeprienced. Thank God we made it out.

We then waited for the crowd to die down, then we walked off the strip in search of a cab. All the roads were closed, so we walked and walked and walked, then we saw the Rio hotel. It was so cold when we were walking, and our feet were already aching. We finally made it to the Rio and started looking for the place to wait for a cab. We found it - There was about a 100 people waiting for a cab! We though the night would never end! We went inside the hotel and got some drinks and waited for the line to go down. We went outside an hour later, and saw that the line was the SAME! We ended up waiting in that awful line for an hour - in the freezing cold. We finally got back to our hotel at about 4:30am. What an awful night.

The next day we were suppose to go to see Mt. Charleston, but we were so tired from our ordeal that we just hung out in our room and gambled a little. The next day we had to meet our flight group at 5:00am and we left at 8am.

Overall, a great trip, lots of experiences, and the wisdom to not get in big crowds again.