NYE in Las Vegas

The past 5 years we've lived in Utah, we've never had good plans for New Years Eve. Nothing that is a tradition per say. Once or twice we went out to see a movie and honestly I'd have to look back at my blog to see what else we ended up doing the other years. I think once or maybe twice we went to Idaho but missed the potato dropping in Boise by 10 or 15 minutes. A pro to being in Boise for New Years is that my sister in law & her husband throw a really fun dinner party.  In Utah, I always wished we'd get invited to a party but that never happened and our place wasn't the best for having a lot of people over. So since we still don't have any good traditions for New Year's we decided to give last Las Vegas a try. 

The night was dark and cold. In fact, as we got in to Nevada it was raining some. Was not expecting that!



We finally found parking in a shopping strip and walked and walked to get to the strip. It was probably just a mile or so. If we do this next year, I have some ideas how we will do things differently. 



It was time for dinner (at 8pm!) and I have been wanting to eat at Yard House for a long time and it finally happened! Expensive but really good food. I am not sure where my pictures of the food that night went. I ordered a pasta dish and Tony got a hamburger. 

We walked around on the strip and explored some of the hotels...

It was a little annoying that you could not cross the strip wherever you wanted to. They had the street shut down, no traffic, but big gates set up in the middle and only a few spots to cross to the other side. We walked from about the Linq to the end of the street where this huge bus and lots of patrol cars were blocking the street and we crossed and walked down the opposite side. Kind of interesting. Someone said they blocked it off so that people didnt destroy the landscaping but I'm not so sure. There were quite a lot of police and military people out patrolling the streets. We were in one spot and a bunch of cops were chasing a guy who had ran beneath the building into the parking garage. Men with guns running everywhere, so fast! It was kind of funny but kind of not and we kept walking.

We were ready for the fireworks and countdown at 10 seconds to midnight. Of course we kissed and then you could turn your eyes any direction and see fireworks - all synchronized! It was pretty awesome. Once the show was over we walked back to the car because, what else was there to do?

(soo cold - Tony let me wear his coat)

All in all, it was a fun way to spend New Year's Eve. I procrastinated leaving Utah a bit but next time it would be fun to get a hotel on the strip and not have to worry about finding parking. Maybe we will find friends to split a room with next time and do that. It was nice to break up the drive from Salt Lake to Ridgecrest even though I was a bit sad to miss Tony's family fun dinner. It will be interesting to see how we end up spending next New Year's Eve. Anything is possible!