Friday, October 29, 2010

Vegas–Day 24

My last day on this trip. Given that I had to leave early in the afternoon I simply walked around a few casinos doing the tourist thing and taking plenty of pictures.

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View from my hotel room.

First stop Caesars.

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Atlantis Fountain at Caesars from Robert Crane on Vimeo.

Every hour on the hour even the fountains in this place do something!

Next stop, the Bellagio.

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Paris Hotel from the moving walkway aside the Bellagio.

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Then to the Paris Hotel.

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I waited for the water display outside the Bellagio but it didn’t happen.

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Once more through the Forum shops at Caesars for some last minute shopping.

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Across the road back to the Flamingo and then it was all over.

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My last shot while waiting for my airport transfer.

Vegas–Day 23

With SMBNation now done it was time to kick back and really act like a tourist.

I started the day hanging around with another Aussie who left the first location of the day up to me. So I took him to my favourite place in Vegas. Yes, the LAs Vegas Gun Range AGAIN!

Las Vegas Gun Range from Robert Crane on Vimeo.

From there we headed down to the Encore. There is discovered they have complete Ferrari showroom and service centre. Unfortunately, it costs $10 to get in (cheap I reckon) and you can’t photos. On show they even had a FXX and Californian. I was in heaven.

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As my colleague headed out of town he dropped me at the Excalibur hotel where I was to be picked up for my Bootleg Canyon zip line tour.

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By the time we arrived at the top of the canyon it was already dusk which meant that most of the runs would be done in the dark. Now having been before last year I was excited to do this again in the dark.

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As you can see, in the dark you don’t get to see a lot of scenery but the whole zip line stuff is completely different. You basically have to wear a head lamp and guides give you landing instructions via glow sticks.

If you get the chance I highly recommend both the day and night zip line tours. It is something really unique.

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Unfortunately by now my Pure nightclub stamp had washed off so I could get back inside.

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After gettign back to town I wandered around for a while and then headed back to the Flamingo.

Oh no. Only one more day to go before it is all over!

Vegas–Day 22

The final day of SMBNation.

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Looking out from the conference centre on the third floor after was all over. Phew, only 2 more days before it’s time to leave Vegas.

Las Vegas–Day 21

Today was the second day of SMBNation.

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The end of day 2 at SMBNation is the big party night and I was lucky enough to score an invite to one these at Pure Nightclub at Caesars Casino just across the road from the Flamingo.

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Here’s the check in at Caesars

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The vendors ‘event’ ran until 10pm for the conference geeks but once that was finished we could remain in the night with all the ‘beautiful people’ also in Las Vegas.

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So after 10pm the club opend up fully and we could go inside to the dance floor.

Pure Nightclub from Robert Crane on Vimeo.

or head up to the veranda that looked over the city.

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The other thing that we found out was that P. Diddy was also playing there and that’s when the place got really packed!

All in all a great night, a late night but a real ‘Vegas’ night and if I hadn’t been dressed lick such a dag I might have felt like one of the ‘beautiful people’!

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Las Vegas–Day 20

Opening day of SMBNation conference.

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Keynote

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Picture of the room prior to my SharePoint presentation.

After the end of the day at the conference we had something to eat at a steakhouse in the Flamingo Hotel.

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From there a group of us headed across the street to Caesars for a party thrown by one of the vendors.

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Here’s the view from the suite looking back towards the Flamingo.

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Here’s the view of the Flamingo from across the road at Caesars. My room is somewhere up there on the right (probably just over Marie’s shoulder).

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Looking back to the Paris Hotel.

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Here’s the view from my suite the following morning.