Las Vegas, or "You know you've got great seats when you're closer than Wayne Newton"

For those of you who don't know, I recently took a 36 hour road-trip to Las Vegas. Not for the normal college-student reason, of course. We went to go volunteer. At a political debate. Kind of nerdy, but so much fun!

We left Provo at 7:30 (we were supposed to leave at 7 but Jordan forgot his shoes and then Brandall tried to give Katie directions to Alissa's house and we spent 15 minutes driving around a parking lot...no joke). It already felt so late at night, but we were too excited to care.

Me and Brandall (with Alissa and David in the background) just so excited to head down!

The drive didn't end up being too bad. We stopped over in Fillmore to get gas, grab munchies, and switch drivers. Overall though, there was a lot of music, laughter, singing, and headbanging. And, as always happens when the kids eat sugar and run around, we all fell asleep while watching Amazing Grace. There's just something about that "sitting in the car" feeling that's so darn soothing...

Jordan so excited to play chauffeur/papa

Fun with food

The Gang in the back!

Thanks to our handy GPS who changed the route whenever we hit construction or got lost, we arrived in Las Vegas around 12 am PST. We stayed at Katie's brother's house down there and they were so nice! Her sister-in-law let us in and gave us cookies before she ushered us to bed.

But not before we snapped a "we're so tired but we're HERE!!" picture

We got up the next morning around 8 and Katie's sister had made us delicious french toast. I spent most of the time scrambling to finish up my cover letters while we all just enjoyed a more leisurely morning before we headed for lunch at the strip.

Having breakfast down below

Jordan went to go visit his cousin who had had just had a baby, so it left the six of us to wander around Vegas for a little while and snap some awesome pictures.

Herman Cain and Wolf Blitzer! ...Seriously though, what kind of a name is Wolf Blitzer?

After a quick lunch at the Grand Lux (I had a seared ahi tuna salad with avacado and ginger - so good!) we scrambled to get to the conference center and meet up with my contact. We found her, but then spent the next hour sort of standing around waiting for the thing to start. While waiting we avoided the Nevada College Republicans who looked a little douchey and awkward and instead hung out with four little old ladies. They were so wonderful. I think Jordan actually fixed one of their phones.

Outside the Conference hall. Such a good looking group!

We were eventually herded into an absolutely huge cement and metal room where the debate hall was set up. Literally, it was set up inside the big empty room. Essentially it was just a bunch of taunt backdrops set up to make it look like an official debate hall. It was amazing.

We were divided into groups and then put at tables with a giant master list. Our jobs were to look through the list, compare the names on there to the persons ID and then give them a properly colored wrist band before they went through the metal detectors. That was it. That's all we had to do. It wasn't difficult and took maybe an hour and a half and then we got to go see the debate for FREE!

Inside the debate hall. Which wasn't really a hall. But still.

Somehow Jordan and I lucked out and found ourselves sitting in the very front row. Like, literally, the front. Meaning Rick Perry and I had a stare down and I spoke to Anderson Cooper about his shirt and tie combination. I was actually concerned I was going to flash the candidates if I shifted in my skirt wrong.

The debate itself was amazing! You could feel the energy from the crowd and the fire of the candidates. It was also great to see how the candidates acted when the camera's were off them. Michelle Bachmann kept going backstage during the commercial breaks, Mitt Romney went into the crowd every time. They shook each others hands, and joked and laughed about things that had been said during the debate. Some of it might have been forced, but even the show of civility was nice.

Afterwards, all of us met up again and pretty much just floated out of the conference center on cloud 9! We were supposed to volunteer at the V.I.P. reception after the debate, but due to some mix ups with the master list (some VIPs were listed as regular, even though they had paid $800 extra) so the WRLC people were going to be working the reception to smooth things over. We were okay with that, mostly because as it was we would be making it back to Provo at 3 in the morning. Besides, it gave us some time to actually enjoy the strip as more than half of us hadn't been there before.

Our "we're cool and allowed into the debate" wristbands

After a quick semi-decent clothing swap in the car, we were dressed in normal clothes and ready to take Las Vegas by storm. We had decided the 2 things we wanted to do were have gelato and watch the fountains at the Bellagio. So we all loaded into the car and headed over.

Jumping off the fountains in front of the Bellagio

The ladies...

Watching the fountains

Best friends in Paris! Or Vegas. Same Thing.

Everything was so much fun! We got lost in the hotel/casino's (seriously...you'd think the exit sign would mean you can exit from there. You can't.) took some fun pictures, at gelato, lusted after the chocolate fountain, and rode on lots and lots of escalators. But, with all good things, they must come to an end. Especially because we all had class the next day. So, with satisfied souls we loaded into the car and started the drive back to Provo.

But not before we decided to blast music and stick our bodies outside of the sun roof while driving down the strip...

You can't go to Vegas and not do something of questionable legality...

We stopped in Mesquite to grab some food and some gas, and from there it was back to Provo.

So excited to have had this experience together!

Once again, Jordan drove while the rest of us slept. And lest we forget, we actually listened to the debate again so we could listen to the commentary from the political pundits. It was interesting to compare the opinions of those listening or watching to ours who were actually there to experience it.

Somehow Jordan managed to get us from Vegas to Provo (usually a 5 and a half hour drive) in a little less than 4 hours. It was amazing! We all unloaded, said good-bye, and went our separate ways.

Home safe and happy at last!

However, it was an experience I know we will never forget!