Ask Dr. LJ: Vegas!

Yesterday I got approval to head to RailsConf, a conference for programmers who use the Ruby on Rails programming framework, to be held in Las Vegas, on the strip, on May 4-7. It will be fun, but I have a more general question for Ask Dr. LJ:

What should I do around Vegas while I'm there? I'm probably going to take a couple of days on one side or another to enjoy the change of scenery, and I want to figure out what to do. I'd like at least some of my time to be spent on photography - I hear that there are some beautiful national parks in the area. I could take in a show or two, so what would you recommend? Do people know good places to eat?

Thus far I've only looked at WikiTravel, so I've only just begun looking. But, I'd love to hear ideas from the gallery.