Vegas Vacation

Ok, so I finally had some time to do a recap of the trip. Between holidays and preparing for bridal showers and everything else, it seems time just got away from me. I have had the photo's uploaded, it's just getting the post written so....here we GO!

Friday night D and I went up to my parents house. They were going to be watching the pup for us and we needed to introduce her to their new puppy Gracie. Needless to say, human and beasts alike did not get much sleep for the 5 days they were together as playtime was every second of the day! Saturday, my mom and I had a baby shower to go to so D just vegged on the couch. Sunday morning, it was time to roll out of bed and play the trick the pup into thinking were in the other room game. We escaped successfully and were on our way. After a couple of stops, and countless license plates later; and a couple of rule changes by the hubby, we finally made it into Vegas around 12PM. We valeted the car and tooled around the hotel while we waited for our family to arrive; they were an hour or so behind us. We had some room drama, of course. They 'forgot' to check us in and after waiting over 2 hours we finally got into our 'non-smoking' room that smelled like an ashtray! So mom and B.I.L. called down and things were fixed....vapor thingy sent up, and price reduction of the room. Crises averted.....kind of. We all got ready and made our way over to the Bellagio for the "O" show. 90 minutes of acrobatics, diving, tumbling and many other things in and out of water. I was IN HEAVEN! The pool was on a regulator where it would get deeper or more shallow as each scene moved forward. The costumes and makeup were also perfect. With it being more like a circus, there really wasn't a plot so it was slightly jarring to not have a story to follow, but I thought it was so cool and I can't wait to see another Cirque de Soleil show!

Centerpiece in the hotel lobby

D on a bottle cap chair outside of House of Blues

Monday D and I awoke and went to Starbucks (You can get coffee there!) for some caffeine and food. Then we met up with the rest of the family to go to the Shark Reef. We were staying at the Mandalay Bay and that was one of the things that they featured. We wandered around the aquarium, taking photos of the various species of animals and touching the rays and horseshoe crabs. We stopped in the gift shop and took a peep at our souvenir photo. Not worth the 20 bucks so we moved on to the next task at hand. We decided to split up because D and I did not really want to go shopping and the rest of the family did. So at Caesar's palace is where we parted ways. D and I went around the Paris and the Venetian taking in all the architecture and culture there was to be had. D also wanted to get one of those giant margarita's that they sell in the casino's so we did that as well. We played tourist, because we never really have done that in the 50+ times that we have gone. Yes, we have done things, like the Shark Reef, and the Gondolas, and the zoo at the Mirage; but we never were the "Japanese" tourists before and wanted to capture some of the local scene. Break dancers, costumed characters, and too many Elvis' to count.

Lionfish at the Shark Reef

View of the Strip from our hotel

View of the Strip from our hotel

View of the Airport from our hotel

The Paris

D and his Margarita

Ceiling in the Paris

Break dancers

Details at the Venetian

Details at the Venetian

Ceiling Mural

We met up with the family after exploring for a couple of hours. I wasn't feeling well, probably too much heat, walking and booze. We went to the Bellagio for a buffet, and I tried my best to get the monies worth. D and I decided that after dinner we should make our way slowly back to the hotel and rest a little before we headed up to the Foundation Room. We stopped at the fountain and discovered many new settings on are fancy camera, so we clicked away. Once back to the hotel, we got cleaned up and headed up to The Foundation Room. It was a pretty cool spot at the top of the hotel, overlooking the strip. We both ordered a drink and wandered around and danced a little. We both noticed that the age group of the crowd was older than us. We had moved around a lot, but ended up by the balcony, where there was a lot of cigar smoking going on. I started to wheeze and was feeling bad again. Asthma combined with alcohol and cigarettes don't mix. We bailed and tried to head to the other club at The Hotel. Once in the lobby I had a full attack and we just called it a night. Funny thing, in the elevator on the way back down to the lobby from the club there was a gentleman with a FULL head of grey hair. We had seen him in the club and decided that perhaps this wasn't our scene.

Bellagio Fountain

New York New York

 

Tuesday D and I just wanted to chill at the lazy river. His dad thought the same thing. We got up, put on our suits and made our way to the pool. Bought some $25 rafts and just relaxed for hours. Despite the number of people there, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Around 4 we headed back to the room to get cleaned up for dinner. A high end steak dinner at Strip Steak. Great atmosphere and food, plus I had my very first real beer. I'm hooked.

Wednesday was check-out. We had packed the night before and really wanted to get home to our pup. We missed her furry face! Upon arriving in Tehachapi she looked so excited to see us home. Being it was a busy trip and a long drive, we decided to take a nap before we headed home. Once refreshed we thanked my parents for taking care of our pup, and not getting a lot of sleep. On our way down the hill we realized that we had the opportunity to take photos of the windmills that we see, always at night. We pulled over and got some shots and took some while driving as well. Due to high winds the Mojave desert was having a wind storm also so we got some shots of that as well. 

It was a fun trip and we got to do some new things too! Vegas is always full of experiences!