Ginny and I wanted to do something special together for our BIG 40th birthdays...which are conveniently only a couple weeks apart. We wanted to go somewhere warm, not too far, and not too expensive...somehow, we ended up with tickets to Vegas!!
The Flight
Both Ginny and I hate to fly (hence the need for a short flight, with no connections). Ginny drove down to park at our place, and on the way down a rock flew up and hit her windshield causing a huge crack. Then on the drive to the airport it was raining so hard, I though the road was going to flood...oh and we saw lightning, over and over again. Just what two scaredy cats need, right? Well, after the handle fell off my suitcase, we boarded the plane and the flight was pretty good (only a few moments of turbulence where Ginny had to distract herself with a magazine and I had to stare straight ahead not moving or talking--we discovered, we have different coping mechanism).
Somehow, this is the only picture from the airport. My suitcase...with the missing handle. We laughed so hard when if fell off!!! You can kind of see the dark sky outside, but it was nowhere near as bad as it was on the way to the airport.
The Hotel
While we were booking our flight and hotel, Mike and Ashton were trying to help us plan. I really wanted to stay at The Paris, but Mike talked us into staying somewhere cheaper (still not sure it was the right choice!). We decided on The Luxor, and when we walked in, we wondered if it was a mistake....everyone was smoking! But then we quickly realized that everyone was smoking in EVERY hotel. Gross. But, in all reality our hotel was probably our least favorite. But we did save money.
The first night, we were both woken up by our neighbors (who we shared a wall with). They were yelling and talking so loud all night. When we called to see if we could change rooms, they said we'd have to have security knock on their door, so we chickened out. The next night they were super loud again and they were blaring their music (annoying weird music) at something like 7am!! We called and switched rooms...but not before listening to a huge brawl in which the man called the woman some awful names and was super nasty. Our new room was glorious--best decision ever!
Something about the Egyptian theme just made me laugh...it was so not us!
Day One...The Day of the Blisters
Not sure what we were thinking walking 5 hrs straight in just flip flops, but it was a bad choice...a very bad choice. Needless to say, I quickly became a blister expert, and I can definitely tell you how to bandage a sweaty foot so that the band aids won't come off. But the best advice is to just wear the sneakers, no matter how unfashionable they may be!
Anyways, day one was when we visited most of the hotels:
My favorite hotel by far was The Paris. It made me want to go to France for real!! I loved the little shops and bakeries, the Eiffel Tower, the Tour de Triumph...beautiful. We also went to Ceasar's Palace, and ate $12 omelets at Bellagio.
We walked all the way to The Venetian to see the gondolas and the street performers, which were pretty cool.
We were surprised to find Honolulu Cookie, which Ginny had fallen in love with when she was in Hawaii. They were SO GOOD--especially the white chocolate coconut!!
And after stopping at the drug store for band aids and sunscreen, we tried out Wahlburgers (You know, Donny Wahlburg...Marky Mark...of course you do;))!! Ok burgers, super yummy sweet potato tots and onion rings. And we had to take a pictures with the family...I know, we are nerds.
We ended the first night limping over to the Brittany Spears concert. Amazing dancing, awesome music (besides the fact that it was obviously lip syncing), and a little trashy...I guess we were kind of expecting that. And, who knew she had new music...
Day Two...New York, New York & MGM Grand
We took it much easier on the second day. We headed ate breakfast and lunch at the shake shack...really we didn't get going til almost lunch so we had a shake and chicken burger and called it brunch:) The Brooklyn Bridge replica was cool and the Statue of Liberty was very cool. At MGM, I loved all things Big Bang Theory...I even bought Kya a shirt with the words to Soft Kitty.
After some much needed pool time, we headed out to dinner and the show for Saturday night. We ate at a Mexican place at Mandalay Bay which was amazing! It's so nice to travel with someone who you can share food with!! We then went to Michael Jackson Cirque de Soleil, which was so great. Definitely the best show we saw. Such great music and dancing and stunts. Amazing.
Notice the running shoes? Yeah, after my first day of blisters I wore bandaids, socks and running shoes EVERYWHERE....well, except the pool:)
Day Three--Everything that's left!
Since day three was technically our last full day, we needed to make sure we saw and did everything we really wanted to before we left. We woke up to a drizzly, rainy day, so we were glad that we had a couple of hot days to start out the trip and that we had already spent some time by the pool!
We started off the day with a trip to the Las Vegas Sign and then headed to the LDS Temple...which was a lot further away than I thought. We lucked out and the gate was open (even though it was Sunday) and we could walk around the grounds.
This sign was actually kind of hard to find...thank goodness for the internet! And it was kind of handy that there was a man there who would take your picture...although he did tell us to do some strange poses--haha.
The temple was beautiful.
We then went pack to Paris to buy the desserts we had been dreaming about since day one. They had so many cute little bakeries and so many delicious treats, it was impossible to pick just one. So we picked three and split them. They were each so yummy!!
And we ended the day with an Elvis show--when in Vegas, right?! It was actually an amazing show. The venue was tiny, so everyone was super close, and the Elvis impersonator was a great singer and funny too. We met a few ladies in line who had seen the real Elvis when he was still alive and they even loved the show. It was a great night of singing and laughing...a great way to end the trip.
Oh wait, the trip didn't end there! Since the Elvis show was pretty early (probably because most of the guests were seniors--haha). we decided to drive out to Fremont Street (the old Vegas). We had heard that it was a must see, from multiple sources...but I'm not sure I would ever recommend it...to anyone. I think we are scared for life after some of the things we saw in there...like half naked grammas begging for money, or the Heart attack grill where you can eat for free if you weigh more than 350lbs...not a great atmosphere. Not to mention we were completely freaked out just walking to our car!!! Anyways, we went, walked down the street and walked right back up--yikes.
The next morning we woke up super early, and flew home. I am so glad Ginny and I did a birthday trip together...maybe we should do it every 5 years, and not wait another 40!!
