A Vegas Vacation...

My very good and spontaneous friend/former college roommate/travel companion, Laura, and I decided a few weeks ago (well I decided and she lovingly agreed to go with me) to go to Vegas for a much needed break. Vegas met my "middle of the winter" vacation criteria, 1.) needs to be warmer than it is here and 2.) needs to be somewhere I have never been before. And as a plus, Laura had already been to Vegas so she knew the ins and outs of it all. We found a good deal on Vegas.com and away we went!

My favorites from the trip!
*The View. We flew into Las Vegas around 9:00pm. The view coming in is stunning. The city was lit up! As the plane was aligning for our landing, I could see that the airport is a stone's throw from the Las Vegas Strip. We could see all the grand hotels from our plane as we were coasting onto the runway. It was quite a beautiful sight. These hotels are like nothing you have ever seen before. Some are vast and elegant and others sport a theme with distinguishing features like the eiffle tower, NYC skyline, a pyramid, and a castle just to name a few. They are larger than life and quite impressive.

*Cirque du Soleil's production of KA. This show was really incredible! The stage is on hydraulics so it is a floating stage. Sometimes it was flat, you know like you imagine a stage to be, but sometimes it was vertical...while they were still performing...doing crazy acrobatics...on a vertical stage...incredible. As we stood in line at the half price ticket outlet waiting to purchase our tickets, we found out the performance was based on martial arts. We almost let this deter us from going since neither of us know much about such things. I'm glad that we went for it. Cirque du Soleil does not disappoint.

*The Fountains at The Bellagio. Set to "Luck Be A Lady", the choreographed fountains in front of the Bellagio are a must see. If Vegas has a romantic side, this is it. It was spectacular.

*Khotan and Spago. I love nice restaurants with really nice and attentive waiters and really great food...who bring me my lemon for my water. Khotan is an Asian cuisine restaurant located in the hotel we stayed at, TI. We found ourselves saying, "This is SO good" after nearly every bite. Spago is a Wolfgang Puck restaurant in the Forum Shops/Caesars Palace and the food was good, but the dining experience was great. Laura had a delightful little drink that looked like they emptied the garbage disposal into a glass and I went with the old standby, a Midori Sour. Getting dressed up for dinner is also half the fun...you have got to take your pretty heels out every once and awhile.

*Jackpot Party and SATC. These are my favorite slots to play...the only ones I have really played, since this was only my second time to a casino. We each played $30 throughout the course of our stay. I won $12 back and Laura hit it big with $60. :) I can see how it could be addicting. It's so fun to push the buttons, hoping that you will get a jackpot party. I mostly liked the free drinks they bring you while you push the buttons while you are waiting for a jackpot party. Jackpot party is super fun to say but often hard to find in a very large casino.

*Shopping! The Forum shops have a 3 STORY H&M...enough said.

Now for the lowlights. Take my advice only if you want to, but you are going to want to stay away from the following...
*The TI pirate show...uh, shoot me now.
*Buffets, well at least the buffet in TI...disappointing to say the least.
*The Price Is Right Live...it's not what you think it is going to be, trust us.
*The "smackers", which is what we called them. They stand on the corners trying to get you to take their cards. I'm guessing they can't say anything to you legally, so they smack the cards together to get your attention.
*Vegas on Nascar Weekend...whoops, my bad.

Special thanks to my mom and Ryan for pulling extra duty with my little H-man so that I could get out of town. I missed him a lot. I got him out of bed upon walking in the door so that I could squeeze him tight and kiss his sweet cheeks. He was pretty much asleep which made him almost cuddle for just a little bit.