Vegas, baby!

As I was deleting looking through the 1,500+ photos on my phone last night wondering why my phone won't back up anymore, I realized I never posted about our Vegas trip! Since it's been nearly three months, I figure it's time to recap!

We left on a Friday morning. Since the flight left around 8 a.m. and we both worked the previous day, we decided to just get up really early and hit the road a little after 4 a.m. (we are about 2 hours from the Memphis airport.)

Now, I just have to say that this was only my second time to fly out of Memphis, and I will take it over St. Louis (we are smack dab in the middle of the two citites) any day. It was smaller and so easy to navigate. Following a very uneventful trip, we got checked in and the waiting began.

Here is where I should add that, about five minutes prior to boarding, I realized that I had left my sunglasses in the vehicle, so we made a MAD DASH to the Sunglass Hut we spied on the way to our gate, where I bought the least expensive pair of sunglasses I could find that didn't make me look like a bug :)

We had a wonderful flight and made it in a half hour sooner than expected :)



Some of our friends advised us to book a shuttle to the hotel, and we were so glad, because we were out in a jiffy! After waking up around 2:30 our time, we arrived in Vegas at 10:30 local time (two hours later). To say we were beat is a bit of an understatement.



Once we checked in (We stayed at the Mirage) we realized we were starving and went to a burger joint downstairs. Bad decision for the wallet - two burgers and fries, a couple beers and couple shots cost us 80 bucks! But we were so hungry we didn't care too much.

After resting/relaxing in the room a couple hours, we decided to explore. All the people who told us how the distance to places can be deciving on the strip were right. We probably only made it about a half mile down the road and stopped in at the Flamingo to do some gambling and take advantage of the complimentary drinks :)

View from our room!

For dinner, we decided to go next door to Margaritaville. I'd heard great things about this place, but wasn't impressed. Jimmy did like the "mermaid" however, and our margaritas were very yummy.



On Saturday, we needed to walk down the strip to get our show tickets for that night from the Excalibur. It was about a 2 mile distance, so we made several stops, browsing along the way :)

We just had a quick lunch int he food court upstairs then came back down the strip.

Our show that night was the "Tournament of Kings," a jousting dinner show. We loved it! We were running late, as per usual (hubby was looking for some new shoes so we spent HOURS looking for some at the malls) and took a taxi, but decided to walk back. We walked though some of the other hotels (New York, New York) hit up a cute little outdoor bar on the way back.




We did more shopping on Sunday (still no shoes, we ended up ordering them for hubby's LARGE foot) and then got ready for dinner/Peepshow. Peepshow wasn't what I thought it would be, but still entertaining. I wore some 4 inch heels to the show and it was about a mile walk, so we stopped about midway through for some drinks/gambling (I was addicted to the "Wheel of Fortune" game and then went back to the hotel to change shoes, but ended up not leaving :)

On Monday, we had a car rental reservation to go to Hoover Dam! However, we had done so little relaxing and hadn't gone out to the pool yet (which we were paying a lovely $25 a day to use as a "resort fee," along with the internet) so we headed down for a bit. What was supposed to be an hour turned into 2, so after we got cleaned up and some lunch, we headed out.

Hoover was amazing! I'm so glad so many people suggested we go.

On our way back, we decided to get a little "adventurous" and go to the old strip on Freemont. I really wanted my picture with Vegas Vic :) After leaving, we headed out to the famous sign for a few pictures.

At this point, we still hadn't eaten at Serendipity, whieh was one of the few places I wanted to visit, so we got cleaned up and headed over there. Hubby protested, but the burger was amongst the best he said he's ever had!

Sharing a Frozen Hot Chocolate - YUM!

After that, we finally caught a full fountain show at the Bellagio, and the show at Treasure Island (it was the last one of the day!) By then, it was around midnight, so we headed back to our room to pack

Our final morning, hubby did some gambling (he'd had a $100 bill in his pocket the ENTIRE time.) He got up about $40 pretty quickly and I urged him to call it quits ... but he pressed his luck and ended up losing it ALL in about 10 minutes. OUCH. We then rushed to gather our things, check out, catch our shuttle and head to the airport.

I think we landed around 6:30 ... got on the road just after 7. Mom and Dad, who graciously kept Cooper while we were gone, offered to keep him another night, but we missed him so, that we rushed to their house (about another 30 miles from our home), went home, and crashed.

It was a wonderful, wonderful trip! Although we didn't get to do everything we wanted to do, I don't think I could have stayed another day ... so we are already anxious to return!

What are your must-visit places in Vegas? Any suggestions for what we should put on our list for the next visit?


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