The Vegas Recap
I just realize that I never gave a recap of the trip to Las Vegas that Kelly and I took over February 13-16. Back in January, Kelly and I were getting the winter blues and decided we need to go some place warm for a few days, and with the economy in the state that it is we figured we could probably find some killer deals. Sure enough, after some searching we found a great deal for a 3 night stay with non-stop flights from Chicago. The hotel was The Signature at MGM Grand. If you are not familiar, The Signature are the 3 towers behind the main MGM Grand Casino Hotel. These towers house only suites and are completely non-smoking and are separate from the casino. They are normally twice what we paid plus we got the 3rd night free! (You could really tell, Vegas was hurting for some business).After a few flight delays we got to Vegas around 8:30 PM on Friday. We took a cab over to our hotel and decided to go find some dinner. We wandered over to the MGM Grand and grabbed a bite to eat at their main diner that stays open 24x7 and wandered around a bit. We decided to have a couple of drinks back at our hotel and call it an early night (3 AM) that first night so were were rested for the next couple of days.
On Saturday, we wandered over the MGM Grand again and picked up our tickets for the Cirque du Soliel show KA that were going to later that night and decided we better set a dinner reservation for that night since it was Valentines Day. We got a 10:45 PM reservation at MGM's 4 star Italian restaurant Fiamma which worked out great since we coul
d eat right after our show! The rest of that day we took the monorail down to check out the Paris, Bally's, Harrah's and Venetian casinos since I had never been in any of them before. We saw the craziest thing ever outside a Sushi restaurant at Bally's. It was one of those "Claw Games" where you put money in and maneuver a mechanical claw to grab a stuffed animal. Except, in this case you try to grab a live Lobster from a tank! If you catch one they cook it up for you for free!While wandering around the various casinos we noticed that allot of the stores were running huge sales (another sign of the economy?) so we ducked in a few to see what we could find. I found a nice pair of cuff links at Kenneth Cole, which worked well because I needed some for the shirt I wanted to wear that night. Kelly found some clothes too. We also wandered into photographer's (can't remember his name) gallery. He specializes in landscape photography and had some beautiful pieces in his collection. While were there Kelly and I got singled out for quick private showing of a couple of pictures (apparently we looked like we had money), and when Kelly asked how much one of the pictures was we were told that it was $3200 for the smaller print, but that did include framing. We said we would think about it and continued along our merry way. ;) After lunch at the Paris and some gellato at the Venetian we decided to make our way back toward our hotel so we could start getting ready for our show. Along the way we stopped at a kiosk and bought a couple of bottle of beers, mainly because we could! It was weird being able to wander around outside, on the monorail and through the casinos with a beer and not have to worry about where we were at with it.
After we got back to the hotel we relaxed and got changed and then head back to the MGM Grand to catch KA! Since we were all gussied up, we got a couple of pictures taken by the photographers at the show which I plan to scan and add to our Vegas gallery. Once at the show, we each grabbed a bucket sized cocktail (I asked for a smaller one, but the bartender shamed me into getting the larger one) and headed in. Fortunately, I had purchased the tickets in advance before we left for Vegas and we were able to get great seats in the second row! The show was amazing. I don't want to give too much away but it was done in an Asian style and the choreography was outstanding. If you ever get to Vegas you can't go wrong with a Cirque du Soliel show, especially KA! The tickets are pricey but after you see the show you feel like you got your money's worth! After the show we did some shopping in the gift shop and decided to have a few cocktails before dinner. We headed over to a fancy looking lounge called "Rouge", or as I kept mistakenly calling it, Rogue. After that we had a romantic and yummy dinner and wine at Fiamma.On Sunday, we decided that we wanted to try out one of the famous breakfast buffets and based on a recommendation from our hotel's concierge we headed over to the Bellagio. I was super psyched because I was starving and couldn't wait to dig into that buffet! When we go there we saw a long line and my heart sunk, but Kelly gave me a pep talk and we got in line to wait it out. Turned out that they were cranking people through the line fairly quickly and we got in in no time! The food was awesome, if you are ever in Vegas and need a place for a big breakfast go here! It's $22 a person ($32 if you want Champagne) but worth it. The food was delicious and there was a ton to choose from.
After breakfast we decided to do some more exploring and wandered around the Bellagio and took some pictures at the Asian garden and wandered through the Art Museum. From there we made our way over to Ceasar's Palace where we grabbed a snack and did some more shopping in the Forum Shops (again more sales). After that we made our way down to the south end of the strip where we wandered through the Excalibur and Luxor and the stopped in the New York New York where we did some
shopping at the Harley Store and grabbed a New York Style pretzel.Later that night we went back to MGM Grand to finally do some gambling. This did not last long. Kelly and I quickly blew through money at the blackjack tables and slot machines. I tried my luck one last time at the roulette table and lost the rest of my gambling money betting on red! From here we decided to spend our money on drinks at another lounge called Centrifuge. It is a round lounge in the middle of the casino where every 10-15 minutes the bartenders and waitresses get up on the bar and dance. Kelly noticed at one point that every other song seemed to be a Madonna song, which didn't seem to make sense but we were in Vegas and went with it.
Monday morning we made our way back to the airport and got back into Chicago in time for Kelly to go to her class that night. I had been to Vegas one other time but this time seemed to be a lot more fun. I chalk it up to being there with some one I have fun with this last time. :) Can't wait to get back some day! If you want to see all the pics we took while we were there you can go to our smugmug gallery by clicking here.
Labels: entertainment, Fun, vacation
posted by Heath @ 11:33 AM
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