Monday, August 2, 2010

Vegas Baby!

Our Vegas Experience, in a nutshell:

Monday - Arrive at Charlotte-Douglass Airport at 2pm. Flight is delayed 2 hours due to thunderstorms in Atlanta (our connector flight). We're both thinking, "No worries, if planes can't go in, planes can't go out." This makes sense right? We leave close to 5 and arrive in Atlanta at 5:35; our next flight is scheduled for departure at 5:30, again we don't have to worry because of thunderstorms, right? Wrong. We are running through the airport and as we arrive at our gate I watch as our plane pulls out and sets off for Las Vegas. "You mean you couldn't hold the plane for the passengers who were held up in Charlotte?" the NYFD guy asks. "Half of our flight was connecting here for Las Vegas, this is so f'ed up." Needless to say he was angry for all of us! Our next scheduled departure, 9:45pm. My thoughts, "Hey look on the bright side, we can walk 10 feet to the bar and enjoy ourselves for the next four hours, that should make for an interesting flight!" Plane leaves on time.

Monday Night - Flying into or out of Las Vegas at night is something everyone should witness, it is beautiful! We catch a cab and arrive at the Stratosphere around 11:30pm (which is 2:30am EST, and I know this because my husband reminds me of the EST whenever I ask for the current LV time). Needless to say, because it is so late EST he thinks it's bedtime and crawls onto the king sized mattress - "No no," I say, "you don't come to Vegas to sleep, you can do that at home. Get up, we are going to the casino." Five hours later we stumble back into our hotel room.

Tuesday - After four hours of sleep, we get up, get dressed, and head out onto the strip for lunch and sightseeing. We hit he obvious hotel/casino/resorts - Palazzo, Venetian, Bellagio, Caesar's Palace, and Casino Royale - this takes about 3 1/2 hours and we head back to Stratosphere to see the view from 1,100 feet up, hang out by the pool, and then get ready for dinner. Dinner is at Trevi at Caesar's Palace and I must say, I do not recommend it. The price is outrageous and the portions are tiny, in addition to the marinara sauce tasting like it came straight out of a Ragu bottle, yuk! We gamble a little in Caesar's and Bellagio but head back to Stratosphere where the minimums are much lower.

Wednesday - We head back to the strip, this time the southern part and walk to the famous "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign which was several miles further than we thought. "Should've gotten that water at McDonald's before we headed this way," but it was totally worth the heat exhaustion to get our picture with the sign. After we get back to the strip, we hit up Planet Hollywood - Barrett's idea - so we could search for Holly Madison in hopes of getting a photo-op with her (she's one of my favs!!!) No luck, oh well. We head up the strip a little further and stop in Bill's Gambling Hall and I win big at the Roulette table! Woohoo! We cash that and head back to the hotel to hang out by the pool for a little bit.

Wednesday Night - We go to the top of the Stratosphere again for some night views and pictures, before heading over to Freemont Street. Freemont Street is the second most famous street in Las Vegas, it is also known as the Freemont Experience, and the street itself is actually "Freemont Experience Street". This is what comes to mind when I think of Vegas-all the lights, the casinos, the live music, and the delicious food all in SHORT walking distance! Red Sushi is our restaurant choice and it is delicious with amazing service, I highly recommend going here! We experienced much of everything on Freemont and at the end of the night, Barrett gave his favorite belt to a Marine Veteran because his pants were falling down :)

Thursday - Recovery day from Freemont. We basically spend the day in the casino (hellooooo, air conditioning) and a little bit of time on the roof-top pool. Our day is cut a little short, because our show, KA by Cirque du Soleil, starts at 7. If ever in Vegas, one MUST see a Cirque du Soleil show; it was incredible! The colossal, 360-degree rotating stage just adds to the outstanding stunts put on by the acrobats. After the show, we head back to our hotel and change and pack so we can go to the casino one last time before leaving for NC.

Overall, it was a wonderful trip! I can honestly say we will be going back to see more of the strip, shows, restaurants, and casinos!

Next blog: What I learned in Vegas!

Love!

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