Viva Las Vegas

Had a wonderful time on our quick getaway weekend to Las Vegas in March.  Luckily it worked around all of my medical appointments so I felt pretty good, other than getting tired more easily.  Took a lot of cabs and since traffic moves so slowly every ride seemed like it was $20!

Loved our brunch with the girls at Mandalay Bay on Saturday Morning.. and Saturday afternoon....  We were there chatting and eating (lots of crab legs) for over 4 hours!  Wonder if they would have ever kicked us out... Met up with two friends, Tricia Taylor and Melissa Leuck who had moved to Las Vegas fairly recently.  With one we were expecting to see a  baby bump, and the other was a complete surprise!  Also met up with Dana, a friend of Kim's from when she lived in Alaska, and everyone got along so well.  So relaxed and laid back compared to the rest of the trip.  I loved it!

Kim and I had tickets to see Cirque du Soleil's "Love' at the hotel where we were staying on Saturday night.  It was an amazing show!  So much spectacle and cool stuff to watch.  I'm so glad that we chose that show.

We certainly ate a lot on the trip... some of the places I have pictures of in the videoblog and some I don't.  We arrived late afternoon on Friday, checked in at the hotel and left our luggage with the bellboys which turned out to be a great decision, especially when we checked out on Friday.  Loved that we didn't have to cart our luggage thru the hotel lobby, garden area, and casino to get to our room.  I really liked the atmosphere at the Mirage, smaller than many of the resorts and so tropical and green. An oasis from the rest of the Strip   After checking in, we went to the shops on the Miracle Mile because I had read about a place in the mall that sold Lobster Rolls, one of my favorite dishes from back east.  Found it easily and loved it!

Wandered around on the strip that afternoon and later that night and we had to get frozen hot chocolate from Serendipity.  Something I have always wanted to do ever since the movie came out (and yes, I do know that was the store in New York but this was close).  OMGosh!  So good!

We had a dining credit for one of 5 restaurants at the Mirage.  I chose the Italian one (don't remember the name) because they had a special with home made pasta with browned butter and mushrooms.  Very pricey, and very disappointing because the pasta wasn't cooked.  The waiter offered to bring me something else, but Kim's lasagna was so big that we just split that and were both full.  Gave him quite a big tip since I was trying to use up the dining credit.  Found out the next day that the tip wasn't included in the credit...  so my generosity ended up costing me.

On Sunday, we walked to Max Brenner's (chocolate by the bald guy) in the Forum Shoppes.  Had half a bagel and then chocolate fondue.  Can't say enough good things about the chocolate fondue.   Not exactly a breakfast food, but then what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.  At least until you make a video or blog entry about it.  We had a little time to kill and so we went to The Secret Garden at the hotel to see the dolphins and white tigers.  Perfect place to spend an hour or so.

When we were ready to leave, there was a LONG line waiting for taxis which had me a little nervous.  However, when the bellman got our checked luggage he put us on the next taxi saying that was a part of the service.  Score!!

All in all, we had a great time and fun weekend.  So many more things that we didn't have time to do but there is always next time.