Apr 23
Originally Chris & I were looking at taking our Honeymoon in April…a few weeks after the wedding. We were looking at adventure type trips in the Caribbean or South America. Well, when I hurt my foot in early February we started thinking maybe that wasn’t the best idea…and I’m so glad we did! Rather than push it, spend a lot of money and not know if I’d be able to keep up we decided to take a Minimoon (my word, not his!) in April and hold off on our Honeymoon until later this year.
Chris was the mastermind behind this trip. In fact, I didn’t even know where we were going until shortly after the ceremony! It was great…I knew we were taking a trip and that we left April 9th but I didn’t have to do any of the planning!!! Obviously by the title you know that we were flying to Las Vegas! I had only been one other time for a very short stay and I figured this time with Chris would be completely different anyway. Here’s a summary of what we did along with some photos. We really didn’t take as many pictures as I thought we would, but oh well!
Thursday, April 9
We checked into our room at The Venetian Thursday evening. Our room was GORGEOUS! Chris definitely went all out to make sure we had a special time. The room was huge, there were two levels to it and at least 3 TVs! Also, I think the bed was seriously the most comfortable bed I’ve ever slept on. If we could afford it, I would find out what kind it was & buy one…it was that good. I guess you can’t see any of the TVs in these photos, but I swear there was one across from our bed, one in the ‘living room’ and one in the bathroom!
After getting settled in we immediately headed out for a walk down ‘the strip.’ It was fun because the weather was beautiful (70’s at 10pm) and there were a lot of people out!
We mostly stayed outside but we did walk inside O’Sheas to check out the beer pong and Casino Royale for the $1 Michelob Lights! We continued walking and made it all the way down to Bally’s and Paris where we decided to cross the street. It seemed like we walked a LONG time, but this map doesn’t look so daunting. Anyway, we crossed over to Bellagio and went inside to check out the flower gardens. They were kinda weird to me, as there wasn’t really a theme that went through the whole thing, but I’m glad we went.
Friday, April 10
Friday morning we decided to go to Downtown Vegas and the famous Freemont Street. Chris had never been to downtown vegas before and a coworker had told him about a Brewery that we decided to check out. Once we had correct change for the day pass we needed we boarded the Deuce bus. It took a little while to get downtown but the bus was comfortable so it wasn’t a problem. Once downtown we walked up the strip and came across “Neonopolis” which is a collection of old refurbished neon signs. I originally wanted to see the Boneyard of signs waiting to be refurbished but apparently they don’t feel it’s necessary to return last minute phone calls attempting to schedule a tour. Oh well. Maybe next time.
Our walk eventually led us to the end of Freemont Street and the Plaza hotel. We went inside there to ask about any known Breweries in the area (because, of course Chris hasn’t acquired any details about this place we had to check out). Luckily, a guy working at the hotel was able to direct us to Main Street Station and their fabulous 777 Restaurant & Brewery! We enjoyed a relaxing, delicious lunch while sampling some of their microbrews and playing cards. The food and beer was good & we liked the casino so much that if we go back to Vegas we will definitely consider staying at that hotel downtown rather than on the strip!
We did some gambling downtown before heading back to the strip for a nap & some dinner. Our quick nap turned into 3 hours…so dinner wasn’t until 10pm! What better meal to have at 10pm than a burger & fries, right? We walked as far as we could towards where Chris thought the In-n-Out Burger was and eventually took a cab the rest of the way. I know he was excited to eat there but I have to admit I wasn’t super duper impressed. It was good - but not worth the extra effort getting there.
We called a cab to come back & pick us up when we were done and went straight downtown. First things first, we had an after dinner drink at 777 (!) and then we walked around the strip a bit. We were killing time waiting for the overhead light show, which I have to say was completely disappointing. Just as the light show was finishing up it started to rain which made our decision to head back to the strip pretty easy. We waited a while for the bus but since we had our day pass we figured it wasn’t worth paying for another cab. I think we finally went to bed at 3am…or was it 5? Either way - way too late!
Saturday April 11
Saturday morning we decided we should go pick up our Ka tickets rather than trying to get down to MGM over an hour early for the show. We took the monorail because my foot had been bothering me & a day pass was reasonable (and we would be using it again that evening). Thus began an morning of torture. When we finally made it to MGM, the Ka ticket counter was closed and we were directed to the Concierge desk…where everyone who wanted tickets or needed help was standing. Not standing in line…standing in various lines that didn’t match up with the people working the concierge desk. So, we picked a line, stood there for a while and when the person at the counter walked away someone in ANOTHER line cut over and went to that person. Um, what? The person working mumbled something about lines merging…who knows. Anyway, Chris goes & gets in another line and I stay where we were and FINALLY it’s my turn. While the lady was retrieving our tickets (which had been purchased WAY in advance…not sure why they couldn’t be printed off at home) I asked her if they ever thought of having one line specifically for those people who are only picking up tickets and she tried to tell me that a line like that would get too long. Um, 20 seconds to get my tickets…I don’t care if 20 people are in line, it would go fast. I don’t know what they should do but it was a madhouse, even just a single file queue line would have been better. So, when she finally got our tickets she basically said “you’re in the front row, it’s too close, your seats are bad” which was infuriating. She didn’t offer to give us other seats, nothing…just pure bitch. Of course Chris was upset because he had been excited about having first row and was frustrated that the most expensive tickets in the theater were “bad.” Add to that the fact that I had been hungry for at LEAST 2 hours by now & we weren’t in great shape. We took another tram over to the Luxor and finally got some lunch at T&T. The food was pretty good & they had Dos Equis which is always yummy. As we made our way back to the monorail we passed the Ka ticket counter again and this time it was open so we decided to stop in and see what was up. We talked to the guy there and he said that because we were off to the side we might not have a perfect view of everything, but that the seats were, indeed, good. THANK GOODNESS.
The weather was finally improving by the time we got back to our hotel so we hit up the pool for a little while before getting ready for DATE NIGHT! It was fun to goof around in the pool a bit, although the wind was a bit chilly. There is a dance club just off the water and even at 2pm there was music pumping out of the speakers! After getting all dressed up for date night we decided to walk to Paris for dinner. It wasn’t too bad of a walk, except for the fact that my shoe heel got stuck in a crack in the ground and I totally walked out of it!
We had dinner at Mon Ami Gabi in the Paris hotel. They have outdoor seating which we put our name on the waiting list for even though Chris had made reservations for indoor seating. I’m so happy we did because it was perfect. We got a table outside, the weather was beautiful, the food was fantastic, we shared a bottle of wine and enjoyed the water show at Bellagio across the street! We finished up dinner with some time to spare so we decided to take a ride to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Yay! Bonus. I had a coupon for BOGO so it was very reasonably priced which is good because it was freezing up that high & we didn’t stay long.
We hopped on the monorail to get down to MGM Grand without me killing myself and it worked out great. We were there maybe 45 minutes before showtime and the line was wrapping through the casino! Once we were seated I knew the show would be great. There were flames coming out from below the stage and it was so hot we could feel it! Being that close is A.W.E.S.O.M.E! The show was super cool. I’ve never seen a Cirque show before but, let me tell you, my husband knows what I like! There was one small part where Chris couldn’t see what was going on but otherwise we ended up being VERY happy with the seats. Crabby lady at MGM can just shut her face. I think we got into comfy clothes after the show and hit the strip again for some people watching.
Sunday, April 12
We really didn’t gamble a lot during the trip. Friday while we were downtown we played Black Jack and occasionally I would lose some money in a slot machine but until Sunday morning that was it. We got up Sunday at a decent time and decided to try our hand at roulette before leaving Vegas. We ended up at Casino Royale playing $1/4 roulette. I don’t know if that’s how you write it out, but basically each chip was $1 and you had to play 4 each turn. I lost my first $20 pretty quick but Chris was doing well & I didn’t feel like just watching so I threw in another $20 and finally got hot! In the end we probably played for over an hour and I broke even! Chris lost his $20 but that’s it!
Our flight out of Vegas was around 1:30 so we headed out early to avoid trouble if there were long lines. There weren’t so we ended up grabbing lunch at a sit down place and playing some more cards. I slept most of the flight back which ended up being a bad idea because I couldn’t sleep that night…but I couldn’t keep my eyes open.
I had a really great time on our minimoon! The only thing that could have made it better would have been if the weather was a little warmer. You can check out all of our Vegas photos here.
PS Sorry about the long rant about MGM. It still makes me mad, two weeks later, and I will think long & hard before ever participating at any event at that hotel/casino.
Welcome to Vegas photo courtesy of imfwwdcc.
Woohooo! I’m running again! Now, before I get to excited I guess I should admit that I’m half running/half walking at this point but still…the fact that I have run/walked 3 times this week makes me SO HAPPY!
