I.Must.Write.This: Vegas, Baby

Ever since forever, okay since sometime after our Guatemala trip two years ago, I've been hankering for a getaway for just me & Mark. The Charlie accident definitely accelerated my urge to GET AWAY, while simultaneously making it more difficult, for a while. So as soon as I could get Mark to agree to take time off, I planned a little jaunt down to the sunshine and bright lights of Las Vegas.

As we were waiting to board our plane in Boise, we discovered good old friend Craig was traveling on the same flight! We hadn't seen him in a while and it was great to catch up. Perhaps he was a good luck charm as the ultra-budget rental car we had reserved online turned out to be a Mustang convertible by the time we got through the long line in the Vegas rental car terminal. None of us had plans immediately after landing, so we went to dinner together, too.

We stayed at the Vdara hotel in the center of the strip, but set back just a bit, behind Aria & the Cosmopolitan. It is a LEED certified (green) hotel, and no casino (ie no smoke! and no impossible maze to reach the elevators to your room). We were upgraded to a suite on the 53rd floor. They had cool blue glass elevators, too.

That night we picked up half price tickets to Penn & Teller and then, by rushing to their theater at the very last second, were upgraded to seats down front! Great show, they are SO GOOD at the slight of hand (and beyond) and we dig their Libertarian vibe as well. Afterwards we hung out to meet them both. Fun to hear Teller speak!

We walked around the strip just a bit afterwards, mostly Paris. Ate pizza and gellato, after discovering that all the creperies were closed. Some may dislike the neon and fakery that is Vegas, but I think it definitely has a charm. I am truly a city girl at heart.

We slept in the next morning (instead of going to yoga... this happened every morning), and then headed across the street to the #1 breakfast buffet at Planet Hollywood. It was indeed yummy, and we did indeed overeat causing us to skip lunch. (Oh yeah, we also randomly received a 30% discount on breakfast!) Afterwards we did a little shopping - I got a new dress to make up for accidentally not packing the one I intended to bring, and Mark got a new pair of shorts. Then we wandered down the strip to the MGM to pick up our free-with-hotel-reservation-on-Expedia tickets to KA by Cirque du Soleil. A great Champion's League match was on the huge screens in the sports betting area, so we watched the second half. So fun to be in a big crowd cheering for Ronaldo!

There was plenty of time until our dinner plans, so I went to the pool followed by a manicure, and Mark read/took a nap. Then there was suddenly very little time til our dinner plans, as they were bumped up, so we hurried to meet my old Seattle friend Bill and his wife Shalom at Lotus of Siam. We had heard that it was amazing Thai food but hadn't been warned that it was located in an unimpressive strip mall. Helps keep the secret (though I guess celebs go there so it's a pretty open secret). We were lucky Shalom could work her industry magic to get a reservation on short notice.

Seriously had such a great time catching up with these two! And the food was as excellent as hyped. It was hard to break away from chatting to get to our show. I obeyed the rules and didn't take any photos, but found these on the web, and one that is taken from almost exactly our seats. KA is different than a lot of Cirque productions in that the star of the show is the stage itself - crazy engineering, and acrobatics to go with it.

Wednesday we had breakfast in Aria, which was lovely and delicious, followed by exploring the Bellagio (bummer, their gardens were under construction, but check out the chocolate fountain!) and then stayed out of the wind  by admiring art gallery row at Crystals, waiting for the day to warm up.

When we decided the day was warm enough, we packed up and headed out to Red Rock Canyon for some communing with nature.

We kept hiking until it was time to change and meet another old Seattle friend, my bestie Michele & her hub Eric, for tapas in a nearby neighborhood. Michele is pregnant, going to have a boy in June! In the past ten years one of us has been pregnant every time we've seen each other. This was the first time it was her turn! So happy for her and glad we had this chance to see each other again, I'd been looking forward to it for a long time.

Our last day in Vegas I had planned to spend mostly in a spa. I literally spent hours researching the best ones, their menus and prices, and meticulously scheduling us. And then, just the night before, I felt like it was too big a splurge. I still wanted to pamper Mark but we didn't need to spend the kind of money I had booked us into (and I have a great massage therapist at home), so I cancelled. Instead, in the morning we ate at the Aria buffet, went shopping for new shirts for Mark, and then went to the Mirage to see the dolphins and rare cats.

Then we crossed over to the Venetian for Mark's (made that morning) appointment at The Art of Shaving. Got him the full royal treatment (haircut and straight razor shave with facial). It's not really Mark's thing, at all, but that's kinda why I wanted him to experience it.

I think he liked it. Afterwards we ate at a top rated restaurant in the Venetian. I can't remember what appetizer I ordered now, just that it was super delicious as was my lunch salad, and that our server told us they were run by the same head chef who plans the menu for the Cheesecake Factory franchise. Sadly, it was time to return the rental car and fly home. Grateful for our relaxing, fun time together. Grateful for the sunshine. Grateful our children were well cared for by Mark's parents so we never worried for a minute about them. So grateful.