Thursday, August 25, 2011

Viva Las Vegas!!!

Cole and I decided it was time for a little trip. We racked our brains and kept coming back to Las Vegas. We initially didn't think too much of it because neither of us are gamblers. Cole will do a little here and there, but overall we figured we could find somewhere better. Finally we said "why not?" there's an assortment of restaurants, shows, pools, etc... Let's do it! So now the search for a hotel. I had it narrowed down to a couple when my dad let me know that he and my mom had just found out they would be there the following weekend for a friend's birthday. He said if we waited to go when they did he could get our rooms comped(free). Umm, yeah! So we had it booked... Vegas, July 14th-18th(Thursday-Monday). It couldn't come soon enough.

Finally we were Vegas bound! We didn't get there until pretty late, I believe it was 10:00pm or so. Me, Cole and my dad headed to the Paris hotel where Cole and I would be staying that night until Caesars "opened up" the next night(Caesars is where we stayed the rest of the trip). We got checked in and took our things to the room and I did a quick little wardrobe change. You can't walk around the strip at night in jeans, a t-shirt and flip flops, right? Cole still thought I was crazy. He just doesn't get it. Our first goal was to head over to The Cosmopolitan to check it out and eat at Holstein's. Best burgers and milkshakes ever by the way. It was still me, Cole and my dad at this point. My mom and some of her friends met us there right when Cole and I were finishing up, so we said our "hellos" and "goodbyes" and off Cole and I went to explore the strip! We did ALOT of walking that night. I honestly didn't think we would walk THAT far down the strip just trying to find an adequate place for a drink. Cole's not a club guy, so the free entry bracelets we were randomly handed to get into Koi were of no use. There was some construction on the sidewalks/escalators so everything took extra long to get to. That and we were the only sober people. Fighting through a huge crowd of drunk tourists(when you're sober) is pretty much awful. Let me clarify, the reason it was awful is because I wore some new wedges that I did not realize would start digging into the back of my heel after only like half a mile of walking. So it's the first night and I haven't even been in Vegas for 3 hours and my feet are already bleeding. Awesome. If you haven't noticed, I tend to buy shoes that make me miserable. :-/ Anyways, we settled on Margaritaville. We had a couple of drinks there and headed back towards the Paris(my feet are REALLY hating me at this point). We stopped in at a place I had heard of, mainly because the Kardashians are always having birthday celebrations there. So yes, The Sugar Factory's paying Kim, Kourtney, and Khloe what I'm assuming is thousands of dollars an appearance worked on me. I had an awesome drink, it was an Almond Joy Martini that tasted just like it's name. We then headed into the casino and Cole played a little Craps. He won $157 pretty much right off the bat. We were pretty happy considering it had pretty much just paid for our first night. Then it was off to bed so we could rest up and be ready to explore the strip the next day.

A few pictures from the first night:







We woke up at a pretty decent time on Friday and loaded up and headed to Caesars Palace. We met my mom and dad there and got all checked in and put our luggage away and headed out for the day(just Cole and I). First I wanted to stop into Fat Tuesdays in the Forums shops in Caesars to get a Miami Vice w/ a shot of Malibu. Once I had my drink in hand and we had looked around the Forums shops for awhile we hit the strip! We pretty much just walked in and out of hotels that we had not been to before and people watched, etc... touristy stuff. We had planned on going to a french restaurant I had wanted to try called Bouchon for brunch. I wanted their french toast(it looks/sounds so good), but I decided I really wasn't in the mood for something sweet and we should just wing it. So when we got to The Palazzo/Venetian I remembered there was a Sushisamba. Cole agreed and off we went to find it. It was delicious! We sat at the sushi bar and each had a drink and a couple of rolls. Our waitress was super nice. She was almost a little nervous acting, but so sweet. I told Cole that I've read about celebrities eating here and he didn't believe me, so of course when the waitress came back I had to ask her. She said she had waited on Kourtney(who she said was super pretty in person, no surprise there) and Rob Kardashian, maybe Malika(Khloe's friend)and Scott once and Scott is completely as douchey in person as he is on the show. She said they spent about $400 and Scott didn't even tip 20% and acted arrogant(surprise, surprise). And she's heard from a friend that Kris(the mom) was SUPER cheap in one of the stores. I just love getting celebrity scoop from people. :) When we left, there was a random girl filling out an application to be a bartender at Sushisamba that asked if I could look up some drink recipes on my phone for her, haha. It only took about 5 minutes, but poor Cole had to go to the restroom so bad. Anyways, her name was Wren and she said if she gets the job she'll hook us up if we come visit her sometime(I had to add this part just in case bc I don't want to forget her name, ya never know!)
After that, we checked out The Wynn and from there headed back to CP, also making a stop into Rhumbar in The Mirage to have one of their famous mojitos. I highly recommend Rhumbar, we had a wonderful time out on the patio under the misters sitting on a couch with pillows.
We then stopped into Osheas casino so Cole could gamble a little and we noticed an oxygen bar. I had to talk Cole into it, but he was glad we did it. Although the girl who helped us was a little strange and may have left us sitting there too long. We sat there for like 45 minutes waiting on her to come give us our massage(it came with it). When we finally did get them, she pressed her stomach and boobs all up on your back and it was a little strange. I had to warn Cole because he gets a little freaked out about that kind of stuff. Once we left he said he totally felt violated, haha. Suuure... Anyways, it was definitely an experience and we were very relaxed. Once back, we rested for a minute to get our second wind and started getting ready. Before we knew it, it was almost 8:00. We hadn't eaten dinner and we had a show to catch at 10:00. We decided we'd just eat after the show so we just went down to The Seahorse Lounge at Caesars and had some drinks and hung out. Our bartender was so nice, she was pretty funny too. We had a good time talking to her. Around 9:30 we headed to the show! We saw Absinthe. It was really good. Really raunchy, I mean really raunchy. Lots of cussing, a little nudity, but if you can handle a little vulgarity I HIGHLY recommend you see this show. It takes place in a circus-like tent. So you are literally 5-10 feet from the performers. The strong men and the roller-skating couple were definitely my favorite acts. Angel from 'Holly's World' is also in it. She tap dances a little inside of a bubble of some sort. I expected her to be a little prettier honestly. After the show, as we were walking out of the tent, Angel was standing in the back where we had to walk right by her. I asked a girl that worked with her if she'd ask Angel if she'd come take a picture with us and the girl quickly said that she never takes pictures. I asked her to try anyways so she did. Angel looked our way and shook her head no. I understand, because I'm sure if one person does it then another will and so on, but still it made me not care for her as much. Cole actually got mad because he couldn't believe "a nobody" would act that way. It was actually pretty funny, it seems like it almost hurt his feelings. Maybe it was the ridiculously STRONG drink the bartender at the show had made him that got him all emotional?? :)
After that we found a restaurant in CP, Nero's, that was open all night and finally ate. Oh, let me add that this was after we walked all the way down to the Cosmpolitan to find the secret pizza place, which we did. The only problem was that the line was so looong. It'd been different if it were actually moving, but it wasn't, plus it was like 2am and I was STARVING. That's how we ended up at Nero's eating sandwiches and fries. After I ate I went to bed and Cole went to gamble. I won't bore you with the details, but Cole had a looong night that consisted of not being able to get into the room, me sleeping through him and CP security guards beating on the door, having to stay awake and gambling at Osheas until 7am, etc. Needless to say, he was not a happy camper when I finally opened the door.(Sorry for the extremely long paragraph. Going cross-eyed yet?)








So now it's Saturday morning and I figured it'd be best to let Cole get some sleep. While he did that I met up with my parents in the conservatory at The Bellagio so we could go have lunch at Olives. We sat out on the terrace over-looking the water show. I had the fig and prosciutto flatbread pizza. It was good, though I wouldn't get it again. After lunch I went to see if Cole was up and moving... nope. Once he got up we headed to The Mirage where we would be seeing Cirque De Soliel's Love. We decided we would have some drinks and appetizers before the show because we had late dinner reservations at Tao. We headed to Japonais and sat at the bar for a bit while we waited for Stack to open, once it was open we went over(it's right next to Japonais) we each had a drink and a couple of appetizers. We then headed to Rhumbar where we were going to meet up with my parents for a drink. My dad ordered a drink that had won a challenge on Food Network. It may have been one of the worst drinks I've ever tasted. I now do not trust those challenge shows. Anyways, I told him I'd drink it since I felt bad that I had recommended the place. I couldn't even finish it. The show was really good. There was so much going on it that there was never a dull moment. And of course Cole loved it because of his love of The Beatles. After the show we headed to Tao. We got there like 30 minutes early so we hung out at the bar for awhile and people watched- lots of pretty people here. Once we were seated we ordered an appetizer and then I had the miso glazed seabass. Hands down THE best fish I have ever eaten. So buttery-like and kind of sweet. If you ever go to Tao, do yourself a favor and order this. I talked Cole into ordering the wasabi crusted filet mignon. He was unimpressed and should've just ignored me completely and gotten the shrimp dish he had been eyeing. Oops! After that we headed back to Caesars. I went to the room and went to bed and Cole went down and gambled a bit... and saw Coco, Ice T's wife at the bar right off of Caesars casino. He said her butt is just as big as it looks on TV. That IS one serious booty.





We woke up Sunday morning and headed down to the pool. Once we got situated we each ordered a big ol' fruity drink(pina colada for me, bahama mama for Cole) and relaxed. We got a little antsy after about an hour and a half, plus we had a pretty nice little sweat worked up so we called it quits and went to get ready for the day. We decided lunch would be at Dos Caminos(Jessica Simpson goes there alot) at The Palazzo. Our little hike began. Unfortunately, Cole was not feeling 100% and needed food and water asap! Finally, after we found the restaurant he was able to get some water and food in him and started feeling better. Before he had any food or water in him, right when we sat down he asked me, "what do you think it feels like when you're about to have a seizure?" Hahaha. Luckily, we avoided the seizure and had ourselves a nice little lunch. I had a prickly pear margarita, it was very refreshing. They have great guacumole! We then headed back to CP to rest a little and then get ready for the night. We had dinner reservations at Olives in The Bellagio so we got there about thirty minutes before because we wanted a table on the terrace overlooking the fountains. The hostess said it'd be about an hour so we went and had a drink at a little outside pavillion between Caesars and The Bellagio. When we were finally in Olives we sat at the bar and I had a dirty martini, I mean, we were in a place called Olives so I'm thinking they were going to make a good one. It did not disappoint. We were seated at what I think was the best table on the terrace, right on the edge with a front row view. I LOVED watching the fountains, especially with the music that accompanied them. I had beef carpaccio as my meal and Cole had a really good braised short rib dish. It was a wonderful time. Although our waiter could've been better, he was having an obviously bad night... broken dish and a spilled glass of wine(neither when waiting on us). I'm just glad I wasn't the girl he spilled the wine on. :) After dinner we headed back to Caesars so Cole could play some Craps. We had a great time! We had alot of interesting people around us, so that made it nice. One guy was hilarious. At first we didn't like him because he was a bit over the top, obnoxious to the max. But once we got to know him a little he was hilarious. He bought in for me because he wanted me to roll the dice. I won $35! Big gambler here! Ha! There was a middle aged couple from Oklahoma too. The wife told me about how on their wedding day(11 yrs ago) when they were in Vegas playing Craps she was rolling really good and Paul Anka and a few of his friends were at the table. They ended up giving her $35,000 in chips, as a "tip" of sorts!! I didn't think I heard her correctly at first, but I did... $35,000 just handed to her... on her wedding day. Pretty awesome. We stayed there for a few hours and then Cole decided he needed a break and I decided that I needed a snack(I had only had an appetizer at dinner and ate maybe half of it) at 3 am. Geez... So off we head, to Planet Hollywood to try The Earl of Sandwich(I had read about it on tripadvisor). Looking back, I can't believe we walked that far for a mediocre sandwich. After my belly was full I called it a night and headed up to bed. Cole kept playing and had some interesting stories... he witnessed a guy win $53,000! He was nice enough to give Cole $200. He also made friends with four guys from Slovenia. They invited us to come visit them there. Haha. The guy later sent Cole a text of them staying in 'The Hangover' suite, which I think costs around $5,000 a night. Maybe we should go visit them afterall... ;)






It was Monday and time to head home. Nothing too exciting happened this day, just the usual checking out of the hotel, airport, etc... All in all it was an awesome and much needed trip! We had a blast and I can't wait to go back. And if you've made it this far, like I've said before, I get a bit word-y, aka- detail oriented because I like to have this for myself to read in the future. I have a bad memory, so I need this kind of stuff as a reminder. :)