Vegas, baby!!!

Last week my mom and I went to Las Vegas to begin her 50th birthday celebration - her birthday isn't until September but 50 is definitely worth celebrating for a long time.

We flew direct from Tulsa, here's us on the plane...

It's great when you fly to Vegas, because in theory, it's free time with the time change. We left at 3:15 and landed about 3:40!

Mom has never been to Vegas before so it was fun to see her reaction to all the craziness of the city! I went to Vegas last April for Liz's bachelorette party and had a blast! It's constantly changing with new hotels and casinos going up EVERYWHERE!

We stayed at Harrah's mainly because it was in the center of Las Vegas Blvd. It was very convenient to just get up and go and be able to walk everywhere. As soon as we got checked in and dropped our stuff off, we headed toward north toward the Venetian.

We also walked through Cesar's the first night and had a bite to eat, then watched the fountains at the Bellagio... and then headed back to the room, we were beat!

Friday morning, we hit the pool for a good desert tan! It was really relaxing to lounge by the pool and drink ... all before noon! After the pool, we walked all the way down to MGM, stopping at lots of places on the way. We stopped in at Margaritaville to grab lunch - we split a cheeseburger in paradise and of course had margaritas! For those of you that don't know, my parents are Parrot Heads...clearly.

We also kept seeing this bus... I ABSOLUTELY love Absolut Marketing so I had to have a picture of this...

We stopped in Paris where I won $25 on the nickle slots! YAY! We also went in the Coca Cola and M&M's stores. I was so very glad to see the Coke store because it seemed like Vegas itself is sponsored by Pepsi... (sorry B's, but I don't drink Pepsi). We crossed the strip and headed into New York New York. We walked back toward center strip and headed inside Bellagio to check out the Buffet. When we went for Liz's Bachelorette Weekend we all went to the champagne brunch buffet at the Bellagio and it was FABULOUS! Mom and I actually decided against gorging ourselves on all that food - it's hard to eat a ton when it's so hot outside. So we headed back to the hotel for a while and to play some slots.

Saturday we were going to try and repeat the pool experience but it was CLOUDY!!! Who would have guessed it... it seems as if we took the humidity to Vegas with us. So we headed back north on the strip toward the Wynn/Encore. We walked through the Fashion Show Mall and then ate at a patio hamburger place. We walked around some more and then went inside the Wynn and through to the Palazzo and eventually back to the Venetian - it's very nice that these are all internally connected - it was hot and super crowded outside. It's definitely best to go when you can have a few days of the week to explore rather than fighting the throngs of tourists on Saturday.

One thing of mention - there were lots of kids there. I found this odd... family vacations are great an all but why Vegas for your 8 year old? We did hear about the adventures of a family in the airport where the 8 year old boy kept telling everyone that he pretty much stayed drunk and he was going to tell his teachers that. I taught him to say inebriated rather than drunk - he should at least get some vocabulary points!

Saturday night, we had tickets to see LOVE - the Cirque du Solei extravaganza... it was phenomenal. It was a multitude of performers dancing interpretively to all Beatles songs. It was so much fun! Before that, we ate at a bar called Stack... yes, you are correct in assuming that are the waitresses were just that... My oh so funny mother insisted on taking my picture in front of the sign after I explained the meaning of the name...

Then we had drinks at REVOLUTION which is the theme bar to coincide with the performance. Here's me sitting in the U and my mom standing in front of the TSince it was our last night, we decided to go to the Piano Bar at NYNY from great recommendations from Melanie (aka Martini Momma). It was so much fun. My mom chickened out on letting them sing to her so that was too bad because I'm sure it would have made for a great picture and a great story.

It was a great trip!!! I had so much fun and am ready to go back again...