Vegas, Baby!! Not as planned but still fun.

Not an original title but it does explain where I was for a couple of days last week. I went to Las Vegas with a friend for a little recreation and maybe a concert. My cousin is a professional drummer and he is currently touring with JLO-yep the one and only Jennifer Lopez who has a residency (that is ending soon) in Las Vegas. I had hoped that we would be able to get tickets and see the show but it was not to be. My cousin, Charles, who is very sweet would have given us tickets if he could have but unfortunately the show was completely sold out and there were no comp tickets available. We had then hoped to settle for going to sound check but JLO had a new song that she was working on so sound check was closed.

We decided to go on the trip anyway because I really needed and wanted a little vacation.

We arrived late Tuesday night and did not waste a minute. We put our bags in the hotel room (Planet Hollywood) and went out exploring.

 

My friend, Debbie wanted to go on this ride called the High Roller which is a pod like Ferris wheel that goes up 550 feet high in the air and you can see the whole of Vegas at night (or daytime if you choose). I haven’t been to Las Vegas since 2007 so most of it is brand new to me. So we walked the Vegas streets, found the ride and went on this 30 minute adventure. It was really fun! It was fun to see the lights and the sights from that angle. My favorite part was seeing a roof top pool on the top of a hotel! Kind of surreal.

Afterwards, we went to eat at a BBQ restaurant (Virgils) and listened to some live music while we ate. The music was quite good. The BBQ was ok but their buttermilk biscuits were the absolute best! They served the biscuits with a honey maple butter that was quite tasty.

As we walked back to the hotel, we explored some shops, got some treats and did a little gambling (slot machines).  One of the shops we went into had the cutest soaps as well as some creamy, luxurious scrubs and lotions. And to my surprise, there is a cupcake ATM available, you know, for those cupcake emergencies!

We woke up the next morning, had breakfast, and then went a had a pool day. This is something that I never spend time doing and really should do more often. It was in the high 90’s for most of the day and I had thought that we wouldn’t spend much time at the pool but we kind of got into a rhythm of sunning and then getting into the pool to cool down. The hotel had my favorite kind of pool-it was 31/2 half feet all around. It was cold….cold…..cold but once you got in it felt great! They also had a waitress and music playing all day which added to the relaxing experience.
After the pool, we went and had an early dinner at Gordon Ramsey Burger restaurant which was really good. It’s not somewhere that I feel like I have to return to but I’m glad I went and would recommend it if you haven’t been. Then it was time for showers and a general walk around the Vegas strip.

We went to Pinkbox Doughnuts, a famous Vegas institution which lots of interesting confections. We spent a little time at the New York New York Hotel and then took the tram to the Bellagio. The Bellagio is a beautiful hotel and we were pleased to see some fantastic fall floral arrangements. The inlaid tile was nothing to sneeze at either!

As Debbie and I walked around, we kept commenting on how filled in the strip has become. Years ago, the strip had major hotels and then empty space in between them. It used to take forever to get from one hotel to another. There are now strips malls, smaller hotels, hotels that are dedicated time shares. In front of all of the major hotels, there are characters that you can take pictures with. Some of the characters are super hero types but most are show girls with pasties on their boobs and not much else!!

We spent some time listening to a band playing rock music covers in a sculpture garden. On a positive note, there are lots of food options in all price ranges and styles. You can eat as high-end or low-end as you desire. There is also a CVS and a Walgreens near the hotels. This isn’t a big deal but I recall a time when you could not get toiletries from a drug store in Vegas. If you forgot anything, you had to buy it from the hotel shop where it cost an arm and a leg. That has not changed!! $3.99 for the small bottle of water!

As we trekked around to different hotels, we threw money into the slot machines just for fun! Clearly, if there had been any big wins I would have told you by now so just know that the slot play was for pure fun!

It was a fast trip and if I had to do it over again I would stay at least one more day and find other sights to see. I was talking to another friend who goes to Vegas a lot and she mentioned a couple of places to go that are kind of off the beaten path that would be fun to go to. I would have liked to have gone downtown to check it out and see what it’s like now. It was a nice get away and I feel like we used our time well. I am particularly happy with the pool day and having unstructured, unscheduled time.

So tell me, do you schedule all of your vacation time or do you build in some down time? Share in the comments!