Vegas Baby! Part 1

We made it to Vegas!  Only a short stay here (3 days and 3 nights), so I’ll sum up this blog in only a couple of posts.  

Prelude

So why Vegas?  This was really my thing and something I planned to do years ago, when I was in my early twenties and still heavily into partying, drinking, going out clubbing, gambling, etc.  Over the years I guess it remained on my to do list if I was ever to travel, but now that I’m 30 and over a lot of that partying, when we finally arrived, we were a bit perplexed about what to do! 

Especially as a couple (no we didn’t get married, you have no idea how many times we’ve been asked this).  So the only plan we had was to see as much as possible, and so here it is....

Arrival and Day 1

We arrived that Sunday night from JFK.  The flight wasn’t too bad, over 4 hours.  It’s amazing how this city is smack bang in the middle of the desert, seeing it from a plan at night is awesome.  The flight itself was interesting, there was a couple fighting that nearly had us grounded/turned around.  Didn't hear what the lady was yelling about, but she was upsetting others on the plane.  We got there in the end anyhow.

As soon as we arrived at the airport you can immediately tell you’re in Vegas.  For example, the placement of pokie machines (slot machines as they call them here) inside the airport!  To get to the baggage claim/pick up area, you have to catch a tram to the other side of the airport.  We did that, picked up our bags and called the shuttle service that we had a voucher for (courtesy of Flight Centre, thanks Carol!).

One thing I didn’t realise is how close the airport is to the strip, so the ride didn’t take long at all.  We had a room booked at the Vdara hotel, a nice place located in the City Centre directly opposite to the Aria in the same complex.

This whole area of the strip (City Centre) is new.  Nearby is the Bellagio and the City Centre shopping mall “Crystal” I think it was called?  We were immediately schooled on a number of things here, being Vegas newbie’s and naive tourists, but more on that later.

We took a stroll through the strip, not knowing our way around, we didn’t get very far.  We had a look through the Aria casino, outside on Las Vegas Boulevard and bought dinner (McDonalds...for a McRib).  Walked further up and found the first overpass for pedestrians, and walked back through the city centre shops (all flashy and upscale big brand shops like Louis Vuitton, Gucci, etc).

Had to have another one.  The one I had in Jersey was made with a cheeseburger bun.

Tired from the day, flight and walk – we ventured back to our hotel and fell asleep.

View from our room at the Vdara.  They also had remote controlled curtains here!

Up and early (body clocks still in tune with the east coast), we decided to try out breakfast at the famous Bellagio buffet.  Through each casino, you find connecting walkways to the next one.  A scenic alternative to walking outside on the Las Vegas boulevard footpath.  Walking into the Bellagio walkways, you’re immediately hit with sensory overload.  Naturally the first thing that catches our attention, is a cafe with a massive chocolate fountain thing, with liquid chocolate flowing from the ceiling and down through this contraption like rivers of chocolate gold.  I thought of this fountain the entire time we were in Vegas.  I daydreamed about opening the glass panel and drinking from it daily.

You can't see in this pic, but up higher the chocolate flows down from the ceiling!

That was just the beginning, we didn’t even enter the actual casino yet.  Just near the Bellagio Casino lobby, was this garden area displaying different plants, tree’s, bushes.  Reading this you’re probably thinking, boring!  But check out the pics, another example of how they take things to another level here.

So much work went into that garden display, with maintenance staff always touching it up, could only imagine how much money goes into that place.  After leaving the magical fancy garden, we ended up in the lobby area of Bellagio.  Again, another display of wowness.

Directly to our left was the Casino, we strolled right in and made our way to the buffet.  There was a pretty big line up for the buffet, but it was always moving.  Didn’t take too long till we got in, considering how long the line was.  Breakfast buffet was around $15 each (cheap), considering how much food there was to choose from and all you can eat!!  I can’t even remember what I ate, but it was a lot.

After breakfast we ventured a bit more into the strip, reaching Ceasars Palace this time.  Hit again with the same WOW factor, picking out familiar sites from movies we’ve seen (especially from The Hangover).

Two casino’s in half a day doesn’t sound like much, but with so much walking and getting lost within the Casino’s, it dawns on you how much planning you really need to do for this place.... and more time.... and more money!

It was about lunch time and we were in the mood for seafood.  Those of you that have been following our blog whilst we were on the East Coast, will know that we love our food and where we can, we have been trying food we’ve seen from various tv shows.  Particularly “Man vs Food”, and today we wanted to check out a restaurant known for awesome crawfish and crabs, “Hot n Juicy”.

mmmmm.  We were quickly seated and ordered 1lb of crawfish and 1lb of King crab legs, with corn on the cob and potato.  Hot n Juicy is the perfect name for this place, heaps of juice and plenty of spice.  I’ve never had crawfish like this before, they look like redclaw that we have back home.  Massive heads, and teeny weeny bodies, but still yummy and juicy.  The King Crab was my favourite, had always wanted to try it, especially after watching that show “World’s deadliest catch”.

I could live on King Crab.  There was a massage place next door, being the naive tourists we were, we walked in to check their prices.  I had a bit of a sore neck and back, and the massages back at our hotel were insanely over priced.

After walking through the door, we were greeted by an asian lady, wearing a tight skimpy dress.  I asked her for their pricing and she glanced over at KN, with a perplexed look on her face.  As though she was thinking, “what is this lady doing here?”.  When she told us their pricing, while looking oddly at KN, it was pretty obvious what they specialised in.  Ahem, moving on...

We were full from lunch and headed back to our hotel.  Along the way, we ventured through the Aria casino and other places.... it’s a bit of a blur to be honest.  Not from drinking and partying, it’s just there’s so much to these Casino’s, it is really challenging to soak it all in.  It’s like your mind is constantly stimulated by the different themes of the Casino’s, you don’t know what to do with yourself.

A bit of gambling here and there, not winning a thing, by the night we crashed in the hotel.  I think we skipped dinner being so full, buggered again we fell asleep.

Coming next, ROAD TRIP!! And our last day...