Back from Vegas!

I've been back for almost a week so forgive me for the delay...

I spent last weekend in Vegas with my boyfriend, David. He is there for two weeks on business so I was able to fly in for the weekend. We had such a great time! It was so nice to have time to relax and have fun and have moments of forgetting the stress and worries that have recently taken over my life.
I flew in on Thursday night and met up with some of his co-workers at one of the bars in the hotel who were doing Karaoke. No one from the group actually got up to sing but we sure tried to get David to sing "Ice Ice Baby". He knows every word and it's so funny. One of his coworkers wrote his name down on the piece of paper but no one was willing to take it up so I gladly offered! Unfortunately it was too late in the night and they never got to his name. Oh well, it was fun anyway. The DJ was crazy although I have never met a karaoke DJ that wasn't. The whole evening was really entertaining and I really enjoyed meeting the people who I hear so much about from his work. Hopefully I made a good impression :-)
On Friday morning David had to go to work for a couple of hours so I slept (in the greatest King Size bed ever!) and ordered room service, read the news paper, and watched some TV. He came back earlier than I was expecting so I wasn't actually ready for the day but that quickly changed. I was able to take a shower with hot water that lasted the ENTIRE shower. I have a very tiny shower at home and a very tiny water heater so I have learned to quickly get in and get out. The fact that I could take my time was wonderful! We went straight to the casino (not that it can be avoided if we tried) and played a couple of games. Luck was not on our side at the slots or on the Craps table so we headed to the strip and didn't make it very far. We went to Caesar's Palace to all the shops and then went over to the Mirage. This was my favorite!!!! We walked around for a while, had a drink, went to lunch to at their Craving's Buffet and then off to the Secret Garden. I LOVED Secret Garden! LOVED IT LOVED IT LOVED IT! It started to rain but I didn't care. They had dolphins, leopards, lions, panthers, and even Llama's.




We had perfect timing at each exhibit. We couldn't have planned it better if we tried. The trainers were feeding and playing with the dolphins as we got there and as we moved pools so did the trainers to feed and play. It started to rain a bit harder so we decided to go to the underground exhibit where you can view the dolphins in the water. That was so fun! They are so humanistic and it was fun to watch them play. There was a mommy and baby who seemed to be having so much fun just swimming around and doing tricks while another girl and boy dolphin were having their own kind of fun ;-) We got the discovery channel edition!




Even though it was still raining we went to the other animal exhibits. There was a new baby leopard there and I started to get a little sad since the exhibit had a sign that said, "Java is not here right now. Come back later!" But just as I finished reading it, the baby and vet appeared in the little play room. I don't remember how old the baby was but it was only the size of a "house cat" and was so fun to watch him play. I'm happy that the timing worked out just perfect because after seeing the baby we went to look at the other animals. By the time we made it back to the play room area for the baby he was tired and sleeping. I'm glad we were able to see him before he got tired.



After we finished at the Mirage it was time to head back to the hotel to meet up with another couple. One of David's friends from work also had his girlfriend come into town so we were getting together for happy hour...or what we thought was going to be happy hour. Little did we know that at the Friday's at the hotel it was 24 hour happy hour!!! You can't go wrong there which also determined our extended stay at Friday's. We were having a great time talking, having drinks, food, and getting to know each other. We said good night and were headed back to our rooms when we got stopped at a Black Jack table. I'm new to the game and they had a table set up for beginners and we couldn't pass it up. We had to wait just a few minutes until someone left the table for us to play but it was worth it. The dealers there are so nice and obviously willing to help you pay...I mean...Play :-) We actually ended up ahead so I told David we needed to stop so we had money to play with later. It was very late anyway and I was so tired!
We slept in on Saturday morning which worked out great. We were meeting up with the other couple again and they were having a slow morning also. We met up for what was supposed to be breakfast but by the time we actually met up it was lunch time. We headed over to New York New York and went to the ESPN Zone there. I didn't think the food was that good but we ended with a coupon for their arcade so David and I played games while Mark and Amber went and looked around at the shops. When we met up again Mark and Amber had a margarita in a Boot! We had to get one too! As we were walking in that direction I stopped at one of the gaming tables at a game called "Sic Bo". I had never heard of this game before and it looked really interesting and because I stopped, it caught the attention of David, Mark, and Amber. It is played with dice and the board was set up with the numerous possibilities that the dice could land on. This is what it looks like.



Basically, all you do is put your chips on what you "think" the combination of the 3 dice will land on. If you are right, then the spot will light up and you win. You can guess if it will be a high number or low number, if one of the dice will be a specific number, if the combination of 2 of them will be a specific roll, or what the total of the 3 will be. It looks complicated but it's not. It's easy, but the odds are clearly against you...just like any other gambling game...however, I won! Multiple times even. I won $70 off of playing with $2. Amber lost her money, Mark won $20, and David won $30. It was fun to play the guessing game!

We went and bought our tickets for the Zumanity show which is one of the Cirque de Soleil shows. We were going to the 10:30 showing and I was soooo excited!!! We continued to play tourist as we made it back to the hotel. We were going to meet up again at 8PM to have dinner and head to the show. We went to Friday's again since we knew it was the cheapest and easiest route to go. It was perfect! We headed over to New York New York again where the show was going to be playing. It was so AMAZING! It's the first Cirque de Soleil show I have ever seen and I was just blown away! the way these people move their bodies is just incredible! I LOVED it! I was so happy that it was something that we were able to do while I was there. Afterward, Mark and Amber headed to one of their clubs and David and I decided to play some games and relax instead. The loud music and dancing isn't really our scene. It was just a lovely evening all the way around. I couldn't have asked for a better night. I tried to play the Sic Bo game again but it had gotten popular so there were lots of people at the table. I learned how to play Roulette instead :-) I'm not a huge gambler and know how to stop when I'm ahead or to quit after spending $20. I won $40 and only had to play $5. Not bad :-)
We met up again with Mark and Amber and went straight back to the hotel. It was really, really late, and I was sooooo tired!!!
Sunday Morning I woke up and started to get ready to leave since I was flying home that evening. I let David sleep while I showered and got ready and re-packed. I was soooo sad that I had to go. We still had most of the day though and we definitely took advantage of that. We went back to the strip and started to wonder. We went to the Bellagio which of course was beautiful. Their Chinese New Year set up was just amazing! I couldn't even believe the flowers and plants that put together the whole thing. Totally in Aww! We walked outside in hopes to see the water show but it was too long to wait before it went off again. We decided that we would catch it on our way back. We crossed over the the Paris Hotel and decided to take the Eiffel Tower Tour Experience. That is a very HIGH elevator ride!! But it ended up being well worth the time. We made it up to the top just in time to see the Bellagio water show from the top of the Eiffel Tower! Again, we couldn't have planned that better if we tried! It was so great to see it from the top instead of just from the side of standing on the sidewalk. You could hear the music and see the show perfectly! Overall the view is beautiful from up there and you can see forever. We were up there for about 30-45 minutes and it started to get cold and windy. I was ready to get down! BRRRRRRRRR!!!! Luckily I had on a hoodie so at least I was able to stay warm a little bit.
We had lunch and then went shopping at the Miracle Mile Shops. We stopped at this art gallery and FELL IN LOVE with this new artist. His name is Chris De Rubeis and his art work is BEAUTIFUL!! If I had the money I would have walked out with art work for sure!! And surprisingly enough, it made David stop and stare as well. You can't even begin to tell how incredible they are by the pictures here but in person, they are just amazing! He uses aluminum as his canvas and uses auto paint to create his art. I wish I could afford multiple pieces!




We spent so much time in that gallery that we ended up having to head back to the hotel rather quickly to make it to the airport. I was sad to see the trip end. It was so nice to have such a relaxing, wonderful weekend.