Viva Las Vegas! Day 1

When I found out that William had NEVER been to Las Vegas, I knew that was the PERFECT place to take him to celebrate his 30th birthday. We made it a short 2 full day trip so that we would only have to pay for 1 night hotel and William wouldn't have to miss work. We got up SUPER early- 4:45 am so that we could make it to the airport for our 7 am flight. We knew it was going to be a great trip when we had this beautiful sunrise for our send off from the Oakland airport.

I have to say that I'm still not really a fan of the Southwest airlines way of "loading" passengers. True, it has gotten better now that the have the letter and corresponding number system to wait in line, but it is just difficult to find seats together for two people. But, we lucked out and got two together on the very last row of the plane. Good thing it is only a one and a half hour flight or it could have been more painful.

Kind of like our suitcase. The poor little wheeler- yeah, the other handle is broken and so we just use the one. We felt bad because we gave our suitcase to the porter at our hotel and when we went to pick it up, he thought that he had broken it. We laughed and said that we did it ourselves. I think it looks so funny, yet it is the only little wheeler suitcase we have and it still basically works so I think we will struggle with it for a little longer :-)

We stayed at the Paris hotel because it was one of the nice, but relatively cheaper hotels on the strip. This was my first time staying there and I thought that we got a great deal for the price and location in the center of the strip next to the Bellagio. And, we got to the hotel at about 10 am in the morning and we could already check into our room! We actually totally loved our stay and would recommend it to others.

They have an awesome swimming pool right under the Effiel Tower- too bad it was only 60 degrees and windy and a not super warm water.

We like the fact that the decor inside the casino here gives an atmosphere of being lighter rather than dark and dank like some of the others. Since we stayed at the hotel, we got a 2 for 1 pass to go up the Eiffel Tower. We took advantage of it since there was no way that we were going to pay that much again.

I loved the walkway lined with light posts that they had to the elevators to take us up to the top.

Having been to the top of the actual Eiffel Tower in Paris several times, this is definitely not as impressive- but it was fun to get a different view of the strip.

Here's what the actual Paris hotel part looks like

Here I am with my favorite hotel- the Bellagio. Its still a dream of mine to stay there and have a lake-room view so that we could watch the water shows all night from the comfort of our room. However, the price is twice that of the Paris so that dream will definitely have to wait a little longer . . . . .

Yeah, this is the only photo of us together in Vegas- yeah, good thing we didn't pay any money for this shot

Next it was off to the Mile shops next door- they used to be called the Aladdin Desert Palace shops but that's dead now. They still do have the Agrabah, desert feel to them in the interior.

And no trip to this mall would be complete without a stop at the GELATO store. This is the BEST gelato I've ever had. My family LOVES it so much, especially my dad, that they come at least once, usually twice, so I had to introduce William to them as well. The cookies and cream kind is my favorite
They added these AWESOME crystal sculptures to certain areas of the mall

Little mini disco balls all to make one giant disco ball

The translucent snake

Interestingly enough, besides the gelato, we didn't buy anything at the shops. Oh- each hotel/shopping area has some kind of gimmick to get you to come there. For example, the Paris hotel has the Eiffel Tower, the Bellagio has the fountains, etc. The one at the Mile Shops was this "Indoor Rain Storm" and let me tell you it was LAME. Don't waste you time. Basically, they turn on the sprinklers and water falls into a pond at varying speeds. It is more impressive at Rainforest Cafe.

One of our favorite parts of the strip was M&M World store. It is SUPER fun!! They have all of these different characters around as well as any kind of M&M merchandise you can think of. And TONS of different colored M&Ms. Our favorite that we purchased is the CHERRY flavored- they were yummy.

I have to admit that I like this store better than the one in Times Square NYC, because they have this cool 3D movie that you can see FOR FREE! Its called- "I lost my M in Vegas" and is super cute. The only problem is that the glasses were kind of borked, but since it was free, beggars can't be choosers and they were good enough to see at least.
They even had the M&Ms dressed up for Easter- I love the cute cotton tail on the red one.
William and I definitely had a fun time here

The next stop on the strip was the MGM Grand where we saw their gimmick of real lions. Aw- so cute.
I think we woke her up with our flash
Next, it was off to walk through GHETTO-alibur, I mean EX-CALIBUR. Yeah, I'm not a big fan of this hotel- it was cool when it first opened but they haven't changed anything since then so its pretty ghetto in comparison with everything else. But William makes it look all the more appealing

The, a walk through the Luxor. This used to be my favorite hotel when I first came to Vegas but then they RUINED it by putting all of this crazy stuff inside the middle so you can't appreciate the true beauty of the pyramid. But, William did a pretty good job here. We tried to go up the elevator to get a better view from that aspect but they have the key cards for the elevators to avoid that.

Next, we hit Mandalay Bay where we ate at their Buffet. I am a select fan of Buffets. There are some that are super good (Bellagio, Mirage, MGM Grand, Rio) but there are others that are NASTY and gross. And price really does come into play here. If the price is too cheap, then its bad food. Like at the Sahara- they had their buffet advertised for $10 and to me that means that it isn't good quality food to have it that cheap. You leave feeling worse and sicker than when you went in. William just had to trust me on this one because I know from bad experiences at Circus Circus, Excalibur, and a few other places. I hadn't heard anything about the Mandalay Bay one but William was starving and it wasn't too cheap so I thought we should try it. AND IT WAS GREAT! They had a ton of seafood, but enough other stuff for William since he doesn't like it. But the best part was our table. Check our the view! It is SUPER beautiful with the wooden shutters looking out onto the pool area. So perfect- it seemed like you were in a tropical island rather than Las Vegas.

Next, it was off to New York, New York so that we could ride the roller coaster. I have ridden it several times and this will be the last time that I do. We sat in the very last row and it was so jarring that I felt like I was just bouncing and being thrown side to side. Even William thought it was pretty bad. So never again for me on that ride.

Then, it was off to the Bellagio where we caught one of the 4 watershows that we saw during our trip. The watershows are my FAVORITE part about Las Vegas. I seriously could just watch them all night and be happy. Unfortunately, my sisters aren't fans of watching multiple ones in a row but this is yet another sign of just how PERFECT William is for me because he LOVED them too!!! We have multiple videos of them, but I will save them for our own viewing pleasure (or place them in their own post probably). But, here is a still shot with our hotel, yet again, in the background.

In between the day time ones (a half-hour), we went to the Conservatory where they were celebrating Chinese New Year with all of their flower decorations.

That's probably the biggest rat I've ever seen- I'm just happy that it won't come running after me

We did think that this crystal obelisk seemed somewhat out of place with the rest of the Conservatory items, but it is fairly beautiful.

Next, we hit the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art where they have their exhibit on American Modernism. It was an ok exhibit- definitely not one of the best that I have seen there- but they did have several Georgia O'Keefe's that I loved and a few others that I also liked. The saddest thing was that their gift shop has totally gone down hill. I normally spend quite a lot of time in there, looking at all of their cool books, prints, etc. but it was surprisingly lacking. So, we instead went and took a few photos of the Bellagio pool area. Doesn't it just look so magical? I definitely need to stay here when it is warmer so that I can go swimming.

I think that Vegas looks a lot more magical at night with all of the lights. Aw- look how romantic the Paris Eiffel Tower is (Are you sick of it yet- its like in Chevy Chase's European Vacation- "Hey Kids, Big Ben! Parliament!)

We went back to our room to change for our 2 Cirque du Soleil shows and I found out that I had gotten the time wrong for our first show, Mystere. I thought it was at 7:30 and it was actually at 7!!! Fortunately, we had enough time but we were literally running down the strip to Treasure Island. You don't realize just how big the strip is until you are in a hurry. The buildings are so big that they seem so close together, yet, they aren't. I was panicking because we still had to pick up our tickets from the box office. BUT, we made it, and with 10 minutes until curtain.

I have been planning this trip for several months now and so I got us FRONT ROW CENTER seats for the show since William and I love it so much. We were sitting there, watching the clowns "help" people to their seats, actually creating more chaos and misleading. He lead this one couple all the way across the theater, back over the stage and then through the first row of people only to kick us out of our seats!!! The clown had us get up and made us walk to the back of the theater with the spot light on us. And then he gave the people in our seats a free tub of popcorn! Don't worry- we got our seats back before the show started (the whole time this was happening the clown told us to just play along and not to worry). Now, this could have been a frightening experience for me, if you have read my earlier fear about clowns, but this one didn't have any face make-up on- his hair was just out of control- and he was an elderly gentleman who had a British accent. I don't know what it is about British accents but I find them strangely comforting. Anyways, it was fun to be part of a show in a non-extreme way.

The lady a few seats down from us wasn't so lucky. She was squirted with water and had to go up on stage and dress like a baby. William was at the aisle seat and so the whole show he was worried that they might ask him to do that, but fortunately, they only stared and talked to him. Another guy had to be locked up in a cage while another man went and had champagne with his wife. Everybody was good sports about it, but I could see how some people might have gotten upset by it.

I've seen this show before but it was a totally different experience being on the front row. I was able to see just how AMAZING the performers are- the strength in their muscles, the way that they swung direct over our heads. It was quite amazing with the pole climbers, strength guys, those that catapult each other, the swinging acrobats. But I really enjoyed the live music- so beautiful and it is performed live.

And what would Vegas be without a LOVE show. William loves to tell people that I took him to a LOVE show for his 30th birthday in Vegas. I then make him clarify to say that it is the BEATLES LOVE.

So in a city that has so many Cirque du Soleil shows, we couldn't just stop at one. I've seen Mystere (2), O, and Ka but I hadn't seen the new Beatle's LOVE and so we went to that. We sat further back which actually worked out fine for this show. It is at the Mirage and you can kind of make out the LOVE in the golden part

But, just in case you can't, this marquee shows it in greater detail.

We had a little time before the show so we checked out the "gimmick"s at the Mirage. I've stayed here several times so I'm fairly familiar with it so we got a photo of their indoor waterfall/jungle. Unfortunately, I loved going and seeing the white tigers from Sigfried and Roy and you used to be able to see them for free, but now you have to pay $15 and we decided to pass on that one.

But we were able to entertain ourselves in the lobby of the Beatles theater. They actually have some of the coolest decor I've ever seen. On the ceiling

And even the walls.

We actually waited in the LONGEST concession line EV-ER and we still don't know why. At least we had enough time to make it to our seats but we were glad we were early.

The show itself was good, but if you are expecting to see true Cirque du Soleil amazing, unbelievable acts, you should go to a different show. It was VERY different from Mystere that we had just seen. The only really "circusy" things that they did was skateboarding (and even not that extreme), spin the in air on ropes (again, fairly normal), and jump around on trampolines. So it was all very well choreographed to the music, yet, it just was very believable. The show had AMAZING artistic special effects with lights, staging, and music and the dancing was SO GOOD. And how can you beat the music- the whole show had kind of an acid trip like feel to it, in a glamorized way like the lobby. We enjoyed the show, but were slightly disappointed because it wasn't the traditional Cirque brand of entertainment.

And then we watched a few more watershows at the Bellagio to round out our day 1 in Las Vegas. Another reason why William is so perfect for me is that he loves to pack his traveling days full just like I do :-) Viva Las Vegas!