Cole and I took a vacation to the Vegas Strip in
October.
K stayed at my parent's house-
but mostly it was one of my sisters that took responsibility for her the whole
time....including having her sleep in her bedroom at night.
Brave aunt.
At the end of the trip she said she had no idea what it took to take
care of a child 24/7...none of us ever do!
Our trip was really nice- we were there for five nights at
The Elara, a Hilton
Grand Vacations Hotel attached to the Miracle Mile Mall situated mid strip. We got upgraded to a 1 bedroom suite.
I
only have a few pictures of it because we were never in the room when the
lighting was right and then by the time I remembered, our camera died a few
minutes later.
But let's face it- Cole
and I never take very many pictures anyways.
So what do you do when you have five days on the Vegas Strip and you don't
drink, club or gamble? You see a lot of shows, bump up your restaurant budget,
site-see, nap and revel in the fact that there are no diapers or screaming
babies that need your attention.
The Shows:
Our big budget shows were Ray Romano/Kevin James and Elton John.
We also saw two cheaper shows, V-The Ultimate
Variety Show and Defending the Caveman.
All were excellent.
We saw
Romano/James the first night. We booked
our tickets ahead of time online, which I highly recommend if you know what
shows you want to see and especially if they are headliners. You won't find better deals then online early
on. We found out some people paid well
over $200 for their tickets but we got away for $119 a ticket. The opening act was (can't remember his name)
a guy that played Doug's (Kevin James)...cousin I think on King of Queens. He was pretty good. Ray was the best (in our opinion)- his jokes
were mostly based around family scenarios, which is where we are in our life
right now so that resonated most with us.
Kevin did a lot of fat jokes like usual.
Still funny. Then at the end they
did a combo bit together and then a Q&A.
Even though we paid a lot for the tickets we felt we got quite a bit for
our money.
Side Note: They were a late show that started after the Terry Fator show, so we
saw the Terry Fator audience come out and buy their souvenirs. We heard everyone raving about that show, so
also a good show for your money.
Elton John was the next night- he puts on an amazing show- and we're not even
die hard Elton John fans, we had just heard the show was good. Again, he's expensive, book ahead- cheapest
you are probably going to get booking ahead is around a hundred a ticket. Not really a bad seat in the house
though. Our favourite part was all the
live instrument accompaniment. It was
quite a long set list, too. I didn't
feel jipped at the end.
 |
Ridiculous- Can you see the baby that is only 8 weeks
old in the womb? I sure can! 8 weeks- come on! |
V-The Ultimate Variety Show was where all the old timers go
when they have been bumped out by younger entertainers.
It was an awesome show though- very funny,
lots of different acts and these guys are no slouches just cause most of them
have hit 40.
These tickets are often
given away with Timeshare Packages.
If
you know you are not going to any promotional events, all your show tickets are
cheaper online and if you know what you want to see on what night, you will
save some money booking ahead.
We got
ours through a Timeshare pitch.
Defending the Caveman was a comedy show about the differences between
men and women in a marriage relationship.
Very funny- very pro marriage.
A
little language if that bothers you.
Probably
one of the only guys on the strip promoting monogamous marriages though.
When booking your shows ahead of time check
sites like halfpriceshows.com- you can find some good deals there for the
smaller shows and it's totally legit.
We
did that for Caveman.
The Food:
I did A LOT of research before we left since I knew we'd be overwhelmed when we
got there.
I mean how else are you
supposed to pick where to eat if you actually care about the quality of food when
there are so many options.
We did a mix
of less and more expensive meals.
But we
did go prepared to spend some money since we were staying on the strip and
everything is a little pricier there.
Here is a quick rundown of the places we went to:
Earl of Sandwich: In Miracle Mile Mall/Planet Hollywood- fresh made sandwiches
under $7.
Always a long line but moves
pretty fast.
Great for a breakfast
sandwich, lunch or late night snack.
Table 10: In the Palazzo.
Probably the
cheapest of Emeril Lagasses' restaurants on the strip.
I can tell you the gumbo and the Po' Boys are
all great options for lunch that won't break the bank.
Flavour forward.
Cafe Ile St Louis: In Paris.
Our big
dinner out.
Soo good and if you show up
early enough you may be lucky like us and avoid the lines.
We considered this place affordable in the
pricier options.
We had the cheese
fondue, duck l'orange, filet mignion, and crème Brule.
All so delicious.
I also hear Mon Ami Gabi is excellent and we
were going to go there but Cole wanted duck and they didn't have that.
Trattoria Reggiano: A tiny Italian cafe in the Venetian we happened to walk by
the day before and thought the food looked amazing so we went back for lunch
the next day.
The pizza and pasta we had
was great and looking at other people's tables there didn't look like there was
a bad order to be made.
KGB: Burger place in Harrah's.
We had to
hit a gourmet burger place while in Vegas- we're burger people.
Excellent burger and fries.
Good way to cut down on a dinner bill one
night.
Pampas Churrascaria: Miracle Mile Mall- our only disappointment the whole trip when it came to dining. But we pretty much got the meal for free through the Timeshare package. It was supposed to be an upscale buffet- 5 star dining they say. I'd give it 2.5 stars but the prices are steep so don't get pulled in by anyone saying this place is great. If you love buffets and you want to pay $50/person for that experience then, yes, I'm sure you'll love it.
Canaletto: Fine Dining inside the Venetian.
We were seated outside the restaurant (still
inside the Venetian) near the Canal and some opera performers.
Very pricey but the best pasta of my life.
We had the gnocchi and the ravioli for
lunch.
The only thing that could have
made this place better would have been a homemade focaccia on the table like
Victoria's Pagliacci's instead of store bought bread and buns.
But the pasta was sensational.
Fresh made that day.
So elegant.
California Pizza Kitchen: Inside the Mirage on the Casino floor.
Great pizza, good prices.
Thin crust was best.
Serendipity's:
We only had dessert here
but in case you haven't tried frozen hot chocolate..you should know about
it.
So yummy.
We had the mint one.
Pretty pricey for a drink but share it and
enjoy!
Site Seeing/Touristy Stuff:
We saw all the big casinos and resorts and the typical sites on the strip. Paris and Venetian were probably our
favourite. We really wanted to ride the
roller coaster at NYNY but pregnant people aren't allowed on roller coasters so
that counted me out. We got one of those
caricature drawings of ourselves from the Miracle Mile Mall. That was a great souvenir. We spent one day at the pool- it happened to
be the windiest day we were there but oh well.
It ensured we were the only ones in the pool. Like serious wind storm- full deck lounge
chairs blowing around.
On Saturday (we didn't see it around any other day) we witnessed some street
gambling. That was super
interesting. People were set up along
the streets in the day with card tables, a tiny red pompom ball and bottle caps
and they did the where is the ball routine.
It was really interesting watching the routines and when they decided to
con somebody and then would quickly leave while the person would scratch their
head and the "security detail" would clean up the stuff before anyone
could get violent. Super interesting-
but keep your money in your wallet.
Don't get sucked in. Super high
stakes and mostly they will trick you.
Awesome sociological observations though.
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| Fully dressed, completely drunk guy wading through the fountain for change |
Bellagio fountain is a great free site to see.
Do it at night. Do it more than
once even. The Fall of Atlantis show at
Caesar's was no good. I hear the Sirens
show at the Pirate Ship is good but we never made it. Volcano at Mirage is kind of cool. Rainstorm in Miracle Mile was ok- probably
way more interesting if you don't come from the North West Coast.
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| Inside a Sports store in Caesar's Palace |
Timeshares:
If you want people to stop bugging you about signing up for these you have a
few options: ignore them, tell them you're already signed up, don't walk too
close to your partner when you see them (they look for married couples), or
sign up. We tried it. I would only recommend it if you are actually
interested in finding out more or wanting to buy. We went for the free stuff- wasn't worth
it. Waaay longer than I could have
imagined and I was even expecting to be there for a while. If you do go, and you know you don't want to
buy- don't argue numbers with them- they don't really care if you can afford it or now, tell them
you don't like the property and be adamant you don't like what they're showing
you...even if you do. But if you are
interested in a Timeshare, the one we went to had some good options. We were the only people from our group who
didn't buy- so you can imagine how much they liked us.
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| Our caricature drawing |
It was so nice to get away before our family grows and to have some time away
from K. We had never done a vacation of
this scale together so that was exciting all on its own. K 's face when we picked her up was priceless. She looked so relieved and surprised and
almost devastated. You could tell she
didn't know we were ever coming back and was so glad we had. It's hard when you leave your child that is
old enough to understand you're gone but not old enough to explain you'll be
back.
