Alisha's Little Corner of the World: Vegas Baby!

So remember how I won a trip to Vegas? No? Well I did. Back in November I won the "Waking up in Vegas" contest from the River. I'm pretty sure that it was one of the easiest contests on the planet. All I did was email them my name and phone #, then they picked people to call. They called ridiculously early (like 5:30 am) and when you answered the phone it sounded like a slot machine jackpot and all you had to do was stay on the phone through the sound and then you qualified to win. So the day they called me, I guess the first person didn't answer and the second person they called hung up. I was lucky enough to be on my elliptical when they phoned me so I sounded like I was dying (with all my heavy breathing and gasping for breath) but they entered me anyway. After 10 people were qualified, they picked a # between 1 and 10 and called the corresponding qualifier ... which just happened to be me! Paxton had decided to be awake at 4:30 am that day so I was also already awake when they phoned me that time :S So I won a trip for 2 to Vegas which included flights and 2 nights accommodations at 1 of 5 fantastic hotels on the Strip. (I won't give you all the awesome details of this "free trip," but let's just say that it didn't cover the taxes and the fees and we had to fly out of Canada so I could have gotten a much better deal if I'd booked with a certain airline out of Great Falls like we did last time we went.) Anyway, with life being as crazy as it has been of late, it ended up that the mid-end of July was going to work out the best for us, and it just happens to be our 10 year anniversary next week, so despite it being the middle of summer in the desert we booked our trip.

Auntie Kinsey was fantastic enough to babysit Paxton and the dogs for us, so we headed up to Calgary on Tuesday night and stayed with Jay's step-sister, Mandy, for the night so that we wouldn't have to drive up at like 2 am the next morning to catch our flight. I enjoy travelling, I don't mind flying, but I don't know how people do it all the time. There is so much "hurry up and wait" and it's just so terribly annoying (especially when the person you're travelling with smokes so they want to wait as long as possible before going through security). Anyways, we got on our plane to Las Vegas and settled in for the 2 1/2 hour flight. (Let me interject here that my experience flying with Westjet was WAY better than my other experience flying with a Canadian airline. The last time I flew in Canada it was with Air Canada and every single one of the 4 flights I was on was late. (One of them was so late that we didn't take off from Vancouver until we were supposed to be landing in Calgary!) But our Westjet flights were on time. Yay!) I had a window seat on the way down and it was a pretty clear day so I got to see a lot of Montana, Idaho, Utah (I didn't realize how BIG the Great Salt Lake is. I know it's called a "Great" lake for a reason, but actually seeing all that water was a little crazy) and finally Nevada (it's equally crazy how there's just NOTHING around Las Vegas).

We finally landed and, being the super savvy travelers that we are, managed to pick up our bags and get tickets for a shuttle and find said shuttle all by our lonesome :) We stayed at Excalibur again, and the rumors are true: Tower 2 is decorated better than Tower 1. (Last time we went we were in Tower 2 and this time in Tower 1). But the room was clean and had AC and really, who cares what it looked like for the little time we were going to be in there.

Excalibur

View from our room

After a quick wardrobe change (I didn't want to wear the jeans I'd worn down there while walking around in the +40 temperature. I know so weird of me.) we headed over to MGM Grand to grab a Fat Tuesdays and our Cirque du Soleil tickets.

We did get a little lost trying to find Fat Tuesday (hey it's been 3 1/2 years since we were there last time!) but we found a lady who just LOVES Canadians who directed us where we needed to go and we made it. So, with tickets and whalebones in hand, we headed out to wander down the Strip. It was HOT. That's pretty much all there is to say about that. But we wound our way through the various casinos, dodged the lallygaggers and the "vultures", grabbed some Chinese for lunch, made a pit stop at Casino Royale to refill our whalebones ($1 margaritas!!! It takes 4 of them to refill your whalebone ... just a tip for future travelers) and finally reached our destination: the Venetian and specifically "David and Goliath's" (a funny t-shirt store). We picked up some shirts for Paxton and his friends, Carter and Alexander, and then headed back up the Stip to Excalibur. It's 2.2 miles one way (or about 3.5 km for Canadians), but that's just going straight and doesn't account for all the up and down stairs and weaving in and out of casinos. We were gone for 4 hours ... that's a LOT of walking!

Excalibur is the red circle on the left and Venetian is the red circle on the right.

But there was no stopping! After a quick shower and another wardrobe change we were on our way back to the MGM to see KA. It was amazing! The performers are fantastic, the theater is huge and it was a fabulous experience. Sadly, we weren't allowed to take pictures, but here's a link for a trailer. We'd had a really long and action-packed day so we decided to call it a night and head back to our room after the show.

Day 2 dawned a bit cloudy but hot again.

Ready to get our shopping on!

Since we'd done a lot of the "touristy" stuff on our first trip to Vegas we decided to hit up one of the outlet malls (and I also needed to pick up Auntie Kinsey's present for coming over at 6:30 am every work day during June so that I could be at work on time for training for my new job). We managed to spend quite a bit of money at the mall and I found a dress for Jackie's wedding so it was definitely time well spent. Back on the Strip we went out to "stage" some photos since we didn't take a single picture the first day we were there.

Yes, that is a Best Buy Vending Machine

Fountain at Mandalay Bay

Wine tower at "Aureole" one of the restaurants in Mandalay Bay (we're on the second floor looking at it)

Fat Tuesday at Mandalay Bay

KA Theatre

Fish tank outside the Rainforest Cafe (didn't eat there this time because it was crazy busy every time we went by it)

KA poster

New York, New York

The Strip in the daylight

Statue of Liberty made from Jelly Bellys

New York, New York casino

Excalibur

Ah moving sidewalk, how I love you!

Jay made me pose like I was sitting on the OCC Excalibur bike. I was terribly impressed

But he was more impressed that he had to hold my purse while I posed!

Lounge for people betting on sports games and horses at Excalibur

In my bathing suit ready to go down to the pool

The pool

It was sooooo hot that we actually just walked around to take some pictures and then went back up to our room to be in the AC!

The ridiculously long hallway between the elevators and our room. We were almost at the very end!

After our "tourist" shoot, it was back to Excalibur to get ready for dinner at Gordon Ramsay Steak. It was fantastic!!! We watch pretty much all of Gordon Ramsay's tv shows and when we heard that the winner of this season's "Hell's Kitchen" is going to be the executive chef at the restaurant we wanted to go there on our trip. I had the beef wellington and Jay had the Fillet with a baked potato and roasted mushrooms on the side. The food is just as amazing as everyone on tv says! It just melts in your mouth. And it's clearly super fancy ... they bring a "meat cart" to your table to explain to you what the different cuts of steak are and the wine menu on an iPad 3! It was definitely unforgettable and a fabulous anniversary dinner (even if it was a week early). The only bad part: Jay ordered a Ceasar even though I told him they wouldn't know how to make one ... and I was right! It was totally bland and there was definitely not enough Clamato juice in it

since it was more pink than red.

All ready to head down to Paris for dinner (in my new dress). So glad Jay convinced me to change out my heels into flats ... I seriously underestimated how far away it was!