Weekend Getaway

Dave and I had a fun and much needed weekend getaway. Poor Dave has been working so hard on his Master's Degree (not to mention the millions of other jobs he has) and I've been sick and cooped up in the house all winter, so we took a quick trip to Las Vegas together. Dave's sister was very generous and took the kids. They had a blast staying with their cousins, so it was just the two of us on our getaway.

We were busy the whole time we were there. There is SO much to do in that city! Bria asked us to take pictures of EVERYTHING, so we ended up with a little over 200 pictures from our trip. (I love digital cameras!) Obviously, that would take me WAY too long to add to our blog, so I thought I would just talk about our favorite parts of the trip.

Our Hotel:

We stayed at the Stratosphere. It was a way cool hotel, but a little far away from everything. The coolest thing about the Stratosphere is the huge observation tower they have. It is apparently the largest observation tower in the US and the largest free standing structure this side of the Mississippi. The actual tower is just over 1000 feet above the Strip, but the highest we went was 866 ft (the extra 200 feet are reserved for thrill rides, that honestly, I probably would NEVER have ridden, even without the pregnancy excuse!)

The coolest part about staying at the Stratosphere is hotel guests could go up to the observation deck for FREE (normally it would have been $15.95 for each of us), so we spent a lot of time gazing out over the city.

Going to see The Phantom

The Venetian Hotel has The Phantom of the Opera playing. It's a little different than the Broadway version - it's a little shorter. They took out all the dialog, so it was pretty much just singing. The hotel built a $50 million theater just to house The Phantom. It is AMAZING!!! The special effects in the show were INCREDIBLE! We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside the theater, so this is all we got. But, really an unforgettable experience!

The Bellagio Hotel & Fountains

The Bellagio is probably our favorite hotel. It would be amazing to actually get to stay there, but I doubt we will ever be able to afford to. But, in the meantime, it's fun to walk through. One of the very best things about the Bellagio is the fountain show they have outside. It is a HUGE fountain show that is choreographed to music and plays every 15 minutes at night. It's so fun just to stay and watch (especially since it's free!).

They also have an indoor Conservatory and Botanical gardens that are equally amazing (also another FREE thing to do)! It was SO crowded when we walked through, so we only got a few pictures. But, incredible!

The Buffet at Planet Hollywood

The food in Las Vegas is incredible! It's hard not to OVER eat. It seems like everywhere you go, there are restaurants galore! Our favorite this time was the buffet at the Planet Hollywood hotel. It was kind of by mistake that we found it. We were actually waiting across the street for the bus to go find a buffet at a different hotel when the screen in the front flashed an advertisement about their buffet. We decided it was MUCH closer and headed across the street. It was the most AMAZING buffet we've ever had. They had cuisine from all over the world. The set up was so cool. Each type of food has it's own section with a chef on hand cooking everything fresh. We really wanted to find a place that had king crab legs. Dave had them a couple of years ago, but I've never tried them. So, we hit the perfect spot! Yum! I wish we could go back just to eat at the buffet!

At the Venetian Hotel

Each hotel is so incredible. The amount of money that goes into building them has to be enormous!! We spent a little bit of time walking through the Venetian and loved some of what we saw:

A human statue that we watched for a while. He was incredible. If his eyes didn't move, you would never know he was actually alive.

This is a part of the ceiling. Everything was so intricate everywhere, but we thought this was beautiful!

This is actually in the Palazzo Hotel, but it is pretty much just an addition to the Venetian. They are attached and owned by the same people. You can't tell from the picture, but there are pipes that have lights that look like raindrops.

The MGM Grand Hotel

At MGM, they had a CBS Television City where you could go and preview either an upcoming episode or a pilot that hasn't aired yet. Then, give your opinion. It was fun - and nice to sit down and get out of the sun. We previewed an episode of Rules of Engagement that comes on CBS. We love that show anyway, so if was fun to see an advanced episode!

(outside the MGM Grand Hotel)

We had such a good time on our trip. Almost too much fun! We both came home EXHAUSTED! It was nice to spend time with just the two of us. With the baby coming, it might be quite a while before we get another chance!