Vegas

We went to Vegas for the weekend to celebrate my birthday and had the best time. First of all, for all those that expressed concern that we were staying at Circus Circus, it was fine! I know it is a very budget hotel, but Nic and I have definitely stayed in much worse, and we were much happier spending the money we saved on a hotel room we were barely in on fun things like shows and meals! ;) Plus, they upgraded us to a really nice, large room overlooking the strip so it worked out quite well.

On Saturday morning, after a nice sleep in, we went to the champagne brunch buffet at the Paris Hotel. It was great! The champagne was actually really good (I'm not a fan of champagne usually) they had all the standard buffet food, plus the most delicious freshly made crepes! Yummy!!! After stuffing our faces and getting our drink on we went exploring the strip. We walked all the way down to New York New York before we decided to head back. Along the way we were handed a coupon for 50% off Viva Elvis tickets, which was perfect because a friend of ours is in the show and we were hoping to see it that night. After picking up our tickets at Aria we walked through Bellagio and watched the fountain show. Then grabbed a frrrozen hot chocolate at Serendipity before continuing our walk along the strip.

We went back to our hotel to get ready for our night out. We had a few drinks, got all dressed up in our costumes and then headed off for a fun night. We were dressed perfectly for Viva Elvis and I quickly realized how popular Marliyn is. We grabbed drinks at the bar then went in to enjoy the show. It was really fun to watch our friend and I really enjoyed the dancing, although both Nic and I wished there were more traditional "Cirque" acts in the show. They did use a ton of cool Elvis video footage and it was a very nicely done tribute show.

After the show we walked along the strip with our new friends Jack and the Colonel. They were hilarious and the walk from Aria to the Bellagio fountains might have been the highlight of the night. Every kid that saw Jack would get a sparkle in their eyes as if it were Santa on Christmas morning, point with excitement and exclaim, "Jack!"

After we watched the fountain show again (it is soooo good!) we walked along the street to Tao were we had dinner reservations. People shouted at me, took my picture, and honked there car horns at me. Eventhough my biggest fans seemed to be really old men, I was truly surprised by the overwhelming response I got for my Marilyn costume. :)

The line for Tao nightclub was insane! I have never seen anything like it! It stretched the width of the hotel and back numerous times and then curved around the corner! Thank goodness we had dinner reservations! We got a spicy tuna rice krispy appetizer and lobster potstickers to start off with. Then we got the delicious beef dinner to share. Thye give you raw beef and put this bowl of broth over a flame and you cook the beef in the broth then dip it in this delicious sauce. It is so unique, fun and delicious. Then we got a molten chocolate cake to top off the wonderful birthday dinner. After our 3 hour dinner event, we decided to check out the nightclub. It was insane!! Honestly, the entire place was packed from wall to wall with people. There was barely room to stand stick straight let alone dance. It was such a bummer because the atmosphere was great, the music was great, and it had the potential to be really fun!

The next morning we used our coupons from the hotel to ride the Circus Circus roller coaster for free! It was actually a really good rollercoaster. It had two loops, two corkscrews and was pretty scary! After that we checked out of our hotel, drove over to Mandalay Bay and walked around Mandalay and Luxor. I hadn't ever been to that end of the strip before so now I can say I have pretty much seen the entire strip. We met our friend Hailey, the one who is in Viva Vegas, for lunch at Burger Bar for lunch. It was amazing!! We got a nutella shake that was huge and so good. I got the chef's favorite menu item-the buffalo burger with carmelized onions, blue cheese, and spinach with a side of sweet potatoe fries. Nic got a black angus beef burger with cheddar cheese, bacon and grilled onions with a side of zucchini fries (these were my absolute favorite!) and Hailey got a healthy, but still delicious looking Cobb salad. It was really fun catching up with her and hearing all the behind the scenes info from the show. All in all it was a very fun weekend and a great way to celebrate my birthday!!!