Vegas Anniversary Trip, Part Two

The second half of our trip started out with a forgettable dining experience: Le Village Buffet at the Paris. But we fueled up for another day of exploring the Strip. And at least the coffee was decent.

We walked over to the Bellagio yet again after breakfast and, lo and behold, they were finally finished switching the conservatory over to Christmas. It was beautiful!

We left the Bellagio and walked over to the Aria (pretty), then through the Shops at Crystals (expensive), then all the way down to New York New York, where we rode the roller coaster (aggressive). Then we made our way back to Planet Hollywood and stopped in at Gordon Ramsay’s Burger to have a late lunch. It was one of the best burgers I’ve ever had, not to mention the curry and chipotle ketchups. Yum.

After that, we walked next door to Beer Park at the Paris, where we met up with Jerry and Dot again to watch the rest of the Saints game against the Panthers. The Who Dats won!

We said goodbye to Jerry and Dot and headed back to the Cosmo. The hotel turned one of their rooftop pools into an ice skating rink for the season, and our room came with free skating passes. It was so much fun!

 

 

Then it was back to our room to quickly change and set off again for dinner and another show. We went to Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill in Caesar’s first. Grilled lamb tacos to start, and then mango and spice crusted tuna with pine nut cous cous for me and spice rubbed pork tenderloin with a sweet potato tamale for Kenny. Add in one regular margarita and one cactus pear margarita, and we were set. It was all SO good.

 

We walked from Caesar’s to the MGM Grand (detouring through the Bellagio to check out the conservatory at night and also marveling at the Shops at Crystals all lit up), to see David Copperfield. Our seats were at a tiny table right up against the stage, which was cool but probably didn’t afford the best views. The show was a bit kitschy, but we enjoyed it. He did make a huge spaceship appear and fly over our heads and onto the stage, so that was something.

We shifted gears completely the next morning and took a tour to see the Hoover Dam. We picked up breakfast from Eggslut in the Cosmo (so good) and walked over to Bally’s to catch our ride for the day with Jason and Frank of Comedy on Deck. We had a great time. Jason was so personable and funny, the rest of our group was great, and seeing the dam up close and personal was amazing.

 

It was on our hour-long ride back from the dam that I decided to change our evening plans. We were supposed to eat dinner at Battista’s (another one of Cub’s recommendations) and have somewhat of a quiet night. But someone on the tour with us commented at lunch on how much they enjoyed seeing Cirque’s Le Reve at the Wynn. Faced with the tempting proposition to go back to Parasol Down, we abandoned our original plans and decided to spend my last evening in Vegas at the Wynn.

But we first had to switch hotels. We moved from the Cosmo to the Flamingo, where Kenny stayed while he attended his conference. Our room had another great view, this time of the High Roller. In fact, we decided to go for a spin on it before we headed to the Wynn. We didn’t quite make it on before sunset, but the nighttime 360-degree views were really amazing. It took about 30 minutes to go all the way around.

We caught an Uber to the Wynn to save time and immediately installed ourselves at a table at Parasol Down. And we were even treated to a few water shows taking place in the Lake of Dreams (didn’t know it was called this until I looked it up!), which happen every half hour from dusk until midnight. We were both pretty surprised when a giant frog emerged from the back of the waterfall wall and started singing to us. That was strange. But the second show, with the two floating balls, was really cute.

We shared a few small plates at Parasol Down and then took our second round of drinks to go and headed to the Wynn Theater and Le Reve. This show was so very different from ONE, in large part because it was entirely water-based. It was incredibly cool and impressive. I’m so glad we saw it.

There were even pretty decorations outside of the theater, and, strangely enough, and very colorful and shiny statue of Popeye.

 

We reluctantly left the Wynn and walked back to the Flamingo. I had a very early flight and still needed to pack, but we did stop in and see the live flamingos in the hotel’s rear garden before going up to our room.

 

And with that, our epic, much-needed anniversary getaway came to a close. I flew out at 7am the next morning, while Kenny stayed another two days for his conference. I waved to the Grand Canyon as we flew over it on our way back to NOLA and jumped right back into my mom role almost as soon as the plane’s wheels touched the tarmac. It was really nice having Kenny all to myself, but I sure did miss my boys.

Thank you for such a wonderful trip, Ken. It was definitely one for the memory books. I love you!