January 12th, 2014
Las Vegas, NV
We spent a full day exploring Las Vegas. Our very healthy morning breakfast consisted of froyo (I put mostly healthy toppings on!) for me and a smoothie for Leah in addition to our usual coffees. We were both shocked at the vast number of Starbucks in the area, as well as the expensive prices of food and drink in general!
We set off through the MGM Grand first of all. For the record, this place smells AMAZING!! They surely must infuse their air with vanilla or something. We were impressed with the cool looking Rainforest Cafe, and Leah got a squished penny, which was pretty exciting.
We continued down the strip and were duly awed by the Bellagio (amazing blown glass and Chinese New Years garden, plus the fountains), and Caesars Palace, which is home to the Colosseum, where Celine Dion plays her shows here. The casinos are well decorated and quite clean, however, the smoking inside thing is really enough to make me not interested in spending any length of time in them.
By this time we were rather hungry, so we made our way over to Planet Hollywood, which has Gordon Ramsay’s BurGR in it. We waited for not too long and soon sat down for a well-deserved lunch. It took what felt like foreverrrrr for someone to come over to the table, and when it was it was some other guy, not our actual server. We choose pudding shakes (#4 and #5), which were AMAZING and so decadent as our drinks. When our waiter finally appeared he seemed not the friendliest of guys, to be honest, and we registered our order of Earth Burger (me) and Hell’s Kitchen (Leah). Burgers here run about $14-18 apiece NOT including sides of any sort. Leah was also keen on trying the sweet potato fries which had a delicious sounding sauce and seasonings. When our burgers finally arrived, they were good but I wouldn’t say anything to write home about. Somewhere along the line, our fries ended up getting missed, which turned out ok because we were both so full. Our waiter never checked in with us to see how things were, and so overall I was pretty unimpressed with BurGR. Go elsewhere, I’d say!
We took a quick rest break at the hotel after that, then headed out to the Celine show. It was AMAZING. Her voice is SO good still and she is quite the showman. Definitely worth every penny!
After the show, we watched the fountain/volcano explode at the Mirage, and explored the inside of the Venetian a bit. We thought about going up the Eiffel Tower, but it was $20! Couldn’t quite justify that one…
On our walk back to the hotel, we stopped in for a roadie. They have adorable mini bottles of wine, which seem to make the perfect mobile bevvy. As we walked down the street, a stranger said, “Be careful, it starts with the little bottle of wine!” Haha! Sadly(?) (Wisely?), we passed on clubbing for another little bottle of wine and some cheese with our poor blistered feet kicked up in the hotel.
Las Vegas can be summed up as follows: ostentatious, extravagant, often obnoxious, excessive, and glittery. It’s the land of plenty and the land of none. I can safely say I think I can live quite happily never returning to this place, although it was amusing while here.
tRNscontinental 