Two weeks ago Am and I headed out to Las Vegas for a food vacation (no, not a vacation from food but a vacation solely dedicated to food). I had to be in Vegas for a finance conference and it seemed like a good opportunity to head out a few days early and to bring Am with me to check out the city. Neither of us had been before and Vegas definitely would not have ever made it onto the list of places we would want to go on vacation but they do have one thing that Am and I both love...great restaurants!
I know what happens in Vegas is supposed to stay in Vegas but I just can't bring myself to not share our experiences. Our first stop upon arrival was the hotel that we were staying at for the first two nights. We cashed in some of our Marriott Rewards points for a great room at the Cosmopolitan. Our room was incredible! It had a great bathroom with a huge glass shower (love those!), a jacuzzi (not that we used it), two big flatscreen tvs, and a balcony overlooking some of the strip. The coolest feature was that you could turn any light in the suite on or off (or dim them) using either the television or the alarm clock! You could control all of them at once, just the ones in an individual room, or an individual light. You could also change the temperature in the room and how hard the fan was blowing...all from the comfort of your bed. I could get used to that pampering! Here are some pictures of our hotel, our room, Am having roomservice lunch in bed, and us living the high life in our complimentary robes and slippers:
The primary purpose of our trip was, of course, to eat! We made a list of the restaurants owned by Am's favorite celebrity chefs before leaving but knew that we would only be able to hit a few of them. Our #1 priority was going to Mesa Grill which is owned by Bobby Flay but we kept being told that they were completely full. Friday night we decided to give Michael Mina's Seablue (in MGM Grand) a try. The food was great but VERY expensive and the restaurant requires business casual dress which is a pain when you are walking in very hot weather. Am went with the salmon and I went with the scallops. Here we are at Seablue:
The next morning we headed to the Paris Hotel & Casino to find some breakfast. We ended up at Mon Ami Gabi and ate out on the patio overlooking the Bellagio. The food was fantastic and very reasonably priced. We would recommend!
After breakfast we decided to just walk south down the strip to see the sites. Here are some pictures of us in various places on the strip:
Am with the Bellagio and Caesar's Palace in the background.
Am at the New York New York Casino.
Am at the Luxor Casino.
Next up was shopping and just hanging out at M&M World and the World of Coca Cola. We bought some really cool M&M souvenirs and tasted coke products from around the world. Unfortunately we thought we only had one baby on the way so we only bought one M&M baby outfit. I guess we are going to have to go back to get another! It was a very fun afternoon.
Am talked to her mom and found out that a lady that she used to work with has a son who works at the Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill in the MGM Grand. We found out he was working lunchtime on Saturday so we decided to do lunch there. We ate some great food and had fun meeting Jeremy. We were treated like royalty and left with very happy stomachs! Here is our feast and us posing with Jeremy:
We decided that we would go to one show while we were in Vegas. I gave Am the choice of which one we would attend and she decided on Elton John. Elton was playing at the Colosseum at Caesar's Palace (the Colosseum was built for Celine Dion). The concert was okay but not great. The band overpowered the piano on most of the songs and the sound just wasn't all that fantastic. If our expectations had been low, it probably would have been good. But our expectations were high and the concert did not meet them. Here we are before the concert (I still stink at taking a picture of the two of us without a tripod) and a picture from the concert:
Our final day was Sunday and it was a little more low key than the previous days. We moved from the Cosmopolitan to Caesar's Palace where my conference was taking place. We had some breakfast at Starbucks in Caesar's. We didn't get to the big Las Vegas sign so we had to settle for Am getting her picture taken with the Starbuck's Vegas sign:
Finally for lunch on Sunday we were able to get into Mesa Grill...and it was worth the wait! When we were in Ireland I had the best hamburger that I have ever had. Ever since then I have been on a quest to find as good a hamburger in the United States but every place I have tried has come up short. I didn't know much about Bobby Flay but I kept seeing articles about him and burgers so I decided to give it a try. And Bobby succeeded! The burger I had was unbelievably good! Our appetizer was great too. We had a great bowl of sweet potato soup. Here is our awesome soup and a picture of us at Mesa Grill:
After lunch we headed to the movie theater next to MGM. I know, I know, why would we go to a movie while in Las Vegas? We were totally and completely beat by this point and were wanting to see the new What to Expect When You're Expecting movie. The movie was hilarious and it was nice to get off our feet and out of the heat. After the movie we stopped back by the Paris Hotel & Casino to grab some crepes. I made the mistake of going the fruit route. Am went the nutella route and hers was way better! Here are the crepes:
By the end of Sunday we had hit a point where we were done with Vegas and ready to head back home. Unfortunately I had to send Am back without me so I could attend the conference. We can now check Vegas off our list. Neither of us really has a desire to go back (with the exception of Am's desire to go back with Veronica to see Celine Dion in concert) but now we can say that we have been there.
