Vegas

I had a girl's week-end in Vegas with my bestie and it was fabulous!    

I arrived before my friend and took a cab over to In-N-Out burger.  I am a kind of a fast food junkie and I wanted to see if this place was worth the hype.  It is, especially since I ordered from the secret menu.  I had a double double mustard grilled with a side of fries well done.  Super yummy!  Whataburger will always be my fav fast food but this is a close second.   

This was my view from a pool lounge chair.  It was hot and sunny and exactly what I was craving.  

After dinner we roamed around and were given tickets to get into a nightclub and have a drink for free.  Even in our wild and crazy college days, we weren't too big on nightclubs but free is free.  So, feeling a little old and a little unhip, we headed to the nightclub.  The hilarious part was that this club was mostly other suburban moms having a good time.  We had to laugh at ourselves.  The advantage of being two unescorted girls is that you get invited into all the clubs for free.  So throughout the week-end we checked out several and had fun people watching.  It's hysterical to watch drunk people dance on a bar, or at least we thought it was.        

I have been to Vegas a couple of times before, but was never able to convince Ryan to go to the wax museum with me.  Claire was all for it and it was the highlight of our trip.  We spent HOURS there, cracking ourselves up posing with the stars and taking pictures.  Click here to see the slide show.  I have a huge star crush on Matthew McConaughey.  He has his flaws, not marrying the mother of his children and not wearing deoderant among them.  But with that crooked smile and don't give a damn attitude, I just think he's adorable.  And that Texas drawl, oooohhhh!  If I could have heard his voice calling me darlin' I would have melted on the spot.

Not to miss out on a man-candy oppurtunity, Claire posed with her "Other Brad."  I think they make a great looking couple.  Angelina will probably sue me because I cut her out of the picture. 

And no trip to Vegas is complete without seeing at least one Elvis.   

This is the only gambling that we did, penny slots.  You guessed it, we both lost.  Ha!  Funny how I just didn't have the nerve to play blackjack without Ryan there to help me.  Math and probability are not my strong suits.    

We had left our schedule pretty open to allow us to actually have time to visit and bond.  Yes, we went to Vegas and didn't see any shows, hardly gambled and actually slept at night.  Crazy, I know.  But it was wonderful.  Sitting down with my friend to eat a meal where the only interruption was a waiter offering to refill my glass was heavenly.      

So maybe our champagne brunch at the Wynn turned into lunch and was edging towards dinner.  Perhaps we had too many refills.  Did I mention heavenly? 

We did manage to do a little shopping, but I'm unclear why I came home with nothing for myself!

Even though we stayed at the MGM, we seemed to spend a lot of time at the Venetian.  Thank goodness for the monorail.  Everything is a long walk in Vegas, I'm pretty sure the hallway to our hotel room was a half mile!   

All of the food in Vegas was delicious but I was most excited to try this Mario Batali restaurant and their extensive list of wines.  Our waitress recommended several wines which we proceeded to taste.  And of course, the wine I liked best came with a whopping price tag which I did not realize at the time.  We had wine, pizza, dessert and espresso.  My kind of meal and worth the price.    

We also dined with the Kardashian's at this famous Italian restaurant.  We didn't actually see them, but they were there on the same night we were.  Maybe we just didn't see them because we were dining outside and watching the Treasure Island show.  The crazy thing is that this night I got sick.  Apparently all of my overindulging on rich food had caught up with me.  Seriously!?  I have always had a cast iron stomach.  I just do not want to think that part of aging means that my days of eating anything and everything are over.  And no, I had not had too much to drink that night, it really was the food.  Maybe I am just out of practice, and I need to eat more french fries.  I can work with that.     

Our last night in Vegas we walked the long way back to our hotel.  The mega hotels are incredibly beautiful, especially at night.  We watched the Bellagio fountains from the Bellagio and it was breathtaking.  I love this angle looking at the Eiffel Tower with the fountains in front.       

The trip went entirely too quickly. I felt like there were so many things still for us to talk about without all the interruptions of our daily lives.  I'm so grateful that we both have wonderful husbands who can let us do fun stuff like this while they hold down the forts at home.  In fact, they did such a good job with the kids that maybe next year we can try New York.  Or maybe I shouldn't push my luck.  Claire left before I did and suddenly I was very homesick.  I just wanted to be back with Ryan and Tessa.  I suffered through by going to the spa before flying home.  A girl's gotta do what I girl's gotta do.