VEGAS, baby!!

Well, this post was going to be labeled "Mexico, baby!" but plans changed. Mark got laid off about a month ago. It's turned out to be a huge blessing in disguise. He was accepted in to an intense (Software) Developer's Boot Camp program and will changing careers come this Fall when his schooling is complete. So excited for him! So our week long Mexican vacation felt like a little much now that we are a one income family. The best solution was changing our flights and going to one of our fave destinations, Vegas!

We just luuuurve Vegas. It's sensory overload so a quick vacay is all you need. We returned to the MGM because our stay there in 2011 was awesome and their pools are some of the best on the strip.

 We got to the hotel and immediately changed in to our suits. It was HOT and the pool was callin'.

 

This trip we decided to book a show every night. It gave us something to plan around and look forward to. Living Social (Vegas) helped us score deals on two of our three shows and, when we booked our hotel with Travelocity, we scored a deal on the 3rd show. Yeah baby.

Night 1 we went to see a Michael Jackson impersonator. It was incredible! Mark wanted to sit just far enough away that we couldn't tell he didn't look exactly like MJ. Success! Coulda fooled us. Good times.

 The next day brought 4 hours of pure relaxation. If you haven't gone to Vegas during the week (we went Mon-Thurs but usually go Thurs-Sun), you need to do it! The pools were so slow and everything was a little less busy. We scored seats right by this little ledge and ordered lunch poolside so we didn't have to stop reading and laying out. I read two books this trip. Very rare for me!

 We almost missed KA. I had times screwed up but thankfully it was in our hotel so we booked it down there and made the show. Phew! It was AMAZERS. Seriously fabulous. This comes from people who have seen a lot of Circ du Soleil shows. Here's a little of the set:

 I didn't gamble much this trip except for this super fun penny slot. Mark said if you are going to play penny slots, you might as well enjoy good music. My max was $20. We lost it all but spent awhile losing it since we kept winning (then playing it and losing). Regardless, fun stuff.

 We didn't do a lot of nice sit down restaurants. We have in the past but we were watching the dollars so, after KA, we hit up Wolfgang Puck's restaurant. It didn't disappoint. Best salad EVER.

Next day, more pool time. More lunch and tasty frozen drinks poolside. More relaxation and more happiness. :) Oh, and a fabulous nap in there too! 

Our last night we were seeing Mystere. We decided to taxi down there (broke my pinky toe on day 1 so I couldn't walk as much as I usually do and Mystere was at the other end of the strip). We arrived early enough to figure out a place to eat. We weren't impressed with the hotel choices so we ventured out on to the strip. We weren't totally sure where we were but walked out to find we were steps from our favorite Vegas sushi joint, RA! Best.discovery.ever. We haven't missed a RA stop in our last 3 trips. It was delish as always.

 The famous "Vegas Roll" (okay, famous to us):

 "Hot Mess" as introduced to us by my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. It's balls of rice battered and fried with ridiculously yummy toppings. (Drooling as I type):

As always, we had a blast. Until next time...