Las Vegas

I was all sorts of prepared to hate Las Vegas.  Everyone always talks about how horrible of a place it is and whatnot, so I have never had the want to go to Las Vegas.  When we found an awesome Groupon deal, we couldn't pass it up and said why not...neither of us have ever been and lets just make this road trip longer.  :)  So we stayed at the Riviera, and had a BLAST.  We were only there for 2 nights, but we loved it.  We got there late at night, and I was surprised how many families there were with little children.  Then as we were there the next night, I realized why and I would totally take our kids there.  We walked from the Riviera to the main part of the strip (our first mistake) and it was SO hot...and a lot farther than we thought.  We ended up buying a bus pass for the day and took the bus everywhere.  We went into a lot of the hotels (probably more than Mark wanted to) and walked around a lot.  I loved the mall in Caesars Palace.  I could probably spend an entire day there.

 Just outside of Caesars Palace is Serendipity's.  And of course we had to try their famous "Frrrrrrrrrrozen Hot Chocolate".  It was DELICIOUS...and it probably tasted even better because we were so hot.  It was gone in a matter of seconds.

 We both are really in to Pawn Stars on the History Channel, so we decided to take the bus downtown to see the famous shop!  We were hoping to meet some of the stars (mostly Chum) but they weren't there.  It was still a neat experience to go into the shop and see some of the things that they have on the show.  It was smaller than we were expecting, but still cool.

 By dinner time we were STARVING but nothing we passed sounded good or was too expensive (I think there are 1,000 McDonalds on the strip...gross).  We finally saw this and jump off of the bus right away.  We were in heaven!  Mark's favorite place to eat, and my favorite place to eat RIGHT next to each other.  Can you guess who's is who's???

 After dinner we headed to Treasure Island to see the pirate show everyone talks about.  Seen it...now I don't have to stand in a massive crowd to see it again.

 Next door at the Mirage was the Volcano Eruption, so we headed our way down the strip from Treasure Island to the Mirage (along with 500 other people) and saw the volcano erupt.  Again, seen it, now I don't have to see it again.

 We headed over to the Belagio to watch the fountains.  We were on the side of the pond where our backs were to the hotel, and we were facing the strip.  On a big screen straight ahead was the Olympics!  We were SO happy!  We didn't get to watch as much of the Olympics as we had liked to, so we were stoked to see it even if we couldn't hear it.  We stayed there for a good hour to watch the Olympics and the fountains.  It was perfect and I probably could have stayed there longer.

 I loved this artwork on the ceiling that you saw as soon as you walked into the Belagio.  My mom informed me that it is all one piece...how crazy is that?!!

 I was fascinated with the ceiling and took a lot of pictures...

 We went to the garden in the Belagio.  Next time we go to Vegas, I want to stay here!  I could have spent an entire day here and been completely content never leaving the hotel.

 Of course we had to go to the M&M factory to see what that was all about.  If I were a kid, I think I would have been in heaven.  4 floors of M&M things!!!  CRAZY!

It was so fun and I think since I ignored all of the bad things that go on there, I had even more.  I literally didn't even notice the bad stuff that everyone warned me about.  I think I was too much in awe at all of the lights and crazy expensive things...haha.  We had so much fun but I think next time we head to Las Vegas, we will do MUCH less walking and a lot more swimming.  :)