2015 – Vegas Spring Break

Kendra turned 21 on March 15, which happened to coincide with the beginning of her Spring Break. And that’s how we ended up planning a trip to Las Vegas.

Day 0 – Saturday

Our 2015 Spring break adventure began in Louisville on Saturday night. Kendra and I met downtown to have dinner before the Maroon 5 concert. We had reservations at BLU Italian Grille. Kendra had the chef’s special ravioli, which was pumpkin. It was delicious. I had the Salmon on apple squash risotto. Honestly, the risotto reminded me of apple oatmeal. It was good, but unexpected. The green beans were amazing, especially with the balsamic drizzle around the plate. The salmon was perfectly prepared – moist, flaky, and tender. For dessert, Kendra had the cannoli. The pastry was crisp, and the filling was rich and creamy. It was amazing. The cheesecake was very good, but nothing special. The service was friendly and attentive. We would definitely go there again.

After dinner, we walked to the concert, and arrived to see Rozzi Crane. She had an amazing range, and we predict that if she can get some hit songs, she can go far. During stage setup we took some selfies. We then got to see Magic!, the group that sings “Rude”. Magic! has a strong reggae vibe that we didn’t particularly enjoy. They are no Maroon 5 – spitting out hits left and right.

The Maroon 5 concert was amazing. It went by so quickly because we knew the words to every song, and there was very little “down” time. We got some great photos and video and had an amazing time. The concert got out around 11pm and we rushed out to beat traffic out of town. I was home by midnight.

On Sunday, I woke a little late (though I have been trying to adjust my sleep schedule), and rushed to get the dogs ready to go to the breeder’s house for boarding. I have been taking steps to sell my home and downsize, and took about a half hour in the morning to look at a rental home.

After Kendra arrived, we left on schedule at 11am to drive to Northern Kentucky. We made good time up the interstate and arrived at a friend’s house, where we parked the car and rode with him to have brunch at Virgil’s Cafe.

Virgil’s had a limited menu, but all of the chef’s creations were excellent. We started with a sweet potato fries appetizer, which was perfectly salted and included a sweet chili aioli sauce on the side. Kendra and I started our vacation with drinks – Kendra had a mimosa and I had a pomegranate martini. For brunch, we ordered the Bread Pudding French toast, Eggs Benedict, and Biscuits and Gravy. Everything was served with fried potatoes and a small bowl of fruit. For dessert, we ordered the creme brûlée, which was decent, but the only thing that we had that wasn’t great. Virgil’s is located in an old house, which has lots of charm. The service was slow, so don’t go here if you’re in a hurry, but overall, it’s worth the time. I would definitely go here again.

After brunch, we went directly to the airport and didn’t have long to wait for our flight. We had booked a direct flight to Las Vegas out of Cincinnati (technically Northern Kentucky) on Allegiant. The Allegiant flight boarded pretty early, and because we were int he Priority boarding group, we were the first people on the plane – in our window seat in row 7.

The flight was four hours long and was pretty miserable. We had decent leg room on the flight, but the seats would not recline. Our necks and backs were pretty unhappy. Also, we bought a water in the airport and packed snacks, so we were pretty prepared and it didn’t cost us anything on the flight, since Allegiant charges for all drinks and snacks in-flight. I spent the flight listening to an audiobook. (Yay, Audible!) Kendra spent most of the flight working on her studies. She had packed some schoolbooks and her MCAT study materials. I had one of her larger books packed into my carryon.

When we landed in Las Vegas, we hurried through the airport to get to the rental car place. We quickly found out that you have to wait in a ridiculously long line to take a shuttle to the rental car. After waiting in line around 5 minutes, seeing several rental car shuttles go by, and barely moving up around 5 people, we left to take a taxi to the rental cars. We got a taxi almost immediately, paid about $15, and were able to walk straight up to get a car. We learned that people often waited 2 hours to get from the airport to the rental car place. When we left the counter, there were a dozen people in line behind us.

I had reserved a standard car around 6 months ago from Budget. They did not have a standard car, and offered us a mini van for the same price, or a downsize for 10% off. We took the downsize and got a Mazda 3. They gave us no directions to the parking garage and we had to walk a long way. When we got in the car, it smelled like old smoke. Not terribly, but it was slightly annoying. Not annoying enough to walk back and get the Kia Forte that was available. If it would even still be available.

We were able to find our resort easily, and avoided most of the sales pitch to get to our room. We were in building Daisy #4, room 1908 B. The room was a well laid-out 1BR condo, with a full kitchen, open to the dining/family room. The bedroom had a king bed, closet, jetted tub, huge bathroom with closet and double sink, and a stacked laundry closet. We loved it. We unpacked quickly and wen out to get dinner and groceries.

For dinner, we went to the Mandalay Bay resort to have burgers at a great Burger Bar. We used Google Maps to get to the resort, then followed signs to Self Park. We walked through the casino and up and around and found the small Burger Bar.

There was a wait on a Sunday night, and we sat at the bar to get served right away. We started with mozzarella sticks that were good with mediocre marinara. We ordered a sangria and a chocolate mint alcoholic milkshake. For dinner, we had burgers. Kendra ordered a Kobe beef burger on a wheat bun with chipotle mayo, asparagus, pepper jack, and bacon, and a side of skinny fries. I had a Kobe beef burger with jack and cheddar on a sesame bun and a side of zucchini fries. The burgers were good and tasted chargrilled.

Kendra LOVED her sangria. My drink was fantastic. Both drinks were beautiful. I would go back just for the zucchini fries (with ranch). The burgers were good, but I’m not a fan of chargrilled burgers. If we go back, I would try the buffalo burger – several people at the bar were talking about it. We would definitely repeat our drinks and sides.

Overall, I recommend the sangria and frozen drinks, get a basic burger and try some fun stuff that you’ve never had on a burger, and try the zucchini fries with ranch. We will definitely go back if we can squeeze it in.

After dinner, we walked around and looked at the shops in Mandalay Bay. Then we went to the casino. We put a $20 bill in a slot machine and played for a few minutes. We then slot-machine-hopped until the money was gone. We discovered that Kendra is no more a fan of gambling than I am. We’ll try some roulette and card games later.

We went to the local Vons grocery store and picked up some food and supplies – under budget.

Back in the room, parking was a little tough at 10pm. In the room, the bed was not great. It wasn’t a hard, cheap bed, but it wasn’t terribly comfortable, and as Tempur-Pedic users, we tossed and turned all night.

On Monday morning, we slept in (tossed and turned) until around 7am (10am EDT). We got up, had breakfast, showered, Kendra did homework, and I messed around on the computer. At 10:45, we left to go to lunch at the Stratosphere.

We arrived at the Top of the World restaurant on the 106th floor of the Stratosphere at 11:20am for our 11:30 reservation. They were not ready to begin seating for lunch, and invited us to go up to the observation deck while we waited. We enjoyed the beautiful view and took lots of photos of Vegas.

We were promptly seated by a window (it was easy to get a window seat that early), and brought us water, bread, and a drink menu. I had the Salted Karamel Apple-Tini, and Kendra had the Blue-Tini. For lunch, Kendra had a grilled cheese and I had the grilled chicken sandwich with brie and apples. The grilled cheese was delicious. The grilled chicken was disappointing. The dijon dominated the sandwich and I didn’t taste the apples at all. I would have preferred a mild aioli on the sandwich and some crisp, thin-sliced apples to compliment the brie. The chicken was high-quality, but again, it was overwhelmed by the dijon. We ordered fries with both sandwiches, and they were amazing. They were the perfect blend of regular fries and seasoned curly fries. The seasoning was well-balanced and the fries were perfectly prepared. For dessert, we ordered the lemon bar cheesecake. The bottom layer is a thin lemon bar, and the upper layer is a thick section of lemon cheesecake. It comes with a strong sauce on the dish. Kendra loved it with the cheesecake, and I preferred the cheesecake alone. The lemon was perfect – not too tart and not too sweet. We loved it.

The service was friendly and helpful. The service was a little slow, but it does take 1:05 (one hour and five minutes) for the restaurant to rotate around the 360-degree view, and we weren’t in a rush anyway.

Overall, the view of Vegas from Top of the World at lunch was fantastic, the food was great (some disappointing and some knock-your-socks-off delicious), and the service was very good. We would go here again.

After lunch, we had planned to go to the neon museum, but the tickets were sold out. Instead, we went to Circus Circus and checked out the Adventuresome. We were surprised at the number of kids running around. We did ride the El Loco roller coaster – twice. We walked around and looked at the shops, and became increasingly grumpy about people standing in groups blocking walkways. We then came back to the Grandview resort for a little afternoon siesta.

On a friend’s recommendation, we went to the Wynn Buffet for dinner. The buffet spanned several rooms and contained almost anything you could want. And then some. We ate as much as we could handle, sampling so many things. So. Much. Food. The food was good. The desserts were amazing.

After dinner, we left the Wynn and went to the Venetian for our show. The Venetian was beautiful. This has been by far our favorite resort. We walked along the canal inside, looked at the shops, and booked a gondola ride for the next day.

We had tickets for the Rock of Ages show at the Venetian. We went straight in, and our seats were upgraded from the second section back/right Row A to front/center Row G. Kendra sat down and I got in line for drinks. The line was really long and there were only two bartenders. I managed to get us a couple of Bartles and James wine coolers to watch the 80’s rock parody. We had a great time. Kendra commented that the show is better than the movie. Fair warning: it’s a little raunchy, but hilarious.

After the show, I dropped Kendra off at Mandalay Bay / Delano, where a group of her friends were staying. Kendra had the shuttle schedule to return to our resort, and promised that her friends would walk her to the shuttle stop. The last shuttle ran around 1am, and she barely woke me when she came in.

We woke early and were on the road to Zion National Park by 7:15. Kendra slept from Vegas and through most of Arizona. We arrived at the park around 10:00 am. We had a plan for the day:

My research told me that the scenic drive was open until April, but it was already closed and available to shuttles only. When we got to the park, signs indicated that we would have to park in the town because parking in the park was full. We decided to drive through and do the highway and tunnel first. We enjoyed an amazing drive up through the winding switchback roads, with another amazing view around every turn, and occasional wide areas to pull over and photograph.

The Canyon Overlook Trail parking is IMMEDIATELY to the right after you exit the tunnel. We drove right past it before we realized, much like other people, I suspect. We drove around for a bit and then came back to park within sight of the tunnel. From there, we walked to the trail.

The Canyon Overlook Trail begins with a climb up the side of the mountain. Occasionally, there are rails, but you have to pay attention to where you are stepping during 90% of the hike. To enjoy the scenery around you, you have to stop. We took lots of photos of this hike. Every turn around a bend produces a different view. Approximately halfway through the hike is a bend in the trail that goes under a rock overhang. It was cool, had fantastic views, and had some big rocks that made it a perfect place for a picnic. We packed sandwiches and chips and enjoyed the view with our lunch.

The trail is rocky and uneven, and you will climb 163 feet. We were tired and winded, but kept going because if the views were so amazing along the trail, the ending “canyon overlook” must be stupendous. It was worth the walk. We were hot and sweaty, but sitting in the shade on a cool rock was so relaxing. The view was crazy good. We felt like we were on top of the world. This was really the “high” point of our entire vacation.

Climbing back down the path was tougher than going up. We really had to watch our footing on the sand-dusted rocks.

Overall, the Canyon Overlook Trail was more than worth the hike, but it’s a little tough. I would not recommend this trail for people with bad knees or a heart condition.

Later, when we were back in the car enjoying the AC and planning our next hike, we learned that the Canyon Overlook was a moderate trail, but we still felt like it was worth it, and would recommend the trail.

After the hike, we drove back through the tunnel and down the winding highway. We particularly enjoyed looking back up to Canyon Overlook from below. As we drove back out of the park towards town, we looked for a convenient parking place near a shuttle pick up. We asked someone in the park entry area, and they gave us inaccurate information. There are two shuttle systems. The first is the town shuttle that picks people up at various town stops and drops them off next to the Zion Canyon Theatre. From there, you must walk over the river and through the woods to the Zion Canyon Visitors Center to access the park shuttle.

We had reviewed the original plan and had decided to do only two more hikes, in deference to sore muscles, tiredness, and blisters. We decided to do the Court of the Patriarchs and the Riverside Walk that leads to the Narrows hike. We were hoping for some beautiful areas to photograph.

Court of the Patriarchs was a quick paved path up the side of the mountain from the shuttle stop to give a fantastic view of the three large mountains. From there, we continued on the shuttle to the Temple of Sinawava to the Riverside Walk.

We do NOT recommend this hike. It was long and boring. I’m from the mountains, and the river walk was basically a paved walkway along a river in the mountains. The big difference was the cliffs going up. Unfortunately, after the Canyon Overlook with its stunning views, the cliffs were also pretty boring. We would only walk this trail again if we had gear and plans to hike the Narrows. If you’ve seen photos from the Narrows, you can’t see any of those amazing views on this hike. Boring.

After we walked back out of the trail, took the shuttle, and made our way back to the car, we drove the 3-hour return trip to our resort. On the way, Kendra got on Urban Spoon and found a highly-rated restaurant for dinner.

At some point during the day when we didn’t have service, we received a text message from the Eiffel Tower Restaurant telling us that if we wanted to guarantee a window seat for Wednesday’s dinner, we would need to move our reservation to 5pm. Given our plans, I did not respond, instead keeping our planned reservation time.

On the way back to our resort, we stopped at Yanni’s Greek Grill. They didn’t have a restroom, and we had to walk up to Del Taco to do our business after the hiking hydration and three hours in the car.

We ordered gyros and garlic feta fries to go. The restaurant was a little hole in the wall place – which, of course, I love. When we got our food, I asked for ketchup for my fries. The poor guy looked insulted. He gave me ketchup and told me that I really didn’t need it. That the fries much more without it.

Back in the room, we opened our boxes to find HUGE gyros that were hot and exactly how we ordered them. They were amazing. I would have preferred a little more tzatziki sauce, so if I went there again, I would order an extra side. Both the lamb and chicken gyros were delicious, and we weren’t able to finish them. The fries were perfectly crispy and tender, and were drizzled with a slightly spicy garlic sauce and tasty chunks of feta cheese. Yum!

Overall, the service was good, the restaurant was small but clean, the carryout process was easy, and the food was great. We would eat here again.

Back in the room, we were so exhausted that we watched a little TV and went to bed.

We woke a little early and Kendra did homework and I messed around on the computer. We got ready, ate breakfast, and headed to the strip before 8:30.

We had tickets to the CSI Experience in MGM at 9:00 AM, and got there about 10 minutes early.  When it opened, we were the first people inside, and managed to beat a group of 9. The “experience” included three cases. For each case, you view the scene that contains evidence, then you go through to each CSI station, then you meet with the “medical examiner”, then you go to computers at the end and give your “report”.

We were sent through Case #1, which was the scene of an accident, where a car had crashed through the wall of a living room. There were lots of details to view in this scene. Kendra and I looked at the scene separately, then compared notes. We also decided to determine a theory based on the evidence available in the room. My theory turned out to be very close.

The CSI stations were each computers that basically walked you through the physical evidence, and included things like DNA comparisons, fingerprinting, etc. We discussed our theories after this step, and then visited the “medical examiner”, that was a video. After that, we talked about our theories again, and went to give our reports. We had taken very detailed notes so that we could report accurately.

It really wasn’t necessary. In the “report”, they actually give you more evidence and walk your through the findings in a multiple choice setup. It was pretty sad. They really dumbed it down. We completed the report and got our “certificate” emailed to us. It took us 45 minutes to complete the first case.

We had gotten glimpses of the other cases and wanted to do those as well. There was a deal to do the two other cases for $9.99, so we coughed it up and did them as well.

We completed the other two in about an hour, and again decided on a theory at each stage and competed. I nailed one of them and Kendra nailed the other.

Overall, the CSI experience was entertaining, but in no way mentally challenging. We would recommend it.

We left CSI at around 11am and were pretty hungry, so we went to Metro Pizza on Tropicana Avenue near the Pinball museum, as recommended by a friend. Kendra got a tasty white wine sangria, and we ordered Garlic Knots (win!) and a couple of pizzas. I got thick crust and Kendra got NY-style pizza. It was FANTASTIC. The service was good, the atmosphere was nice, and the food was certainly worthy of a second trip.

We took our leftovers and went up the street to find the Pinball museum. We saw the sign sitting in front of a demolished lot. The pinball was gone? We were sooooo upset! Then, Kendra spotted the warehouse on the next lot. Yay!

We spent several hours and about $15 in quarters playing fun pinball and some arcade games. Kendra played Donkey Kong and Ms. Pacman. We found the South Park pinball game, and when it was not being played, we snatched it up and probably put most of our money in it. We spent our last quarters in some older games that were pretty fun.

The Pinball Museum is basically a big, dark warehouse full of games in various states that you can play. We highly recommend that you swing by if you love pinball.

After the pinball, we drove to the Venetian and went straight to our gondola ride at 3pm. We arrived at 2:50 and handed over our tickets. The gondola ride was nice and relaxing, but way too fast. Honestly, we probably would have enjoyed sitting on the bridge and relaxing more.

After the gondola ride, the travel company called us to confirm our 6:35 pick-up time for Thursday morning for our Grand Canyon tour. I asked if we could drive to wherever the bus was taking us. This seemed to confuse the lady, so I just confirmed and hung up. We walked around to Carlo’s bakery to get some well-known Italian treats, and waiting in line for around 20 minutes to get into the bakery. Carlo is from the TV show Cake Boss, apparently. We ordered an Italian napoleon, a cannoli, a meringue, and an eclair. We ate only the eclair, because it was still warm. YUM!

We walked around and did some shopping. I bought a beautiful necklace from a shop – a Koa wood Plumeria in sterling silver.

We drove around and parked at the Paris resort at around 5:00 to go to our 6:30 reservation early, hoping for a window table. We were pretty disgusted walking from the parking garage to the resort. The carpet was old and gross. The walls and ceiling were dirty. It looked like it hadn’t even been painted or cleaned since it was built in 1999. This was NOT a good first impression.

When we got into the resort, it looked like they tried to do a less expensive copy of the inside of the Venetian. And they stuck “Le” in front of everything to make it “French”. For example, “Le Service Desk” and “Le Village Buffet”. We were less than impressed.

We followed the signs to the Eiffel Tower and found the restaurant elevator. When we arrived at the service desk, they told us that being early didn’t really help us, and that they wouldn’t start seating 6:30 reservation until all of the 6:00 people had been seated. We decided to wait at the bar.

Kendra had another sangria – her new favorite drink. I had a custom fruity drink. We looked at our schedule and decided that we could move our reservation to 5pm on Friday to get a window table. I went over to the hostess stand to see if we could move our reservation. The maitre d’ told me to wait about 15 minutes. They had already seated all of the reservations from before 6pm and in about 15 minutes they might have a table for us. I went back to the bar to pay the bar bill, and the drinks were about $20 each. Yikes! When we were settling up our bar bill, the maitre d’ came over and said that they were opening a new section and there was a window table available. Yay!

We were seated around 6pm and it was still light out, so we were able to see the full daylight/sunset/twilight/night view of the Bellagio fountains. The views were great!

For the appetizer course, we had escargot and scallops. The escargot was well-cooked and tender. The scallops were fantastic, and the celery root puree complimented them perfectly. The bread and butter was great. We tried the country white and the French bread. The French bread was better, naturally.

For dinner, I had the Crispy Loup de Mer – a Mediterranean Sea Bass. It was served on a bed of roasted potatoes and wilted spinach sautéed in bacon. The entire plate paired perfectly. Kendra ordered the Broiled Beef Tenderloin Filet Mignon. She ordered it cooked medium and it was melt-in-your-mouth tender and flavorful. She ordered Bearnaise sauce on for her steak, and loved it. I ordered the lemon butter sauce to try with my fish. It was disappointing. I have definitely had better. We ordered Potato Gratin and Green Beans Almandine for our sides. Both sides were delicious. We had been considering a cheese course, but were so full that we decided to go straight to dessert. For dessert, we went all-out. We got the creme brûlée, a caramel souffle, and an apple strudel. They were all fantastic.

After dinner, we went back to the room to get some sleep so that we could get up early for our trip to the Grand Canyon.

Walking distance: 5.41 miles & 37 flights of stairs (equivalent) 

We woke early, ate some quick breakfast in the room, and were waiting outside the resort lobby 10 minutes before the shuttle was scheduled to pick us up at 6:35. We had chosen the second tour (with a 7:45am flight time). The shuttle arrived on time and there were exactly two seats on the shuttle because we were the last to get picked up. We rode in the shuttle for about a half hour to the Boulder City Airport. We were thinking that it would have been easier to drive and wished the caller on Wednesday would have given us that option.

At the Boulder City Airport, we checked in and then waited about 40 minutes for our group (orange stickers) to be called. When we stood up, we realized that we needed to go to the bathroom, but didn’t have time. They walked us out to our small plane. It carried 14 passengers  (there were 12 of us) and had high wings so that we could enjoy the views. Kendra and I had paid $10 extra for window seats, and we were seated in the back of the plane (behind the door) where the 2 seats were both window seats. The seats were 3 across in front of us.

The airplane seats were comfortable and roomy, and we were given headphones to drown out some of the engine noise and to listen to a recorded commentary about the sights and history of the area below us. From the air, we saw Las Vegas in the distance, then flew over Hoover dam, the mountains, and after about a half hour – a little of the Grand Canyon. We landed on a small airport on the west rim of the Grand Canyon.

Several of us asked to go to the restroom, and we were told that if we could hold it for 10 minutes, we could go at the boat site. Our armbands were scanned and we were escorted to our helicopter pad. There, we waited for a few minutes until a helicopter landed, the people disembarked, and then we were loaded.

The helicopter ride down into the canyon was amazing. I highly recommend it. The pilot zipped and dove and treated us to amazing views. The morning sun threw shadows on the canyon walls. They glowed in the light. After a five minute flight, we landed on the hillside on the bottom of the canyon. As we landed, we noticed that there were no permanent structures at the bottom – just an outhouse. With a line. After waiting for a half dozen other people from different helicopters to go to the bathroom, we were finally able to use it. There was no hand sanitizer in the smelly outhouse, but fortunately, we had packed hand wipes.

We walked down the stairs and down a path quite a way to get to the pontoon boat, where we were loaded onto a boat with only a single boat captain and the requisite life jackets. After the boat started moving, we enjoyed the pleasant breeze and the views of the canyon from below. After we went about 1000 feet down the straight of the river, we stopped and the captain gave us the opportunity to take some photos while she gave us information. It was pretty cool. Until we realized that we were heading back to the dock. We never left sight of the dock. When we returned to the dock, we found that the path down was much more difficult going up. It was a rather tough hike for an older couple in our group and we had to wait at the top for a while for them to make it up.

After we boarded the helicopter, we had another short (less than five minutes) flight back to the airport. At the helipad, we were helped off the helicopter. From there, we had no idea where to go. There were no employees and no signs. We did see an employee entering a building on the left. We went in there, and it was just the flight terminal. We exited a side door and ran into another person from our helicopter. As we approached the main building, an employee came up to us, gave us wristbands and instructions for the buses and sent us on our way.

Basically, after the helicopter flight, we continue to the self-guided portion of the day. There are four bus stops on the path: the “ranch”, the skywalk, Guano Point, and back at the airport. At 10:10, we were given our wrist bands for the bus and told to skip the first stop, and to be on the 12:00 bus from the 3rd stop back to the airport.

We hurried to the bus, and got off at the 2nd bus stop at 10:30. At that point, we felt really rushed and hurried through the shop to go out to the skywalk. We were stopped by security and told to leave our bags, phones, and cameras in a locker. We were pretty annoyed. The only reason we had purchased the skywalk tickets was to get some photos on it. As we walked toward the skywalk we noticed some guys with big cameras on it. It turns out that the guys are employees that will take posed shots for you to buy. We played along, but noticed that there were crowds on the cliffs. We didn’t really enjoy the skywalk, and hurried out and over to the cliffs.

On the cliffs, we walked to the edge and took some selfies. A guy took photos of us, and we took photos of someone else in the same spot. We walked over to the skywalk shop to look at the expensive photos, but were much happier with ours. Theirs weren’t that good and had lots of skywalk and no view in them.

We hurried to the bus and rode to the next stop. At a little after 11, we hopped off at the Guano Point bus stop. Part of our package included lunch, and we hadn’t eaten since we’d left our room that morning, so we were really hungry. They had a cool lunch shed set up with solar panels for electricity. They had bottled water on ice and a cafeteria-type line with hot food, salads, and cookies. We had the BBQ, steamed veggies, mashed potatoes, and rolls. There were covered and uncovered picnic tables by the shed. The food was delicious and we would definitely recommend it. We ate quickly, but the view was amazing so it was quite relaxing.

After our meal, we walked along the edge of the cliffs and hiked to the top of the hill of rocks that was on a peninsula in the canyon. The 360-view was amazing. The climb was a bit exhausting. We hurried back and caught the 12:03 bus back to the airport. We had about a 5-10 minute wait for our flight, and then we were on our way.

The plane that we took for the ride back wasn’t nearly as nice as the one that we took to the Grand Canyon. The windows were smaller, the seats were less comfy, the seatbelts were downright uncomfortable, and the AC vents didn’t work. The ride was also bumpier. We hit quite a few air pockets coming over mountains. We didn’t fly over Hoover Dam on the way back, and we were disappointed in that. We also had a crosswind that made landing difficult.

When we arrived at the airport at 1pm, we were escorted to the shop where we could buy a photo of us before take-off. We were sent to a shop register to purchase the photo, and then given no direction. After we wondered around, we asked someone and found out where to sign up for the shuttle back to the resort. I was surprised that it was not automatic. We were back in the room by 1:45 and made plans to go hang out by the pool.

The pool closest to us was closed and drained, and one of the two main pools closed and taped off. We heard people by the pool talking, and it seems that they were closed because someone had thrown up in one and pooped in another. We were happy that the resort did take precautions and closed the pools. We didn’t want to swim in that. We relaxed in the sun until we got hungry. We considered eating the pizza reheats from Wednesday, but we were concerned that the pizza had been in the car for around 8 hours that day. We threw out the pizza and drove back to Metro Pizza for carryout. On the way, we stopped at a sketchy grocery store and picked up some Black Cherry Mike’s Hard Lemonade. We took our pizza and went back to the room. Once again the food was delicious, though the pizza wasn’t quite as good as before. The crust didn’t rise as much, and there were less toppings. It was still good.

We hung out in the room and went to bed a little early. I was pretty tired and still messed up from the time change and my personal propensity for an early bedtime. Kendra was likely just avoiding her studies.

We woke pretty early on Friday, and relaxed in the room. I worked on my trip journal and watched some HGTV. Kendra took her books into the bedroom and studied. Later in the morning, we got ready and headed up I-15 to the strip.

Our first stop was going to be the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign on the way into town. We remembered passing it on the south end of the strip on the one time that we drove from Mandalay Bay to our resort. Unfortunately, the parking area that we saw is only accessible from the southbound lane. Instead, we went to Mandalay Bay to visit the shark reef aquarium. It was a little pricey and again, someone took our photos to sell to us later. As we walked through the aquarium, we were struck by how spoiled and fortunate that we are. As scuba divers we had seen almost everything in the aquarium (including at least half the sharks) in the wild, which is much more awesome.

We left the aquarium and walked toward the Luxor, which conveniently led us by the Burger Bar that we had visited on our first night in Vegas. Kendra ordered another peach sangria and I ordered a salted caramel milkshake with vanilla vodka. We ordered some tasty custom burgers and the same sides that we go before (zucchini fries and skinny fries). Lunch was delicious.

After lunch, we walked to the Luxor and looked around. We then bought our $70 tickets to the Bodies Exhibit for my little pre-med student. The slices of the human body were interesting. Kendra really enjoyed the exhibit.

From there, we walked back to our car in the garage behind the Mandalay Bay and then drove to Harrah’s to spend our planned gambling budget. A friend told us where to go and what games to play. We walked through the casino and looked at all of the tables before selecting an Ultimate Texas Holdem’ table with a $10 minimum. I sat at the table and was able to play for a while, even spending $30 per hand. At one point I was up about $60. Next we went to the roulette table where we never once won. Then we took our last $300 to the one-deck blackjack table that again had a $10 minimum. Kendra played because her luck is typically better than mine. She lasted for a little while and even won a bit, but we were never up much and eventually, all the money was gone. So we left the casino.

On the way back to the resort, we drove down the strip so that we could stop at the Vegas sign. When we pulled in, I commented that I was impressed with the civility of people calmly waiting in line to take turns taking pictures. The line wasn’t long and moved along pretty quickly. There was also a guy there in a state park uniform offering to take photos for people. As we were leaving, an Elvis impersonator came up and began setting up at the base of the sign. Surprisingly, this was the first Elvis impersonator that we had seen. He had even been driving a classic pink Cadillac! I might have taken a photo.

Back in the room, we relaxed before dinner – Kendra took a nap and I did stuff on the computer while watching HGTV. We were watching an interesting show at 7:00 and looking around on Urban Spoon and Yelp for a place to eat. We found a place called Hank’s Philly Steaks. Yelp said they were open until 8pm, but the business website said that the “Philly Steak Hours” were until 9pm. Just in case, we headed that way and arrived at 7:45. The place was closed and the lights were off. We spent some time in the parking lot trying to find another place to eat. We eventually decided on Windy City Beefs N Pizza. We ordered pizza, went to a tea place next door and got a smoothie, and walked over to Krispy Kreme for dessert and breakfast the next day.

We took the pizza back to the room and chowed down. The pizza was good. The drinks were good. The doughnuts were melt-in-your mouth delicious.

We reviewed our plans for the next day, relaxed, and went to bed.

We woke pretty early on Saturday, even though we knew we’d be up late that night watching a show. We did most of our packing and got rid of food that we knew we wouldn’t eat. Kendra spent some time at the pool while I relaxed in the room with my computer. We ate leftovers for lunch, got ready and went out for our plans for the day.

 Our first stop was at our 2:00 reservation at the Neon Museum. We took some photos under the NEON sign, and took the tour. It was pretty fascinating and we took lots of photos. Although it was March, it was pretty hot. The sun was blazing. We just imagined how miserable it would have been in the summer.

After the heat, we were ready for our planned ice cream stop at Luv It Frozen Custard. There was a homeless guy harassing the customers. We walked past him and looked at the menu. I decided on the lemon custard in a sugar cone. Kendra had vanilla custard with cinnamon apples and hot caramel. They were both delicious. That and the car’s air conditioning cooled us down and we moved on to Caesar’s to do some shopping. We walked around in the shopping area. There were pretty high-end shops. We went into a few but mostly just window shopped. The ceilings were nice, as were the sculptures. Unfortunately, our timing was off and we got to the spot where they do an Atlantis show on the half hour, when the show happens on the hour.

We walked around and came across a frozen drink stand that advertised Long Island Iced Teas. Since I knew that Kendra had never had one, we ordered a small one for her and I ordered a Mai Tai. We also ordered a bottled water and the girl handed us a large one. I asked for a small and she said that the small is $3.50 and the large is $4.50. We went ahead and got the larger one. The girl made the drinks and then rang us up. The bill was $50. I nearly choked. Two solo cup-sized drinks and a bottled water were $50. Ouch.

We walked around some more, bought some jewelry, and then left to go to the Bellagio where we were told to try the buffet.

In the Bellagio, we walked around, enjoying the glass flowers in the ceiling of the lobby, the flower garden near the lobby, and even found a shop with a pretty cool glass sculpture chocolate fountain. We walked around a bit and found the buffet. We almost didn’t go to the buffet, but it was supposed to be good. We saw the sign, and it looked like it would be $35. We waited in line and paid almost $100 for dinner. We looked at the receipt, and asked a question – it seems that March Madness is considered a holiday and we were charged the holiday rate.

The buffet in the Bellagio was nearly identical to the one in the Wynn. Again the food was good but not fantastic. The desserts were really good and we sampled a lot of food. We both agreed that we wished we hadn’t spent the $150 on drinks and food that day and if we could do it over again, we would have found a really good restaurant and had better food for less money.

After dinner, we walked around a little and looked into an art gallery (Jeff Mitchum) that a family member had recommended. Kendra really enjoyed it.

We went to the Rio before the Penn & Teller show and walked around a bit. This place had a Chippendale’s show where we walked in, and strippers up on the tables on the casino floor. That was new. As we walked through the casino, looking for the Penn & Teller Theatre, we did a bit of shopping, and killed some time at an oxygen bar getting a neck massage.

At the show, we had pretty good seats. We were second row aisle in the mezzanine. We took some photos and selfies, and enjoyed the show. It was by no means a baffling magic show. There were just excellent slight-of-hand tricks and humor. But it was good, and worth the money.

After the show we were exhausted and booked it through the casino to get back to the car. We took I-15 back to the resort and went to bed.

Our flight was scheduled for 8:15, and we wanted to be at the car rental place at 6am. We remembered that when we picked up the rental car that the service rep had told us that there was often a 2-hour wait at 4am to get back to the airport. We woke up, showered, and finished packing. I checked our flight status and found that our flight had been pushed to 8:30. We did all of our stuff and left for the airport around 6:00. We stopped and got some gas. My tired self had trouble with the two-handed gas operation and I spilled my drink on Kendra, my wallet, and my seat.

After clean-up and gas-up we took the car to the rental drop-off. It went smoothly and we went to the bus stop to find there was no line for the bus to our terminal. We checked in and went through the long security line, and had an hour before boarding. Naturally, I spent the time on my computer while Kendra studied.

I had paid extra for priority boarding ($20 total) but was unwilling to pay to choose our seats, so although we were among the first to board and had no trouble finding room for our carryons, we were seated separately. Kendra was in a center seat at 15B and I was in a center seat at 17E.

I had another miserable flight and the most comfortable position that I could find was leaning forward against the seat in front of me.

After a long flight, our friend picked us up at the airport and we drove to get our car. From there we went to Georgetown to get my dogs. We were really happy to see them and brought them home. At home, we unloaded the car and Kendra went on her way to visit with her dad.