Monday, April 6, 2015

Vegas Trip

Vacations are among my top ten favorite things to do. This past week my mom had a 5-day work conference in Las Vegas. My sister and I decided to tag along as a vacation. While five days in Vegas is a lot, we made the most of it and had a blast.

We stayed at Bally's right in the middle of the strip. While I loved being right next to Paris and in the middle of the strip I would not recommend this hotel at all! I hated the hotel itself! First of all, the food options in this hotel were minimal, they didn't even have any sort of cafe for a sit down meal, it was ridiculous. Second, the room was dirty. The carpet had gross stains, the bedspread had a hole in it, and we even had a moth in our room! YUCK! Finally, the pool was nine miles away. In order to get to the pool you had to walk a mile through the shops and food court area. Who wants to do that in a bathing suit?? Not I! 

The saving grace regarding the hotel was that it was attached to the Paris hotel. Yay!! We spent most of our time over there. The food options were much better with a cafe, bakery, and a delicious buffet. It was also a fun hotel to simply walk through. You felt like you were taking a stroll on the cobblestone streets of Paris! I also enjoyed playing in the casino there much better. The slots options were a lot more fun. They had a set of slots with fun wilds. Tara sat down one day and won a quick $50 playing Wild Pixies. It was fun to watch. They also had a Wizard of Oz slot that was a lot of fun to watch other people play. I played it but didn't win too much. 

My mom's conference went from 7-5 every day, so Tara and I were on our own regarding entertainment during the day. The first day we spent time just exploring the Paris hotel. I am obsessed with Paris so it was fun to walk through the different shops. We also went through a lot of the shops at our hotel and stopped for some frozen yogurt. That night we went over to Treasure Island and had dinner at Kahunaville! They have a pina coloda chicken that is to die for! Seriously the best meal in Vegas!! Afterward we stopped into Senor' Frogs. They were having karaoke night and Tara wanted to dance. It wasn't long before a group of girls adopted her and had her on stage singing with them. She had a blast. Tara did a lot of dancing during this trip, and every time she did she ended up with a group of people surrounding her. I think next time we go we should take a boom box and let her dance on the street for money! We'd be rich!! 

Day two of the trip was the best! We walked down to the Mirage and spent the day at Siegfried and Roy's Secret Garden Habitat. They have three pools with a total of ten dolphins. The trainers do dolphin interaction shows every 45 minutes. There is also an underwater viewing area for a different perspective of the dolphins. Tara and I found a lovely spot where we could sit in some comfortable chairs under an umbrella and watch the dolphins swim and play in one of the pools. It was perfect! I could have sat there all day! It was beautiful. The habitat is also the home to some white tigers, leopards, and lions. The spotted leopard was strikingly beautiful as were the white tigers. 

The highlight of the day was when we participated in a meet and greet with the dolphin. The first thing we had to do was take off our shoes and roll our shorts up as high as we could. Then they made us step in this black liquid stuff. The liquid was to remove any impurities from the bottom of our feet, so we didn't transfer it into the dolphin pool. Once we'd stepped in the black stuff we were free to walk around on the dolphin side of the pool. The trainer signaled to have one of the dolphins slide up onto the "shore". The dolphin we were able to meet was named Lightning. He is a 40-year-old
dolphin and the father of the twin 3-year-old dolphins also playing in the pool. Once the trainer had
Lightning up on the "shore" we got to walk over and pet him, hug him, have a photo taken with him, etc. It was SO much fun!! I have also wanted to meet a dolphin. My ultimate goal is to swim with the dolphins, but I couldn't afford that this trip so this was the next best thing. When Tara's turn to meet the dolphin was over she walked back to the wall of the pool and shouted, "I can't believe I just did that!" All the trainers started to laugh. It was definitely an experience to remember for both of us. 

To finish off the day we decided to do the Eiffel Tower Experience. We waited until my mom was out of her conference so she could do it with us, and so we could do it in the dark. We rode the elevator inside the Eiffel Tower all the way up to the top. It is 460 feet in the air and once you are up there the observation deck gives you a 360 degree view of the Las Vegas lights. It was pretty awesome! The best part was being able to see the Bellagio water show from that height. It gave you a whole new perspective of the show! It was breathtaking! 



After walking almost 20,000 steps we decided to take it a bit easier the next day. We spent most of day three resting and playing in the casino. My mom brought us bagels from her conference for breakfast and Tara and I hung out in the room putting together a puzzle. Then we went over to Planet Hollywood walked through the shops, and played a bit in the casino. My mom had an earlier day and once she was done with her conference she and Tara decided to take a nap. I wasn't feeling sleepy so I decided to take $20 and go play while they slept. I walked over to Planet Hollywood and sat down at the Willy Wonka machine. I had watched people play this while I was over there earlier that day, and it looked fun. I put in my $20 and started to bet the minimum amount because I wanted to be able to play on my $20 for as long as I could and not lose it right off the bat. This particular machine has lots of bonus features, one of which is that randomly the Oompa Loompa's will come up and sing their little song while pushing a wild down and making a reel wild. Well, on my second hit they popped up on my screen. They started singing and pushed down a wild, and another wild, and another...they just kept going! They ended up giving me 4 reels wild!! Then on top of that they gave me a 5x multiplier!! I couldn't believe it!! The lady sitting next to me couldn't believe it either! We both started freaking out as the win amount kept getting higher and higher! I ended up walking away from that machine with $280!! It was such a rush!! Once I cashed out I quickly made my way back to the room where my mom and Tara were just waking up. My mom about died when I told her how much I had won! It was so fun, the only thing that would have made it more fun was if they had been there to watch! I did start to think about how cool it would have been if I had been betting more than the minimum, but then decided that was selfish thinking and was happy with what I had. I took $200 for the trip and ended up coming home with $240! I'd say that's pretty good for five days in Vegas!! 

Day four, Tara and I walked over to Caesar's Palace. We did some window shopping and spent time looking at the fish in the aquarium, as well as watching the ten minute show they have on the fall of Atlantis. Tara really enjoyed it. That night we went to a mentalist show. Oh mylanta, it was amazing!! The guy's name was Frederic Da Silva. He started off the show by throwing out four frisbee's. We had VIP seats and were right on the front row so I caught one easily and was called up on stage. He did a few things with me but the one that got to me the most was he asked me to think of a person I knew well, someone I knew details of their life. Then he walked away and did something with another person on stage. A few minutes later he came back to me, got down on one knee, and stared at me. Then he said he was getting that it was a young person. I said yes, it was. He stood and kept staring at me then he said..."eight". I was floored and said yes. He grabbed a white board and marker and then said he was getting an "S" I again confirmed he was correct. He stared at me a moment longer and then said, "This is a long name". Flabbergasted, I confirmed he was once again correct. He then turned and wrote something down. He put the white board down and did something with someone else on stage, then he came back to me and handed me the microphone. He asked me to say the name of the person I was thinking of, I said, "Savannah". He then turned over his white board to reveal he had written down the name Savannah! It was crazy!! My mom started crying she was so in awe that he had correctly read my mind. It was trippy! I have no idea how he was able to do that! He did two other things involving me and then later in the show my mom was called up on stage and I am in complete shock as to how, but he was able to use another audience member to correctly state my mom's birthday. It was mind blowing!! If you are ever in Vegas I highly recommend going to see his show!! 

Finally, our time in Vegas came to an end, but we weren't ready to come home just yet. We drove to St. George and stayed the night with our good friends Rob and Sherry. It had been years since we had seen them and it was great to reconnect. A wonderful way to end the vacation. 

As much as I love vacations 6 nights away from home is a long time. I am glad to be home and sleeping in my own bed again! 

Luvs & Hugs, 
Tiff