First, let me start off by saying how happy I am to be home!!!! Vegas is wonderful and if I was not married with children, I could LIVE there! I know crazy right? I also said that about when we went to Chicago as well! I think I am a city girl trapped sometimes although where we are now is certainly NOT country!! I just love the BIG BIG cities! I love where the places you don't own a car because you either walk or take a cab. I love the high rise buildings and would love to live on the 50th story of a building somewhere with hardwoods and breathtaking city views! :0) I grew up on 1000 acres so maybe I just had enough of that as a child.. Who knows??
So, on to my post.. I get easily distracted!! ;0) We left out Sunday morning early! Our plane left at 6:20 so we got to the airport in plenty of time to pass thru security and wait on our plane to board. We flew from Hsv to Memphis and had a layover in Memphis for a couple of hours before boarding the plane to Las Vegas. I browsed around the shops and Steve and I found this WONDERFUL little bar-b-que place inside the airport. It was waaaaaaaaaaaaay too early for lunch in my book, but luckily they had a breakfast menu. The food and service was out of this world. I recommend it to anyone ever stopping in Memphis airport long enough to grab a bite to eat you have to stop there! The people were very friendly and we were sad when we realized that we would not be stopping back through on the way home to eat there again! :0( OH well! Again, if you are ever in Memphis airport stop by Interstate Barbecue. YUM!
After leaving Memphis we got to Vegas around noon Alabama time, which was 10am Vegas time. The shuttle took us from the airport to our hotel and our room was not ready yet, so we left our luggage at the bell desk and took off on foot down the strip. We didn't have anything to do really so we just walked and browsed in some of the stores. After a couple of hours, we came back to the hotel and got to our room. My jaw hit the floor as we opened the doors to our CORNER suite which had views on 2 different sides of the city. We got unpacked and checked out our surroundings and then it was off to find something to eat. :0) We walked down the strip again until we came to Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. We sat outside on the 3rd floor patio and ordered our food. Our appetizers came out and they were DELICIOUS!! Then after sometime, our waitress came around for our food order. We sat there eating our appetizer and enjoying the view of Caesar's Palace and the strip below, when we finally realized we had not seen our waitress in some time. I looked at my watch and realized it has been an hour since we placed our food order! :0( 20 minutes later, our food finally got there and it was not good! My steak was dry and it seemed like it had been sitting back there most of the time we were out there waiting. I was really disappointed since our appetizers were so good. We decided to send it back and just be done. By that time, I was over being hungry and had ate enough of our appetizer for it to matter anyway.
We walked up and down the strip some more when we realized we could ride a double decker bus called The Deuce for $5 and we could ride it unlimited for 24 hours. That was the stuff, let me tell ya! There was stops in front of all the casinos and you could jump on and ride then jump off and walk awhile which was great for us since I think we walked 5 miles the first day with all the back and forth. So we bought our tickets and we had transportation if we wanted it just by going to one of the many bus stops. :)
After dinner, we went to the Bellagio and saw the water fountain show which was really neat! Then we found a starbucks and headed back to our room. It was almost midnight Vegas time by then so we were exhausted and called it a night. The next morning, Steve went to play golf with the owner of his dealership and I took off on foot and by bus to check out the city again with camera in tow! I had to do all the sightseeing all over again because the day before, I had left my camera in the room so I did not get any pictures during the day time! :( I spent all day just walking or riding down the strip. Later in the afternoon, I saw Madame Tussauds Wax museum and I knew I had to go in. Steve had meetings almost the whole next day and we had a reception that night so I was not sure when we would both be able to go so I decided to do it on my own! I am so glad I did! It was a neat experience and I would recommend it to anyone that goes to Vegas!! They also had a mini haunted house type thing inside and you could only go in 6 people at a time and of course I was praying I could find some sweet preferably women who would not mind if I clung to them the entire time I went through and sure enough, I went through with 2 other ladies that just took me right in with them and did not mind at all as I buried my face in their backs and almost trampled them on the way out! When you are being chased by people in masks and armed with weapons (yea, they were fake) who can blame you for trying to get the heck out of there! lol! The whole museum was really neat and I am so glad I went ahead and did it even if I did have to go solo!
After I got done at the museum, I took the bus back to our hotel and started getting ready for our reception down by the pool. Steve got back from playing golf and we both finished getting ready before we headed downstairs. The reception was nice, it was really alot of networking if you ask me. We had hors d'oeuvres and yummy ones at that I might add! ;0) After the reception we had tickets to go see Phantom at the Venetian hotel and casino! It was not really my idea of the kind of show I wanted to see while in Vegas but it was ok. I wanted to see Cirque de Solei and considering what we paid to see Phantom, I could have spent another $20 and seen it, but Oh well. We had some other people with us and that's what everyone wanted to see so why not? If you like that kind of theater, then it was wonderful, again just not my taste.
The next morning, Steve had meetings all day and I slept till 10am. I think between the time adjusting, plane ride and just all the walking had me wore out. I woke up and realized I had to be down stairs in time for the lunch with our convention. So I got up and ready, grrrr, I really wanted to go back to bed! ;0) I got downstairs when I realized I had left my credentials in the room and had to go back to get them, because they would not let you in without them. I got back down as they were breaking for lunch and found my hubby which was quite a challenge seeing as there was probably 1000 men walking around in suits! lol. We got something to eat and then walked around and saw the new cars that Kia will be debuting later this year or next spring. It was so neat so see them all and to see what was in store for us. :0) They will be coming out with their own sporty coupe as well and I am soooooooo ready for that one! Steve and I both said that we would be driving those as demos as soon as his store got theirs in. ;0)
After the lunch, we had some time to kill, until the dinner that night that would finish off all the meetings and kind of end the events. We walked over to Fashion Show mall which was huge and right across the street from our hotel. We walked around and I got Breaking Dawn again! I can't find the first one I bought! How sad is that? I was scared I would finish Eclipse on the plane and not have BD to start. lol!! We got my book and then on to Starbucks to get my gold card my dear friend JennyKate informed me of! I recommend them to anyone that loves Starbucks and you get a free tall drink of your choice. :) You can't beat that!!
Dinner was great and Frank Caliendo was our entertainment for the evening. I had no idea who he was until I got back to the room and googled him. I don't watch alot of comedy tv so that might have been why! After dinner, we headed to the casino and played PaiGow poker and the slots before we headed back to the room to pack since we were leaving at 4:30am for the airport. I think we got in the bed at almost 2am which was rough getting up a couple of hours later to leave but we made it. The plane ride home was peaceful, we changed planes in Atlanta and got home around 2pm where we picked up the girls and drove 2 hours home to Birmingham. I was so glad to see my house!!! We walked in and I remembered I had turned off everything including the heat, so it was 51 degrees downstairs and like 53 degrees upstairs. No one even wanted to change clothes, we were all so cold! ;0)
We got the girls settled, bathed and in the bed for school the next morning and it was 10pm. I don't even remember my head hitting the pillow! I was out!
We had a great time and I am glad to be home. I can't wait to catch up on everyone's happenings since I have been gone!! :0)
