Life's Whirlwind Adventures

The first day where my body seems to want to sleep in I had to be up early, as I had to head over to the Bellagio to get my hair done and start prepping for the wedding with my beautiful sister. All the bridesmaids met in Courtney's hotel room then we headed down to the salon so we could make our appointments.  Courtney got a manicure done and when she was finished we all had our hair styled.  Courtney looked absolutely stunning, she has the nicest ebony colour hair and it's long and they had a half up do done for her!! After the hair was all styled and pinned into place we headed up to Courtney's suite for the dress and make up portion of getting ready. After ordering some room service the girls began the process of doing make up and getting into our dresses.  It was fun and Courtney's other bridesmaids were great to hang out with, I knew Pam from before but this was the first time I had met Courtney's friend and sister in law Trinity.  She was very nice ...

So after a full twenty four hours in Vegas you would think we would have become accustomed to the various differences in time and various need for sleep.  But no, even though I was in bed by midnight, almost three hours past my regular bedtime (I know lame), I was up at the crack of dawn.  That wasn't even bad my hubby had only arrived back to the hotel at 4 in the morning, complaining that he hates this town because he got lost, and he was up and wide awake at 8 am.  I had laid awake for an hour, trying to will myself back to sleep which became a useless task. So let's begin this day!! Saturday wasn't as full as Friday was, catching the bus in Vegas is simple but it can be a little time consuming and they only allow 5 people in a cab, apparently that's a state law.  So Saturday morning we went shopping again, ok i went shopping and hubby begrudgingly followed me around.  We only walked a couple blocks down the strip to Ross so that I could buy some items I was...

Sleep what's sleep?? This is especially true in Vegas!! I was so tired when I finally fell asleep the day we arrived in Vegas yet, I was up at 7 like normal, and wide awake.  So I got up and headed down to the gym and did a workout. After that workout I met Adrian back in the room and we got ready to head out for the day.  First stop.... OUTLET shopping!!!  Where i bought almost nothing, seriously, I bought nothing!! My husband on the other hand bought tons and tons of stuff!! Ok maybe not tons and tons, but he did buy a significant amount of things.  Well ok he just spent more money than I did. After wearing our shoes out at the outlet mall we headed off to the pool at the Wet Bar in MGM.  It was an experience, but it was a lot of fun!! There was music and a pool and table and lot of booze!!  I think it was a pretty expensive afternoon, but the boys from the wedding party were winning and spending their money as fast as they won it.  No wonder no on...

I personally think Vegas is the type of town that grows on you.  My first visit to Las Vegas was ok, but I didn't get all the hype that I saw everyone posting about, I truly thought it was a neat place, but give me a beach any day!!  So when my sister decided her wedding location was going to be Vegas, I had mixed feelings about it.   I needed to make this trip more fulfilling then the last. The first thing we did was ensure that we were not bringing children with us! Check, both kids were deposited at aunties houses for the week!!  Grandma and Papa would check up on the lil one and my big son would be spending some time with his lil cousins.  First hurdle solved, now just to figure out what Hubby and I would be doing in Vegas. This was literally the first trip I did not plan down to the wire.  Vegas is so busy on a normal day that I thought instead of planning things out we would just play it by ear and see where the wind took us.  It was also Hub...

Week 18 was perspective.  There was talk about us all trying to take a picture of the same subject, but as we all live in different areas of the province this was not really possible.  But I found some interesting subjects to choose for this week. One was  a picture of my sister on her wedding day, she looked so pretty, and I love the silhouette picture I was able to capture. The other was of a sign I had seen in one of the bars in Carlos and Charlies.  It was so fun and had everything to do with perspective, not even how I saw things, but how others see and value things.

The old cliche is that a picture is worth a thousand words, right well, that was our challenge this week, to take a picture that had a story attached to it, but to not tell the story. So here we are my story picture

So after finally making it to Vegas and reporting back to you (a month later finally) what I was able to do while in Vegas I am ready to give my final word on the trip.  It was an ok trip, it was not exceptional, it was not horrible, it was only ok.  I have decided that I am not a Vegas holiday person.   There is so much to see and do in Vegas, and it is a trip you have to take at least once, but if I were given the choice between Vegas and another location I would likely choose the other location. This is not to say that I won't go back, Adrian and I are planning on honeymooning in Vegas, and I would go on a girls trip there, but if there were other options I would love to explore those options.   I personally found Vegas very overwhelming. There was so much to see and do that for a first time visitor to the city I was on sensory overload the entire time I was in Vegas.  I didn't even know where to begin with visiting many of the sights.  Vegas is a ...

So our last day in Vegas had finally arrived.  Knowing we wouldn't be able to have our lovely Siesta's Courtney and I slept in again.  We packed up our suitcases and checked out of the hotel. We left our bags with the hotel while we went exploring for the morning. I had enough credits on my MGM card from gambling that I was able to get Courtney and I a free breakfast from Starbucks.   Yup it definitely pays to get the players cards while you are in Vegas at the Casino's because they are always giving out some kind of comps. After our breakfast Courtney and I headed to the Grand Canyon souvenir shop to get some souvenirs from Vegas.  You know those shot glasses and t-shirts and stuff.  I didn't really find much but it killed off about an hour while we did some last minute shopping. Then we headed back to the Luxor to go through the Bodies Exhibit. That's a neat exhibit too.  It's been around Canada so if you have seen it, you know what I am talking...

Courtney and I slept in on Thursday.  After our late night on Wednesday we deserved a day to sleep in and relax.  We decided we were going to stay near the hotel and enjoy the all day buffet, so we looked for things to do within walking distance of the hotel. It was not hard to find things to do. We bought our all day buffet passes and ate breakfast.  It was a decent buffet, not necessarily as good as the Saskatoon Inn buffet, or the buffet in Jackpot Nevada, but t was pretty good.  The selection was huge and the selection also looked good, not wilted or neglected like some buffet's look.  Then Courtney and I headed down to the ticket box office to buy passes to three different exhibits.  They had 8 exhibits to choose from and they were charging $54 for all three.  It was a pretty good deal seeing as all the exhibits were over $25 each and the sale price at the Tickets for Less booth were around $20.  So after deciding on CSI, Titanic and Bo...

My sister really wanted to go to Thunder from Down Under so on Wednesday night we planned to go there, but for the day on Wednesday we went shopping and exploring the strip again. Wednesday we caught the bus to the indoor outlet mall. I am glad we went here second because it would have been too windy outside to enjoy the outdoor mall that we had gone to on Monday.  This mall was ok, it wasn't anything super spectacular, but I was able to find some amazing deals on clothes and hats for the family.  This outlet mall was south of our hotel, passed the famous Las Vegas sign.  So we got ourselves a day bus pass again and took the bus to the mall.  Because we had the bus passes we felt it would be best to take the bus up the strip and to give our legs a bit of a break. So after our afternoon siesta ( I know we loved our afternoon naps, and some may judge but it enabled us to have energy to go go go) Courtney and I boarded the bus once again and headed to the North end of...

Ok one of the places Courtney and I were directed to eat at while in Vegas was P. F. Changs.  I know so many people who love this place, and everyone has always raved about the food.  So Courtney and I went.  To say that it was a let down might be a bit of a understatement.  I was very underwhelmed with the whole experience. First the place was stupidly busy, they told us we would have an hour and forty five minute wait for a table.  Uh, that really sucked because Courtney and I had been walking all afternoon and evening.  It was already 7:30 so we weren't going to be eating until after 9.  We figured it was a bit of an overstatement but there was no where to sit and wait in the restaurant, so we walked around the shopping mall.  Second, when we came back forty minutes later, like they asked, they had passed over us because we weren't there, and people ahead of us had not come back.  I looked at the maitre' d and told him that we were tol...

So as a wedding gift, or a bridal gift, to me, my sister bought us Spa treatments.  I had a massage and a mani and pedi.  I was in heaven for the morning.  Then I ran inot a problem getting dressed because my nails ended up smudging. I was a little disappointed but all the pampering had put me into a great mood so I didn't mind so much.  The spa at the Excalibur was really nice and just what the doctor ordered, although I have decided if I get a spa treatment again in Vegas it will be on my last day not one of the first days.  My feet were so sore from walking that night and I am sure it had a lot to do with the pampering they got that morning. After the spa we went for lunch.  I made Courtney and I walk to In and Out burger for lunch.  It was ten minutes away walking and we just had to cross the free way no big deal.... or at least I didn't think it would be a big deal but we were acousted by an annoying guy, the conversation went a little like...

So our second day in Vegas was much more enjoyable than our first.  Courtney was feeling better so we were able to venture out of the hotel room.  And venture we did.  We had mapped out where the outlet malls were and had decided to do a day of shopping.  But we had to have breakfast first.  Courtney's breakfast. So after a quick breakfast in one of the hotel restaurants Courtney and I hit the strip to do some shopping.  We caught the Express Bus to the Premium Outlets.  We were there by about 10:30.  It was a busy day of shopping.  Courtney and I went into many stores, stores like Banana Republic, Carter's, Guess by Maricano, Guess, Columbia Outfitters, Fossil, Coach, Kate Spade, Burberry and many more that I can't even remember now.  Courtney and I had each bought a few things.  (when I say a few, I mean I almost filled my second suitcase lol) My best buy by far was at Columbia Outfitters.  I was able to buy 3 winter ...

Drinking a Starbucks before the flight When I travel, my travels often revolve around where I can eat and the different restaurants I would want to try while i am travelling.  It's just who I am, I am not a foodie, but I suppose I could be.  I enjoy a great meal, whether it's a fancy restaurant or fast food drive through.  Some notable places I have encountered in my travels are In N out Burger, Sonics, The Forest Buffet in Harrah's in Tahoe, and The Byron Cafe on the Byron Highway in California.  There have been experiences that haven't always been good, but I am generally happy with trying new restaurants.  So after my sister took to the bed on our first night in Vegas, I travelled down the strip to find a place to eat. I had looked on line and found that In N out Burger was just down the block and across the freeway from our hotel.  It's literally like a 5 minute walk but it was late at night and I had to walk under the one overpass and I was alone s...