The rest of Vegas

I've been lazy, I'll admit it. Marilu and Lucas left for Newfoundland last Wednesday so I've been living the bachelor life since then, so when I haven't been working on accounting, I've been eating bad, drinking bad, and watching a whole lot of TV. I've taken a break from all that to get another update out the door since you've probably been waiting with bated breath for the second half of our Vegas vacation. So without any further adieu, here it is.

Apparently, our 45 minute walk to the Hard Rock Hotel on Saturday afternoon in 115 degree heat didn't dissuade us too much from the warm weather as we headed out again on Sunday. This time it was a 20 minute walk across the interstate to In-N-Out burger. For those of you who have never been to the West Coast, In-N-Out are the best fast food hamburgers you'll ever sink your teeth into, so every time I find myself on the left coast, I try to get to at least one. As if taking a picture in front of a fast food restaurant sign isn't highbrow enough, I think my shirt adds that extra splash of class.

For dinner that night, we went to an Italian place at New York New York. It was okay but nothing spectacular. We had a picture of both of us, but I didn't like how it came out so instead, you just get my lovely wife.

We had tickets for Cirque du Soleil's water show O, which required us to trek further up the Strip. On the way, we posed for photos in front of Paris as well as the Bellagio fountains.

As it turned out, the next day was Canada Day. We made sure we dressed in red, and we visited The Pub at Monte Carlo, a fantastic bar we found on our first trip to Vegas (for my 40th birthday 2 years ago). Coincidentally, two separate sets of people sitting next to us were also from Canada. So we all had a good cheers/prost as the waitress snapped our picture.

As it turned out, the upcoming weekend had a major UFC PPV scheduled at the MGM Grand. As part of the promotion, they'd set up a UFC octagon ring in the main lobby. Since Marilu and I are fans of the UFC, it turned out to be a good photo op.

As a child of the 80s, one of my favorite music genres is hair metal. It should come as no surprise then that I absolutely loved the musical Rock of Ages. Even though we didn't get to see the show in Vegas (we saw it in Ottawa earlier this year), I wanted to check out the Bourbon Room bar, which is based on the musical, as well as the bars of the Sunset Strip in L.A., circa 1988. For your entertainment, I struck my best rock pose.

I thought about wrapping this up here and finishing the rest of our trip in a 3rd entry, but I don't want to make you wait another 10 days for that so I shall continue on.

That night, we finally had a chance to have our 10th anniversary dinner. Marilu had picked out a steak house in Mandalay Bay named Stripsteak. At the risk of becoming hyperbolic, it was quite literally the best steak I have ever had (and Marilu agrees). We both ordered 10 oz filet mignons, which were $59 each, without anything on the side, but my god, they were fantastic. People throw around the phrase "melts in your mouth," but these steaks almost did. The best part? Marilu only ate half of hers so I got to eat almost a full pound of filet mignon. Like I needed THAT. Whatever the case, if you are ever in Vegas, need a steak fix, and don't mind spending a bit of money, I would highly recommend Stripsteak.

After that wonderful dinner, we were ready to go straight to bed, but we had tickets to Michael Jackson One, a brand new Cirque du Soleil show that was playing at Mandalay Bay (and the reason all the celebs showed up on Saturday night). It was a complete impulse buy that we made on Saturday when we heard other people talk about how good it was. We toyed with skipping it, but in the end, we decided that would be a waste of money, and we ended up going. Thank god that we did since I haven't been as impressed with a Cirque show since the very first one I attended (Alegria, for those keeping score). To be honest, I would recommend this show just as much as I would recommend Stripsteak. If you have the remotest interest in Cirque shows, you owe it to yourself to see it. It's that good. Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures of the show itself, but you can get an idea of what the stage looks like in the panorama shot below.

The next day, which was our last, I went around and took some shots of Mandalay Bay, particularly the pool area. Although I haven't mentioned it before, that was the main reason Marilu picked Mandalay Bay for this trip. They have a massive pool area, with a gigantic wave pool, a lazy river, and about 6-7 other assorted smaller pools. I'm no professional so I know I won't do them justice, but here's an idea of what we got to experience every day.

And the view from our room...

For our last lunch, I had to return to one of my favorite spots of the trip, the Burger Bar. I had my very first Kobe beef hamburger, which I washed down with a Stone Smoked Porter. Lunch doesn't get much better than that, folks.

I don't often take pictures of food itself, but I felt our dessert for dinner that night warranted it. We ate an upscale Mexican restaurant in Mandalay Bay called Border Grill, and while the dinner was excellent, the dessert is what really caught my attention. Take a look at the picture, and then I'll describe it afterwards.

So, it was a Oreo cookie crumble on the bottom with a peanut butter ice cream on top of that. There was other assorted stuff going on with the orange and pink sauces, as well as the mint leaf (I think mint?), but what really made this interesting is that on top of the ice cream? Those are bacon bits. I know, it sounds crazy, but I have to admit, it tasted pretty good. I guess everything really does taste better with bacon.

After that, we were off to airport. Here's the final picture for this trip, which pretty much sums up how we felt about leaving Las Vegas.

It's kind of funny. I have absolutely no patience for or desire to gamble, but I still love Vegas. The only gambling I did was the video poker, and that was just because I was getting "free" glasses of Lagunitas IPA. But there's just something about the spectacle of Vegas that makes me want to go back as soon as possible. So if anyone if planning a wedding, reunion, anniversary, or whatever in Vegas, let me know, and I'll be on the next plane there. :)