Monday, April 10, 2017

A Brief Trip to Las Vegas, Nevada

Welcome to Las Vegas!
So, Brandon and I have never "done" Las Vegas before. I know, I know. We live 4 hours from Sin City, and we haven't indulged in the shows, casino, and cheap drinks.  Honestly, it is not our scene, but it has been a bucket list item of mine for sometime now.  Well, rewind to last October-- I purchased 2 tickets for the Green Day show at the MGM Grand.  I figured, sure, I'll make the 4 hour trip to see them again live.  So there it was, an excuse to finally go to Las Vegas!

We weren't planning on having a whole weekend there, mostly because of me being slammed with school work and that pesky thesis.  That Thursday before we left, I submitted my thesis to my adviser for review, I was ready to have a nice, stress-free weekend!

When staying in Las Vegas, you pretty much will expect resort and casino fees.  Since we were only staying there one night, and it was just the two of us, I decided to get an Airbnb room for only $61.  The lady who owned it was super nice, and very responsive.  Unfortunately, she was out of town that night, so we didn't get to meet her.
The Fountains of Bellagio

Anyways, Brandon and I first stopped at Boulder City to grab dinner before the concert.  Boulder City has a very cute downtown scene, and a nice brewery!  We had dinner at the Boulder Dam Brewery for a beverage and a sandwich.  We sat outside, and the weather was perfect.

Afterwards, we drove up 25 more minutes to be in Las Vegas.  We did the "Welcome" sign, sat and watched airplanes land and take off at McCarren, then finally made our way to the MGM Grand.

Caesar's Palace
The concert was great, and we decided to walk around for a few minutes through the MGM Casino.  The casino smelled like cheap perfume and cigarettes.  You could see the people just pressing the machines to see if it was there lucky night.  We saw ladies celebrating their bachelorette party, and a few who were celebrating their 21st.  We were going to walk down the Strip, but there was construction in our way.  Since we were both thirsty and we had water in the car, we decided to call it a night.

Outside M&M
We left our Airbnb around 11am and went straight to Treasure Islands' Free Self-Park.  This was pretty far north of the Strip, but we didn't mind walking and it was free parking.  We walked through Treasure Island's casino, walked into Caesar's Forum Shops, Caesar's Palace and Casino, the Bellagio, the fountains and gardens, we went all the way to the M&M factory, then walked through Paris.  We only had 2.5 hours to walk around until we had to leave to be back in Flagstaff to pick up Kodak.

Overall, Las Vegas was very interesting.  We put $2 in slot machines and lost $2.  Perhaps we'll go back sometime when we aren't so rushed.