Viva!

Viva, Las Vegas!

Big Dog and I enjoyed a weekend away in Las Vegas. Here's the deal, Fertitta, who owns the Kemah Boardwalk, much of Galveston Island (San Luis, Hilton, Convention Center, etc) offered Galveston County residents 2 free nights at the Golden Nugget (which he also owns) in Las Vegas. Sort of a "sorry you had to deal with Ike" giveaway. We figured, why not?! So we booked airfare and a couple weeks later, took off!

We work hard for our money, and we're saving for a lot of things in our future (as in, a new roof now, and maybe a kid or two later) - so gambling is not exactly "our thing". But there was a lot of sightseeing for us to do...

AND GELATO TO EAT.

Oh my gosh, if I could just get one of these places in Galveston. Better yet, inside my house. I had passion fruit and Big Dog had lemon.

And as if the gelato wasn't awesome enough, we decided to partake in a famous Las Vegas Buffet - at the Bellagio (you know, the place with the fountain...)

I didn't bother take pictures of the amazing Veal Marsala, Leg of Lamb, Sushi (for Big Dog, of course - not me!!!), Prime Rib, salads, pastas....

But I did pull out the camera to share with you what I call the "Mecca of Sweets". I think I gained 5 pounds just looking at all the delicious desserts... and another 5 actually eating them. All of them (ok, not really, but close!)

From left to right, my plate, then Big Dog's:
Cream Puff, Cheesecake, Ice Cream with Fudge Sauce, Creme Brulee, Chocolate Cake, Eclaire, Creme Brulee, Bananas Foster with Ice Cream. Yum!

If we didn't gamble much (we lost about $24 total) then how else did we spend the time? Well, for starters, I went down the water slide at the $20 million pool at the Golden Nugget! The slide is 3 stories tall and at the end of it you go through a section of "The Tank" - an aquarium with fish and sharks. (You're enclosed in the slide, but it's clear) The air was cold, but the water was heated, and I figured it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. (Thank goodness I could hop into the hot tub right after!)

On Sunday we explored the Strip from 10am until 10pm... that is, we walked like crazy all day, from Treasure Island, to Caesar's and the Forum Shops, the Venetian and the Canal Shops, all the way down to the MGM and New York New York!!! Big Dog has some nasty blisters to show for it all on the bottoms of his poor feet.

Living statues are a pretty big deal in Vegas - here are the girls from the "Living Garden" - they were great!

The last thing we did was see Blue Man Group on Sunday night. It was amazing - weird, but totally amazing! They had us laughing the whole time.

So, aside from the Timeshare Salespeople that try to snatch you around every turn and the filthy "Hot Girls that Want to Meet You" signs and "hand-outs" - we had a really good time and we're glad we went!