And drunk people are extra annoying when you can't even have a glass of wine. And skinny, sexy girls all decked out for a night of debauchery are annoying too. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't master the sexy waddle.
Where I Stayed
I stayed at the Mandalay Bay Hotel - which was quite nice actually. 
I'm not sure if it's as fancy as the Bellagio, but it was fancy enough for me. And it was huge. On Saturday I didn't even leave the hotel - I worked all day and then ate in the hotel buffet for breakfast and dinner. Then I crashed - ten hour days on my feet is no joke. Before crashing I took a bath though - the bathtub was amazing. Actually the bathroom was amazing.
I enjoyed a bath every night. It was fabulous! The room was quite nice too.
The only thing that was annoying was the mini bar. Normally mini bars are inside a nice little fridge. Hidden out of site. Not here! Nope. Right on top of the dress, strategically placed in front of the television was this nice little mini bar.
Doesn't that look tempting! It was - especially those gummy bears on the right. The Love Box wasn't so tempting to me at that moment, but everything else was. And those gummy bears - $13! Unbelievable! And just in case you wanted to pick something up and smell it, they were all weight-sensored so if you picked it up for more than 30 seconds you were automatically charged. It was hard to stay away, but my per diem did NOT take into accound $13 gummy bears. So I left it all there and just drooled.
The Mandalay Bay also has a great pool area. Supposedly 11+ acres of pool. Even a part called the beach that had sand and waves. Of course for the poor, un-VIP people there was no shade. Lots and lots of chairs but not a single unbrella or palm tree to protect your skin from the 115* heat. Now, if you were rich and special they had some private cabanas you could rent. Some of the higher priced cabanas surrounded private pools with lots of shade. Nice. Too bad the pool closed at 7pm (or 6pm on the weekends) so I never had a chance to check it out. My window faced the pool area though, so I snapped this shot. It looks like there is a lot of trees and shade, but they were all around the cabanas and private pools. And in reality, a palm tree doesn't actually provide much shade.
Where I Went
Although I was working long hours every day I was in Vegas, I put on my big girl shoes and headed out of the hotel every once in a while. Not often (the bathtub was so tempting), but enough to see a few sites. On Friday, when I didn't have to stand for 10 hours, I actually managed to walk 2.5 miles from the Mandalay Bay hotel to the Venetian. It was a bit complicated and crowded (and hot), but I survived. And miraculously, I arrived without even sweating. Dry heat is AMAZING. In DC I can sweat buckets at 80* because it is sooooooooooooo humid, but in Vegas it was well over 100* and after walking for a long time I didn't break a sweat at all. Unheard of! Here are some pics I snapped of my walk.
Ok, I thought I had more but apparently I didn't snap anything between New York, New York and the Venetian. Whoops.
And on the last night I was in town, my coworker and I were walking around the casino on our way to the Bellagio for dinner (we ended up at Noodles - best Pad Thai ever!!!) and some guy approached us and invited us up to the Foundation Room for a few drinks. The Foundation Room is by invitation only and it was quite interesting. There were a bunch of little rooms that were decorated Asian/Buddha style.
We had a few drinks (I had a few mock-tails) and we pretended we were rich and famous. And then we left. It was fun while it lasted.
What We Ate
I would write up a review of the food places we ate at, but nothing was that good. Everything was a fortune but I can't say I was all that impressed with quality. So here's a quick run-down.- We ate at Burger Bar, which was supposed to have amazing burgers, but they were just ok. I had a veggie burger and it was good, but nothing spectacular.
- We also ate at Border Grill for lunch one day and it wasn't too bad. We just had appetizers though (which were like $9 a piece), so it's hard to screw up appetizers. We had some kind of bean filled empanada and quinoa fritters. Tasty but expensive.
- We ate at the Bayside Buffet for breakfast a few times and once for dinner. I was not that impressed. Breakfast was decent because you got a lot of options plus coffee and orange juice, so it wasn't too bad of a deal. Dinner at the buffet was horrible though. I didn't find much that I wanted and the few things I put on my plate were a huge disappointment. My coworker ate a bunch of snow crap claws though so she was happy!
- The best meal I probably had was at the chain Ri Ra - an Irish pub. There is actually one in DC, so kinda funny I went all the way to Vegas to eat at a restaurant I could eat at every day. They had this amazing mac and cheese though and I was thoroughly satisfied. I love mac and cheese.
- We also headed to the Venetian for some delicious Italian, but I didn't really get anything delicious. A golf friend had recommended some place in the Venetian and said it was on the square. Well, there were three restaurants on the square and I have a feeling we chose the wrong one (we also chose the cheapest one, but entrees were still $20 a piece). We ate at OTTO, which is owned by Mario Batali. It should have been good but it was not. I must have ordered the wrong thing. I was quite disappointed. I like my little Italian restaurant down the street from my office, Famous Luigi's Pizza. Now, they have super yummy Italian for half the price.
- And as mentioned above, we also ate at Noodles in the Bellagio. It was good and my Pad Thai was very yummy but my coworker was less than impressed with her meal. So, it wasn't a win-win, it was more like a win-lose. If you find yourself there, I'd stick with the Pad Thai.
Ok, that's pretty much my trip in a nutshell. A big nutshell. Ok, so it was a pretty long description and I doubt anyone will read the entire thing. However, I wanted to make sure I posted something since I was there for so long. I didn't really talk much about my work there but I don't like to go too much into details about my work. So it will remain a mystery.
I will say that there was a huge UFC conference happening at the same time - and I was not there for that. It made for interesting hotel companions though!
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Have you ever been to Vegas?
Where did you eat/what did you do?
What trips are on your agenda for the summer?
- That was my last trip until December - yay!!! I had three trips in three months so I am happy to be home for a while - and maybe I'll get some unpacking done.
