Once upon a time there were two best
friends sitting in a car talking about how life had just gotten them down. They
needed a break from reality! They sat, they talked, and then one of them
blurted out, let's go to Vegas! The other, being the awesome best friend she is
instantly replied heck yes! So right there they planned to go in November...the
wait was treacherous full of terribly awful let downs, heart breaks, and
stress! But the day finally came and the two girls set out into a blizzard to
reach their Oasis!
Okay, truly though my friend Alisha
and I REALLY needed a break from the real world, so this weekend we went to
Vegas! We left Friday, came back on Sunday, but man did we pack those few short
hours with endless excitement! We had so much fun! It was our first time going
back when we were both actually old enough to do anything fun in
Vegas.......not that kind of fun. We did attempt to hit the slots but
they are a lot more complicated than they look in the movies. haha. I managed
somehow with hitting random buttons to win $6.62 off the dollar that I put
in...don't ask me how that happened, and poor Alisha got out with only $0.29 of
her $5 left. Real bummer.
After that failed attempt we headed
down the strip to the Bellagio, and Caesar's palace. We got all sorts of lost
in Caesar's Palace and by the end of the night, after our extra long drive we
were exhausted! But we had tons of fun along the way, as we met a slightly
creepy man in a transformers suit, Alisha got mistaken for a sexy Brazilian,
and I got to visit Tiffany's which is always a plus!
[click on pictures to enlarge]
We got back to the Hotel at about
one in morning and we changed into our Pj's...now these need an explanation. Alisha
and I were VERY into the most recent Presidential election. So three weeks
before the election we ordered shirts from the Mitt Romney store to wear on Election
Day. For some reason they didn't come until 2 days after the election...and we
all know how the election went down. *grumble, grumble* BUT we still support
what Mitt was trying to do, so we wore our shirts in a Democrat state, and got
some awesome looks. haha. (you can't really see them that well, but they say
Vote with the republican Elephant as the "o")
The next day we had a long list of
things we wanted to do, we set out and didn't make the wisest choices in the
order in which we did things. We started out with New York, New York! The roller
coaster, it was 50 degrees, felt like 45ish with the wind, and the overcast
skies, then we decide to hop on a roller coaster without any coats. Brrrr! We
never recovered from that, we were beyond cold for the rest of the day, but as
always the roller coaster is a win.
After that we began our LONG walk to
the other end of the strip to the Mirage, we went to the Secret Garden where
they have Dolphins, Tigers, and Lions. Alisha and I are both bizarrely obsessed
with animals; it was a little pathetic how giddy we were looking at all of
them. Running from habitat to habitat...no self-control.
[click on picture to enlarge]
All of the animals were outside,
when we finally were done; I can't even express how cold we were! We went into
the Mirage to thaw, inside we found the most delightful little cafe, and they
had just what we needed to warm us up:
Nothing does the body good like some
serious chocolate in cake form. Am I right? or am I right?
We walked across the street, and
froze once more as we headed to the Venetian to check more things off of our
list! When we got inside there was just waaay to much happening we got lost in
there for hours! It was absolutely beautiful! I love Italy, it's the only place
that I would need to cross of my bucket list to be completely satisfied, but I
didn't mind a simulated version either. It was absolutely gorgeous! It is set
up like Venice, with a canal running through it, the ceiling is painted like
the sky and there are gondolas that travel up and down the canal. It's really
impossible to really describe how gorgeous it is. Before we got into the really
beautiful part we were distracted by the giant Sugar Factory off to the
side...we love sugar. So naturally we spent a bucket load of time in there!
We browsed
the shops, and of course we HAD to ride in a gondola! We were hoping we could
get a man gondolier, because we assumed that would be less awkward...it
probably would have been we had a girl. and on the way back there was a
"bridge of love" we were in the boat with another couple and she told
everyone in the boat to kiss....uh, no body moved. haha. We were NOT about to
go there. So the lady kept insisting and we kept politely saying we're just
friends. Then she said we'll see, when we get a couple drinks in you, we then
replied, "we don't drink" that caught everyone in the boat off
guard....but no one asked if we were Mormon, even when we said we were from
Utah.... dang!
There are few things I love more
than fancy hats, and this store was full of them! I wish so bad that I had been
born in a time when I could just wear these kinds of hats all the time. If only
I lived in England, and ya know was royalty. The greatest part of our epic day
came when we decided to go fishing for pearls at the Pearl Factory in the
Venetian. I have always wanted to do this, so I was extremely excited. First
what you do is pick out your oyster, they are in a bucket, the lady who was
helping us told us the key is to find one that is "harry and
ugly".... so we found the nastiest ones we could find, which wasn't hard,
those things are nasty! then using tongs you put it on a plate and hit it hard
three time with the wooden tongs, and then they ring a bell and yell,
"ALOHA" which according to the lady, is saying good-bye to the
oyster, and hello to the pearl. They pry open the shell, and dig around for the
pearl, everyone is different there is no way of knowing what you are going to
get. She opened Alisha's first, hers was silver! There is a 7/100 chance of
getting a silver pearl it was gorgeous! Then it was my turn! She opened mine
and come to find, it was one of the biggest she'd ever seen, we had won the
pearl jackpot! She takes them out with tweezers and places them on a cloth,
pours salt on them and rubs them clean, then using the tweezers she placed the
pearls in our hands, we are the first to ever touch them...it was pretty much
awesome! After that she placed them on the settings we had chosen, we both got
rings, and then we had to wait 24 hours to wear them, talk about torture! But
we had so much fun doing it, I was so glad we did!
We finished our awesome day in the City with dinner at the
Rain forest Cafe, and then headed back to the Hotel, warmed up in the hot tub
and then crashed for the night. It was such a great last hurrah before Phill
gets home in 3 weeks! It was just the boost, and get a way we both needed. I am
so thankful for amazing friends in my life that I can escape life with!
