#theoneinvegas {part 1}

Hey guys! Remember this post, where I mentioned that I had just gotten back from Vegas? Well today I’m going to start a Vegas recap!

I love Vegas. This was my third time there, and I could go a million more times. The options for eating, drinking, shopping, playing, etc are endless. Now that I’ve been a few times, I might work on some posts recapping my Vegas favorites, such as favorite happy hours, pizza, hotel… you get the idea. But for now, I’ll just recap my recent trip! We went to celebrate my mother-in-law’s birthday, and we had a big group of 12 of us! It was so much fun!

We flew out of Seattle super early on a Wednesday morning. The flight from Seattle to Las Vegas is only about 2.5 hours. (Score!) Even though it was only 7 a.m. I was ready to just get there already! I loved the early flight because I knew we would have a full day in Vegas to start our trip. And what a full day we had, let me tell you.

A vanilla latte from Starbucks is mandatory for a 7 a.m. flight, in case you didn’t know. I had also picked up the September issue of Cosmopolitan because it had Lucy Hale on the cover- love her. I didn’t quite finish it on the way there, so I had some poolside reading material for the rest of the trip :)

After finding the nearest shuttle bus to get us to our home away from home for the next few days- The Flamingo– we checked in. (After paying a $30 early check in fee… this was news to me, but not surprising in Vegas.) By this time we were hungry for lunch and decided on one of the closest options…

Margaritaville!

This place holds a special place in my heart because it’s where I had my first drink at 21. (Yes, I turned 21 in Vegas… that’s another story!) Margaritaville was actually in our hotel too, which was nice and convenient. (OH MY GOSH, right now as I’m typing this and listening to Pandora, Margaritaville by Jimmy Buffet just came on my Pandora station!! I’M NOT EVEN KIDDING! What the heck?!)

Moving on… All 12 of us were seated, and we wasted no time looking at the drink menu. (It is vacation, after all.) I ordered the blueberry pomegranate margarita on the rocks, and it was SO good. Delicious, and super flavorful.

Merry and I split a sandwich.  (We split all our Vegas meals. We didn’t want leftovers because our room didn’t have a fridge- plus meals are pricey, and splitting them cuts the price in half! It worked out really well for us.) We split the Beach Club Sandwich: sliced turkey, ham, Swiss cheese, Applewood-smoked bacon, lettuce, tomato, and dijon aioli on toasted white bread. It was HUGE. So glad we split it. Also, we had the choice of french fries, sweet potato fries, or a salad. I wanted sweet potato fries, Merry wanted regular fries… the waitress offered to bring half and half! Thankfully too, because the sweet potato fries were amazing.

After lunch we did a little (window) shopping before getting ready for dinner. We had places to be that night that were basically at the opposite end of the strip, so we each dropped $12 on a 24 hour monorail pass which would get us to MGM Grand in no time. We all made our way over to Excalibur to play a little on the slot machines before our show at 6 p.m.

Tournament of Kings! This was actually really fun and includes dinner. Our whole group attended so we had a good group to get loud and play along. Basically you’re seated in a section of the stadium that represents a different country. We were Ireland. (Huzzah!) Each country has a knight that they cheer for throughout the tournament. There’s a story line that goes along with it, and lots of booms and flames that made me jump, every.single.time. So, basically it’s a night of eating (with your hands), drinking (here here!), watching, and cheering (Huzzah!).

I apologize for the poor quality of these pictures with my phone. (My next phone is going to have a BOMB camera, I swear it!) It was noted that there was no flash photography allowed, so I had to snap these quick with my phone. I had my hubby on my left…

And my bestie on my right!

Let the games begin! Here here!

Dinner was a meal fit for a king (HAH) and was way too much food for me. There was a tomato soup to start, a whole Cornish Game Hen, potatoes, broccoli, a biscuit, and then a pastry dessert that I could barely even touch, I was so full. Beer was not included, although ice water or soda was.

After the tournament, we booked it back to our hotel to freshen up & get a little dressed up. Merry’s one Vegas need to do was a club crawl. And I was surprised to hear that everyone in our group was game to come along! The club crawl is basically paying up front for a company to take you to multiple clubs throughout the night where you don’t have to pay the cover or wait in line.

After we freshened up and changed, we were ready to go! (Obligatory elevator shot.)

Yes, we were in HEELS. It’s okay though, because Merry had flip-flops in her purse, and my amazing hubby had my back;)

How sweet is he? Packing my sandals in his coat pockets… best husband ever!

Had to snap this with my phone through the rails of the overpass. Gotta love those Vegas lights!

Our first stop was a swanky lounge- Red Square Lounge– in Mandalay Bay (which is basically as far down as you can get on the strip so we were so glad we got monorail passes!)  When we arrived we met our hostess, who gave us bracelets which allowed us to get 2 for 1 drinks in the lounge. (This basically gets you a decent price for drinks, guys. So instead of paying $12 for one drink, you get two for that price.) We ended up meeting some Australians and had some good conversation over drinks, so unfortunately I didn’t take any good pictures here. Instead, I’ll share this one from their website: 

Cool, right? After this, we basically walked next door to the first nightclub, Light Nightclub– also in Mandalay Bay. We didn’t waste anytime here and headed straight to the dance floor. And just so ya know, the music in these places is SO loud, it pretty much beats you into next week! The music selection here was awful. I like dancing to songs I can sing along with- not a whole bunch of beats mixed together.

I was definitely ready to leave this club before our time was up, so we ended up just heading out and waiting for the party bus. THE PARTY BUS. We all agreed that it was the best part of the whole thing. Next time we want to just rent the party bus and have it drive us around the strip a few times:) At first I was nervous the alcohol provided would be iffy, unidentifiable liquor- but instead the bus was lined with open coolers behind the seat that were filled with closed, single serving beverages like beer and Smirnoff Ice. Oh, AND CHAMPAGNE! We may have been served the (cheap) champagne in red solo cups, but I was still sold:)

Before we knew it, we had arrived at Luxor (which is right next door, hah) for the next nightclub, LAX. Now, don’t judge me, but I was secretly excited to go to LAX because on one of their Vegas trips on the Hills, Lauren Conrad and her gang went there. It was actually a really cool place, which played MUCH better music. But, I didn’t get any pictures there either:( Here’s a pic from the web to show you the entrance to the dance floor:

Oh, and here’s Lauren at LAX in 2008;)

Next it was back into the party bus, for the last time! We drove right down the middle of the strip, and it was so awesome being surrounded by all the lights and energy of the strip. Here’s a shot from the bus with our awesome hostess! She’s the one in the middle!

Our final stop was Chateau, in Paris. This place was beautiful, and outside on a rooftop right. under. the Eiffel Tower. It was unbelievable!

Seriously.

Since that was our final stop, we were free to do what we pleased at that point. Considering I had been awake for over 24 hours at this point, we didn’t stay very long. Thankfully we were close to our hotel, and we made our way back- officially calling it a night. I was asleep the second my head hit the pillow.

We definitely didn’t waste any time diving right into Vegas shenanigans. Looking back at it now, I cannot believe we crammed so much into our first day! I love making the most of vacation:)

And that’s a wrap for day 1! Stay tuned, day 2 will be coming soon!