#theoneinvegas {part 2}

Hey guys! Did you catch day 1 of my recent Vegas trip?

Well, now we are on to day 2. As you can imagine, we slept in quite a bit, seeing as we were up for over 24 hours straight the day before! (I’m a total go-to-sleep-early-and-get-up-early kind of girl, so this was tough!) It worked out fine though, because we had nothing planned for the morning except…

Lounge by the pool.

This is the only way to start the Day in Vegas! One of my favorite things about the Flamingo- other than the inexpensive room rate + the great center-strip location- is the pool. The hotel itself may be dated but the pool is not. It’s huge, trendy, and feels like a tropical getaway. My lame cell phone pictures won’t do it justice, so here’s a snapshot from Google:

Although that is an image of the pool empty, it’s packed when the pool is open. We all managed to get chairs next to each other though. A must when you’re there? Spend the money and get a delicious frozen drink in the signature pink cup! (Which you get to take home as a souvenir.) I got a pina coloda, and it was perfect in the 90 degree weather. Next time, I’m going to get the frozen margarita:)

Ahh the good life.

After lounging for awhile, we had to force ourselves out of our chairs in the sun to get our day on the road. On our way back up to the room we had to stop and gawk at our hotel’s Flamingo habitat. I just love it. Flamingos are such funny but pretty little things!

After showering and getting ready for the day- we walked across the strip to Caesar’s Palace to hunt down our lunch spot- Gordon Ramsay Pub and Grill.

Yeah, my hubby and I are Hell’s Kitchen fans so we made a point to visit the Pub and Grill where the most recent Hell’s Kitchen winner has set up shop as head chef. I read reviews before visiting, and they were pretty bad for the most part. People would say things like, ‘I guess maybe I had my expectations set too high because I was disappointed.’ We weren’t deterred though- there was no reason for us to miss out on the chance to try it out.

When we first arrived my thoughts were, “This place is spacious,” and “I love the decor!” It was very British pub-ish (obviously) and the seating consisted of large sofas and sofa-like chairs. I think lunch was a great time to visit because we were seated right away. (Check out the Gordon Ramsay photo bomb! Hah!)

The chalkboard at the entrance boasted that it was happy hour, so ALL draft beers were $5. Even though we were prepared to drop a pretty penny on this meal, I was thrilled. When our waitress came over to get our drink order, I asked about the happy hour. She let us know that happy hour prices were actually just at the bar area, but immediately told us she would give us the happy hour price. She was really nice, and we happily placed our drink orders. A $5 Blue Moon for me, a $5 hard cider for Merry, and a Red Bull and Vodka for Marty. (Yeah, he’s a creature of habit when it comes to his drink order…) Cheers!

Merry and I ended up splitting a sandwich, which I can’t find on the menu listed online, but it was really good. It had grilled chicken, delicious pesto, and roasted red pepper. Yum. It was the perfect size for us to split- we were able to finish our sandwich halves and most of the fries. These fries. They were to die for! I don’t know what the seasoning on them was, but they were SO good! Sometimes I can get sick of fries really fast, but these I didn’t want to stop eating!

My hubby got the fish and chips, which was also really good. We left here absolutely stuffed and happy. So glad we went! Interesting little story- the most recent season of Hell’s Kitchen that has ended- we had it recorded at home with a good six or so episodes left… Well- a large table next to us told the maitre d’ to bring out Chef Scott. Chef Scott? We looked at each other confused. I didn’t remember seeing a chef Scott winning Hell’s Kitchen… Then my hubby’s eyes got wide. “I’m pretty sure there’s a Scott in the season we are watching right now that we haven’t finished yet…” And he was absolutely right. So, when we went home and finished the season, we knew Scott was going to win because we ate at his restaurant without even knowing it. Funny stuff:) After we got back, we learned that he had only been head chef there for about a week or two when we dined there! Crazy! We think he’s doing great based on our experience!

Since we were so full we headed out into Caesar’s Palace to walk around and play a little on the slot machines. Had to let that food settle a little:) we also took advantage of the great photo-ops in Caesar’s:)

Vegas is so fun. Anyway- as we headed back towards our hotel, I was drawn to Serendipity 3. Have you guys seen the movie Serendipity? Love it. Anyway- this place is so adorable. Located right outside of Caesar’s, it is inevitable that you will walk by it multiple times on your Vegas vacation.

While they’ve got an extensive menu, we were still so stuffed from lunch that we decided to share the Serendipity specialty- Frrrozen Hot Chocolate! We were a little excited waiting in line…

When we got our treat, we found an adorable little table and had a seat. My hubby was our paparazzi and snapped a few pictures.

Yes, the atmosphere was spot on between the twinkle lights, warm Vegas weather, and adorable pinks and oranges… the only bummer? The frozen hot chocolate was not spot on. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that this was a fluke. I highly doubt it’s always as disappointing as what we were served. It’s not that it tasted bad- it tasted just like delicious hot chocolate- rather the texture was not what I hoped. Maybe it wasn’t frozen enough for me? Regardless, I probably won’t be buying another one on any future Vegas visits. I would like to try and make a version at home though! Maybe next summer:)

But the outdoor seating is wonderful, and we adored our little break we took here:)

We headed back to the hotel after our frozen hot chocolate to ditch our daytime digs for some nighttime attire. The Vegas weather at night is too perfect not to put on a pretty dress:) We headed back out to the strip to meet up with the family to explore some hotels and casinos. We walked through the Venetian which is one of my favorite hotels, aside from the Cosmopolitan. Swoon. We ducked into a whiskey bar for a quick drink and continued walking through. When we made it back out onto the strip we headed to The Mirage to check out the volcano show.

I didn’t get any good shots of the volcano show, but basically the water goes down and these spouts come up that shoot out huge flames to music. It was really quick, but hey- it was free entertainment on the strip:) After, we walked over to catch the fountain show at the Bellagio. I adore the fountain show, it’s a Vegas must!

When we were done with our little free shows, Marty, Merry and I were hungry- as it was already after 9 and we had yet to have dinner! We ended up going to Tequila’s in Bally’s to share some nachos. OH EM GEE, never again!!! I regretted ordering these the second they were brought to our table because they were SO HUGE!

WHY?!! Nacho servings should never be this big! I don’t care how many people are sharing… I ended up hating life after these as I tried to eat as much as possible and we still ended up wasting so many! So not only was I so full I couldn’t see straight, but I also had the guilt and shame of wasting so much food! Yeah, I will never order nachos without asking the waitress how large they are again. Lesson learned!

After we were finished with nacho-pacolypse, we headed back to our hotel for some slot machines and drinks before calling it a night and heading up for bed. (Much earlier than the night before- thank goodness.)

Up next is my recap of our Friday in Vegas- our last full day! Stay tuned!