Eat, Drink & Turn 25 | Part 2

Welcome to day 2 of my birthday Vegas vacation- my birthday eve! If you missed day 1, check it out here.

When my alarm went off at 7 a.m. on Friday morning, I had to drag myself out of bed. We were a little slow to get up and at ’em, but I’m still proud of the fact that we were out of our hotel room and being seated for breakfast by 8 a.m.

We didn’t have to go far, thankfully. We walked mere steps out of the Flamingo and into the LINQ, where we found our breakfast destination: Hash House A Go Go.

This place. Wow. The decor is very eclectic, and they boast a “twisted farm food” menu. I was dying for one of the gents in our group to order their famous chicken and waffles, but neither my hubby nor step-dad took the bait. Next time? Looking back on this meal, I wish we would have split! The portions are HUGE! Just. Plain. HUGE. But so delicious! My mom and I each ordered something sweet and savory so we could split and get the best of both worlds. My mom ordered a bacon, avocado, onion and swiss farm scramble and I ordered the french toast. Both were amazing. The french toast was dipped in banana cinnamon cream and served with bananas and pecan maple syrup. SO GOOD. Marty ordered the biscuits and gravy, which were really tasty. Better than most I’ve tried. And my step-dad ordered a large breakfast plate that included a huge portion of pork tenderloin, which was also really good. So, all in all, we were super pleased with the food, the prices, and everything in between. And, the place is open 24 hours a day! Cool, right? One thing I should note is that we ate at around 8:30, and while I had lunch plans for us at noon, we weren’t hungry at all. We literally didn’t eat again that day until dinner time, which is extremely unlike me. I need to eat throughout the day… but this meal filled us all until dinner. I definitely recommend sharing plates!

There’s a brand new Starbucks right outside the Flamingo in the Quad area, which we stopped by on the way back to our room to get ready for the day. So convenient! I adored sipping my coffee, enjoying the view!

After getting all ready, we headed down to our hotel’s flamingo habitat- which is pretty awesome, I must say. I adore flamingos. They’re so interesting-looking and they’re PINK. There’s also large coy fish, turtles, pelicans, and some other birds.

Can you spot the black swan in the collage above?

We were quite entertained watching some of the flamingos sleep. They tuck one of their legs up and twist their necks in an odd way so they can rest their heads on their body. And then we had a long discussion as to why they do that… and after turning to Google, we found the best answer to be to give rest to one of their legs. Their legs are so tiny, I’m sure they need a break every now and then! Needless to say, the weather was wonderful, and we could’ve stayed out there watching flamingos all day. But we had other things to see!

 We headed out for another day of walking and exploring the strip. We didn’t even cover half of it the day before. We walked down the Flamingo-side, checking out the hotels- Bally’s, Paris, Planet Hollywood… We ventured into the M&M store, and kept heading down. The weather was amazing.

By the time we made it to MGM and crossed over to NY NY, we needed a drink! I love NY NY, so I was happy to have it be one of the hotels we stop in for awhile. We ended up finding the Bar at Times Square inside which was almost completely empty. We still enjoyed ourselves:)

After we hung out in NY NY for a little while, we headed back to our hotel to change and freshen up for dinner. It was still early, but we wanted to spend some time in the Cosmopolitan before we went to dinner at 5.

On our way, we caught the Bellagio fountain show! (An absolute Vegas MUST.) This is, by far, my favorite Vegas freebie. We actually caught it a few times, with all the walking around we did. I really enjoyed seeing it in the day time. Although, night is fabulous also. My favorite was the star spangled banner. When the water shoots up really high, it sounds like fireworks- so perfect!

Next, we went into the Cosmopolitan, one of my very favorite hotels. It’s so posh, sparkly, and girly. I treated my mom to her first ever Cosmopolitan at the Chandelier Bar. (The Cosmopolitan is the only place I’ve ever had a Cosmopolitan that I’ve loved.) The Chandelier Bar is fabulous, but the drinks are very expensive. Like, very expensive. Between the tasty cocktail and the gorgeous atmosphere, I think it’s worth the splurge. (And I’ve done the splurge, all four times I’ve been to Vegas!)

Little funny side note, the bartender who made us these was a young guy who must have been new. As we waited for him to make our drinks he was clearly reading a drink recipe with deep concentration. He poured some liquor into a cocktail shaker, smelled it, and immediately dumped it out! Thankfully, he followed the recipe to a tee because our cosmos were delicious.

After our drinks, it was time to head up to the Wicked Spoon for dinner! The Wicked Spoon is the Cosmopolitan’s buffet- and it’s pretty awesome. We went the last time we were there and deemed it worth the forty something dollars per person. It’s not your typical buffet, and allows you to try a lot of things you’ve always wondered about. Plus there’s a gelato bar. ‘Nuff said. (The tiramisu gelato is to die for!)

After dinner, we were going to go to Fremont Street, because I had never been- but we didn’t feel like spending so much of our night waiting around for a bus to take us to and from the locale. Instead, we scratched it off our to-do list and took a free night. We caught the fountain show again on our way out of the Cosmopolitan.

It was the perfect night as well, we were wandering around without a jacket! In January! We headed over to the LINQ for a little gambling and drinks. (Which are free if you’re gambling.) It was a great night!

And then back into our hotel we went, to end another great day in Vegas! Come back tomorrow to read about day 3, my birthday!